Animoca Brands Corporation Limited today announced that its subsidiary Animoca Brands Limited has entered into a license agreement with Atari Interactive, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Atari SA, one of the world’s most famous producers of interactive entertainment. The agreement grants Animoca Brands the rights to produce and publish blockchain versions of the popular Atari mobile game titles RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch and Goon Squad globally (excluding Greater China).
At the same time, Animoca Brands and Atari also entered into a memorandum of understanding to develop a strategic partnership to explore mutual opportunities in gaming, product development, blockchain, and other areas.
Atari is an interactive entertainment company with a powerful IP portfolio in the video game industry, including history-making franchises such as Asteroids and Pong. Since 1972, the iconic Atari brand has enjoyed global appeal across multiple generations, and is still going strong today with four core business units: Atari Games, Atari Casino, Atari VCS, and Atari Partners. Atari has reported profitable revenue growth since 2013.
RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch is a popular theme park management simulation game for iOS and Android devices, with over 19 million downloads globally. It is one of the recent installments in the video game franchise RollerCoaster Tycoon, which since 1999 has spawned several top-ranking sequels and spinoffs across multiple platforms including PC, mobile, and game consoles.
Goon Squad is a card-based, multiplayer brawler video game for iOS and Android devices, launched in 2017, in which players navigate an underworld ruled by mobsters and fast-paced card battles in order to build the ultimate criminal empire.
Based on the Agreement, Animoca Brands will produce and publish blockchain-based versions of RollerCoaster Tycoon and Goon Squad worldwide (excluding China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau); the new titles will feature the integration of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The term of the agreement extends through to March, 31st, 2022.
The company expects to begin publishing the games in the latter half of 2019.
“We are proud and delighted to enter into this long-term and strategic relationship with Animoca Brands, which also allows us to become a shareholder in one of the most exciting innovators in the world of decentralized gaming. We hope that this agreement paves the way to further cooperation on other Atari products.”
Commercial Details
As consideration for the license to develop and publish the games, Animoca Brands will pay to Atari a minimum guarantee against future revenues of USD $250,000, payable in shares of the company’s stock at a price per share of A$0.11 (amounting to 3,125,000 ordinary AB1 shares); this fee is recoupable against revenue generated by the games. A revenue share will be payable to Atari after gross revenues generated by the games exceed a total of USD $500,000.
The shares offered in consideration to Atari will be subject to a lock-up period of nine months from the effective date, and will be released from lock-up in a phased schedule extending through August 31st, 2019.
The company will issue the new shares utilizing its existing placement capacity under ASX listing rule 7.1.
“This deal marks a special moment for me because I started my career working with Atari and using Atari computers. The RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise is, like many of Atari’s properties, a true evergreen, having been around for two decades. Given the strategic and commercial elements of this incredibly fun simulation, it is a perfect candidate for blockchain adaptation.”