Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972, currently by Atari Interactive, a subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA (ASA).
The original Atari, Inc., an American company founded in Sunnyvale, California in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcadevideo games, game consoles, and home computers.
The company's products, such as the innovative Pong and the very popular Atari 2600 console, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 70s to the mid 80s.
In 1984, the original Atari Inc. was split due to its role in the video game crash of 1983, it was refounded as Atari Corporation in 1985 before dissolved in 1998, its brand were later sold off to French company Infogrames, who rebranded themselves as Atari, SA and remains active to this day.
