In a report posted on game trade site MCV, it seems as though Atari will no longer be a European brand, but instead focus on US operations, while Japanese megalith Namco Bandai will buy out Atari’s current operations in Europe, rebranded as Distribution Partners.

In March of last year, Namco Bandai bought a 34% stake in Atari Europe, and is expected to complete the acquisition of the business from Atari’s parent company, Infogrames, next month.

A new business, Distribution Partners, will become home for Atari Europe’s sales and marketing staff, while seeing an increase in staff in order to better solidify their position in Europe.

Distribution Partners is expected to handle Namco Bandai’s product sales in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, and will be headed up by John Galloway, previously of Take Two, THQ and EA. Distribution Partners will also handle Atari-produced titles outside of the US until 2014, which includes Ghostbusters: The Video Game, on non-Sony platforms, in June. Atari’s European marketing boss, David Miller said:

“We believe that DP will become a wholly-owned Namco Bandai games company soon, but this process requires time and we will comment further when we have an anticipated closing date.”

Atari US, meanwhile, with operations overseen by Infogrames CEO David Gardner, will become an online-centric content producer – a direction that was recently solidified with the acquisition of massively multiplayer online game development studio Cryptic.

Atari will still keep a presence in the UK, however, with a studio in London (which was opened in September last year) headed up by ex-Singstar director, Paulina Bozek.

Source: MCV