...do you remember this deal back in 1994?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E5DD1331F934A25752C1A962958260&sec=&spon=

Back then this was a LOT of money and was wondering if anyone knows what became of this deal?  Why would Sega blow 90 mil on nothing? With Atari involved, I have a feeling this had something to do with the 32X.

I was too young (around 10 or so) to care about the news behind the games, and back then we did not really have the internets (at least not to the extent that we have them now).

So, this is news to me.

You're 26 though, you were around in the 16 bit days.

lol, thanks for making me feel old...

I remember hearing in 1995 in gamepro or EGM that Atari may get sega games...but I never knew this was the sum that was exchanged.

Back then, Sega could have used that money instead to refund the 32X for everyone that bought it.

In 1994, Atari tried to sue Sega for patent infringement. Sega decided it was best to just pay $40 million for access to Atari's patent portfolio instead of risking a possible sales injunction via the courts.

Did Sega do anything with said access?

Thanks Viper1. Wow Atari had more lawsuits than Scientology... I did some more digging and I found the following...

1982

Atari won its lawsuit against Magnavox for its K.C. Munchkin video game, a copy of Pac-Man. (Atari won)

Atari settled a lawsuit from Activision, and allowed the development of third party video games in return for royalties (Atari lost)


1989

Atari Corp. filed a $250 million anti-monopoly lawsuit against Nintendo.(Atari lost)

Atari and Nintendo went to court over rights to Tetris.(Atari lost)


1994

Atari Games/Tengen and Nintendo settle various patent infringement lawsuits.(Atari won)

Atari Corp. and Sega settled the infringement lawsuit (Atari won)

"Atari Corp. and Sega settled the infringement lawsuit.  Sega paid Atari Corp. $50 million for patent rights, and bought 4.5 million shares of Atari Corp.'s stock, valued at $40 million."

http://www.heartbone.com/comphist/Atari.htm

Quote from Atari History article...So basically they paid them 50 mil for the lawsuit and invested 40 mil in the company. All 40 mill was worthless by early 1996...

Lol I was 10 years old back in 94. Though I gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed my Sega Megadrive(Genesis). Thankfully I was blissfully ignorant of the console wars back then :)

Yeah, those were good times. I was 12-13 and I thought Mortal Kombat 2 was the best game ever... Thats is the year I came to Canada from Europe...bringing my Mega Drive only to find out I can't play "Genesis" games on a Mega Drive. Couldn't even plug it in...

 That's cool. I came to Australia from Europe in 93. I got my megadrive in 94 and I loved playing Sonic 3, Bubsy and nba jam. Btw which part of Europe did you come from. It's really good to have lived on two continents :)