Atari Buys Intellivision Brand, Ending ‘Longest-Running Console War in History’
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor For fans of old-school games, it’s kind of like Coke acquiring Pepsi: Atari, which produced one of the first hit home game consoles, announced a deal to acquire the brand of long-time rival Intellivision and the rights to more than 200 games from Intellivision Entertainment.
Atari and Intellivision battled it out what is considered the game industry’s first console war, starting in the late ’70s. The first Intellivision home video game console was released by Mattel Electronics in 1979, selling an estimated 5 million units through 1990, and it vied for market share against the Atari 2600, wich was released in 1977.
Mattel even recruited actor George Plimpton to appear in a series of ads comparing the two systems, as well as an eight-minute video shown at the Gamescom trade show.
Founded in 1972, Atari is currently owned by France’s Atari SA (formerly called Infogrames) and has focused on cultivating a lineup of retro games.
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