On October 9, 2008, Infogrames completed its purchase of Atari Inc. The deal, which the two companies agreed to in May, led to speculation that the acquisition would be the end of Atari. Instead, it had the opposite effect, though it took a roundabout way to get there.
The complex relationship between Infogrames and Atari
Infogrames, a French software publisher based in Lyon, became involved with Atari in late 2000. That year, Hasbro Interactive sold most of its video game rights, including Atari, to Infogrames. Hasbro, the toy company, had acquired the Atari name from struggling hard drive maker JTS in 1998.
Infogrames revived the Atari brand, over time merging some of its subsidiaries into the Atari umbrella. It also put the Atari name on a few retro-themed products, trading off Atari’s name recognition from the early 1980s.
But Infogrames didn’t retain full ownership of the subsidiary. Over time it sold off some of the company, reducing its ownership to 67 percent in October 2004 and 51 percent in September 2006, the minimum required to maintain controlling interest. Atari was technically a separate company, traded on the NASDAQ.
The arrangement was confusing in 2004, as evidenced by forum posts on AtariAge at the time, and is no less confusing now. But companies selling partial ownership in one another is a way to maintain financial flexibility.
By April 2008, Atari was struggling and in danger of losing its listing on the NASDAQ. Infogrames made an offer to buy the 49 percent it didn’t own for what ended up being $11 million.
Reporting in May 2008, the New York Times speculated this was the end of Atari.
Instead, a year later, Infogrames changed its name to Atari, though the company continued to operate a tangled web of subsidiaries and business models.
Atari’s 2013 bankruptcy and turnaround
A 2013 bankruptcy resulted in Atari selling off a large amount of its intellectual property and experimenting with a few lines of business that didn’t pan out, including ventures into cryptocurrency, gambling, and releasing a new console styled like the Atari 2600 but based on PC hardware.
In late 2021/early 2022, Atari withdrew from the crypto and gambling business and shifted focus to retro gaming. It invested in the retro gaming business by making acquisitions, including re-acquiring some properties they had divested a few years before, and acquiring the rival Intellivision game console and software library.
On August 3, 2026, Atari reported its revenue grew 66% in fiscal year 2025-26, its third consecutive year of growth, and its highest revenue levels in more than a decade.
Modern Atari is a much smaller company than its predecessors, declaring assets of €105.1M on March 31, 2026, and €56M in revenue in fiscal 2025-2026.
Modern Atari distributes retro titles for a variety of platforms, but also sells reproduction retro consoles that work easily with modern displays and take game cartridges, giving a similar experience to the 1970s and 1980s. It also sells vintage and new titles on cartridge for those systems.
It’s very likely that Atari’s success inspired Commodore’s comeback in 2025, as the new Commodore follows a similar business model.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.