Atari has announced the acquisition of its first big competitor, Intellivision. This acquisition marks the end of the longest-running console war in history, uniting Atari and Intellivision after 45 years.
The Intellivision gaming console was released in 1979 by Mattel Electronics and posed the first serious threat to the most popular gaming console at the time, the Atari 2600. Mattel sold out of Intellivision consoles within a year. By 1990, around 5 million Intellivision consoles had been sold. Despite losing their positions atop the video game console market, both Atari and Intellivision continued to license their video games to companies like Nintendo and Sony.
Atari has purchased the Intellivision brand and certain games from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. However, it did not acquire Intellivision Entertainment LLC’s Amico brand gaming console. The Amico console was announced in 2018 after video game music composer Tommy Tallarico bought a stake in Intellivision and announced the company was planning to relaunch the Intellivision console. As of 2024, the Amico has still not been released.
Atari plans to expand the 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. To mark the occasion, new Intellivision t-shirts are available starting today on Atari.com, with more Intellivision apparel and collectibles to come.
Read more: mashable.com