Atari Auctioning Off RollerCoaster Tycoon Series
There currently is no RCT4 game in development that we know of but the future of the series just got intensely more interesting as Atari has announced they are selling the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise. Atari Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection in January and now plans to sell its brands on a franchise-by-franchise basis during auctions beginning next month. The minimum bid for the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise is set at $3.5 million.
Questions remain to be answered. Will a new company revive RollerCoaster Tycoon and return the game to its former glory by finally giving us the long awaited RCT4? Or will a new company turn the series into the next Farmville by making it available on every mobile device? Or is the series simply dead and we’ll never get another RCT game?
This news makes me cautiously optimistic for RCT4. Still, even if the brand is purchased in July and the buyer begins developing a new game, we’re still probably a year or two away from RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 being released. At least we still have Theme Park Studio to look forward to (which did receive full funding on Kickstarter).
Who do you think the most likely RollerCoaster Tycoon buyer is? Who would be the most capable? Share your thoughts below!
if i had the money, i’d buy it myself and figure out a way to release it — and make sure the programming was all fixed and everything was done right!!!
Now I feel for bad for torrenting the game.
As far as I’m concerned, I think a RCT4 won’t be as cool as RCT3.. Why? Because all RCT gamers had made a lot of custom scenery objects, the game is entirely personalized by each player, and if you make a RCT4, the game won’t have the same value in fans’ hearts… Each player had given a little thing to the game and it’s why RCT3 is so popular in the RCT’s community, now we can create or recreate everything we want! As Acheron’s land in the Disneyland Resort Paris recreation or DR60 in the Rio Disneyland creation, we have made a lot of scenery to increase the level of detail… And a new game can’t be as detailed as we made with RCT3… And I think it will be very strict in game folders as the Sims 3 compared to the Sims 2, gamers have done a lot of objects for the game and EA Games, in the Sims 3, disallowed the objects creator, and we are obliged to buy on the net to have some objects… RCT3 is not like the sims 3, but like the Sims 2… A RCT4 shouldn’t be like the Sims 3 or it will be a big fail for the license buyer because player will prefer RCT3 and not RCT4…
Seems redundant to pay $3.5mil dollars for a generic name like “RollerCoaster X.” I think for $3.5mil they’d have to make the game first, or at least develop the entire engine. The concept of owning roller coasters being applied to a building and management simulation isn’t copyrighted, just this specific name. That being said, for that amount of money there is virtually nothing to be gained by buying the title except a $3.5million dollar game name… (That would falsely pull publicity, however, would be quickly shut down when the public realizes it’s not the original developers.)
The company I would love to see buy this is Maxis(the creators of sim city).
As long as they don’t team up with EA again. In fact, if EA purchases RCT, we’re fucked.