Atari is drastically decreasing its visibility in Europe. The company's sales and marketing staff will be transferred to the newly-formed business Distribution Partners, reports industry site MCV.
Hoping to beefed up its business resume, Distribution Partners is handling all Namco Bandai releases in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Last March, Namco Bandai picked up a 34 percent stake in Atari Europe and is expected to acquire the remaining 66 percent from Atari parent Infogrames.
"We believe that DP will become a wholly-owned Namco Bandai games company soon," said Atari's European marketing head David Miller, "but this process requires time and we will comment further when we have an anticipated closing date."
Atari in America is still alive and plans to become an online-centric content producer. Even though Atari Europe is no more, Atari will have a UK branch in a London studio opened last September and headed up by former SingStar director Paulina Bozek.
Distribution Partners will be handling Atari title Ghostbusters on non-PS3 formats in regions outside the US.
Goodbye Atari, hello Namco [MCVUK]