Company News Atari starts sinking

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Atari

<a href=http://www.gamecloud.com>GameCloud</a> reports that <a href=http://www.atari.com>Atari</a> is in <a href=http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3430>big financial troubles</a>:
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<blockquote><a href=http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060209/nyth183.html?.v=19>This press release from Atari</a> announces that the game publisher could be in serious financial trouble following their Oct-Dec. 2005 financial results. Net income for the time period was $100.8 million, down from $156.4 million for the same period a year ago. Atari suffered a net loss of $4.8 million compared to a profit of $19.6 million for the same period a year ago. The statement read that product delays along with a soft overall video game market contributed to the loss. Also Atari revealed that it had defaulted on loans from the HSBC Business Credit and that the company was not planning on extending Atari furthur credit. Finally the press release revealed that Atari's chief financial officer Diane Baker effective shortly had resigned "to pursue a new opportunity". As a result, Atari admitted, "The uncertainties caused by these conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company's ability to continue as a going concern." However, the company did say that it will be taking measures to secure its financials, which might include hiring a new credit company, the sale of some of its IP rights and more closures of its development studios.</blockquote>It's nice to see that Atari's decision to kill all DnD RPGs and focus on DnD Online & Dragonshard is working out for them.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Elwro]

Wait, aren't they planning to publish NWN2? Maybe they'll try to rescue the company by kicking the game to the stores a few months too early...
I guess releasing a demo that didn't work on "officially supported" gfx cards wasn't a smart move, too. I'm talking about Dragonshard which didn't want to cooperate with my Radeon9600Pro. I looked on a few forums and more people seemed to be having a similar bug. After sth like that I wouldn't even consider buying the full version.

 

[Avé]

Hello a bigger, badder but still french ran Interplay.

They even made the same mistakes as Interplay, by dumbing down established IP's/genres and failing miserably in sales.

 

[wizard]

Atari deserves to die after what they did to Master of Orion

 

[DamnElfGirl]

Atari deserves to die in general for being a shitty company. Of course, I'm sure they'll try to find some way to pass the buck and blame gamers.

 

[Thrawn05]

Atari is just a former shell of what it was during the 70s and 80s.

In fact I thought it died with the Jaguar until I started seeing Atari logos on PC games a few years ago.

 

[Avé]

Atari is just a former shell of what it was during the 70s and 80s.

In fact I thought it died with the Jaguar until I started seeing Atari logos on PC games a few years ago.

Atari of now, isnt Atari of olde.

Ok?

They have no relation except name.

 

[Twinfalls]

Atari is Infogrames.

 

[Thrawn05]

Atari is just a former shell of what it was during the 70s and 80s.

In fact I thought it died with the Jaguar until I started seeing Atari logos on PC games a few years ago.

Atari of now, isnt Atari of olde.

Ok?

They have no relation except name.

That's interesting. I did not know that.

 

[obediah]

Atari is just a former shell of what it was during the 70s and 80s.

In fact I thought it died with the Jaguar until I started seeing Atari logos on PC games a few years ago.

Atari of now, isnt Atari of olde.

Ok?

They have no relation except name.

That's interesting. I did not know that.

pwn3d!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by marketing even.

 

[Section8]

Yep, today's Atari are yesterday's Infogrames, and you have to wonder why they made the change. They certainly wouldn't have done it if Infogrames had a good reputation.

 

[DemonKing]

There has now been an almost 20 year history of D&D games (Pool of Radiance was released in 1987, I seem to recall). Now if anyone had a brain in Atari they would see that the monster hit D&D games over these last 20 years were all CRPGs (eg Gold box series, Eye of Beholder series, Baldur's Gate, NWN) as were most of the modest hits (Dark Sun series, Icewind Dale series) that made a tidy profit.

Conversely almost all the monster flops were spin-off type games. You think they would have learnt with Hillsfar (which was truely dire) but no, they keep trying to pump out consle action titles and RTS games and expect them to make a profit. Problem is there are already far better options out there for those interested in these genres. Why would you start playing Dragonshard, for instance, if you already have WC3?

D&D online might have been a success in the days before WOW, but now I think it's screwed.

Of course there have been D&D CRPGs which flopped (Descent to Blundermountain, Pool of Excrement 2 etc) but these were flops because of bugginess and poor design decisions, not because they were CRPGs.

In the age of digital distribution, a decent engine along the lines of the Gold Box, IE series or even a bug-free TOEE engine utilised to release a new 10-20 hour CRPG adventure every few months could create a decent revenue flow for a smart company once the engine was properly developed. Hell, even Bioware are making money out of creating such products on the fairly dire and dated NWN engine.

 

[pseudo intellectual]

Why the celebration?

While Atari has made mistakes (rushing ToEE comes to mind), they do continue to publish RPGs. The problem then becomes one of perception. Does the industry as a whole connect their (possible) demise with poor RPG sales? If so it's bad news for RPG developers, if for nothing else than the fact that there will be one less publisher who'll be willing to buy their work. This is why Troika went out of business (No publisher).

As a side note, Atari isn't all bad. They did distrubute a very good action RPG in Europe in 05, Boiling Point:

http://www.atari.com/boilingpoint/uk/home.htm

 

[bryce777]

As I predicted. Not surprising that this is what happens when you try to sell crap long enough.

 

[FrancoTAU]

It's mindboggling how stupid video game publishers can be. Publishing has always been a risky business, but jesus... you had Interplay right there to realize what not to do.

Even EA is finally getting bashed on Wall Street for their dumb strategy. When non gamers start to realize you're strategy stinks, how do the "pros" not know?

 

[Thrawn05]

It's mindboggling how stupid video game publishers can be. Publishing has always been a risky business, but jesus... you had Interplay right there to realize what not to do.

Even EA is finally getting bashed on Wall Street for their dumb strategy. When non gamers start to realize you're strategy stinks, how do the "pros" not know?

The problem with EA is that they are too big and diverse. Many of the games I like either come from big companies that focus on a few titles, or small companies with just one or two games.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

There has now been an almost 20 year history of D&D games (Pool of Radiance was released in 1987, I seem to recall).

Intellivision made D&D games going back to '82. Fucking kids today with yer fancy 32-bit graphics.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

WHen was the last time infograms/atari released a good game? Exactly.

edit: nm they had UT 2k4

 

[Thrawn05]

WHen was the last time infograms/atari released a good game? Exactly.

edit: nm they had UT 2k4

Credit should go to Epic, not to Atari. :wink:

I just hope Atari dumps the Total Annihilation 2 license and let someone else work on it. Say to gas powered games? :D

 

[FrancoTAU]

It's mindboggling how stupid video game publishers can be. Publishing has always been a risky business, but jesus... you had Interplay right there to realize what not to do.

Even EA is finally getting bashed on Wall Street for their dumb strategy. When non gamers start to realize you're strategy stinks, how do the "pros" not know?

The problem with EA is that they are too big and diverse. Many of the games I like either come from big companies that focus on a few titles, or small companies with just one or two games.

Finance geeks like big and diverse. However, even finance geeks realize they've been reusing the same 8-10 titles and just releasing sequels every year. And besides Madden, College Basketball and Fifa, the sales #s are slowly going down each year on these sequels. They just lost the MLB license and are about to start sharing NHL with Take2(i think). It's not a drastic drop off, but the slow decreases in sales with a license lost or two combined with nearly no future franchises to take the place of the old ones and you have a pretty shitty long term business plan.

 

[Gwendo]

Re: Why the celebration?

As a side note, Atari isn't all bad. They did distrubute a very good action RPG in Europe in 05, Boiling Point:

http://www.atari.com/boilingpoint/uk/home.htm

...which is the buggiest game I ever played! Unplayable. An excelent example of a game that could have everything to be a GOTY, all trashed away with bugs, poor execution and release rush.

 

[Thrawn05]

Re: Why the celebration?

As a side note, Atari isn't all bad. They did distrubute a very good action RPG in Europe in 05, Boiling Point:

http://www.atari.com/boilingpoint/uk/home.htm

...which is the buggiest game I ever played! Unplayable. An excelent example of a game that could have everything to be a GOTY, all trashed away with bugs, poor execution and release rush.

Like Deer Hunter 2k5. At least Southlogic fixed alot of the video problems, but it took them like a month. Too bad they went bottoms up.

 

[tarkin]

WHen was the last time infograms/atari released a good game? Exactly.

I think it was North and South. That was some game.

Edit: It was published in 1989

 

[pseudo intellectual]

Re: Why the celebration?

As a side note, Atari isn't all bad. They did distrubute a very good action RPG in Europe in 05, Boiling Point:

http://www.atari.com/boilingpoint/uk/home.htm

...which is the buggiest game I ever played! Unplayable. An excelent example of a game that could have everything to be a GOTY, all trashed away with bugs, poor execution and release rush.

Try the patch, I had little trouble with bugs afterwards.

 

[Whipporowill]

WHen was the last time infograms/atari released a good game? Exactly.

I think it was North and South. That was some game.

Edit: It was published in 1989

Well, Infogrames was actually responsible for some of the greatest games ever - the Alone in the Dark series (1994-96). And no, I don't count The New Nightmare as being part of that series.