Atari SA has announced they have acquired the Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 license. As innocuous as that sounds, this is a fitting epilogue to a twenty year story.
The Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise was originally the sole creation of one Chris Sawyer, and by that we mean he did all the work in the game design and programming for the first two games. Chris is still highly regarded as one of the greatest video game developers of his time, certainly up there with Nasir Gebelli and Satoru Iwata.
Sawyer got Hasbro to publish the first game to Windows. Later, Atari SA, then known as Infogrames, acted as publisher for the second game, and to port the original game to the Xbox.
And then came Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. Sawyer understood that in the mid-2000s, gamers expected this title to upgrade to 3D graphics, but he wasn’t interested in learning the skillset. So, he allowed Atari to bring the project to Frontier Developments, while he served as consultant.
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was published to Windows in 2004, but the following year, Chris sued Atari, claiming they had missed royalties. Atari countersued but the two eventually settled in 2008, with Atari paying an undisclosed sum to Chris.
Chris has largely retired from the video game industry, and ended work on these games, but made one interesting exception. In 2016 he ported the first two games to mobile, with help from Origin8.
In most recent years, Chris’ relationship with Atari has softened, perhaps because he wants to see his franchise continue even without him. In 2022, he licensed Rollercoaster Tycoon to Atari for 10 years.
Today, Atari shared this statement in their press release about acquiring Rollercoaster Tycoon 3:
“Atari now publishes franchise titles across PC, console and mobile including Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Rollercoaster Tycoon Deluxe, Rollercoaster Tycoon Joyride, Rollercoaster Tycoon World, Rollercoaster Tycoon Puzzle and Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch.
Atari manages the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise under a long-term licensing agreement with the franchise’s creator Chris Sawyer. Under the agreement, Atari will seek to develop new titles, expand digital and physical distribution, and explore brand and merchandising collaborations as part of a long-term plan to bring the franchise to new heights.”
So, we never learned the terms of Atari’s settlement with Chris Sawyer in 2008, but both parties had finally revealed a bit of what we were always curious about today. Atari’s statement confirms that Chris Sawyer still owns the rights to the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise, and under these terms, he has licensed the franchise to keep going with them.
It’s a great new day for fans of Sawyer and rollercoasters. Perhaps in the near future we can see a current generation Rollercoaster Tycoon, to match up with the likes of Cities Skylines and Jurassic World Evolution.
