In his first interview since the news broke last night that Atari would be acquiring Nightdive Studios, Nightdive’s Director of Business Development sat down with us to talk about how this will affect the retro remake studio’s future. In short, it shouldn’t affect studio output at all.
“Part of what was behind the deal was that Atari’s vision for Nightdive was: ‘We want you to keep doing what you’ve been doing, only more.’
“So it shouldn’t be unexpected or surprising to anyone, but a lot of the deals that happen in the gaming industry are based on personal relationships, right? We’ve known Atari’s relatively new CEO, Wade Rosen, for years. Wade is the only outside investor in Nightdive Studios.”
“We’ve worked with Wade before, but we also know him on a personal level, and that’s a great motivation to find kindred spirits. But [someone] It also has free skill sets that allow us to really expand our vision and mission. “
On the topic of whether this will affect the games that Nightdive can develop in the future. Cooperman insists that’s not the case: “No, some of our external relationships have been publicly disclosed as good relationships. Like our time with Bethesda! We expect that to continue into the future, you know Yes, maybe do more.”
While Kuperman ensured that the Atari deal wouldn’t result in a shift in strategy or a change in the types of games Nightdive would publish, he did say the deal could open up avenues the studio couldn’t explore. He went on to point to the history of Nightdive, which initially started on PC, then partnered with Xbox to release on consoles, and later expanded to Nintendo Switch and Playstation. He also noted: “I don’t think people necessarily know this, but a good chunk of our business comes from the Playstation side of things”
As for a 50/50 split between cash and Atari stock as the price for the Nightdive acquisition, Cooperman said that’s what both parties are looking for. “One of the reasons its stock portion is so important is that we invest — in every sense of the word invest — in Atari’s future growth. That means Atari’s success will be in our favor and vice versa certainly.”
Finally, why now? With System Shock looming and countless eyes on the studio’s recent developments, is it going to be this massive business venture? Well, according to Cooperman, this deal was able to happen especially because System Shock was nearing completion.
“Systemic shocks are our focus.”
“But we just don’t have the resources to look at this kind of deal until we get to this point where the end goal is in sight. First of all, if people have never gone through an acquisition, especially a public company, they don’t realize the complexity. I don’t want to Said I had to give them a blood sample, but pretty close. (laughs). Of course they’ve done their due diligence and I know, you know, they’re not skeletons in this closet. But you know, it’s really tiring and it’s really Deplete power.”
It remains to be seen whether the Atari x Nightdive Studios deal will move the two companies to better pastures, but with System Shock on the horizon, the sudden announcement of the acquisition certainly spells trouble for the interested public. Perhaps this is the first major step away from the hotel complexes, cryoto hugs, and Souja Boys of yesteryear. We’ll have to wait and see!
