Atari adds Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon to its retro portfolio

Chris Sawyer's Transport Tycoon may live again, as Atari has purchased the property for an undisclosed fee. As part of the deal, Atari said it will "potentially develop new titles or content" and look at expanding physical and digital distribution for the original simulation title.

Transport Tycoon first released in 1994 for the MS-DOS and put players in charge of a 1930s transport company following the Great Depression. Over the decades, which include the then-distant 2030, players go up against business rivals and build a transport empire using the technology of each time period.

An improved version of the game released the following year (which extended its story from 1950 to 2050), and it later came to Mac and PlayStation. It landed on iOS and Android in 2013, while an open source remake/recreation called OpenTTD released in 2004 (and persists to this day).

The deal marks Atari's latest play build its business by revitalizing previously well-known franchises. In a statement, Atari CEO Wade Rosen said the publisher is "committed to both honoring and advancing [Sawyer's] groundbreaking creation." Both parties previously teamed on the Rollercoaster Tycoon series (which Sawyer licenses out), and Transport's 2004 spiritual successor, Chris Sawyer's Locomotion.

Atari is still in its comeback era

Transport Tycoon marks Atari's newest purchase in what's been an acquisition-heavy time for the publisher. Earlier this year, it bought Intellivision's brand and extensive game catalog. It also revived the Infogrames publishing label and acquired Surgeon Simulator and Totally Reliable Delivery Service.

Last year, its acquisitions included Nightdive Studios, the AtariAge historian website, and preservation studio Digital Eclipse. This past September, Rosen expressed his aim to turn Atari into a company that leads from the front instead of being a "fast follower."

"We never really led in any category," he explained at the time. "The first thing was to stop and say, 'What are we doing? What can we be the best in the world at?' [...] We looked at what we have passion for. What we came back with was 'retro gaming,' and specifically 'modern retro gaming.'"