NovaXpress Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Our beloved Atari has passed through many corporate owners over the years. From the Tramiels to Hasbro, the post-Warner Atari legacy of doom and market failure is one constant in an ever-changing industry. Start waving goodbye to Info-Atari. The Street: Hope Fading At Atari Reuters: Atari Shares Tumble Bad times got worse at Atari (ATAR:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) as the company posted a loss and a 35% decline in sales in the important holiday quarter. The struggling video game publisher also announced that CFO Diane Baker has resigned, effective immediately, to "pursue a new opportunity." And if that wasn't enough, the company said that HSBC, a bank that has provided it with working capital, has cut off the company's credit line. Atari warned last month that its holiday quarter results didn't meet the strictures the bank put on the company last year. "The uncertainties caused by these conditions raise substantial doubt about [Atari's] ability to continue as a going concern," the company said in a statement. This one is no joke. Investors are running from this company as fast as possible. The stock has fallen by nearly half since this announcement was made at market cloing time. The only question is whether or not parent company Infogrames decides to sell the Atari properties to another company. I suspect that there's a lot of talk going on at Activision tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 This can be pointed to the game enter the matrix. They needed to sell 5 million copies to break even. That game was given great reviews by gameinformer with them stating that the footage makes up for glitches. I think people got burned by that game. Activision purchasing the rights for atari wouldn't be a bad idea. That means Activision has the rights for for the imagic, and atari title rights. I am sure that activision could make a great collection of games that includes the 2600, 7800 and the atarisoft games for intellivision, and colecovision I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paranoid Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Our beloved Atari has passed through many corporate owners over the years. From the Tramiels to Hasbro, the post-Warner Atari legacy of doom and market failure is one constant in an ever-changing industry. Start waving goodbye to Info-Atari. The Street: Hope Fading At Atari Reuters: Atari Shares Tumble Bad times got worse at Atari (ATAR:Nasdaq - commentary - research - Cramer's Take) as the company posted a loss and a 35% decline in sales in the important holiday quarter. The struggling video game publisher also announced that CFO Diane Baker has resigned, effective immediately, to "pursue a new opportunity." And if that wasn't enough, the company said that HSBC, a bank that has provided it with working capital, has cut off the company's credit line. Atari warned last month that its holiday quarter results didn't meet the strictures the bank put on the company last year. "The uncertainties caused by these conditions raise substantial doubt about [Atari's] ability to continue as a going concern," the company said in a statement. This one is no joke. Investors are running from this company as fast as possible. The stock has fallen by nearly half since this announcement was made at market cloing time. The only question is whether or not parent company Infogrames decides to sell the Atari properties to another company. I suspect that there's a lot of talk going on at Activision tonight. 1015971[/snapback] That sucks... I couldn't FIND a Flashback II after the holiday season, they were all out of stock. Where is the company bleeding that kind of money when they've got a product THAT hot? SOMEONE needs to streamline Atari in the model of Jakks and stick to these core products and get away from their console title lines, which have all been turkeys. Somebody with contacts should get some CEO looking at Atari as a subsidiary producing these retro consoles as their core business. It could be a cash cow done right, and it looks like the time is right for the name to change hands once again. I wish I were sitting on 10 million or so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Nathan Strum Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 This can be pointed to the game enter the matrix. They needed to sell 5 million copies to break even. So... does that mean there's a big landfill of them somewhere in New Mexico? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omegamatrix Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 If Activision buys Atari then all the Atari roms might disappear off the AA database. However they are also on a million other websites so maybe they will take that into consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I hope atari Age buys the Atari name and releases the Atari 15600 a system that plays all 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx and Jaguar games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I'd prefer a 15730 so it could play XE games too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I'd prefer a 15730 so it could play XE games too. 1016000[/snapback] Works for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted February 10, 2006 Author Share Posted February 10, 2006 You know what would make sense? if Atari was bought up and turned into a channel on XBox Live or the future Nintendo Online. I'd pay a few bucks a month for All Atari All The Time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 This can be pointed to the game enter the matrix. They needed to sell 5 million copies to break even. So... does that mean there's a big landfill of them somewhere in New Mexico? 1015991[/snapback] I don't think that there is. I know they sold 5 million world wide, but the game itself stinks according to my brother and a good amount of people thought the same. I think the pac-man/ e.t effect happened to them. It didn't help that flackback one had noac. Playing 2600 games and 7800 games on a nintendo on a chip didn't help the quality of the the games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 So, it looks like Atari is going to die off because of overproduction on another movie-based title..... The more things change, the more it stays the same. I bought an Atari Flashback 2 yesterday at a Fry's Electronics. The store had three units in stock on Sunday, but I didn't have the spare 20 minutes to wait in line. When I went back yesterday, there were only two. The only reason they had some was because they stocked them on a really out of the way shelf in their technical manual section. I tried buying one for my friend before Christmas, but the seven stores I went to were wiped out on them. Atari must really be doing pretty badly when a white-hot piece of hardware like the Flashback 2 couldn't turn their fortunes around. It seems that the current console market is just too saturated for anyone to have a real hit. Especially the PS2 market. The shelves are crammed full of games, which makes it hard for one company's titles to stand out. They end up having to advertise heavily, which costs a fortune, but if the game doesn't appeal to a broad spectrum of game players, it won't sell enough to recoup their losses. Atari's titles haven't exactly been stellar, and now it's about to kill them. What a shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Atari has made some great titles like Godzilla Melee, but they can't make up for the flops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I know this sounds impossible, but I want Nolan Bushnell to reclaim the Atari name once and for all. He did state in an interview with Retro Gamer that he wanted to do this at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted February 10, 2006 Author Share Posted February 10, 2006 Atari should have been a retro brand. The name means absolutely nothing to the Xbox Generation. The Flashback was clearly the way to go. Think of all the ways that the Atari classics could be used on plug-and-plays, cell phones, PC and modern console compilations and all sorts of non-gaming merchandise. Atari should be a nice little cash cow for a larger company, not a major developer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clint Thompson Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I know this sounds impossible, but I want Nolan Bushnell to reclaim the Atari name once and for all. He did state in an interview with Retro Gamer that he wanted to do this at some point. 1016018[/snapback] That would be GREAT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaManFan Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I think Atari should make digital watches. The Hitchhiker's Guide is right - we all seem to love digital watches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Infogrames failed to impress me with the Flashback models anyway. Why would I want that crap when I got my trusty 'ol 2600s? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I heard, that there's this landfill - that has thousands of Enter the Matrix games buried in it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdie3 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Here's to the death of Atari!! That really was a stupid thing for those presumptuous fools to do in the first place, don't you think. Hopefully someone worthy of the title will be disgusted by this and make Atari what it should be.. a "retro-gaming only" niche market company that caters to the nostalgic needs of the children of the seventies and eighties. Jack-asses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybird3rd Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 This can be pointed to the game enter the matrix. They needed to sell 5 million copies to break even. That game was given great reviews by gameinformer with them stating that the footage makes up for glitches. I think people got burned by that game.Their entire lineup of games for current consoles always seemed mediocre for me, certainly nothing worthy of the Atari name ("The Matrix: Path of Neo"?! Come on!) Atari's back catalog of properties and their Flashback line are their only really bright stars. I'm not surprised to see their CFO leaving; I think she once said something to the effect of "Atari would be a great company if we could stop shooting ourselves in the foot," so I'm sure their situation has been frustrating to the people inside the company for a long time. To look at this from as positive a perspective as possible, I think Atari would be a natural acquisition for a company like Activision at this point. Activision already has modern platforms covered, so they won't have to put the Atari name on half-assed products for modern systems where it wouldn't have any marketing value anyway. Under Activision's ownership, perhaps Atari would have an opportunity to "get back to the basics." They could profitably operate as the "retro" wing of Activision, mining the back catalog and selling Flashback 3 consoles and game cards and giving Activision a foothold in the TV-games market. Activision could even use the FB3 to market its own classic game properties without all the licensing complications that Atari encountered in getting Activision games on the FB2. Activision purchasing the rights for atari wouldn't be a bad idea. That means Activision has the rights for for the imagic, and atari title rights.1015983[/snapback] Regarding the Imagic titles: Despite popular belief, I don't think Activision owns or has ever owned any of the Imagic properties. If you listen to the November/December 2005 episodes of Retro Gaming Radio, you'll hear an extensive interview with Bruce Davis (the CEO of Imagic at the time it went under and later the CEO of Activision). According to him, Imagic went into bankruptcy in 1985 after selling off its fixed assets, and still exists as a California corporation "in bad standing" because it hasn't paid its debts to the state in 20+ years. If those were to be cleared, Imagic could be revived and would continue to hold all the rights it previously had. Because there was no buyer, and because Bruce Davis had no successor as CEO of Imagic, he technically still owns the properties but hasn't been approached with a serious offer for them yet. Infogrames failed to impress me with the Flashback models anyway. Why would I want that crap when I got my trusty 'ol 2600s? You weren't impressed with the hard work Curt and his team did to put genuine first-party 2600 consoles on store shelves in 2005? Personally, it impressed the hell out of me: if someone had told me in 2003 that I'd see new 2600 systems and games on the market within two years, I'd have called them crazy. With gratitude like that, you're starting to sound like an Atari Jaguar fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Yep. Screw the X-Box generation (no offense to older X-Box owners on here). Pretty graphics my ass. Strat-O-Gems is more playable than Halo in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad2600 Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 Infogrames failed to impress me with the Flashback models anyway. Why would I want that crap when I got my trusty 'ol 2600s? You weren't impressed with the hard work Curt and his team did to put genuine first-party 2600 consoles on store shelves in 2005? Personally, it impressed the hell out of me: if someone had told me in 2003 that I'd see new 2600 systems and games on the market within two years, I'd have called them crazy. With gratitude like that, you're starting to sound like an Atari Jaguar fan. 1016075[/snapback] I respect Curt more than you realize. I just can't "get" into buying a Flashback2 model. They look nice but my point behind NOT buying one is that I have 2 working 2600s that can play games just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8th lutz Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I remember hearing about the amount copies world wide was needed by gamespot. I think gameinformer gave it 8.5 so it wouldn't cause the video game industry to have a sign that another crash could be happening because of it. In the year Enter the Matrix came out, tomb Raider: angels of darkness by eidos was crappy game. That game pulled a e.t. That game was rushed because of its movie release and eidos depended on it in order to make a profit for the quater. The game was panned because it had glitches and made enter the matrix look good. Enter the matrix was released about two or three years ago, but it was the begining of their problems. How could a company sale about 5 million copies and break even instead of making a huge profit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 (edited) I wonder if this is gonna really happen I sure hope not. I mean, how long will it be this time before Atari comes back into action? I think Nolan could get the company back, he certainly has the money. And my wishful thinking would be for an Atari that plays all atari games as stated in an earlier piost in this thread. Not the best drawing in the world but you get the gerenal idea. Imagine his bad boy came out on the market right now? I'd shell out $200 USD for it would you? Edited February 10, 2006 by Shawn Sr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted February 10, 2006 Share Posted February 10, 2006 I respect Curt more than you realize. I just can't "get" into buying a Flashback2 model. They look nice but my point behind NOT buying one is that I have 2 working 2600s that can play games just fine. 1016081[/snapback] Three words: joysticks joysticks joysticks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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