By Quinton Miles

Atari and FUNimation have agreed to continue their relationship as a new five-year exclusive agreement for the Dragon Ball franchise was announced today. In the deal, Atari will retain the rights to develop games based on Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT for all gaming systems and extend on the original contract the company attained in 1999.

“Since launching our first product together in 2002, Atari has worked closely with FUNimation to extend the Dragon Ball brand into the interactive market and with more than 7 million units sold to date, it’s clear that the momentum of the Dragon Ball phenomenon shows no signs of abating,” said Jim Caparro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atari. “We have exciting plans in place to build on that momentum and usher in the next era of Dragon Ball, including products for the new wave of portable gaming devices and next-gen consoles.”

“Atari connects with a brand and its fans, and as a result we have created the great video games in the Dragon Ball franchise,” says Gen Fukunaga, President of FUNimation. “The Dragon Ball brand is on a roll and we look forward to even more success with Atari and the continued growth of the Dragon Ball franchise.”

[i]Dragon Ball Z: Sagas[/i] is the next game in Atari’s Dragon Ball lineup, and will arrive for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox this spring.