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Atari Bankruptcy Recovery Plan Approved By Court

AtariLogo 06 Dec

The three-year bankruptcy recovery plan of Atari’s U.S. branch received court approval yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Judge James Peck in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved the plan, and it was also supported unanimously supported by Atari’s unsecured creditors. The plan will see Atari pay back the full $3.8 million owed to bankruptcy lender Alden Global Capital. The company will then use its remaining cash to pay $560,000 a year to its creditors for the next two years. Atari will then pay $630,000 to its creditors in the third year of its plan.

Atari’s U.S. branch filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in January as part of an effort to break away from its French parent company Atari S.A. Atari then attempted to sell its IP library at an initial price of $22.2 million. Only 15 preliminary bids were made however and Atari did not deem any of them “acceptable” which led the company to sell its IP separately.

(via Polygon)

Penny Arcade Report Is Shutting Down

PennyArcadeReport 06 Dec

The Penny Arcade Report is ceasing its operations after two years, senior editor Ben Kuchera announced today.

“I’m very happy with PAR, and if this is how it ends, that’s not too bad,” Kuchera wrote on the publications website, in part. “We had a good run. We didn’t fix game journalism, but the whole idea of it being broken and needing a white knight to run in and make everything better was arrogant and more than a little pigheaded. There was good game writing before PAR, and there’s going to be good game writing after we go away.”

“I’m just so very happy that I was able to contribute to that flood of ideas in even a modest way, and I wanted to thank you very, very much for coming along with us.”

(via GameInformer)

Firesprite Founded By Former Sony Liverpool Members

FirespriteLogo 06 Dec

Core members of the Sony Liverpool team have founded a new studio called Firesprite, IGN reports.

“[Firesprite] came about organically, but we all had a shared vision,” Firesprite managing director Graeme Ankers told IGN, in part. “We knew we wanted to carry on making great games.” 15 of Firesprite’s 20 staff are former members of Sony Liverpool, and the five founding members have experience with every piece of PlayStation hardware to date. However, Ankers stressed that the studio is independent and not necessarily tied to Sony platforms.

Firesprite’s first project was collaborating on the PlayStation 4’s PS Camera sandbox The Playroom. The team is now working on a new game, starting with an engine and the necessary tools. “We have been working hard on creating a new game engine and tool chain that allows us to put the creative power in the best hands – the artists and designers,” Firesprite technical director, Chris Roberts said. “That puts us in a great position delivering the best experiences for players. It also allows us to get our games running on multiple platforms including mobile – so we can deliver platform specific features that make the best games.”

Sony Liverpool was originally founded in 1984 as Psygnosis until it was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment and renamed. SCE closed the studio in 2012.

(via VG247)