Atari has filed for bankruptcy to ditch parent company g21

In a press release spotted by Ars Technica yesterday, Atari Interactive announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to "separate from the structural financial encumbrances of their French parent holding company, Atari S.A. (formerly Infogrames S.A.) and secure independent capital for future growth, primarily in the areas of digital and mobile games." The most recent PC title published by Atari was Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition. It also handled most of the Dungeons & Dragons products in recent years, as well as the North American editions of the Witcher franchise. "Within the next 90-120 days, the Companies expect to effectuate a sale of all, or substantially all, of their assets in a "sale free and clear" under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code or to confirm plans of reorganization that accomplish substantially the same result," the release states. What this actually means, your guess is probably as good as ours. Unless you have any legal experience whatsoever, in which case it's probably better. From a laygamer's perspective, though, it doesn't sound like they will be hanging onto their high-profile licenses. It seems they will continue to exist under the Atari name, but the stated focus on "the areas of digital and mobile games" cast some doubt on whether they will remain relevant in the PC gaming world. The next upcoming Dungeons & Dragons title, Cryptic's Neverwinter, will be published by Perfect World. The Witcher series is currently published in the EU by Namco Bandai, who may be positioned to take over the North American and Australian releases. You can read the full press release on PRNewsWire.

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