Atari flogs Driver to Ubisoft

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 July, 2006

Next-gen versions to follow.

Atari has agreed to sell the Driver franchise and most of developer Reflections' assets to Ubisoft in a deal worth EUR 19 million.

The move is part of Atari's streamlining plans, says CEO Bruno Bonnell, who reckons that the company will be fine with the Test Drive series headlining its racing game interests.

"We are focusing the energy of the Company on a select number of franchises in order to optimise their impact among consumers and increase shareholder value," he said in a statement marking the sale.

"In the driving category, we consider Test Drive our key franchise which will require more resources and attention to build it as a landmark of its genre."

Atari will maintain sell-off rights for all Driver games for three months, except for the most recent one, Parallel Lines, which it will retain until the end of calendar-2006.

80 members of Reflections' staff are to become employees of Ubisoft.

After seven years of games spanning two generations of console hardware and PC, along with several handheld titles, the Driver series is firmly established.

The original was critically acclaimed, but subsequent titles have failed to hit the same heights - although the series found itself back on track in its most recent instalment, which drove the game closer to Rockstar's blockbusting Grand Theft Auto series in concept.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reckons it's a platform to build on, pointing out that more than 14 million units of Driver games have been sold so far.

"We look forward to leveraging the unique knowledge of the Ubisoft studios to ensure that Driver will be one of the leading brands of the next generation of consoles," Guillemot said.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • myiagros #1 6 years ago

    ubisoft do the right thing, just flush it down the pan and be done with it!!

  • Steroyd #2 6 years ago

    ZOMG with Ubi at the helm they just can't go wrong with the franchise...

    ....can they?

  • the_jamaster #3 6 years ago

    It dosen't surprise me, the Driver series has been dead since the end of the PSOne. I think Ubisoft can do something with it though as they do make better games in general.

  • alimokrane #4 6 years ago

    I have hopes now! if somebody can revive a franchise it's Ubisoft if, of course, the give it the Prince of Persia treatment
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/06 @ 16:45

  • Madder-Max #5 6 years ago

    Do Ubisoft take copious amounts of cocaine 'parallel lines' like Atari....they cant do. THEY PAID £19M FOR THE license!!!

    /rolls about on the floor laughing......tears pouring from eyes...

    /Thinks bout head hunting Atari sales bods...
    Edited by 1 at 14/07/06 @ 17:00

  • Zuiyo #6 6 years ago

    They also bought the developer, and will own anything they create besides Driver, so it's not such a terrible deal.

  • myiagros #7 6 years ago

    wern't reflections the guys behind stuntman??

    if so then i suddenly have much higher expectations, thanks to ubisoft, for the forthcomming next-gen stuntman game.

    just don't let the words "new driver game" be uttered again.

  • cawley1 #8 6 years ago

    Maybe we will get a Shadow of the Beast update now!
    How great would that be?!

  • the creeper #9 6 years ago

    I think the next Stuntman is being developed by somebody else as Atari own the IP, not Reflections.

  • Talha #10 6 years ago

    Ubisoft? Driving game? Not so sure. See how it pans out.

  • kangarootoo #11 6 years ago

    Ubi have some very slid studios. Even without a strong driving game history I would still be confident that they can do something good with this license. Specific experience is one factor and it does count for something, but having strong production methods is far more important.

    To be honest, its really just a name. Whether the previous Driver games were good or nothing means nothing whatsoever when the title is put into the hands of another developer. Some of theprigonal teams may be involved in any new version that Ubi work on, but if I were to guess I would say the poor quality of the previous titles was far more to do with production problems that it was to do with the individual skills of the team members (in other words, I don't think we can label the whole dev team as "bad" just because the games weren't that good. Game production is far more complex than that).

  • chupachups #12 6 years ago

    The curse of Atari: every company to bear that name has ended up in deep financial trouble. It makes you wonder why they bother paying so much money for the name and its pong logo thing.

  • RatBastard #13 6 years ago

    Fantastic level of people commenting on this board. If you look at the marketing value of the brand Driver, Ubi paid around 1.35 EUR per historical user, which is very cheap. Or do you think reviews sell games?

  • smelly #14 6 years ago

    The curse of Atari: every company to bear that name has ended up in deep financial trouble


    Erm, less to do with the curse of atari, more to do with the curse of in**grames.

    Long story, but im sure you can find out about how "a certain company" almost single handedly shafted the english games industry by doing a google.
    Edited by 2 at 16/07/06 @ 14:23

  • Steroyd #15 6 years ago

    Ubisoft? Driving game? Not so sure. See how it pans out.

    The prupose of UbiSoft purchasing Driver is so they can enter the driving genre into their portfolio.

    I guess rather than risk money on a new IP they'd start off with an already "was successful on PS1" franchise.

  • smelly #16 6 years ago

    >was successful on PS1" franchise.


    I think you'll find that despite not having critical acclaim (apart from the last one which got okay reviews), driver sells shed loads!

    each iteration enters highly in the charts!

  • Talha #17 6 years ago

    I accept that Ubisoft are, in my HUMBLE OPINION, the best 'big' game dev./publisher today. Just look at their freaking line up. Let's see what they make of Driver - that style of game just doesn't fit their portfolio very well. That said, as people have pointed out, Driver sells by the shitloads, so maybe they can make something worthwhile out of it.

  • willvale #18 6 years ago

    The more you tighten your grip, Bruno, the more franchises will slip through your fingers...