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a forum for the uses of videogames in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment



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Viacom/MTV buys Atom Entertainment
August 10, 2006 - by Ian Bogost

Viacom's MTV Networks division has bought Atom Entertainment, who run Shockwave.com, AddictingGames.com (which we've linked to recently for a few newsgames), AtomFilms.com, and AddictingClips.com. The acquisition price was a respectable $200 million.

This is an interesting acquisition for a few reasons. The rest of the world will probably note that the broadcast/media conglomerate ownership of a short films portal like Atom Films and the YouTubesque AddictingClips will offer new opportunities for moving niche and grassroots/fandom films up and down the broadcast chain. But most important to note for our audience is this fact: the acquisition of two casual games portals by a true network opens up many interesting possibilities for the future of such games. It will be interesting to see how this develops.



Comment from David Clearwater on August 14, 2006

Hmmm... I just worry that these new assets will simply become a cross-platform marketing tool for other Viacom products rather than anything else (I'm such a pessimist). I have noticed that Fox has been using their recently acquired My Space to do this sort of thing.

Comment from Gameboy on August 16, 2006

does anyone know if atom was profitable? and if so any guess at their revenues?


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