Sega Ozisoft
Encyclopedia
Namco Bandai Partners is an amalgamation of several former Atari
(Infogrames
) offices located in PAL
territories, which were acquired beginning in 2009 by Namco Bandai Holdings. The acquisitions came on the heels of Atari's financial difficulties, which had begun to snowball in 2006. Atari and Namco
had long maintained a cross-publishing relationship that can be traced back to the very origins of Namco, and Atari's liquidation of regional assets was a natural opportunity for Namco Bandai to gain a PAL distribution network.
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Namco Bandai Partners Australia Pty. Ltd. is a division serving Australia
and New Zealand
. Originally Ozisoft Pty Ltd, it was established in 1982 in Sydney, Australia by Kevin Bermeister
and partner Mark Dyne
. Ozisoft was one of the first interactive multitmedia companies. In 1987
, Ozisoft began representing Sega Enterprises Japan (now formally known as Sega Corporation) in Australia and New Zealand. During this period, Ozisoft released a variety of Sega consoles, including the hugely successful Sega Mega Drive. By 1990
Ozisoft was Australia's largest international software distributor. Ozisoft only managed 9 titles.
Sega-Ozisoft distributed home entertainment and educational products and software in Australia and New Zealand such as Sega products plus software for PCs, Nintendo and Sony PlayStation. Mastertronics Group, distributed Sega video games in Europe. PF Magic is another Contender. Radica Games and Jakks Pacific notwithstanding. Pactronics & Imagineering. Sega Ozisoft owns 8 percent.
On the May 6, 1992, Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd was established by Bermeister and Dyne. Sega Ozisoft has exclusively represented in Australia and New Zealand the world's largest and most foremost publishers
including Virgin
, Sierra
, Viacom
, Ocean
, Accolade, Time Warner
, Acclaim
, Microprose
and Starwave
. The Sega Ozisoft franchise is one of the most successful in the multimedia area. On the March 31, 1998, Sega relinquished its controlling share and the company reverted to the name Ozisoft Pty Ltd. On the December 15, 1998, Infogrames Entertainment SA
acquired majority shareholding in Ozisoft Pty Ltd, and it was renamed Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd. On April 15, 2002, Infogrames acquired 100% ownership. On the May 8, 2003, Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd changed to its most incarnation, Atari Australia Pty Ltd. Atari Australia's head office is located in Alexandria, Sydney.
Atari Australia has released industry leading titles including Metal Gear Solid
, Tomb Raider
, Colin McRae Rally
, Driver
, Unreal Tournament
and Resident Evil
.
On 7 July 2009, Atari Australia was completely acquired by Namco Bandai Holdings, and is no longer a subsidiary of Atari
but rather one of Namco Bandai but the new company will still distribute Atari's titles in Australia. Namco Bandai Holdings already had a 30% share in Atari's Australian subsidiary. Later in 2009 Namco Bandai Holdings acquired Atari's European operations outright in one swoop.
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
(Infogrames
Infogrames
Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...
) offices located in PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
territories, which were acquired beginning in 2009 by Namco Bandai Holdings. The acquisitions came on the heels of Atari's financial difficulties, which had begun to snowball in 2006. Atari and Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
had long maintained a cross-publishing relationship that can be traced back to the very origins of Namco, and Atari's liquidation of regional assets was a natural opportunity for Namco Bandai to gain a PAL distribution network.
Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. Originally Ozisoft Pty Ltd, it was established in 1982 in Sydney, Australia by Kevin Bermeister
Kevin Bermeister
Kevin Bermeister has developed substantial businesses in the computers, multimedia and Internet industries. He established Ozisoft in 1982 which was one of the first interactive multimedia companies. By 1990 Ozisoft was Australia's largest video games distributor...
and partner Mark Dyne
Mark Dyne
Mark Dyne is Chairman and CEO of Europlay Capital AdvisorsHe has also served as CEO of Sega Gaming Technologies and Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd., CEO and Chairman of Virgin Interactive...
. Ozisoft was one of the first interactive multitmedia companies. In 1987
1987 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* January 14, Nintendo releases Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. The game would go unreleased in America for nearly two years afterwards.* February 20, Konami releases Contra...
, Ozisoft began representing Sega Enterprises Japan (now formally known as Sega Corporation) in Australia and New Zealand. During this period, Ozisoft released a variety of Sega consoles, including the hugely successful Sega Mega Drive. By 1990
1990 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Bonk's Adventure is released for NEC's TurboGrafx-16 and is the first US appearance of Bonk, the mascot of the TurboGrafx-16.*February 12 — Nintendo releases the NES game Super Mario Bros. 3 in North America...
Ozisoft was Australia's largest international software distributor. Ozisoft only managed 9 titles.
Sega-Ozisoft distributed home entertainment and educational products and software in Australia and New Zealand such as Sega products plus software for PCs, Nintendo and Sony PlayStation. Mastertronics Group, distributed Sega video games in Europe. PF Magic is another Contender. Radica Games and Jakks Pacific notwithstanding. Pactronics & Imagineering. Sega Ozisoft owns 8 percent.
On the May 6, 1992, Sega Ozisoft Pty Ltd was established by Bermeister and Dyne. Sega Ozisoft has exclusively represented in Australia and New Zealand the world's largest and most foremost publishers
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
including Virgin
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...
, Sierra
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
, Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
, Ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
, Accolade, Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
, Acclaim
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
, Microprose
MicroProse
MicroProse was a video game publisher and developer, founded by Wild Bill Stealey and Sid Meier in 1982 as Microprose Software. In 1993, the company became a subsidiary of Spectrum HoloByte and has remained a subsidiary or brand name under several other corporations since...
and Starwave
Starwave
Starwave was a Seattle, Washington based software and website company, founded in 1993 by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. The company produced many original CD-ROM titles, including disks for Clint Eastwood, Sting, and Peter Gabriel...
. The Sega Ozisoft franchise is one of the most successful in the multimedia area. On the March 31, 1998, Sega relinquished its controlling share and the company reverted to the name Ozisoft Pty Ltd. On the December 15, 1998, Infogrames Entertainment SA
Infogrames
Infogrames Entertainment SA was an international French holding company headquartered in Paris, France. It was the owner of Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York City, U.S. and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the proceeds from an introductory...
acquired majority shareholding in Ozisoft Pty Ltd, and it was renamed Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd. On April 15, 2002, Infogrames acquired 100% ownership. On the May 8, 2003, Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd changed to its most incarnation, Atari Australia Pty Ltd. Atari Australia's head office is located in Alexandria, Sydney.
Atari Australia has released industry leading titles including Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid
is a videogame by Hideo Kojima. The game was developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Japan and first published by Konami in 1998 for the PlayStation video game console. It is the sequel to Kojimas early MSX2 computer games Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake...
, Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn, with MS-DOS and PlayStation versions following shortly thereafter...
, Colin McRae Rally
Colin McRae Rally
Colin McRae Rally and more recently; Dirt, is a racing video game series developed and published by Codemasters.Started in 1998, the franchise has been a critical and commercial success and is generally acknowledged as a pioneer of realistic rally sports racing games...
, Driver
Driver: You Are the Wheelman
Driver , is a 1999 action driving video game developed by Reflections Interactive , who had earlier hits with Destruction Derby on the early years of the PlayStation...
, Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Tournament is a futuristic first-person shooter video game co-developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes. It was published in 1999 by GT Interactive. Retrospectively, the game has also been referred to as UT99 or UT Classic to differentiate it from its numbered sequels...
and Resident Evil
Resident Evil (video game)
Resident Evil, known as in Japan, is a survival horror video game by Capcom. The first installment in the Resident Evil series, it was originally released in 1996 for the PlayStation and was subsequently ported to the Sega Saturn and PC. In 2002, a remake of the game was released for the Nintendo...
.
On 7 July 2009, Atari Australia was completely acquired by Namco Bandai Holdings, and is no longer a subsidiary of Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
but rather one of Namco Bandai but the new company will still distribute Atari's titles in Australia. Namco Bandai Holdings already had a 30% share in Atari's Australian subsidiary. Later in 2009 Namco Bandai Holdings acquired Atari's European operations outright in one swoop.
External links
- Namco Bandai Partners website
- History of Atari Australia
- Atari Australia Pty Ltd profile at MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...