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121-703: According to the director, Yojiro Ogawa, the purpose of the compilation was to introduce younger players to the original games in the Sonic series. The games are played through a Genesis emulator developed by Sonic Team themselves. Outside of the games, the compilation includes Sonic -themed videos and illustrations, as well as high-resolution scans of the instruction manuals and Sonic the Hedgehog comic covers. Sonic Mega Collection received positive critical reception, being recommended for its large library of titles, high quality emulation, and its cheap market price. The compilation

242-577: A 50% stake in the publisher, with the intentions to invest 50 million F into creating titles based on Canal+ 's licenses. Infogrames made major purchases for 1999, beginning in March with the purchase of the Gremlin Group for $ 40 million in March, who owned developers Gremlin Interactive and DMA Design ., with Gremlin rebranding as Infogrames Sheffield House. On April 5, Psygnosis ' Paris development studio

363-523: A Sonic story and a second, shorter Knuckles story afterwards, though eventually this phased out as well. To allow for stories that focused more on side characters than primarily on Sonic-most notably the other characters featured in the Sega games-the Sonic Universe comic line was introduced. This series has included a wide range of characters previously introduced in other comic issues, as well as allowing for

484-504: A TV interview, they then used a mix-and-match computer program to suggest other names, one of which was "Infogramme": a portmanteau of the French words "informatique" (information technology) and "programme" (computer program). The final choice, Infogrames, was a slightly modified version of that suggestion. The company logo and mascot is an armadillo ( tatou in French), chosen when the company

605-418: A continuity reboot with all established characters created by Penders and other writers being removed, save those of current writer Ian Flynn , who penned the new continuity, and those created for assorted animated series, to which Sega retains the rights. The new continuity is a world much closer to the world depicted in Sega's games. The original universe, which remained canon until the comic's 251st issue,

726-461: A deal to potentially purchase MobyGames for $ 1.5 million through to the end of March 2022. The purchase was completed on March 8, 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager. In March 2022, Atari ended all ties with former CEO Chesnais and CBI. The following month, they also announced the termination of all license agreements with ICICB, including the end of hotel licenses, and the dissolution of their blockchain joint venture. The Atari Token

847-431: A decade since they made the games and "Sega's not that good about keeping history." For instance, Naka wanted to include the original prototype of the first game but Sonic Team could not find its ROM image. Sega announced Mega Collection as a GameCube exclusive in early July 2002, and revealed which games would be included later that month. The compilation went gold the following November; Naka said Sonic Team felt

968-630: A dusty Genesis from the closet, don't hesitate to give it a shot." However, Johnny Liu of Game Revolution advised "just blow the dust off the old Genesis, because there isn't enough good extra stuff here." Nintendo Power described Sonic Mega Collection as "the ultimate compilation of Sonic adventures." It was a runner-up for GameSpot ' s annual "Best Platformer on GameCube" award, which went to Super Mario Sunshine . Reviews for Sonic Mega Collection Plus were also positive. Chris Baker of GameSpy decided that "despite its exclusions, though, Collection 's large selection of titles for $ 19.99

1089-616: A four issue mini-series, with the first issue labeled as "issue 0". At the end of the fourth issue of the series, it was announced that Sonic would return in a regular series, and the next issue was published as "issue 1" of the regular series. Alongside the main Sonic series, Archie Comics published various special issues. Longer than typical issues of the comic, these specials feature stories involving Sonic and other related characters. Several miniseries have also been published, featuring characters such as Sally Acorn, Tails and Knuckles. Because of

1210-469: A joy to play," and that "new converts to the Sonic fold will get a great introduction to the 'hog's history." GMR concluded that "if you're new to Sonic, for 20 bucks you really can't go wrong." The PlayStation 2 version of Mega Collection Plus received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in

1331-455: A major publisher. Ocean International consisted of British developer and publisher Ocean Software and its North American division Ocean of America. After the deal was closed, Ocean became a standalone subsidiary of Infogrames and continued releasing its own titles distant from those of Infogrames. Both Ocean subsidiaries soon became the official distributors for Infogrames in both territories. In 1997, Infogrames Télématique launched Oceanline,

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1452-525: A maximum of twenty titles. later on in the year, the company purchased the video game division of the Australian-based Beam Software , and rebranded it as Infogrames Melbourne House. On 29 September, Take-Two Interactive purchased DMA Design from Infogrames for US$ 11 million and transitioned it over to their Rockstar Games subsidiary, soon becoming Rockstar North . In December 1999, Infogrames made their then-largest purchase with

1573-531: A month later. On November 7, GameSpot reported that Atari was beginning to run out of money, losing 12 million dollars in the first fiscal quarter of 2008. On 6 March 2008, Infogrames made an offer to Atari Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of US$ 1.68 per share or US$ 11 million total. The offer would make Infogrames the sole owner of Atari Inc., making it a privately held company. On 30 April, Atari Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and merge with Infogrames, which

1694-587: A new focus on dealing with re-releases of older titles and the acquisition of companies that deal with the re-release of mainly abandonware video games; it also abandoned its cryptocurrency and casino divisions, which the company had focused on during previous leadership. The company was founded by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet. They wanted to christen the company Zboub Système (which can be approximately translated to Dick System in English), but were dissuaded by their legal counsel. According to Bonnell in

1815-514: A plan to fully reenter the console and handheld game publishing industry and reduce emphasis on free-to-play and mobile games, leading to possible titles being closed or sold, alongside the closure of Atari Casino. Chesnais later resigned from the company, though remained as a consultant through his new company, Crypto Blockchain Industries (CBI). On November 24, Atari announced they had invested $ 500,000 in retro gaming streaming platform Antstream, and

1936-563: A portfolio of over 100 titles and IPs mostly belonging to Accolade and MicroProse , Atari's Math Gran Prix , Humongous Entertainment 's "Junior Adventure" titles, and the Accolade and GT Interactive brands. Other companies that bought assets were Rebellion Developments purchasing Atari's Battlezone franchise and Humongous title MoonBase Commander , Devolver Digital purchasing Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure , Epic Gear LLC (and later Day 6 Sports Group LLC) purchasing

2057-598: A regrouping of "Infogrames' distribution operations in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America." This new entity consisted mainly of Infograme's distribution network in the PAL region . Distribution Partners was 34% owned by Namco Bandai and 66% owned by Atari. Later in May 2009, Namco Bandai acquired Atari Europe from Infogrames. Its sale and marketing personnel were transferred to Distribution Partners. In March 2009, Infogrames announced that it

2178-634: A sense of accomplishment when they completed it. Mega Collection was released in North America on November 12, 2002, in Japan on December 19, 2002, and in Europe on March 21, 2003. In European territories, Infogrames distributed the compilation. When Sega began to expand support for the PlayStation 2, it commissioned a version of Mega Collection for that console and the Xbox. This version, Sonic Mega Collection Plus ,

2299-505: A separate deal with Atari for the expansion of their Dungeons & Dragons license. On August 22, Atari, Inc. sold Humongous Entertainment to Infogrames Entertainment SA for shares worth US$ 10.3 million . With this, Infogrames laid off all remaining employees at the company and transferred the Humongous assets to a self-owned subsidiary Humongous, Inc. with intentions to sell off the assets outright. Atari would continue to distribute

2420-580: A still-in-development graphic novel; Archie would initially write his characters out of future comics, rewriting issues mid-lawsuit to remove any references to them and not republishing stories involving them, before rebooting the canon entirely to retcon out not only his but any other former writers' original characters and concepts fully. In 2016, after seeing the success of the Penders lawsuit, former Sonic editor Scott Fulop filed suits against Archie Comics and Sega, claiming that he had made 15 characters for

2541-480: A variety of other villains. While the series largely consists of its own continuity, certain issues implemented aspects of the Sonic video games into their plots and settings. Following a lawsuit in 2013 between Archie Comics and former writer Ken Penders , Archie rebooted the series, removing several characters from the comics' continuity and moving it closer to that of the Japanese games and media. Over its history,

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2662-595: A website that would offer simplified online versions of Infogrames titles. On February 3, Infogrames announced that they would purchase the French division of Phillips Media BV for 191.5 million F with the deal closing on June 9. Phillips Media France, in addition to holding a 20% shareholding stake in Infogrames, also owned the distributors Ecudis (France), Leisuresoft (UK), Bomico Entertainment Software (Germany and Holland), and German publisher Laguna Video Games. Leisuresoft

2783-447: A whole remained under its name, and became a holding company for the Atari assets. Atari, Inc.'s majority shareholder was California U.S. Holdings, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA. and had exclusive publishing and sublicensing in North America to release titles from Infogrames or its subsidiaries, including Atari Interactive. In September 2003, Atari announced

2904-407: Is a tough thing not to recommend to anyone who calls himself a gamer. Even if a few of the games undeniably suck." Hilary Goldstein of IGN declared that "you can't find a better deal than 20 games for 20 dollars," and that "while not every Sonic game is a winner, the majority are. These games, though old, are superior to Sega's more recent 3D Sonic offerings." Aceinet of GameZone , while praising

3025-663: Is set on the planet Mobius, an alternate version of Earth where animals were mutated into the anthropomorphic Mobians. Dr. Robotnik is depicted as a tyrant, ruling from Robotropolis, following a coup d'état against the Kingdom of Acorn. A small band of heroes, the Freedom Fighters, fight back against his forces from the secluded village of Knothole. Amongst the group are Sonic, his best friend Miles "Tails" Prower , love interest and team leader Princess Sally Acorn, French-accented Antoine D’Coolette, cybernetic Bunnie Rabbot, technician Rotor

3146-539: Is temporarily institutionalized, allowing Snively and the Iron Queen, Regina Ferrum, to take over his empire in the interim, leading to a lengthy war against the Freedom Fighters. Naugus comes to rule New Mobotropolis as king, due to a deal Sally's father made with him. Eggman returns to power and sanity, unleashing the Genesis Wave, altering Mobius, but Sonic reverses it. Sally sacrifices herself to stop Eggman's superweapon,

3267-629: The Backyard Sports franchise, Wargaming purchasing the Total Annihilation and Master of Orion franchises, and Stardock purchasing Star Control . The Test Drive franchise and publishing rights to the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise were also put up for sale, although no bids were offered for either franchise. In October, Eden Games reopened as an independent developer by its founder, David Nadal. In 2014, all three of

3388-588: The Driver franchise were sold to Ubisoft for $ 21.6 million. On September 1, Atari, Inc. announced that its stock faced delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange due to its price having fallen below $ 1.00. On September 5, 2006, David Pierce was appointed as new CEO of Atari, replacing Bruno Bonnell . Pierce previously worked as an executive at Universal Pictures , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Sony Pictures , Sony Music , and Sony Wonder . On October 2, Shiny Entertainment

3509-569: The V-Rally series to BigBen Interactive with an announcement of a new entry in the franchise from the latter. On 19 September, THQ Nordic announced they had acquired the Alone in the Dark franchise and Act of War . In March 2020, Wade Rosen, the founder of Ziggurat Interactive, became the new chair of the board of directors upon purchasing a substantial share of the company from Chesnais. Within that year,

3630-583: The Accolade , MicroProse , GT Interactive, and Infogrames catalogues that were formerly owned by Tommo/Billionsoft. This included the Bubsy series and the Accolade and GT Interactive brands. The copyright and trademarks of these titles transitioned to a holding business named GT Interactive, LLC. In May, the company obtained rights for over a dozen M Network games, including Armor Ambush , Astroblast , Frogs and Flies , Space Attack , and Star Strike . Within

3751-779: The Atari and MicroProse brands and titles such as Civilization , Falcon , RollerCoaster Tycoon , Centipede , Missile Command , and Pong , MicroProse's owned developers, the Games.com web portal, third-party video game licenses including Thomas the Tank Engine , Family Feud and various Namco properties, as well as a fifteen-year licensing deal to develop and publish titles based on Hasbro IP such as Dungeons & Dragons , Monopoly , Mr. Potato Head and My Little Pony , with an option for an additional 5 years based on performance. The deal did not include Avalon Hill , which

Sonic Mega Collection - Misplaced Pages Continue

3872-554: The Atari Group moniker, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns mainly video gaming related interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA's core subsidiaries include the publisher and marketer Atari, Inc. , developers Nightdive Studios and Digital Eclipse , and publisher Infogrames, It also has a blockchain division, Atari X, and additionally owns the websites MobyGames and AtariAge . Through these divisions,

3993-600: The Egg Fleet . The citizens are imprisoned in the Egg Grapes, but Sonic frees them. Nicole uses nanites to create New Mobotropolis. Tails’ father Amadeus tries to bring democracy to the city against the monarchy, Sally preventing a civil war by establishing the Council of Acorn, consisting of royal and public officials. Eggman suffers a massive mental breakdown due to Sonic foiling his plans for world domination one too many times and

4114-668: The Sega Genesis , limited to only 12 in releases outside of Japan. In addition to the seven default games, three unlockable games are included that recreate the Sonic & Knuckles " lock-on technology " to allow for new modes and/or playable characters in the first three Sonic games. Four non- Sonic games published by Sega are also unlockable, two of which are exclusive to the Japanese release. High-resolution instruction manual scans are included for each game. An "Extras" section features over 100 scans of comic covers from Archie Comics ' Sonic

4235-562: The Sonic series. According to director Yojiro Ogawa, Sonic Team's goal with the compilation was to introduce children to older games in the series and showcase what made Sonic successful. Sonic Team chose to focus on including all the Genesis Sonic games. Rather than porting them from the Genesis, they collaborated with VR-1 Japan to develop an emulator to run the games' ROM images . Series co-creator Yuji Naka , who served as producer, said

4356-467: The 2008 fiscal year the company posted €51.1 million ($ 72.17 million) in net losses and for the 2009 fiscal year, which ended in March, Infogrames posted losses of €226.1 million ($ 319.33 million). During their fiscal year meeting in May 2009, IESA announced that it would be changing its corporate name to an Atari branded name, in line with the use of the name for its subsidiaries. In reference to this, Atari, Inc.'s CEO Jim Wilson said: "We've gotten rid of

4477-605: The Archie series, was recruited by IDW to help with producing stories for the new series. The Sonic the Hedgehog comic debuted in the US as a four-part miniseries running from February to May 1993. The first issue (#0) was previewed in a free six-page Sonic the Hedgehog #¼, released November 1992. The miniseries was followed up two months later by the series Sonic the Hedgehog (July 1993 – December 2016). Numerous one-shot specials and several reprint series' followed. The comics follow

4598-407: The Atari brand would focus within a core 18-34-year-old male audience, while children's and casual games would retain the Infogrames banner. In April 2002, the company's Japanese division Infogrames Japan K.K. signed a Japanese distribution deal with Konami for select titles and soon relaunched the Atari brand in the country with the publication of Splashdown , TransWorld Surf and V-Rally 3 in

4719-615: The Dark , a 3D horror adventure game , to international attention. By 1995, Infogrames was held by many shareholders, including a 20% stake from Pathé Interactive (joint-venture between Phillips Media and Chargeurs ) and 3.3% by Productions Marcel Dassault. By August, Phillips Media acquired Chargeurs' stake in Pathé Interactive, which led to the 20% shareholding stake of the company transferring fully over to Phillips. In 1996, Infogrames embarked on an acquisition campaign that would last seven years and cost more than $ 500 million;

4840-499: The Great Forest. Shortly after Archie Comics acquired the rights to produce the comic series, editor Daryl Edelman approached writer Michael Gallagher (whom he worked with at the time on Betty and Veronica ) via a phone call on July 23, 1992, to write stories for the comic. Edelman believed that Gallagher was well-suited writing for the comic for several reasons, among them his work over at Marvel Comics . After briefly discussing

4961-435: The Hedgehog series, illustrations of Sonic characters throughout the franchise's history, and a handful of videos promoting other Sonic games, including the opening and ending cutscenes from Sonic CD . Sonic Mega Collection Plus includes all 14 of the games from the original release in all regions, plus the addition of six Game Gear games. The compilation's user interface has been updated, and all games now support

Sonic Mega Collection - Misplaced Pages Continue

5082-423: The Hedgehog and its spin-offs during his run at Archie Comics, with the U.S. Copyright Office approving his claims in 2010. Penders planned on continuing his "Mobius 25 Years Later" story independently, and declared that everything using his copyrighted works since issue #159 of the main comic was "essentially unauthorised". He had been prompted to do so after fans contacted him asking if he had anything to do with

5203-487: The Hedgehog, Sonic Super Digest and Sonic Super Special Magazine. Following Worlds Collide the latter two series and the Free Comic Book Day issues began featuring stories in a series entitled "Sonic Comic Origins", which detailed the histories of various characters in the post-reboot continuity. A short, three-panel comic strip similar to those found in a newspaper at the end of some issues called Off-Panel . It

5324-492: The Infogrames and Atari duality, the confusion around that. We are one simplified company, under one management team, under one brand." Infogrames' 29 May earnings report stated: An earnings press release on 24 July 2009 also provided clarification regarding the ensuing name change that was initially announced some two months prior, rebranding themselves as Atari, SA from Infogrames Entertainment, SA. Furthermore, this release also stated their intentions of henceforth utilising

5445-565: The Intellivision catalog on the system. On 26 June 2024, Infogrames acquired the Surgeon Simulator IP from tinyBuild. On 1 November 2024, Atari acquired Transport Tycoon from Chris Sawyer and was followed with Infogrames acquiring the publishing rights to Bread & Fred from Apogee Entertainment . Information about developers owned by Atari, Inc. and Atari Interactive are listed on their pages. As of 2018, Atari SA owns

5566-591: The North American Atari subsidiaries emerged from bankruptcy under the ownership of Frédéric Chesnais, who headed the slimmed-down companies with their entire operations consisting of a staff of 10 people. Atari announced in March that they had entered the social casino gaming industry with the launch of Atari Casino. In 2015, Atari announced a new turnaround strategy that would focus on "download games, MMO games, mobile games and licensing activities, based in priority around traditional franchises." Projects within

5687-771: The Super Genesis Wave in conjunction with Dr. Wily , causing the Prime Zone (Sonic's World Dimension) to be irreversibly rewritten and the multiverse surrounding it to collapse in on itself, destroying every prior known reality (with the exception of the Special Zone and the Sol Zone, Blaze's World Dimension, the latter due to the Jeweled Scepter) and creating new ones in their place. In the new continuity, Sonic and Dr. Eggman retain their memories of everything they both knew before

5808-473: The Super Genesis Wave, which are later restored onto Nagus, Tails, Rotor, Antoine, Bunnie, Sally and Amy when they make contact with Nicole. However, Earth is split apart, awakening Dark Gaia, leading to the events of Sonic Unleashed . The comic also introduces Naugus' sister Wendy , a witch who pledges allegiance to Eggman and plots to gain the Cacophonic Conch . The series was originally published as

5929-592: The United Kingdom. Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) Sonic the Hedgehog is an American comic book series published by Archie Comics , in partnership with Sega . Although this continuity was based on Sega's video game franchise , it had much more in nature with the American 1993 animated series of the same name . After initially beginning with a four-issue miniseries from February to May 1993 (with issues appearing on newsstands three months earlier ),

6050-541: The Walrus, and Sally's handheld computer Nicole. Other allies like Knuckles the Echidna , Amy Rose , and Sonic's Uncle Chuck join them in later chapters. Robotnik in turn is aided by his nephew Snively. Robotnik meets his demise in the fiftieth issue, erased from existence by his own superweapon. An alternate version of Robotnik from a parallel world becomes the lead antagonist, first introduced as "Robo-Robotnik", but later takes on

6171-634: The World Roboticizer, and becomes a robot. The Freedom Fighters reform as Team Freedom, Team Fighters, and the Secret Freedom Fighters to combat Eggman and Naugus. Eggman activates a second Genesis Wave, transporting himself, Sonic, and other characters into the world of Mega Man , leading to the crossover Worlds Collide . A second crossover Worlds Unite happened in 2015, featuring characters from other Sega and Capcom titles. The original multiverse ceased to exist when Dr. Eggman launched

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6292-415: The ability to suspend and resume gameplay at any time. The illustration gallery has been expanded with artwork from games released since the original Mega Collection , while all videos from the original release have been omitted, replaced by a gallery of storyboards and in-production renders of cutscenes from Sonic Heroes . Mega Collection was developed by Sonic Team , the studio behind most games in

6413-495: The acquisition of a 70% stake in publisher GT Interactive Software for $ 135 million, and assumed GT's $ 75 million bank debt. IESA justified the purchase by stating that GT Interactive provided Infogrames with a "distribution network for all of its products in the United States, as well as a catalog of products that includes Driver , Duke Nukem , Oddworld , Unreal Tournament and Deer Hunter . The deal also included

6534-412: The adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, called the Freedom Fighters, who battle against the evil Doctor Robotnik . Initially based on the plot of the 1993 animated series , the comic later incorporated elements from the games and other media . When Ken Penders , former head writer of the comic got sued by Archie Comics because he allegedly breached his contract with them, the comic lead to

6655-400: The appeal hearing took place on May 1, 2008. Atari was expected to raise its value to $ 15 million USD from the period of December 20, 2007 through to March 2008. Atari received notice of its absolute delisting on September 12, 2008. In September 2008, Namco Bandai Games and Infogrames formed a joint venture called Distribution Partners . Distribution Partners was defined by Infogrames as

6776-540: The cartoon series and the video game series of the same name. In addition, the comic series had crossovers with Image Comics character Spawn. Archie's Mega Man comic-book series, based on the Mega Man video games from Capcom . A succeeding series of Sonic comics by IDW Publishing began serialization from April 2018, following IDW's acquisition of the SEGA license through SEGA of America. Ian Flynn , who formerly worked on

6897-507: The characters, and 3 pages of character descriptions, locations, and the series' back story. He later recalled that the characters eventually became "very familiar to him and began to suggest their own stories". After the miniseries, he ceased being the only writer of the issues, though he continued to contribute throughout its run. In January 2009, three years after leaving the comic, former head writer Ken Penders filed for copyright over every story and character that he had created for Sonic

7018-476: The closure of MicroProse's UK studio, then named Infogrames Chippenham. On October 2, the company closed Infogrames Lyon House. and on October 22, had acquired the remaining 80% of Eden Studios for $ 4.1 million,. In the fiscal year of 2002, IESA had a net loss of $ 67 million on revenues of $ 650 million, and in 2003 the net losses increased to $ 89 million. On January 30, 2003, Infogrames sold their Mac publishing division MacSoft to Destineer . On May 1,

7139-641: The closure of the Hunt Valley (the former headquarters of MicroProse) development studio. and Legend Entertainment On October 2, following the closure of Sheffield House, Atari sold a majority of Gremlin Interactive's catalogue alongside their brand, logo and trademark, to Zoo Digital Publishing , a then-new publisher founded by Gremlin co-founder Ian Stewart. On December 18, Atari announced that they would shutter Legend Entertainment in January 2004. Atari continued to close and sell off franchises in 2004. On March 30,

7260-699: The closure of their Santa Monica and Beverly publishing offices and that publishing would be reassigned to their main North American offices in New York City . On May 2, after signing a new deal with Firaxis Games , 2K announced that they had fully acquired from Atari the full Civilization and prior back catalog of titles. They also announced that they had acquired the publishing rights to the then-recent Sid Meier's Pirates! . On June 9, Hasbro announced they had purchased back Atari's exclusive digital gaming rights to their properties for $ 65 million. As part of

7381-558: The comic series and was owed six figures in royalties. He cited the Penders case as justification for his claims, and gave nearly a thousand examples of times Archie had allegedly wrongly used his characters or reprinted stories involving them. Fulop, through his company Narrative Ark, sought damages for copyright infringement by both Archie and Sega, as they had apparently failed to compensate him for his works; he also sought to invalidate copyrights on his characters filed by Archie in 2011 in response to Penders's own copyright filings. However,

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7502-432: The company had operations in 50 countries and 17 dedicated offices. In December 2008, Infogrames bought Cryptic Studios for $ 26.7 million in cash plus performance bonuses. Cryptic Studios is a massively multiplayer online game developer and its acquisition is in line with the company's new business strategy which focuses on online games. Despite restructuring, Infogrames continued to struggle to become profitable. For

7623-594: The company launched the Atari Token Cryptocurrency the Atari Token was launched by Atari, in equal partnership with the ICICB Group. The group was licensed to launch an online gaming platform using crypto currencies, including the Atari Token. Also, Ziggurat Interactive acquired dozens of ex-Atari-owned titles, including Deadly Dozen . In March 2021, Atari extended its partnership with ICICB Group for

7744-433: The company owns the rights to many video game properties that originated from Accolade , Atari, Inc. , Atari Corporation , GT Interactive, M Network , Intellivision and others. It is the sole owner of the Atari brand since 2001, through its subsidiary Atari Interactive Inc. which licenses the brand to other entities in the group. Infogrames published numerous video games during the 1990s and eventually became one of

7865-582: The company shuttered its Minneapolis development studio, formerly WizardWorks, and announced that its titles such as the Deer Hunter franchise would transition off to Atari Interactive. On July 29, 2004, Epic Games announced that it had ended its publishing agreement with Atari, Inc. for the Unreal , and instead signed a new three-game publishing deal with Midway , beginning with Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict in 2005. Atari would continue to publish

7986-632: The company shuttered the Infogrames Sheffield House development studio. On 7 May 2003, Infogrames officially reorganized all its subsidiaries under the Atari banner. Its two publishing divisions in the United States - Infogrames, Inc., based in Santa Monica (the former GT Interactive) which handled a majority of the company's "core" titles such as Enter the Matrix , Dungeons and Dragons (including Neverwinter Nights ) and other movie tie-ins,

8107-400: The company's titles for a period until March 2006, and was later extended to March 2007. During this period, Atari's most profitable titles in the North American market were Dragon Ball games , which accounted for the largest share of Atari's earnings at the time. Infogrames through the remainder of 2006 sold intellectual properties and some studios in order to raise cash and stave off

8228-599: The compilation overall as "a nearly complete package of classic Sonic games," was critical of the emulation of the Game Gear games, saying that "while the emulation is spot-on for the games, having to put up with a black bar around the screen could be upsetting to some." Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com assured readers that "even with its shortcomings, it's still one of the most value-packed classic compilations available for any system -- as long as you like Sonic." Game Informer suggested that "if you grew up with these games, they're still

8349-580: The console. According to an official company statement of 22 June 2017 the product was to initially launch via a crowdfunding campaign in order to minimize financial risk to the parent company. In March 2018, the Ataribox was renamed the Atari VCS and it was released in June 2021. It was developed by a new subsidiary based in the U.S., named Atari VCS, LLC. Within the same month, it was revealed that Atari had also sold

8470-403: The creation of Mobius and evolved anthropomorphic animals, try to destroy the planet. Sonic defeats them, only to end up lost in space, but returns home a year later. Sally's father, King Maximillian, is poisoned by Antoine's evil counterpart, Patch, and hands the throne over to his son Prince Elias. For a brief time, Snively defects to the Freedom Fighters only to betray them, bombing Knothole with

8591-426: The day of the announcement of is departure IESA's shares jumped 24%. In the same year, Infogrames fired the majority of Atari's directors and laid off 20% of its workforce. For the 2006–2007 fiscal year, Atari posted a net loss of $ 70 million. In July 2007, Atari sold their exclusive licensing deal with Hasbro back to them for $ 19 million, which concluded with Hasbro signing a new casual game deal with Electronic Arts

8712-521: The developers SingleTrac , Humongous Entertainment , Cavedog Entertainment , WizardWorks , MacSoft , Legend Entertainment and Reflections Interactive ; Infogrames began the new millennium of 2000 with a new identity and branding, while in February GT closed down Cavedog Entertainment as part of its restructuring. In June, The company invested another $ 30 million in GT Interactive, and renamed

8833-508: The development of Atari branded hotels, with the first hotels to be constructed in Dubai , Gibraltar and Spain . The licensing agreement includes potential additional countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In April, Rosen replaced Chesnais as CEO and restructured the company into two units: Atari Gaming, who will focus on video games, and Atari Blockchain, who will focus on blockchain and other businesses. On July 5, 2021, Atari Gaming announced

8954-540: The existing Unreal back catalog. On November 25, 2004, Infogrames Entertainment SA announced they had sold the Civilization franchise to an undisclosed buyer for $ 22.3 million., In January 2005, it was revealed that the buyer for the Civilization franchise was Take-Two Interactive , who acquired distribution rights to the then-upcoming title Civilization IV under their 2K label. On February 10, Atari announced

9075-505: The first full-length issue of the comic was published in July 1993. The series ran for 290 issues for over 20 years, earning a place in the 2008 Guinness World Records for being the "longest-running comic series based on a video game " in U.S. history. . It became the longest-running franchise-based comic series in 2015 (surpassing Marvel Comics ' 275 issues of Conan the Barbarian ) before it

9196-459: The following week CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed the company was developing a new game console – the hardware was stated to be based on PC technology, and be still under development. In mid July 2017 an Atari press release confirmed the existence of new hardware, referred to as the Ataribox . The casing design was inspired by the original Atari 2600 , with a ribbed top surface, and a rise at the back of

9317-444: The franchise. On January 3, 2017, TMZ reported that Frontier Developments , the developer for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 , sued Atari, Inc. for not paying the company enough for royalties for the game; Frontier reported that they only received $ 1.17 million when they needed $ 3.37 million. Frontier's Chief Operating Officer David Walsh confirmed the report in a GameSpot interview, stating that they had previously attempted to resolve

9438-580: The introduction of additional characters to the comic cast. Typically, the series is broken up into four-issue long story arcs focusing on a select character or group of characters, though one-issue stories have also been released. Archie has also produced two Sonic series based on other branches of the Sonic franchise, namely the Sonic X anime and the Sonic Boom cartoon. The Sonic X series began in September 2005, and ended after forty issues in January 2009,

9559-479: The issue without legal action since April 2016. In 2017, Piko Interactive acquired several titles from Atari: 40 Winks , Bubble Ghost , Chamber of the Sci-Mutant Priestess , Death Gate , Drakkhen , Eternam , Glover , Monty Mole , Hostage: Rescue Mission , Marco Polo and Time Gate: Knight's Chase . On June 8, a short teaser video was released, promoting a new product; and

9680-481: The large cast, only major and recurring characters are included in this section. The central protagonists of the comic, the Freedom Fighters are a resistance movement who battle against Dr. Eggman and various other antagonists for the freedom of their planet. The main faction are the Knothole Freedom Fighters , led by Sonic the Hedgehog and Princess Sally Acorn, who operate from the village of Knothole in

9801-404: The largest video game companies in the world through an acquisition policy. However, later, as Atari SA, it dealt with continuing pressures and difficulty finding investors which led to the company seeking bankruptcy protection under French law in January 2013 while subsidiaries in the United States sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as well. Since 2020, the company has seen a turnaround with

9922-518: The last of which featured a crossover story with the main Sonic the Hedgehog series that served as a prequel to the first Sonic Universe issue. The Sonic Boom line began in October 2014, and was later incorporated into Worlds Unite before concluding with its eleventh issue in September 2015. The Archie Sonic series has also produced several Free Comic Book Day issues, which typically feature either reprints of older issues or new stories that fit into

10043-478: The latter part of 2023, the company also formed a partnership with and made a minority investment into Playmaji, Inc. the company behind the Polymega retro console, acquired AtariAge , a website dedicated to the history of Atari games, Awesomenauts and Swords & Soldiers from Ronimo Games and Digital Eclipse , a developer that specialized in remakes of older games. On April 2, 2024, Atari re-purchased

10164-433: The much more recognisable 'Atari Group' moniker with all Atari-related brands and similar such subsidiaries already under their control. On 21 October 2010, Atari announced Atari's reference shareholders BlueBay Value Recovery (Master) Fund Limited and BlueBay Multi-Strategy (Master) Fund Limited are exploring a disposal of the shares and equity-linked instruments held by them. However, BlueBay shareholders later interrupted

10285-598: The name of Dr. Eggman. New antagonists were introduced, including the evil sorcerer Ixis Naugus; Scourge the Hedgehog, Sonic's evil counterpart from a parallel universe ; and the Dark Egg Legion, a union of other factions like the Iron Dominion and the echidna-led Dark Legion. Game storylines like Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 were adapted, introducing Shadow the Hedgehog as a recurring character. The Xorda, an extraterrestrial race whose past actions led to

10406-522: The new label. Atari also took a 7.9% ownership stake in tinyBuild around the same time. On May 23, Atari announced the acquisition of the Intellivision brand name and its game library from Intellivision Entertainment. This respective company and the Amico console were not included in the sale, and would be renamed. The company would secure a licensing deal with Atari to continue to release updated versions of

10527-494: The objective was to become the world's leading interactive entertainment publisher. While the company's debt increased from $ 55 million in 1999 to $ 493 million in 2002, the company's revenue also increased from $ 246 million to $ 650 million during the same period. In July 1996, the company announced that it would purchase the British-based holding company Ocean International Ltd. for $ 100 million, beginning Infogrames' status as

10648-427: The original copy of their contract with Penders, nor those of any other artist who had ever worked on Sonic , opening them for future lawsuits. In 2013, the lawsuit ended in prejudice , with Penders gaining the rights to an estimated over 200 characters from the comic in a confidential settlement with Archie Comics . He would later turn the "Mobius 25 Years Later" continuation project into The Lara Su Chronicles ,

10769-464: The popularity of the specials and Miniseries featuring Knuckles, in 1997, Knuckles the Echidna became an ongoing series. Knuckles' stories featured its own cast of characters, including the Chaotix . In 2000, the series was cancelled, but the stories were continued in the pages of Sonic the Hedgehog until it was phased out completely by Sonic issue 125. In this form, a typical issue of Sonic included

10890-703: The publisher as Infogrames, Inc. On June 30, Infogrames purchased developer Paradigm Entertainment for $ 19.5 million and placed them within Infogrames, Inc. operations. and soon afterwards purchased in-flight games developer Den-o-Tech Int. (DTI) for $ 5.6 million, renaming them as Infogrames DTI. Infogrames was also one of the interested companies in purchasing Eidos Interactive . On December 6, 2000, board game manufacturer Hasbro announced that they would sell their struggling Hasbro Interactive division to Infogrames for $ 100 million, $ 95 million as 4.5 million common shares of Infogrames and $ 5 million in cash. The deal included all of Hasbro Interactive's product library,

11011-439: The publishing rights to RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 from Frontier Developments as part of RollerCoaster Tycoon' s 25th anniversary, giving Atari full publishing control of the series once more. Later that month, Atari relaunched the Infogrames brand as a second publishing label to publish titles outside the main Atari brands, along with the acquisition of Totally Reliable Delivery Service from tinyBuild , to be published under

11132-478: The region. On April 25, Infogrames purchased Shiny Entertainment from the struggling Interplay Entertainment for $ 47 million, alongside the exclusive publishing rights to publish games based on The Matrix . On August 28, Infogrames purchased the remaining shares in OziSoft for $ 3.7 million and rebranded the distributor as Infogrames Australia and Infogrames New Zealand. On September 12, 2002, Infogrames announced

11253-417: The release of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood , which he did not; Penders believed the game used concepts and characters similar to those he had written for the comic series. That same year, Archie Comics filed a lawsuit against Penders, aiming to retain copyright over its stories and characters; Archie alleged that Penders had violated his contract with them. However, Archie were unable to produce

11374-448: The restructuring of the debt and capital structure of the Atari group. As part of the agreement, the €20.9 million Credit Facility Agreement was extinguished via €10.9 million loan forgiveness from BlueBay Value Recovery (Master) Fund Limited and Atari's payment of €10 million; the cancellation of the dilutive effect of the ORANEs held by BlueBay; €20 million capital increases to be submitted to

11495-633: The sale process of its holding in Atari. BlueBay later converted the conversion of a portion of the ORANEs held by them. On April 4, 2012, Glu Mobile acquired the Deer Hunter franchise from Atari. On April 12, Eden Games began negotiations as an attempt to separate from Atari SA following a prior strike after Atari laid off a majority of the studios' employees the prior April. On September 28, Atari, SA, BlueBay Value Recovery (Master) Fund Limited, and The BlueBay Multi-Strategy (Master) Fund Limited reached an agreement following their negotiations regarding

11616-534: The sale, Hasbro purchased back the video game rights to the Transformers , My Little Pony , Tonka , Magic: The Gathering , Connect Four , Candy Land and Playskool franchises and brands, while Atari would obtain a seven-year exclusive agreement to produce video games based on select Hasbro board games, including Monopoly , Scrabble , The Game of Life , Battleship , Clue , Yahtzee , Simon , Risk and Boggle . Hasbro also secured

11737-678: The same day, the company announced a two-year distribution deal with Canal+ Multimedia to distribute the company's titles in the UK, France and Germany. Later on in the year the company purchased the distributors ABS Multimedia, Arcadia, and the Swiss Gamecity GmbH and ending the year off with the purchase of a 62.5% in Australian game distributor Ozisoft , following its then-recent relinquishment from Sega . On February 10, 1999, Infogrames extended its partnership with Canal+ Multimedia by purchasing

11858-565: The series continuity. Since 2013, these issues have served as a combination free comic special with the Mega Man series; a free Sonic issue serving as a prequel to Sonic Lost World was also released in 2013 for Halloween Comic Fest. Various compilations have also been put together, such as the Sonic Saga Series, Sonic Archives and Knuckles Archives, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe and standalone graphic novels, Sonic Legacy, Best of Sonic

11979-416: The series had a number of spin-off publications being created. These include Sonic Universe , which focuses on stories revolving around different side characters from the main series; Knuckles the Echidna , focusing on adventures involving Knuckles and his friends the Chaotix ; Sonic X , a comic series based on the 2003 Japanese anime of the same name; and Sonic Boom , a comic series based on both

12100-469: The series' concept and that the 4-issue miniseries would have 3 self-contained stories in each issue, Gallagher was told by Edelman to "establish the characters quickly through strong exposition" using "visuals from the game" (which would be faxed to him) and needed the first script in a week. After taking the job, he went to work and received a full page of "Sonic Line Art" (showing the character in various poses), 4 pages of model sheets showing illustrations of

12221-518: The strategy included Alone in the Dark: Illumination , RollerCoaster Tycoon World , and a mobile game based on Lunar Lander . On December 14, 2016, fellow-French publisher Bigben Interactive announced they had purchased the Test Drive franchise from Atari. The deal allowed for BigBen to publish new installments in the franchise, while Atari would retain all rights to previous entries in

12342-583: The studio down. On May 23, Atari announced that they would sell their game assets, developers, the famous "Fuji" logo, and the Atari name in a bankruptcy auction. Prior to the bankruptcy sale in July, Nordic Games purchased the Desperados franchise and Silver on June 24 while Appeal Studios purchased the full rights to Outcast on July 4. The company's bankruptcy sale took place on July 22, 2013, leading to different titles gaining new homes. A majority of Atari's assets were sold to Tommo , which included

12463-514: The suits were dismissed in the defendants' favour, as Narrative Ark provided insufficient evidence for their claims. The comic has been received positively. Destructoid praised the comic series, especially the earlier issues during the 1990s, for adding more backstory and character interaction than was presented in the Sonic video games for the Sega Genesis . Infogrames Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA ( French pronunciation: [ɛ̃fɔɡʁam] )), also known under

12584-469: The team intended to include the 1993 Sega CD game Sonic CD , but storage constraints prevented this. Sonic Team also considered including BlueSky Software 's Vectorman (1995). CD and Vectorman later appeared in Sonic Gems Collection (2005), a successor to Mega Collection focusing on rare Sonic games. Sonic Team had trouble gathering materials for the compilation because it had been

12705-577: The threat of bankruptcy. On May 10, 2006, the company began their sales of their studios and properties with the sale of the Games.com website to AOL , Paradigm Entertainment and the Stuntman franchise to THQ and the publishing rights to TimeShift to Vivendi Games . The sales generated $ 25 million in revenue. On June 17, Midway acquired the back publishing rights to the Unreal back catalog from Infogrames and Atari. In July, Reflections Interactive and

12826-416: The thumbstick is usable, and it works flawlessly." Game Informer declared Sonic Mega Collection to be "perhaps the best compilation ever." Fran Mirabella of IGN christened the compilation as "a wonderful little collection that, while not perfect, is a great value." Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot suggested that "if you're fiending for Sonic the Hedgehog and either don't have or are unwilling to drag out

12947-429: The video games, the 1993 animated series , and other media. A number of characters were created by various writers including Ken Penders , Ian Flynn , Michael Gallagher , Karl Bollers, Scott Fulop, and Dan Slott . Following Archie Comics' lawsuit against former writer Ken Penders, the continuity of the comic was rebooted into a new timeline, removing most of the characters created by previous writers, save Flynn. Due to

13068-713: The vote of Atari shareholders (of which €10 million with preferential subscription right). On 21 January 2013, the North American divisions of Atari SA - Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive, Inc., Humongous, Inc. and California US Holdings, Inc. all filed petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The following week on January 29, Eden Games filed for judicial liquidation , effectively closing

13189-457: Was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment for $ 1.6 million. The last studio put up for sale - Atari Melbourne House, was sold to Krome Studios in November, and was renamed to Krome Studios Melbourne. Atari retained ownership of Eden Games , while Infogrames still held the assets of Humongous, Inc. In April 2007, Infogrames' founding chairman Bruno Bonnell left the company after 24 years; on

13310-470: Was announced at E3 2004 . Plus was released in North America on November 2, 2004, in Japan on December 9, 2004, and in Europe on February 4, 2005. A Windows version was released in March 2006, and was later included in the Sonic PC Collection (2009). Reviews for Sonic Mega Collection were generally favorable. Louis Bedigian of GameZone praised the controls as "top-notch" including that "even

13431-471: Was completed by October 9. With that acquisition Infogrames was the only owner of the Atari brand. Infogrames said that it planned to reduce administrative costs and to focus on online gaming. On May 9, 2008, it was revealed that NASDAQ would be removing Atari from the NASDAQ stock exchange. Atari has stated its intentions to appeal the decision. Atari was notified of NASDAQ's final decision on April 24, 2008, and

13552-438: Was confirmed cancelled in July 2017, following Sega and Archie Comics' decision to discontinue their business relationship. The series features a cast of hundreds of characters, consisting of both those derived from the Sonic games and those original to the comics, with stories focused on a crime-fighting organization called the Freedom Fighters, led by Sonic , as they face off against series antagonist Doctor Eggman alongside

13673-499: Was disclaimed as "unlicensed" and a replacement would be developed. In 2023, Atari began a series of IP acquisitions. In March, they acquired the intellectual property rights to 12 Stern Electronics titles, including Berzerk and Frenzy . Later that month, Atari announced that it would acquire Nightdive Studios for $ 10 million. Nightdive had released several ports and remasters of Atari's divested games. The following month, they had re-acquired over one hundred video games from

13794-491: Was getting out of the distribution business in the PAL region with its decision to sell its 66% stake at Distribution Partners. According to an Infogrames press-release, this sale allowed "Atari to focus its financial resources and creative energy exclusively on developing and publishing online-enabled games". In July, the deal valued at €37 million was completed; Distribution Partners was renamed to Namco Bandai Partners . At that time

13915-576: Was however not included in the sale, and was shuttered following the purchase. On January 30, 1998, Infogrames signed a licensing deal with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to publish and develop five titles based on the Looney Tunes franchise. On February 8, Infogrames rebranded its subsidiaries under its own banner, with Ocean Software becoming Infogrames United Kingdom, Ocean of America becoming Infogrames Entertainment, Inc. and Bomico Entertainment Software becoming Infogrames Deutschland. On

14036-473: Was moved to Villeurbanne . Bonnell commented: "This dinosaur [ sic ] is our symbol. The armadillo has always survived changes to its environment, from the melting of glaciers to the worst of heat waves." In the late 1980s, Infogrames was noted for its French computer games that often featured original game ideas and occasionally humorous content. They had acquired several licences for popular Franco-Belgian comics . In 1992, they released Alone in

14157-440: Was originally found in the main series of comics, and was later continued in the spinoff series Sonic Universe . Earlier strips involved fictional version of staff interacting with comic characters. While later strips removed this element, it always retains elements of comical gags relating to the issues main story, often containing fourth wall breaking. The comic book has had a large cast of characters, primarily originating from

14278-494: Was purchased. The company's first major purchase of the year came on April 20, with the purchase of publisher Accolade for $ 60 million in order to gain a major North American distribution network. Accolade was rebranded as Infogrames North America, with the company's former North American distribution arm (the ex-Ocean of America) being folded into it. On June 24, the company extended its Looney Tunes licensing deal with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for five years, with

14399-526: Was re-released for the PlayStation 2 , Xbox , and Microsoft Windows as Sonic Mega Collection Plus with additional Sonic games originally released for the Game Gear . This was followed by a second compilation for the PlayStation 2 and GameCube, Sonic Gems Collection , with more obscure and rare Sonic games such as Sonic CD . Sonic Mega Collection compiles 14 emulated games originally released for

14520-858: Was rebranded as Atari, Inc. , and Infogrames Interactive, Inc., based in Beverly, Massachusetts, which focused on children's and casual titles such as games based on the Dragon Ball franchise and their Hasbro license, was renamed Atari Interactive, Inc. , merging with the previously existing Atari Interactive, Inc. which held all rights to the Atari brand. Other subsidiaries that rebranded included Infogrames Australia Pty, Ltd. rebranding as Atari Australia Pty, Ltd. , Infogrames United Kingdom Limited rebranding as Atari United Kingdom Limited, Infogrames Europe rebranding as Atari Europe and development studio Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd becoming Atari Melbourne House Pty Ltd. The Infogrames Entertainment SA company as

14641-433: Was retained by Hasbro. The deal was closed on January 29, 2001, and Hasbro Interactive was rebranded as Infogrames Interactive, Inc. On October 2, 2001, Infogrames announced that they would reinvent the Atari brand as a second major publishing label with the launch of three new games featuring prominent Atari branding on their boxarts: Splashdown , MX Rider and TransWorld Surf . Infogrames titles released under

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