Bellevue, Wash.-based game publisher tinyBuild has sold the rights to Totally Reliable Delivery Service to the French corporation Atari, which intends to use the acquisition to revive a legacy brand.
The game, which tinyBuild published for PC, console, and mobile in 2020, was developed by We’re Five Games in Minneapolis. It’s a deliberately chaotic party game for up to four players. tinyBuild subsequently acquired We’re Five Games in February 2021.
Now, in an unusual deal, tinyBuild has sold the trademark and rights for TRDS, but not We’re Five Games, to Atari. Neither Atari or tinyBuild have disclosed the financial terms of the acquisition.
Atari plans to use TRDS as the first game published under its new Infogrames imprint. The original Infogrames, founded in 1983, was famous in the early days of PC gaming as the publisher behind several cult-classic games, such as the original Alone in the Dark, 1999’s Outcast, and 2003’s Master of Orion III.
“For decades, Infogrames built a reputation as a publisher and developer of amazing and eclectic games, and we are excited to bring it back,” Atari CEO Wade Rosen said in a press release.
The current plan for the Infogrames label is to continue to build its portfolio via acquisitions, with the potential to eventually include some of the games that Infogrames published in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
It’s worth noting that in a ship-of-Theseus sense, Infogrames wasn’t actually gone. The company that currently calls itself Atari is the descendant of the original Infogrames, following over 20 years of acquisitions, reorganizations, and mergers. Following a series of financial setbacks, Infogrames officially rebranded itself to Atari, Inc., in May 2003.
In 2024, Atari is arguably best-known for its crowdfunded Atari VCS video game console, which uses a Linux-based OS to run a lineup of classic, reimagined, and reinvented Atari games. Its most recent release, Lunar Lander: Beyond, is a current-generation sequel to the 1979 arcade game, which launched on all modern platforms on Tuesday.
Atari previously acquired Vancouver, Wash.-based developer Nightdive Studios in May.
The new Infogrames label is intended to publish games that “fall outside the core portfolio of IP associated with the Atari brand,” including a focus on game preservation measures.
