The documentary "Once Upon Atari" explains the story of the consumer division (Atari 2600). Some of their best game developers left to form Activision after th

The documentary "Once Upon Atari" explains the story of the consumer division (Atari 2600). Some of their best game developers left to form Activision after they tried to renegotiate their compensation with the new CEO and failed (this was post-Bushnell when Atari started making real serious money). After third-party games became legitimized, dozens of game companies sprouted up and tried to poach people from Atari. This put enough pressure on the Atari management to give release bonuses and $0.10/cartridge royalties that made a bunch of the developers millionaires.