Earlier today, Atari announced that it would be entering into an agreement to invest in Thunderful Group AB, leading to the iconic industry brand having a majority holding in Thunderful’s shares and votes.
In an article posted to the Global Newswire website, it explains how Atari, owner of some of gaming’s most world-renowned brands like Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, and RollerCoaster Tycoon, has begun negotioans with Thunderful, a 3rd-party games publisher with several studios and IPs of its own, including Lost In Random, Viewfinder, and the Steamworld series.
The article states that Atari is entering into a subscription agreement with Thunderful to the tune of 4.5 million Euros. According to the terms of the agreement, Atari will become the owner of approximately 82% of the outstanding shares and votes of Thunderful. On August 28th, 2025, Thunderful’s shareholders will hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to approve the transaction.
If approved, the transaction will be financed either with Atari's own resources or with a potential new loan agreement with IRATA LLC, the holding Company of Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari, SA.
Wade Rosen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Atari, SA, commented:
"This Transaction marks another important milestone in Atari's development with the expansion of its publishing and development capabilities in the European region. Thunderful is recognized for publishing and developing critically acclaimed games, and with the announced transformation plan, as well as the quality and commitment of Thunderful's teams, we are confident that Thunderful will be returning to a profitable growth path while helping to further develop Atari operations in Europe."Â Â
The deal has already received unanimous support from Thunderful's Board of Directors, as well as from Owe Bergsten and Brjann Sigurgeirsson, two of Thunderful’s largest shareholders who together own 29.9% of the capital and voting rights at Thunderful.
While apparently not tied to this deal being approved, the CEO of Thunderful Group, Martin Walfisz, has stepped down to make way for a new CEO. The process for finding this new CEO is already underway, and Martin will remain at Thunderful Group until they have found his replacement.
2024 was a tough year for Thunderful, which had two separate company restructurings that resulted in close to 200 layoffs across the company. Hopefully, this new deal will be beneficial to both parties and not another example of the gaming industry shrinking as smaller studios and brands are gobbled up. We suspect that there will be more news about this Atari/Thunderful deal soon, but we will just have to wait and see what the results are.
What do you think of Atari’s investment in Thunderful Group? Is this just more corporate consolidation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
