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[Banjo-Kazooie]

Bigben acquires the rights to the future titles, Atari keeps the rights to sell the previous titles.

Bigben announcing it is developing new titles from Test Drive Unlimited series

"Atari transfers the rights to future Test Drive games to Bigben Interactive
Lesquin (France), December 14th, 2016 – Bigben Interactive has announced the acquisition of the rights to use and develop the TEST DRIVE brand from the Atari group and announces its project to develop new titles from the franchise Test Drive Unlimited. Atari retains all rights to sell all previously-released Test Drive games.

"We are more than confident with respect to the quality of this franchise, which is loved by so many players," stated Alain Falc, CEO of Bigben Interactive. "Our teams are very enthusiastic at the idea of being able to work on this license, which has already proven its worth - the game Test Drive Unlimited 2 sold 1.8 million units," he concluded."

Another cool tidbit thrown in at the end is how TDU2 sold 1.8 million. Steamspy has it at a little over 400K, so 1.4mil from consoles (360,PS3)

 

[Turkoop]

oh this is good! I really loved the first one, hope they will do something good with that IP.

 

[KelpPlankton]

Test Drive always seemed like a kind of also-ran when it came to car games, overshadowed by the console exclusives and stuff like Need For Speed or Burnout (rip burnout) but I guess it's easier to sell a new game with an existing name than it is to try and launch a new franchise.

Not getting the rights to the previous titles in the series makes this purchase seem like a bad deal though.

 

[valkillmore]

Always wanted to try that test drive game in Hawaii but never got around to it.

Not sure if there is a market for it given we have quite a few racers out there now. What angle will they take to differentiate themselves?

 

[Ruruja]

Oh god, TDU3 please.

Always wanted to try that test drive game in Hawaii but never got around to it.

Not sure if there is a market for it given we have quite a few racers out there now. What angle will they take to differentiate themselves?

The Crew and Forza Horizon were heavily inspired by TDU. So there's still plenty of hunger for that type of game.

TDU2 sold quite well, I think it got to number 1 in the UK charts when it released.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Test Drive Unlimited is the predecessor to all current video games

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

Oh god, TDU3 please.



The Crew and Forza Horizon were heavily inspired by TDU. So there's still plenty of hunger for that type of game.

TDU2 sold quite well, I think it got to number 1 in the UK charts when it released.

Yep, SteamSpy has it at 400K so about 1.4mil between the two consoles 360 and PS3

 

[sixteen-bit]

Test Drive Unlimited is the predecessor to all current video games

Does it hold up well in 2016?

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Just to be clear that BigBen Interactive are a small publisher who don't seem to have the money to fund a big game like Test Drive Unlimited.

I think they'll just slap the name onto one of their shitty course-based racing games.

 

[Dalibor68]

I absolutely loved TDU1 and TDU2, hoping for a new one!

 

[drotahorror]

Just to be clear that BigBen Interactive are a small publisher who don't seem to have the money to fund a big game like Test Drive Unlimited.

I think they'll just slap the name onto one of their shitty course-based racing games.

Hasn't WRC been getting better though? I honestly can't remember.

Also, Test Drive started out as a 'shitty course-based racing game'.

 

[Space_nut]

Hasn't WRC been getting better though? I honestly can't remember.

Also, Test Drive started out as a 'shitty course-based racing game'.

They were awesome back then. I hope they bring it back to the roots. Off road course arcade racing. With today's offering I think it'll fit in

I remember when I played on my windows 98 machine driving the hummer so much fun

 

[Dick Laurent]

The Crew isn't just heavily inspired by TDU, it IS TDU3.

There's way too much going on in a game like TDU for a trash tier publisher like bigben to ever be able to put together anything remotely good. Especially when the TDU team now works on The Crew and is owned by Ubisoft.

Maybe they can get the old classics up on gog and great weird ones like eve of destruction by monster games rereleased.

 

[strafer]

I actually really liked Test Drive Unlimited.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

good I want more of this series

 

[Fersis]

I played so many hours of TD3:

You could drive through a barn with chickens and all!! A BARN!!

 

[Tunned]

Hmmm, never heard of them, and their list of released games leaves little to be desired.

Don't know what to make of this but hopefully they can do justice to the TD series, TDU1 was awesome whilst TDU2 was garbage.

Spoiler

Hopefully they don't make it into a mobile game :/

 

[Unknown?]

No not another TDU. I want one more akin to the PS2 game just called Test Drive. Maybe make it called Test Drive 7? TD6 was awesome. Really hope they can do this series justice but who knows. Also Test Drive Off-Road 4 pls!!

 

[Hero of Legend]

But wait, did Bigben actually buy the IP or is this some sort of shared thing?

Because you'd think Atari wouldn't be able to sell previous titles (that would also go to Bigben then).

This reminds me of Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon where after Marvelous took back the western rights from Natsume, Natsume retained the HM name (hence SoS), but also the ability to release previous games (like on the Virtual Console). Not sure what that means regarding ports of past games (Would a remaster of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life be renamed to Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life?).

Stuff like that.

 

[CamHostage]

Just to be clear that BigBen Interactive are a small publisher who don't seem to have the money to fund a big game like Test Drive Unlimited.

True, but BigBen is also one of the only companies contracting the starving European mid-tier studios to make games for franchises that are difficult to do in the indie scene.

Probably TD:U isn't the first project they'll reach for (although it is the most recognizable aspect of the Test Drive brand right now,) but I'm sure a few Italian and French and Polish and Australian studios perked up their ears when this news came down the pipe. Somebody will want this job, and my guess is that whoever gets the gig, they probably will try harder than finances ask for to make Test Drive theirs.

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

But wait, did Bigben actually buy the IP or is this some sort of shared thing?

Because you'd think Atari wouldn't be able to sell previous titles (that would also go to Bigben then).

This reminds me of Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon where after Marvelous took back the western rights from Natsume, Natsume retained the HM name (hence SoS), but also the ability to release previous games (like on the Virtual Console). Not sure what that means regarding ports of past games (Would a remaster of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life be renamed to Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life?).

Stuff like that.

"rights to use and develop" kinda sounds like a shared thing. Kind of like what Microsoft did with Flight Simulator

So I guess the title of my topic is a bit inaccurate

 

[rrs]

I'd honestly expect something more like the earlier test drive games than something more like unlimited. Unlimited 2 was good, but had a few very annoying flaws that honestly kept the game from being very great. But, unlimited 2 really gave a feeling of "damn, I've made it" way better than any other video game I've played

 

[Hero of Legend]

"rights to use and develop" kinda sounds like a shared thing. Kind of like what Microsoft did with Flight Simulator

So I guess the title of my topic is a bit inaccurate

I thought Microsoft sold Flight Simulator?

 

[Banjo-Kazooie]

I thought Microsoft sold Flight Simulator?

They sold a non-entertainment rights to Lockheed Martin, but AFAIK according to what I linked, Dovetail Games is only licensing the entertainment IP rights from MS

edit: MS still owns the trademark http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn74527208&docId=ACR20150524054511#docIndex=0&page=1