Hasbro Interactive, Inc. (Currently named Atari Interactive, Inc.) is the former video game subsidiary of board game and toy manufacturer

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment holding company founded on December 6, 1923 by Henry, Hillel and Herma ...

. Originally formed in 1995 and headquartered in

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Sho ...

, Hasbro Interactive initially published titles based on existing owned Hasbro IP, such as ''

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

'' and '' Mr. Potato Head'' before branching off into publishing third-party properties such as '' Frogger''. Following buyouts of

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

's assets,

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

and

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the compan ...

in 1998, Hasbro Interactive became one of the largest video game publishers in the world; however, after major financial struggles and losses corresponding from the

Dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

, Hasbro sold the entirety of Hasbro Interactive, excluding Avalon Hill, to French holding company Infogrames Entertainment SA in December 2000. Following the closure of the sale, the company was renamed as Infogrames Interactive, Inc. and its purpose was reduced to becoming a copyright holder for properties formerly published under the company, with publishing transferring over to other Infogrames subsidiaries. After becoming Atari Interactive, Inc. in May 2003, it currently fulfills as the owner of the Atari brand name.

History

As Hasbro Interactive

Early history

Hasbro Interactive was formed late in 1995 to allow Hasbro to enter the

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

market. Several Hasbro properties, such as

and

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...

, had already been made into successful video games by licensees such as Virgin Interactive. With Hasbro's game experience, video games seemed like a natural extension of the company and a good opportunity for revenue growth. Hasbro Interactive's objective was to develop and publish games based on Hasbro properties. In January 1997, the company announced they would publish games for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

Strong growth (1997–1999)

In 1997, revenues increased 145% going from US$35 million to $86 million.Hasbro Interactive
from

Tuck School of Business The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1900 as the first institution in th ...

(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

) Hasbro Interactive was growing so fast that there was talk of reaching $1 billion in revenues by 2002. They began to engage in some other video game licensing, such as licensing '' Frogger'' from

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

. They sought to use Hasbro

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

brands and

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

properties as leverage to increase revenues. Hasbro Interactive embarked on both internal and external development, and acquired some smaller video game developers and publishers along the way. On February 23, 1998, JTS sold the

brand name and intellectual properties of

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...

to HIAC XI, Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary created in Delaware for the purpose of the purchase. Hasbro Interactive then renamed HIAC XI, Corp. as Atari Interactive, Inc. in May 1998 and would use the Atari brand name to publish retro-themed

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

titles. On the 21st of that month, Hasbro announced that a

of ''Centipede'' would be released for the PC and

. Throughout 1999 and 2000, games like '' The Next Tetris'', '' Missile Command'', '' Pong: The Next Level'', ''

Q*Bert ''Q*bert'' () is a 1982 Action game, action video game developed and published by Gottlieb for Arcade video game, arcades. It is a Video game graphics, 2D action game with Puzzle video game, puzzle elements that uses Isometric video game gr ...

'', '' Glover'', '' Nerf Arena Blast'' and '' Breakout'' would be released under the Atari branding. On August 4, 1998, the company acquired the rights for 300 games when they purchased

for $6 million,"The Fall of Avalon Hill"
. ''Academic Gaming Review'' and followed this up on August 14 by purchasing

for $70 million. With those acquisitions Hasbro Interactive revenues increased 127% in 1998 to $196 million and profits of $23 million. In July 1999, the company purchased UK-based educational software publisher

Europress Europress was a British magazine and software publisher based in Adlington, near Macclesfield, Cheshire. Their magazine publishing business was previously known as Database Publications. The software division was renamed in 1999 to Actualize. Hi ...

. In 1998, Hasbro signed an agreement with Majesco Sales, whereas Majesco would publish/distribute games under a licensing agreement for various Nintendo consoles, notably the

Game Boy Color The (GBC or CGB) is an 8-bit handheld game console developed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. Compared to the original Game Boy, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT scre ...

. Majesco and Hasbro also worked on the Sega Dreamcast adaptation of ''

Q*bert ''Q*bert'' () is a 1982 Action game, action video game developed and published by Gottlieb for Arcade video game, arcades. It is a Video game graphics, 2D action game with Puzzle video game, puzzle elements that uses Isometric video game gr ...

''. In April 1999, the company secured a licensing deal with

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

to develop and publish titles based on over 11 Namco franchises.

Losses and dot-com bubble burst (1999–2000)

Hasbro Interactive became the number 3 video game publisher within three years of its founding. But in 1999, Hasbro Interactive lost $74 million on revenues of $237 million a growth of just 20% over the previous year. Late in 1999 with several game projects underway and dozens of new

employee Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

s, many of whom moved just to work for the company, Hasbro Interactive shut down several studios in a cost-cutting move. The studios affected included the former MicroProse offices located in

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

, and

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

. A game development company,

Vicious Cycle Software Vicious Cycle Software was an American video game developer, video game development company based in Morrisville, North Carolina. History Vicious Cycle was founded in 2000 by Eric Peterson, Dave Ellis (game designer), Dave Ellis, Marc Racine, a ...

, was started by employees laid off in the

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Hasbro Interactive studio closing. In 4 years, Hasbro Interactive's revenue increased 577%. By the middle of 2000, the

dot-com bubble The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

had burst, Hasbro share price had lost 70% of its value in just over a year and Hasbro would post a net loss for the first time in two decades.

Sale to Infogrames (2000–2001)

Faced with these difficulties, on December 6, 2000, Hasbro announced they would completely sell off their Hasbro Interactive division to French software company Infogrames Entertainment SA. The sale included nearly all of their video game related rights and properties, the Atari brand and Hasbro's Games.com division, developer MicroProse and all of its software titles up to that point except for the Avalon Hill property. Hasbro Interactive's sale price was $100 million, $95 million as 4.5 million common shares of Infogrames and $5 million in cash. Under the terms of the sale agreement, Infogrames gained the rights to develop games based on Hasbro properties for a period of 15 years plus an option for an additional 5 years based on performance."Infogrames Entertainment to Acquire Hasbro Interactive and Games.com"
Press release archive from Thomson Financial The deal was completed on January 29, 2001. Majesco had ended its relationship with Hasbro once Infogrames took over the gaming company.

Infogrames Interactive/Atari Interactive

Following the purchase, Infogrames renamed Hasbro Interactive, Inc. as Infogrames Interactive, Inc., and rebranded many of its subsidiaries under the Infogrames brand. The company ceased work as a full publisher, with these responsibilities transferring over to sibling company Atari, Inc. in North America, which had a similar pattern of renamings from GT Interactive and Infogrames, Inc. The company at this point only existed as a license and copyright holder for any properties formerly published under Hasbro Interactive, alongside new titles published under the Hasbro licensing deal, as well as continuing to own the Atari name and brands through the Atari Interactive subsidiary. In October 2001, Infogrames Interactive, Inc. licensed out the

brand to Infogrames' North American and European operations, which would allow them to publish new games under the brand. In May 2003, following the success of this initial run of Atari-branded products, Infogrames Entertainment SA announced that it would rebrand all its subsidiaries under the Atari banner. To prepare for this change, the existing Atari Interactive, Inc. subsidiary was merged with Infogrames Interactive, Inc. and gained the Atari Interactive, Inc. name, being a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment, SA (IESA).Summary of Atari Inc.
from

Yahoo! Finance Yahoo Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers online tools for personal fin ...

while the Infogrames, Inc. subsidiary licensed the Atari name and logo from Atari Interactive and changed its name to Atari, Inc. using it to develop, publish and distribute games for all major

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...

s and

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s under the Atari brand. Infogrames would still maintain ownership of the original Atari properties received through Hasbro, which are kept in their Hasbro Interactive originated placeholder, Atari Interactive, Inc. Following major money losses throughout Infogrames Entertainment SA, the company began to sell most of its operations to pay off its debt. On June 9, 2005, the company reevaluated its licensing agreement with Hasbro by selling back its fifteen-year video game licensing agreement for $65 million. Hasbro re-acquired the rights to produce video games based on the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the heroic Autobots and the villainous Decepticons, two Extraterrestrials in fiction, alien robot fac ...

'', ''

My Little Pony ''My Little Pony'' (''MLP'') is a toy line and media franchise developed by American toy company Hasbro. The first toys were developed by Bonnie Zacherle, Charles Muenchinger, and Steve D'Aguanno, and were produced in 1981. The ponies feature ...

'', ''

Tonka Tonka is an American brand and former manufacturer of toy trucks. The company was founded in 1946 and operated as an independent manufacturer of popular steel toy construction type trucks and machinery, until its sale to Hasbro in 1991. Histor ...

'', '' Connect Four'', '' Candy Land'' and '' Playskool'' IPs, alongside

IP '' Magic: The Gathering''; while securing Atari a seven-year license for titles based on the Hasbro board game portfolio, consisting of ''Monopoly'', ''

'', ''Game of Life'', ''Battleship'', ''Clue'', '' Yahtzee'', ''Simon'', ''Risk'' and ''

Boggle ''Boggle'' is a word game introduced in 1972 and in which players try to find as many words as they can from a grid of lettered dice, within a set time limit. It was invented by Allan Turoff and originally distributed by Parker Brothers. Rules ...

''. Atari's exclusive video game license for ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' was extended for another ten years, allowing Atari to continue publishing titles based on the franchise. With continued money problems, in July 2007, Atari announced it had sold back the remainder of its Hasbro agreement to them for $19 million. The following month, Hasbro announced they had entered into a new multi-year casual publishing deal with

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

. However, Atari retained its ''Dungeons & Dragons'' license and also announced to publish a

based on ''

Jenga ''Jenga'' is a Game of skill, game of physical skill created by British board game designer and author Leslie Scott (game designer), Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro. The name comes from the Swahili language, Swahili word "" which means 'to bu ...

'' under the franchise owners Pokonobe Associates. In December 2009, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast filed a lawsuit against

Atari SA Atari SA (formerly Infogrames Entertainment SA ()), also known as Atari Group, is a French holding company headquartered in Paris that owns mainly video gaming-related interactive entertainment properties. Atari SA's core subsidiaries include t ...

for a breach and violation of their exclusive video game contract for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' after the company sold their international distribution arms to

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

earlier in the year and supplying a distribution agreement with them, proclaiming that it violated their licensing agreement. Atari responded back by saying the allegations were "unfounded" and that Hasbro was attempting to unfairly obtain the license rights back. In August 2011, the lawsuit was settled out of court with Hasbro reclaiming the licensing rights back from Atari, while Atari could continue to publish new ''Dungeons & Dragons'' titles under a non-exclusive agreement. On January 21, 2013, all of Atari SA's North American subsidiaries, including Atari Interactive, Inc., filed petitions for relief under

Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

in the

United States Bankruptcy Court United States bankruptcy courts are courts created under Article I of the United States Constitution. The current system of bankruptcy courts was created by the United States Congress in 1978, effective April 1, 1984. United States bankruptcy ...

for the Southern District of New York in an attempt to separate itself from its profit-losing parent company. They emerged from bankruptcy one year later.

Subsidiaries

Hasbro Interactive published and distributed its own titles in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Outside these markets, distribution was handled by various third parties including

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Anno (video game series), Anno'', ' ...

in France, Leader S.p.A. in Italy, CD Projekt in Poland and Brasoft in Brazil.

Former

Published games (as Hasbro Interactive)

Under the Hasbro Interactive name, the company published over 160 games on several interactive media.Games published and developed by Hasbro Interactive
from

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

Included among them are: * '' Action Man: Operation Extreme'' –

* ''

Axis & Allies ''Axis & Allies'' is a series of World War II strategy game, strategy board games. The first version was initially published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as ''Axis & Allies: Classic'' was published in 1984. Played on a board de ...

'' –

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

* '' B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th'' – Windows * '' Battleship: The Classic Naval Warfare Game'' – Windows * '' Beast Wars: Transformers'' – PlayStation, Windows,

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

* ''

'' – Windows * ''CatDog: Quest for the Golden Hydrant'' – Windows * ''

Centipede Centipedes (from Neo-Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', "lip", and Neo-Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, ...

'' – Windows * '' Civilization II: Test of Time'' – Windows * '' Clue'' – Windows * '' Daytona USA 2001'' –

Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

* '' Falcon 4.0'' – Windows * '' Frogger'' (1997) – Windows, PlayStation * '' Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge'' – Windows, PlayStation, Dreamcast * '' Galaga: Destination Earth'' – Windows, PlayStation,

* '' Game of Life'' – Windows * '' Glover'' –

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

, PlayStation * '' Grand Prix 3'' – Windows * '' Gunship!'' – Windows * '' H.E.D.Z.'' – Windows * '' Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim'' – Windows * ''

MechWarrior 3 ''MechWarrior 3'' is a vehicle simulation game, part of the ''MechWarrior'' series. It featured a new 3D accelerated graphics engine at the time of its release. The game contains over 20 missions, with access to 18 different Battlemech, mechs. A ...

'' – Windows * ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' – PlayStation, Windows * ''

'' (1995) – Windows * ''

'' (1997) – PlayStation * '' Monopoly Star Wars'' – Windows * ''

'' (1999) – Nintendo 64 * ''

'' (1999) – Windows * '' NASCAR Heat'' — Windows, PlayStation

* '' NASCAR Racers'' – Windows, Game Boy Color * '' Nerf Arena Blast'' – Windows * ''Nerf Jr. Foam Blaster: Attack of the Kleptons!'' – Windows * ''

Nicktoons Racing ''Nicktoons Racing'' is a racing video game developed by Software Creations and published by Infogrames for the PlayStation and Microsoft Windows. An abridged version developed by Pipe Dream and released for the Game Boy Color a year earlier, ...

'' – Windows, PlayStation, Game Boy Color * '' Nickelodeon Party Blast'' – Windows, Xbox, GameCube * '' Pac-Man: Adventures in Time'' – Windows * '' Pong: The Next Level'' – Windows, PlayStation * ''

'' – Windows, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color * ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

'' – Windows * '' Risk II'' – Windows * '' RollerCoaster Tycoon'' – Windows * '' Rubik's Games'' – Windows * ''

'' – Windows (''MacScrabble'' — Macintosh) * '' Sorry!'' – Windows * '' Spirit of Speed 1937'' – Windows * '' Star Trek: Birth of the Federation'' – Windows * '' Trivial Pursuit Millennium'' – Windows * '' Wheel of Fortune'' – PlayStation, Windows * ''

Worms Armageddon ''Worms Armageddon'' is a 1999 turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Team17 as part of the ''Worms'' series. It was originally released for the Microsoft Windows operating system, and was later ported to the PlayStation, ...

'' – Windows, Dreamcast, PlayStation * '' X-COM: Enforcer'' – Windows * '' Yahtzee'' – Windows

References

External links

Official website

''Hasbro Interactive'' History
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

Hasbro Interactive
by William Achtmeyer from

(

) {{Authority control Atari 1995 establishments in Massachusetts Companies based in Beverly, Massachusetts Former Hasbro subsidiaries Video game companies established in 1995 American companies established in 1995 Video game development companies Video game publishers Video game companies of the United States Companies based in New York City