Friday 14 July 2006
Ubisoft has paid £13 million to Atari to secure the intellectual property and technology for Driver, the action driving game series that has sold 14 million games worldwide.

Driver is developed by UK studio Reflections and the majority of its assets will go to Ubisoft as part of the deal. However, Atari will hold on to the latest in the series, Driver: Parallel Lines, until the end of 2006.

The original Driver on PSone was a groundbreaking driving game offering never-before-seen freedom and a gritty 'wrong side of the law' attitude. The series seemed to lose its way in terms of quality when it moved to PS2 with Driver 3, but still proved popular with gamers.

This sale is part of Atari's restructuring process which will see the impressive Test Drive Unlimited positioned as its flagship driving game.