+Lynxer2007 Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Don't mind if I post the latest "Atari" news. Not doing so good here. New York-based Atari has released a statement regarding its annual financial figures today, after delaying the announcement in June as it calculated a "final determination regarding a goodwill impairment charge." The Infogrames subsidiary had intended to post the full report on June 29, but will now be posting it before the end of a permitted 15-day extension period. However, it has already reported that it will be filing a net loss of $71.3 million (equal to $5.29 a share), as it had previously predicted. Atari also confirmed that the goodwill impairment charge would total $54.1 million, equal to $4.02 a share, and that net revenues for the year ended March 31, 2007 would be approximately $121.6 million. The Neverwinter Nights 2, Driver, and Enter The Matrix publisher announced in May that it would be cutting 20 percent of its workforce, mainly in admin roles, to "reduce general and administrative cost." Bruno Bonnell, variously the company's chairman, chief creative officer, chief financial officer, and director, stepped down in September to hand over the reins to new CEO David Pierce. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6173502.html?...estnews;title;4 Man, what can this company do to save itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scumdogg Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Man, what can this company do to save itself. Well, they could stop dropping so much money on the Driver series, which has been a bland copycat franchise since day 1. Or, if they're going to bleed dollars and man-hours into a high-commitment title like Enter the Matrix, they could make sure it doesn't suck before releasing it. Or they could just fold up and die. Let's be honest here, all anyone would really miss is the logo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Allan Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Man, what can this company do to save itself. Well, they could stop dropping so much money on the Driver series, which has been a bland copycat franchise since day 1. Or, if they're going to bleed dollars and man-hours into a high-commitment title like Enter the Matrix, they could make sure it doesn't suck before releasing it. Or they could just fold up and die. Let's be honest here, all anyone would really miss is the logo. Or they could focus on legacy hardware and software. Allan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 (edited) Or they could focus on legacy hardware and software. The legacy product could bring in enough money to sustain a company all by itself, but it would have to be a very small company (think Intellivision Productions) rather than a multi-million-dollar juggernaut like Atari/Infogrames. I think their investors and stockholders would rather think bigger, taking chances and potentially hitting the jackpot with the right product, instead of settling for the safer but smaller profits to be made in a niche market. Edited July 3, 2007 by jaybird3rd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninjarabbit Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 You can only re-release your stuff so many times, though no one gave Namco that memo. I'm just surprised that they haven't been more active on the Virtual Console, X Box Live, or what the PS3 has. That could have been a gold mine for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SINGLE TOOTH Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Good riddance to bad rubbish. Inforgrams is shit anyway. Perfect opportunity for an opportunist to purchase the Atari name for a good price. Then do what the Blue Sky Rangers did for intellivision. I would love to own the Atari name, and the rights to the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S1500 Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I hope all of you Jaguar cart copiers are proud of yourself. Now look what you've done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I hope all of you Jaguar cart copiers are proud of yourself. Now look what you've done! Yeah, it's all because of that horrible JagCF cartridge. The same one that's probably responsible for global warming, too. Damn dirty pirates!!! :x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 I can now somewhat understand why their unwilling to try new suggestions, they just don't have the money to. Good luck, Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 Man, what can this company do to save itself. Well, they could stop dropping so much money on the Driver series... They already have. The franchise was recently sold to rival Ubisoft, although I have no idea what they intend to do with it. JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homerwannabee Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I for one do not want them to go away. These are the makers of the Flashback 1 and Flashback 2. And now pretty soon the Flashback portable. Yes their company would be smaller if they only focused on old school, but I think this area has always been profitable. If it was not for Flashback 1 and 2 I believe this company would of already filed bankruptcy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmydelaKopin Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Hold on a moment. "Atari and their subsidiary Infogrames"?! Isn't that backwards? In any case, they could focus on the VCL game and make more of them. Heck, make it a series like Sony did with Twisted Metal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scumdogg Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Man, what can this company do to save itself. Well, they could stop dropping so much money on the Driver series... They already have. The franchise was recently sold to rival Ubisoft, although I have no idea what they intend to do with it. JR Ah, i hadn't heard that. Odd enough though...doesn't seem like something anyone would *want* to buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin242 Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 Good riddance to bad rubbish. Inforgrams is shit anyway. Perfect opportunity for an opportunist to purchase the Atari name for a good price. Then do what the Blue Sky Rangers did for intellivision. I would love to own the Atari name, and the rights to the games. that sound's good in theory, unfortunately the Atari brand would most likely get bought up by a bigger company who wanted the rights to the classic games. I could see Microsoft buying Atari and you will never see anymore Flashbacks if that happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 (edited) Why hasn't Atari been able to get it together since 1983ish? Edited July 4, 2007 by Gregory DG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Lynxer2007 Posted July 4, 2007 Author Share Posted July 4, 2007 (edited) Why hasn't Atari been able to get it together since 1983ish? As much as I hate to say it. Today's Atari isn't the same Atari from the 70's, 80's or even 90's. French company Infogrames Entertainment bought Hasbro Interactive that had the name, as well as the properties, and renamed their operations "Atari". Thank God Atari is still a American company like it originally was. If this "Atari" does go down, I hope Activision buys them out. Activision is the last remnant of the original Atari, so it'll make sense for them to take over the name and properties. Edited July 4, 2007 by EMZayas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mock Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 They should sell off the Atari name before they run it (all the way) into the ground....again. It would be great to have Atari back as a classic game company again...if marketed correctly they could be a retro powerhouse...Atari's money is in it's past, not it's future...at least for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+swlovinist Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 The only thing good that I could see coming out of this is that the possibility of someone buying the Atari name for cheap and actually doing something decent with it. Attaching the Atari logo to a current franchise is just wrong. Atari has been dead to me for a long time, this is just another example of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 If this "Atari" does go down, I hope Activision buys them out. Activision is the last remnant of the original Atari, so it'll make sense for them to take over the name and properties. Now wouldn't that be an ironic turn of events? David Crane and co-workers leave Atari to create Activision in the eighties, and decades later, the thriving Activision buys out the remnants of Atari. Crane is no longer affiliated in any way with Activision AFAIK, but still... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 The only thing good that I could see coming out of this is that the possibility of someone buying the Atari name for cheap and actually doing something decent with it. Attaching the Atari logo to a current franchise is just wrong. Atari has been dead to me for a long time, this is just another example of it. I don't think it's wrong, but you have to put a lot of thought into what Atari means in the context of modern gaming. You have to redefine the design philosophy of what Atari stands for OTHER than just retro. Maybe it means making games that buck conventions like Will Wright does? Maybe it means focusing on community aspects, some kind of social agenda? Nintendo has that down. Nintendo is focusing on the mainstreaming of gaming and emphasis on control. That's a lot of what Atari used to stand for. And Apple (albeit not a game company) focuses on the sociological aspect. Using apple products is not just a fashion statement, but almost a political bumper sticker (Think different[sic]). Apple is still surfing on the same kind of post-hippie idealistic futurism of "liberation and creative expression through technology" they used to share with early Atari. As long as game companies are just generic publishers that look at games individually without any thought about the bigger picture of brand identity, then there is no place for Atari. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 (edited) It would be great to have Atari back as a classic game company again...if marketed correctly they could be a retro powerhouse...Atari's money is in it's past, not it's future...at least for now. I just don't think retro alone is a business model, at least not for a public company. It would be like the game equivalent of the Hendrix estate. It can only be a side-business of a larger company that keeps moving forward. Kind of like Nintendo marketing its older titles emulated inside the Wii. I think moden and retro can complement eachother in beneficial ways. Edited July 4, 2007 by mos6507 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariman Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 "Atari and their subsidiary Infogrames"?!Isn't that backwards? No, because when they acquired Atari, they took on the name. A reverse merger of sorts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtticGamer Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 (edited) They should produce Flashback products, release arcade games in XBLA and Atari 2600/5200/7800 and 400/800 titles on Wii VC and produce compliations of games for portable consoles. With the money they would gather from that, plus the one they already have, produce ONE good game and sell it on all 3 consoles. Then with the revenues produce TWO good games. They need to start slowly. Edited July 6, 2007 by Atari_kid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 They need to start slowly. Agreed. I think they thought they could just slap their name on anything and make tons of cash off of it. How wrong they were. They should scale back and focus on smaller stuff for awhile. Flashbacks, some classic compilations/updates, and maybe some cell phone games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyatari Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 I see the hex Nolan B had placed is still holding up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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