Atari probably regrets selling the table silver. But they should remind themselves that they almost destroyed a successful franchise. With similar potential impact as the NFS franchise.
So, from my perspective, Atari has no rights anymore. Only to TDU1 and 2. The server support is a positive exception.
Maybe the new right holders should have gone for the whole TDU franchise. There is still a lot that can be done with the older titles, while the new one is being developed. But there is also the potential fallout from the community over these neglected and badly supported TDU titles, that can have an impact on the new owners, Big Ben Interactive, as well.
Maybe one of the reasons why they only chose to go for the Test Drive franchise and not the previous titles.
I do know some of the people behind the TDU1 server initiative. They might give this a shot as well. I have seen some TDU2 alternative online screenshots a while back. The Casino is a different story, as that was operated separately, i think.
I will wait for TDU3, as TDU2 was dead the moment they let cheaters rule the game. And keyboard players top the leader boards. Add to that the nerfed physics. This was done because one of the Atari executives could not play the game with their initial setup, which was more simulated btw. Believe it or not. Sometimes one person can ruin a complete game for 1000s of players. Because of the flawed TDU2 physics, the FFB did not work properly.
Seb Tixier explained this to me. He made the physics for TDU1 and The Crew and went into detail how physics and FFB are related to each other. Add tot that the specific parameters of each wheel and each car and road type and variation setup and you understand the massive amount of work that goes into making a good driving game. Good physics usually leads to good FFB as well because of that.
IMO TDU1 was more fun to drive than part 2. I had to use "artificial" FFB in TDU2 to make my wheel useful. Some players, mostly Thrustmaster users, could get a more decent FFB out of TDU2. But support in general was very limited and the FFB was flawed.
I do not think we will have these issues with BigBen Interactive, as they make some awesome Rally games as well. And Rally physics as a base for TDU3 driving physics can turn out to be very good. I really don't hope they will step into the same "Arcade trap" Ivory Tower did with Crew2.
An open world driving game with realistic driving physics is still what we are looking for.