Total Annihilation, Star Control, Master of Orion IPs sold off at Atari auction

Atari has auctioned off several of its prominent video game assets, and if everything is approved by a New York bankruptcy court on Wednesday, popular franchises such as Total Annihilation, Master of Orion, Star Control and Battlezone will have new homes.

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Atari has auctioned off several of its prominent video game assets, and if everything is approved by a New York bankruptcy court on Wednesday, popular franchises such as Total Annihilation, Master of Orion, Star Control and Battlezone will have new homes.

Wargaming, creator of World of Tanks, was the winning bidder for the Total Annihilation and Master of Orion series, while developer Rebellion placed the high bid for Battlezone and Moonbase Commander, according to a bankruptcy court document (via Game Informer). Stardock was the high bidder for the Star Control IP. The winning bids were not disclosed in the documents, although the base price for TA was previously listed at $250,000.

Uber Entertainment, which is making a "spriritual successor" of sorts to Total Annihilation in Planetary Annihilation, also bid on the series. It didn't offer enough to secure it, but still has a hope as the backup bidder. Stardock was also listed as a back-up bidder for the Master of Orion IP.

While Atari had several other IPs up for auction as part of its filing for bankruptcy, such as RollerCoaster Tycoon and Test Drive, the only other franchise showing up as having bidders at the auction were Backyard Sports, won by Epic Gear, and the Humongous franchise, won by Tommo. It is possible that deals for the other franchises could be dealt separately, as happened when Nordic Games picked up the Desperados and Silver IPs from Atari last month.

The acquisition of the Total Annihilation franchise for Wargaming would be a reunion of sorts with its creator Chris Taylor, who developed the game for now-defunct Cavedog in 1997. Wargaming purchased Taylor's floundering development studio Gas Powered Games in February, and he is reportedly working on a new project for his new bosses. Before the Wargaming deal, Taylor told Shacknews that he had wanted to get TA from Atari for Gas Powered Games on a few occasions, but talks rarely went anywhere.

The bid by Stardock on Star Control is not surprising, given the company's preference for space strategy games, such as the Galactic Civilization and Sins of a Solar Empire franchises. Company CEO Brad Wardell has previously made clear his love for the series, as well as Master of Orion.

Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 22, 2013 8:30 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Total Annihilation, Star Control, Master of Orion IPs sold off at Atari auction.

    Atari has auctioned off several of its prominent video game assets, and if everything is approved by a New York bankruptcy court on Wednesday, popular franchises such as Total Annihilation, Master of Orion, Star Control and Battlezone will have new homes.

    • reply
      July 22, 2013 8:57 AM

      it seems like all the IPs went to good homes. I can't see any downsides here.

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        July 22, 2013 9:12 AM

        I'm a little worried about Rebellion with Battlezone. The last coupke of Battlezone games were from the late 90's by Activision, developed by an internal Activision studio that's probably been disbanded for years. I started playing the first one; it was an RTS-ish first-person game that was a little complex and had more of a learning curve than my patience could bear (but keep in mind that I wanted Doom and Quake, so maybe that's why Battlezone wasn't my kind of game).

        I just don't want Rebellion to make another boondoggle like Rogue Warrior. And I don't want it to be a pay-to-win game, or even yet another HD remake of the original (though if they could do a nice detailed vector-style game, I could get into that).

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      July 22, 2013 9:18 AM

      Who is "Wargaming" and have they ever produced any turn based strategy games of merit?

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        July 22, 2013 9:20 AM

        they are the makers for world of tanks and world of warplanes

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          July 22, 2013 9:21 AM

          which, by the way, own GPG which is Chris Taylors baby. so basically Chris Taylor owns TA again :)

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            July 22, 2013 9:38 AM

            so basically the legendary MoO is going to be re-imagined as some kind of shoddy F2P RTS?

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              July 22, 2013 9:41 AM

              Before the World of Stuff, they were known for Massive Assault and it's various iterations which was a TBS game.

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                July 22, 2013 1:14 PM

                Ah so they're not completely new to the genre, thank you.

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              July 22, 2013 9:43 AM

              Shoddy? Have you played World of Tanks? I look forward to World of Warships, saw that at E3 and it looks like the ideal pace and more complex than WoT. World of Planes was fun too and I liked flying attack planes.

              I think Wargaming.net is one of the good ones out there when it comes to F2P

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              July 22, 2013 9:48 AM

              less shoddy than a sub-Abrasion video game troll messageboard character

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              July 22, 2013 9:50 AM

              "How terrible."
              - Serb

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            July 22, 2013 11:13 AM

            I just hope if he is in on a sequel, he decides on the Supreme Commander 1 route rather than the Supreme Commander 2 route!

            Also I noticed Ron Gilbert was TA's executive producer. Awesome.

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        July 22, 2013 9:54 AM

        This is Wargaming and this is all you need know:

        http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/5278/000hctgp.jpg

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      July 22, 2013 9:23 AM

      I wonder if anyone ended up with Rollercoaster Tycoon or the Atari name itself?

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        July 22, 2013 9:50 AM

        I hooe the Atari name gets tombstoned, so no other company attempts to drive it into the ground. Look at how many hands that brand passed through: Warner Communications, Hasbro, Infogrames. It barely even has any brand equity (beyond classic franchises that are being auctioned off piecemeal to other companies), and the Atari name has been through about three or four falls from grace (including Hasbro selling off its interests).

        Let Atari be in peace, along with ColecoVision, IntelliVision, etc.

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          July 22, 2013 9:54 AM

          I actually agree with this. It's time to let these old brands ride off into the nostalgia sunset. Think we've all written a line or two about how such-and-such game didn't hold up as well as our memories told us it would. Let it go.

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          July 22, 2013 2:59 PM

          I would like to see Warner end up with it again if only to use in in nostalgia products.

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        July 22, 2013 11:06 AM

        Does Chris Saywer have it? The rights for Transport Tycoon reverted to him so perhaps RCT did too?

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          July 22, 2013 2:56 PM

          I believe, in the last lawsuit between him and Atari, Atari paid him a bunch of money from royalties but at the same time, Atari gained complete ownership of the IP.

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      July 22, 2013 9:31 AM

      I would be 100% okay with a Star Control II HD remake.

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      July 22, 2013 9:51 AM

      what about the blood series? i want blood 3!

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      July 22, 2013 10:03 AM

      Need to bring out a new StarCon2 - there has never been another game like it. One of the best games ever.

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      July 22, 2013 10:23 AM

      Someone better do something amazing with Star Control.

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        July 22, 2013 1:23 PM

        agreed. Such a great series (until 3) and I'd really like someone to make a new one.

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      July 22, 2013 4:31 PM

      Not enough love for Battlezone in this thread.

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        July 22, 2013 7:05 PM

        Battlezone 1 and 2 were the shit! Awesome games, certainly ahead of their time with the fps/rts hybrid genre. I loved being able to choose whether to go rts mode, or command a tank at the line (or artillary) and slaughter everything . Battlezone 1 was a great game, but battlezone 2 nailed it. I still have the game manuals :D Loved how it was designed to look like a top secret document front through back. I must have read through it a dozen times! I wish a worthy sequel was made...note "worthy"...

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          July 22, 2013 7:07 PM

          Speaking of which, I wish there was a Freespace 2 sequel, except that the story ended...

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        July 22, 2013 8:41 PM

        I loved those games. Would love to see another.

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        July 22, 2013 8:57 PM

        Absolutely loved BZ and BZ2, ended up putting loads of time into the second one, even if it's arguably weaker, my friends and I were shallow back then and it was pretty.

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        July 22, 2013 10:23 PM

        Battlezone is STILL my favorite RTS.

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        July 22, 2013 10:31 PM

        I vaguely remember the 98 version. Played a ton of the original.

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        July 23, 2013 8:38 PM

        [deleted]

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      July 22, 2013 8:01 PM

      STAR CONTROL BETTER HAVE GONE TO TOYS FOR BOB! DAMN IT!

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