Crossy Road devs Hipster Whale are being acquired by Atari

• Hipster Whale, the developers behind Crossy Road, have been acquired by Atari
• The move is apparently part of a broader push into mobile by Atari
• You may remember Hipster Whale from other big projects such as Pac-Man 256

Recently, it seems that many big studios have been going on spending sprees for mobile devs. We've seen it in a major way with Rovio being acquired by Sega, and now it's the revived Atari shelling out for none other than Crossy Road developers Hipster Whale!

Crossy Road will need little introduction to many of you. Inspired (in a very direct way) by smash-hit Flappy Bird, Crossy Road has in many ways eclipsed its inspiration and sees the same 'tap to move' gameplay transplanted to a more familiar Frogger-like format. With its huge success, it shouldn't be surprising that Hipster Whale caught Atari's eye.

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Now, usually we don't cover business news in any meaningful way. But there are the occasional exceptions, especially where it's something of interest, or there's the potential promise of new games to come out of it.

And Hipster Whale is far from a one-trick pony. They've hopped onto other projects, including Pac-Man 256 and Disney Crossy Road, not to mention spinoffs like Crossy Road Castle, which launched exclusively for Apple Arcade.

According to Atari, this acquisition is part of a big push into mobile gaming as a whole. While the original Atari folded way back in 1984, the name has stuck around for years, and in its latest incarnation, there seems to be a hope they'll move past nostalgic branding and into making bona fide brand-new successes.

So, with that in mind, it's well worth keeping your eyes open to see what comes out of this acquisition. We may have another Sonic Rumble situation on our hands with something big down the line.

In the meantime, if you want to keep up with other top releases ahead of that, why not check out our list of the best mobile games of 2026 (so far) for some of our favourite picks?