Atari acquires maker of System Shock, Doom 64 and Quake remasters Nightdive

Atari will acquire Nightdive Studios. Nightdive is known for remakes and remasters of retro games such as System Shock, Blade Runner, Doom 64 and Quake. The acquisition is worth ten million dollars and Atari expects to complete it in April.

The acquisition allows Atari Nightdives to use KEX engine to remaster more retro games onto modern hardware, writes the publisher. In addition, as a publisher of retro games, Nightdive would support Atari’s ‘retro-focused growth strategy’. Atari’s CEO Wade Rosen was already familiar with the company; he already owned 13 percent of Nightdive shares. The founders had the remaining 87 percent.

Atari buys the publisher for ten million dollars, partly in Atari shares. Depending on how Nightdive performs over the next three years, the former Nightdive owners could receive up to an additional $10 million. In the past financial year, Nightdive had a turnover of approximately three million dollars.

Nightdive was founded in late 2012 and has released several remakes and remasters of popular games over the years using the KEX engine. For example, a remaster of Doom 64 was released in 2020, with a completely new chapter. For this port, Nightdive collaborated with Bethesda. Nightdive’s remaster of Blade Runner was released in 2021, although this remaster was not without criticism. Since 2016, the developer has been working on a remake of the 1994 released System Shock, a game that was originally supposed to be released in 2018. The release is now scheduled for May 30th.

I am very proud to announce that @NightdiveStudio has joined forces with @atari to continue resurrecting the games we love ♥️🤍

— Stephen Kick 🎮 GDC (@pripyatbeast) March 23, 2023