Atari News Blitz
Sued, Licensed, New Members
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On the day that it shipped the "sequel" to the critically panned Enter The Matrix, Atari also managed to get sued by the developer of one of its top franchises, RollerCoaster Tycoon. Chris Sawyer, the man behind the game, has taken the French publisher to court over royalty disputes, reports the Times.
Sawyer claims that Atari owes him some $4.8 million from the sales of RollerCoaster Tycoon and Transport Tycoon games from 1999 to 2003. The suit alleges that Sawyer was paid only $30 million from the $180 million that the two series generated and that the publisher has violated the agreement over a dozen times.
Atari also had some brighter news to announce themselves, they have jumped on the Unreal Engine 3 licensing bandwagon along with BioWare, VU Games, Sony Computer Entertainment and more. The former partner's new deal will cover multiple titles.
"We're excited to continue building our relationship with Epic Games and we look forward to tapping the potential of Unreal Engine 3 technology," said Jean-Marcel Nicolai, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Content, Atari, Inc. "By utilizing the Unreal Engine 3, Atari will gain rapid prototyping capabilities."
Atari also announced that it has added three new board members, Ronald C. Bernard, a former NFL and Viacom Executive, Michael G. Corrigan former Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Evence-Charles Coppee, the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Infogrames Entertainment SA, Atari's parent company.
Sawyer claims that Atari owes him some $4.8 million from the sales of RollerCoaster Tycoon and Transport Tycoon games from 1999 to 2003. The suit alleges that Sawyer was paid only $30 million from the $180 million that the two series generated and that the publisher has violated the agreement over a dozen times.
Atari also had some brighter news to announce themselves, they have jumped on the Unreal Engine 3 licensing bandwagon along with BioWare, VU Games, Sony Computer Entertainment and more. The former partner's new deal will cover multiple titles.
"We're excited to continue building our relationship with Epic Games and we look forward to tapping the potential of Unreal Engine 3 technology," said Jean-Marcel Nicolai, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Content, Atari, Inc. "By utilizing the Unreal Engine 3, Atari will gain rapid prototyping capabilities."
Atari also announced that it has added three new board members, Ronald C. Bernard, a former NFL and Viacom Executive, Michael G. Corrigan former Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Evence-Charles Coppee, the Deputy Chief Operating Officer of Infogrames Entertainment SA, Atari's parent company.