Atari disposes of Oddworld investment

A regulatory filing by publisher Atari has revealed that the company has ended its relationship with Munch's Oddysee developer Oddworld Inhabitants, handing its 50 per cent share in the company back in return for a chunk of publishing royalties.

In fact, this transaction - which brings to an end a partnership between Atari and Oddworld Inhabitants which began when Infogrames, as then was, took a 50 per cent stake in the developer for $7.1 million back in 1996 - took place at the end of last year, but has only just been revealed through the filing of a document with the American Securities and Exchange Commission.

The terms of the deal as outlined in the document indicate that Atari has returned its share in the developer - which it devalued to $3.5 million in its balance sheet for 2002 - in exchange for which, it gets to keep Oddworld's share of the $1.8 million in publishing royalties received from Microsoft.

Microsoft, which published Munch's Oddysee as a first-party launch title after doing a deal with Atari for the game, has also ended its relationship with the company - the Redmond-based publisher dropped Oddworld Inhabitants' next project, currently codenamed Stranger, from its Xbox release schedules last year. The developer is thought to be seeking a new publisher for the game at present.