Atari has purchased the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 publishing rights from Frontier Developments for $7 million.
Atari, which has a long-term RollerCoaster Tycoon licensing settlement with franchise creator Chris Sawyer, mentioned it’s now the only writer of all main titles inside the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, together with Rollercoaster Tycoon Traditional, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Rollercoaster Tycoon Deluxe, Rollercoaster Tycoon Joyride, Rollercoaster Tycoon World, Rollercoaster Tycoon Puzzle, and Rollercoaster Tycoon Contact.
The massively profitable Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was developed by Frontier Developments, the UK studio behind Elite: Harmful and Zoo Tycoon, and launched in 2004. It’s accessible now on PC, Mac, iOS, and Nintendo Change, however Atari mentioned it plans to develop digital and bodily distribution, and “discover model and merchandising collaborations as a part of a long-term plan to carry the franchise to new heights.”
“As we have a good time the twenty fifth anniversary of Rollercoaster Tycoon with Chris Sawyer, I’m actually happy that we will unite this necessary and profitable title within the collection with the remainder of the franchise,” mentioned Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari. ”That is going to create new alternatives for Atari as we proceed the good work completed by Frontier, and produce advantages to the followers of video games throughout the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise.”
The sale brings in much-needed money for Frontier, which has struggled in recent times after a string of video games did not hit gross sales projections. In November, Frontier issued a buying and selling replace following poor launch gross sales of its real-time technique sport Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Spoil. The studio has additionally suffered a spherical of layoffs.
In a buying and selling replace issued this week, Frontier mentioned gross sales of its video games since January have been “in-line with expectations”, with Jurassic World Evolution 2 and Planet Zoo main the cost. The latest console launch of Planet Zoo noticed “sturdy participant engagement”, with whole gross sales as much as and together with the day of launch larger than the gross sales achieved by Planet Coaster when that sport got here out on consoles in November 2020.
In accordance with Frontier, publishing RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 generated $1.5 million in revenue per 12 months because the firm acquired the rights in 2018. The $7 million sale is made up of $4 million of up-front money and $3 million of deferred money. “The proceeds of the disposal might be utilized by the Firm for normal working capital functions,” Frontier mentioned.
Frontier’s money place grew to £23.4 million as of March 31, 2024, up from £19.9 million as of December 31, 2023. Money obtained throughout that three month interval included the $4m of up-front consideration due from the sale of the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 publishing rights and the primary tranche of the video video games tax aid money credit score associated to the FY23 UK tax returns, Frontier mentioned.
As for the longer term, Frontier mentioned it “stays snug” with its earlier steering. In a earlier replace, Frontier mentioned it was refocusing on inventive administration simulation video games (CMS). With this in thoughts, Frontier has confirmed three future CMS video games, with one releasing in every of the following three monetary years. Alongside this it’s going to proceed to develop and help its present portfolio of video games, together with Elite Harmful, F1 Supervisor, and Realms of Spoil.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.