Atari acquires Intellivision brand

While not on the same level of a Nintendo acquiring a Sega or anything quite that dramatic, Atari today announced that they are in the process of acquiring the Intellivision brand from its parent company (Intellivision Entertainment LLC) which would unite a pair of competing videogame brands from the ’70s and ’80s.

What does this mean? Well with rights to the IP Atari looks to get involved in digital/physical distribution of classic Intellivision games (~200 or so), possibly developing new Intellivision label games for various platforms including the Amico, and the ability to leveraging the property for marketing and other products, such as the t-shirts below (and available on the official Atari gear store).

Check out the press release from Atari below!

Atari — one of the world’s most iconic consumer brands and interactive entertainment producers — announced today it has purchased the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. Intellivision Entertainment LLC will rebrand and continue its business of developing and distributing the Amico brand game console with a license from Atari to continue to distribute new versions of the Intellivision games on the Amico console.

Atari will seek to expand digital and physical distribution of legacy Intellivision games, potentially create new games, and explore brand and licensing opportunities as part of a long-term plan to create value from the Intellivision properties.

“Uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years ends the longest running console war in history,” said Mike Mika, Studio Head at Digital Eclipse, an Atari-owned game studio.

The first Intellivision home video game console was released by Mattel Electronics in 1979 and the console platform sold an estimated 5 million units through 1990. Atari and Intellivision arguably fought the first console war of consequence in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Mattel went as far as enlisting the actor George Plimpton to appear in a series of ads comparing the two systems, as well as an eight-minute long video shown at the Gamescom trade show.

“This was a very rare opportunity to unite former competitors and bring together fans of Atari, Intellivision and the golden age of gaming,” said Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari.

The purchase includes the rights to more than 200 titles from the Intellivision portfolio and the Intellivision trademarks.

“Atari has been a valuable partner and we have every confidence they will be a responsible steward of the storied Intellivision brand,” said Phil Adam, CEO of Intellivision Entertainment. “We look forward to our expanded collaboration and the prospect of bringing a broad array of new titles to the Amico family gaming platform.”

To mark the occasion new Intellivision t-shirts are available starting today on Atari.com, with more Intellivision apparel and collectibles to come.