HASBRO PURCHASES ATARI

A story that broke on the various atari newsgroups, Hasbro has purchased Atari. For full information on the details of the purchase, check out the Securities and Exchange Commission's full report (snippet below):

On February 23, 1998, JTS Corporation (the "Company") sold substantially all of the assets of the Company's Atari Division, consisting primarily of Atari home computer games and the intellectual property rights and license agreements associated with such games (the "Atari Assets"), to HIACXI, Corp. ("HIAC"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive, Inc., for $5,000,000 in cash. The purchase price was determined based upon arm's-length negotiations between the Company and HIAC. The Atari Assets were acquired by the Company in July 1996 when the Company merged with Atari Corporation. There is no material relationship between HIAC and the Company, any of its affiliates, any director or officer of the Company, or any associate of any such director or officer.

What effect, if any, this will have upon the Com is anyone's guess. However, it is reasonably safe to say that Atari licenses will now come easier to the Com :) As noted in the report, some properties are specifically included:

"Key Marks" means each of the following marks: Atari, the Fuji logo, Asteroids, Battlezone, Breakout, Centipede, Combat, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Missile Command, Night Driver, Pong, Ultra Pong, Tempest, Warlords and Yar's Revenge."

There could be some interesting hardware repercussions as well. Hasbro gains the following system hardware:

"Atari Hardware Platforms" means the following hardware platforms: Atari 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx hand-held and Jaguar game system hardware, Atari 800, ST and Falcon 030 computer family hardware, TOS operating system, 8-bit operating system, and Portfolio palmtop computer."

HASBRO AND ATARI, TAKE 2

Hasbro has officially announced the purchase of Atari in the below press release:

12:50 AM 3/17/98( BW)(HASBRO)(HAS) Hasbro Interactive Acquires Legendary Atari Game Property Assets

Business/Technology Editors
BEVERLY, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 1998--Leading interactive games publisher Hasbro Interactive, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (AMEX:HAS), announced today that a subsidiary has acquired copyrights, trademarks, patents and other intellectual property assets of the Atari Division of JTS Corporation, giving Hasbro Interactive rights to some of the greatest video games and play patterns ever created for multimedia entertainment. The Atari properties and assets include over 75 game properties including the legendary titles Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, Breakout and Tempest . Hasbro Interactive plans to release its first Atari title this fall with Centipede for both the PC and Sony Playstation game console.

"We are thrilled that the classic Atari game properties will now be a part of the Hasbro family," said Tom Dusenberry, President of Hasbro Interactive. "These ground-breaking games helped pioneer the video game industry," added Dusenberry. "We intend to bring these classics back to life by updating them with the latest technology and interactive game design, while preserving their heart and spirit."

Hasbro Interactive has proven its ability to bring beloved arcade classics successfully back to life with its blockbuster launch of Frogger in 1997 for both the PC and Playstation game console. Frogger, based on the 1980s' mega video game originally developed by KONAMI Co., Ltd., was a huge hit over the holidays and continues to hop its way up the best-selling interactive game charts.

"We plan to implement the same aggressive strategy we used with Frogger, in bringing back the Atari classics," added Dusenberry. "We will develop games that appeal to the players who loved the titles as kids, while attracting a whole new generation by bringing the games up to today's highest standards. Of course, like all Hasbro Interactive titles, they will be backed by major marketing and merchandising programs."

With the acquisition of Atari's deep library of game properties, Hasbro Interactive seeks to strengthen its position in the action game category. Hasbro Interactive intends to develop various titles for all viable and available gaming platforms - PC CD-ROM, the Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64 game consoles, among others.

It is likely to be Centipede to experience the first Frogger97-esque makeover, due out this fall for a release on the PC, Playstation, and N64. Expect to see these classic titles cross-promoted on the game.com as well.

MUTOIDS

For the latest news story, we go to (of all places) the Advertising Age mag:

TIGER ACTIVATING MUTOIDS IN '98 FOR ELECTRONIC GAMES

Ad Spending Will Jump 20% to $60 Million
By Jeff Jensen, Advertising Age Feb 98

Tiger Electronics, boosting ad spending 20% to more than $60 million in 1998, plans to feed its electronic games business with Mutoids, the company's first character-based property developed in-house.

The fledgling Mutoids brand will be launched on three Tiger game platforms, including game.com, a newer Internet-accessible cartridge-based gaming and communications system. The other two - 99X, a line of hand-held games; and Giga Fighter, an extension of the Giga brand of virtual pets that allows Giga Pet owners to link and fight each other - are new for '98.

Mutoid customers also can exchange pertinent data off the Internet via new accessories sold separately.

New Levels Of Integration
"Our new products are taking us to new levels of integration this year," said Marc Rosenburg, Tiger's VP-corporate communications, who added that the platforms are compatible with each other.

Tiger will unveil the subterranean, creature-packed world of Mutoids at the American International Toy Fair next week. A multimillion-dollar TV push supports the third-quarter launch, via Posnick & Kolker, New York.

Hollywood is at the heart of Tiger's '98 plans for its Giga Pets business. It has obtained licenses to DreamWorks SKG's "Small Soldiers," a summer event film; Nickelodeon's hit TV show "Rugrats;" and Walt Disney Co.'s "A Bug's Life," the new computer animated film from "Toy Story" creator Pixar, due late this year.

Additionally, Tiger is leveraging its strategic alliance with Nabisco Biscuit Co. to create an Oreo cookie-inspired Giga Pet.

Mr. Rosenberg said the limited-time-only availabilities will be a part of its Giga Pets strategy, regularly rotating in fresh product and innovations.

A recap for those reading-impaired, along with some commentary:

$60 Million 1998 Ad Budget: For those of you unfamiliar with the average advertising budgets floating around, that is indeed hefty. If clumsy giant Iomega can saturate the market with ZIP ads with their $100 million ad budget, I imagine Tiger will be able to do much the same with their $60 mill.

Mutoids: I think that most folks saw that 1998 was destined to be an interesting year in the expansion of virtual pets. With the phenomenal success of the Japanese-based Pocket Monsters, an American-targeted "virtual fighter" had to happen. Mutoids sounds very much Pocket Monsters-inspired, which is fine with me - if Nintendo wants to sit on a hit and not bring it to the States, someone else is going to pick up the idea and run with it. Anyway, we'll be waiting 'til later in the year to see this story develop, with the Fall Quarter release schedule. Perhaps we'll finally see an interesting usage of the Web Link, with downloadable Mutoids :)

New Licenses: "small soldiers" we already knew about, but the article does make reference to the two additional licenses of "Rugrats" and "A Bug's Life".