New York, January 11, 2005 – Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) announced today that it will continue its long-standing successful relationship with FUNimation Productions, Ltd. through a new five-year exclusive license for the Dragon Ball® franchise covering the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Under the new agreement, Atari, which has exclusively held a Dragon Ball license in those territories since 1999, will have the rights to develop interactive video games based on the Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z® and Dragon Ball GT® animated series and characters for all current and future gaming consoles and portable gaming devices, such as the Nintendo DSTM and the Sony PSPTM handheld entertainment system.
"Since launching our first product together in 2002, Atari has worked closely with FUNimation to extend the Dragon Ball brand into the interactive market and with more than 7 million units sold to date, it's clear that the momentum of the Dragon Ball phenomenon shows no signs of abating," said Jim Caparro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atari. "We have exciting plans in place to build on that momentum and usher in the next era of Dragon Ball, including products for the new wave of portable gaming devices and next-gen consoles."
"Atari connects with a brand and its fans, and as a result we have created the great video games in the Dragon Ball franchise," says Gen Fukunaga, President of FUNimation. "The Dragon Ball brand is on a roll and we look forward to even more success with Atari and the continued growth of the Dragon Ball franchise."
Atari's first Dragon Ball product – Dragon Ball Z®: The Legacy of GokuTM – was released in May 2002 and, according to The NPD Group, was the #3 best-selling GameBoy® Advance (GBA) release that year. Since that time, the Company has released 12 Dragon Ball video games (15 SKUs), selling more than 7 million units* to date, including Dragon Ball Z®: BudokaiTM, the best-selling PS2 fighting game in 2002* and 2003*, and Dragon Ball Z®: BudokaiTM 2, the best-selling PS2 fighting game in 2004* (as of November 2004). Atari recently announced plans to release four new Dragon Ball titles in 2005, including Dragon Ball Z®: SagasTM (Spring 2005), the franchise's much-anticipated first action title and first DBZ® game for the XboxTM video game system from Microsoft, and Dragon Ball GT®: TransformationTM (Summer 2005), the first all-DBGT® action/adventure title for the GBA.
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