Every gamer in the world knows what Atari is famous for. As the makers of the very first commercial video game, Atari has continued to play a major role in the community. Unfortunately, it seems that game developer Zoo thought that they would be able to defraud this legendary company out of $2.5. After Atari signed a deal with Zoo for a series of children’s games for the DS, Zoo promised to develop, manufacture and package the games before delivering them directly to retailers. The contract was signed in 2008, and as of yet Zoo has failed to deliver the goods. In fact, Zoo went to retail companies such as Target and Walmart and sold them the very same games that Atari was waiting for.
Atari has filed a lawsuit against Zoo seeking more than $6 million in actual and punitive damages. Atari alleges that Zoo stole their money and that their failures have damaged their business relations with other companies. Zoo is headquartered in Ohio, but it is not clear what state the lawsuit was filed in. Zoo will have to prove to the courts that they are either still working on the games promised to Atari or the company may end up having to pay up.
Since its inception Atari has created hundreds of video games. In recent years the company has partnered with several small scale game developers. This is the first time that Atari has taken another game maker to court, but if the allegations are true then the developer may have to think about how it works with other game makers in the future.
