Atari has recently acquired Implicit Conversions, a studio best known for its work in the realm of retro video game emulation. Implicit Conversions is the latest studio to join the Atari brand, which currently includes remake and remaster-focused studios like Nightdive and Digital Eclipse.
Founded all the way back in 1972, Atari was at the very forefront of the video game industry’s inception. While games like Asteroids cemented Atari’s standing in the world of arcades, titles like Pong pushed the company into the home console market, breaking new ground for the entire industry in the process. Though Atari isn’t nearly as famous as it was during the early days of gaming, it’s continued to develop and publish an array of well-received titles, such as the recent Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, and Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition.
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Atari Has Acquired Implicit Conversions
On April 23, Implicit Conversions officially announced that it was joining the Atari family. Founded in 2019 by Robin Lavallée and Jake Stine, Implicit Conversions is a studio that specializes in retro video game emulation. Using its own in-house Syrup Engine, Implicit Conversions has helped publishers and fellow developers to port an array of retro video games to modern consoles. While Implicit Conversions’ Syrup Engine can work with 8 and 16-bit games, the studio’s main area of expertise is in porting PS1-era titles.
Recently, Implicit Conversions has worked alongside Limited Run Games to produce PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC ports of Fear Effect and Fear Effect 2, as well as Fighting Force and Fighting Force 2. Implicit Conversions has also worked closely with Digital Eclipse over the last year, helping the studio to bring the PS1 versions of classic Mortal Kombat games to modern consoles via the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection, as well as assisting work on the PS1 portion of Rayman 30th Anniversary Edition.
In its official announcement of the acquisition, written by Implicit Conversions Head of Operations Bill Litshauer, the developer states that its work with Digital Eclipse and Atari over the last year has felt like they have “found long-lost cousins,” with all parties sharing the “same passion for classic games: honouring the original versions, adding historical content/context, and preserving them for the future.” It’s currently unclear what Atari and Implicit Conversions will be working on next, but the press release states that the studio has “new opportunities, and already new games in the pipeline which we hope to share with you soon.”
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On that note, in the Q&A section at the bottom of Implicit Conversions’ announcement of its recent Atari acquisition, the studio’s ability to choose its future projects is touched on. In response to the question “Does this mean future projects will be chosen by Atari?” the developer replies that its relationship with Atari will be “highly collaborative,” and that “while Atari leadership will be involved in strategic decision-making,” the studio expects “to retain much of [its] independence in choosing [its] path forward.” The studio’s statement also confirms that while its future work will likely expand to more Atari-owned IPs, its primary focus will remain on emulating PS1, PS2, and PS3 titles.
