It's been over 30 years since Commodore International Limited went into liquidation after suffering some immense financial difficulties. It's no secret that their marketing and product lines were terrible back in the day, and while machines under the Commodore and Amiga branding live on in our hearts, they're not two names that you would expect to be associated with each other anymore in 2026.
According to Hackaday and the official Amiga press release, Amiga Corporation and the newly reformed Commodore International Corporation, who have been pushing their new flip phone and the C64 Ultimate, have entered into a 'licensing agreement' once more. Amiga Corporation holds the majority of the IP for Amiga and Commodore projects, and Commodore International Corporation have the Commodore branding power. The press release goes on to say that things have been settled with Hyperion Entertainment BV too, the minds behind Amiga OS.
It feels like when a band has a long hiatus and realises that they were better off working together (usually when they realise that they can make way more money as a unit rather than going solo).
The press release goes on to say, 'In August 1984, Commodore and Amiga brought their efforts together under Commodore-Amiga, Inc., a name Amiga Corporation still uses as a registered DBA. Forty-two years later, the circle is closing: apart from the "Commodore" and "C=" marks, the principal rights and assets of the Commodore and Amiga eras rest with Amiga.'
It seems that each company is keeping certain elements while allowing the others to work with them to both create new products and preserve gaming history. The Amiga IP looks set to stay with Amiga Corporation while licensing rights to 8-bit games to Commodore, with AmigaOS having a transition period from Hyperion to Amiga over the coming years. Commodore should then be able to make more Commodore consoles with this new deal - it's like all three companies have finally lifted a stalemate that's been keeping them held back for a while, and things can finally start to happen again.
I'm loath to just copy and paste large parts of a press release in an article, but there's one section on game preservation that I really approve of, and I'm hoping that this is as much a part of the recent moves to end said stalemate rather than just making money.
Amiga is working with preservationists, former employees, other original contributors, and cultural, educational, and research institutions, including libraries, museums, and archives. For example, Amiga is now in a position to restore the iconic SoftVoice speech synthesis to AmigaOS. Several versions of the historic Boing Ball demo are also being prepared for release.
The release goes on to add:
Amiga means different things to different people. For some, it represents an important part of computing history. For others, it remains a living platform. Preserving the past, making it accessible, and advancing the platform are central to Amiga's purpose.
Amiga really sounds like they're going full pelt to keep the branding and games of the past alive, and that's something I can really get behind. We're likely to see advances in AmigaOS too, but with the imminent disappearance of physical media from Sony HQ, game, and indeed console preservation has never been more important. Many gamers today won't even know who Amiga are. And ok - if they don't produce something new that looks like Fortnite, then said gamers might not even care. But we wouldn't have many of the games we play today without names like Commodore and Amiga, which makes their survival incredibly important.
I don't know where this is going to go, but it's progress. It's something that I'll be following closely over the coming weeks and months, and I'll keep you up to date with any changes, announcements, and plans moving forward as I get them.
