Completing the “final phase” of strategic restructuring, today Atari announced that Earthworm Jim developer Shiny Entertainment has been sold ot Foundation 9 for an undisclosed sum.
The proposed sale of Shiny has been in the works since Atari announced the developer was on the auction block in February 2006 following a disastrous 3rd quarter report showing a 33% drop in revenues. Shortly thereafter Shiny founder, Dave Perry, announced he was leaving the company, but claimed to be spearheading the effort to facilitate the sale of the developer. The Escapist spoke with Perry in August regarding his new projects gameconsultants.com and the free MMO 2moons, and took the opportunity to ask him about Shiny and Atari. He spoke of a degree of impatience with the process and claimed to have separated from Atari “for good”.
Foundation 9 CEO Jon Goldman confirmed in an interview with Gamespot that Perry was not associated with the deal.
While F9E does take over Shiny, Atari did not include game assets as part of the deal. Atari will retain the rights to the Earthworm Jim franchise, including projects already in progress for the PSP, as well as The Matrix license, though Goldman went on to hint at future movie tie-in games for the newly acquired developer.
