Total Annihilation franchise bought by Wargaming, the owners of Gas Powered Games

With THQ's bankruptcy case now resolved, where else can we turn for the will-they-won't-they of franchise auctions? We can certainly get a quick fix of financial peril from Atari, who have sold off properties including Master of Orion and Total Annihilation - both of which have ended up with the current owner of all the money , Wargaming.net. It should be happy news for TA fans, as the game's original designer, Chris Taylor, and his studio Gas Powered Games are now also being cradled under the Wargaming umbrella.

Here's what went where, according to the official notice :

Interesting to see Planetary Annihilation makers Uber go for Total Annihilation, and that Stardock bid on Master of Orion. Both are definitely in their respective areas of interest, but you're in for a hard time if you're bidding against Wargaming right now. Stardock didn't go away empty handed, though - having taken hold of Star Control.

Will anything come out of this franchise fire sale? Hopefully the respective buyers have plans to announce new entries in their respective series. After so long hidden away in Atari's vault, it would be a shame to see them finally emerge, only to be locked away once more.

Thanks, DualShockers .

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.