Infogrames Officially Changes Name To Atari

According to this story from Reuters via Yahoo News, Infogrames is now officially changing its name to Atari worldwide. The French publisher originally picked up the home rights to the Atari name after buying Hasbro Interactive in 2001, and had recently been rebranding much of its line-up (even PC RPGs) with the Atari logo alongside the Infogrames one. Lovable French ruffian and Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell will open the Nasdaq stock exchange on Wednesday morning to herald the new ATAR stock ticker symbol for the company.

Comments

Re:Atari?

[Oriumpor]

Well... umm most of the games made for the atari were not even atari brand games.... or even licensed by atari (SINCE ATARI HAD NO LICENSING REQUIREMENTS FOR SOFTWARE COMPANIES)

*see classicgaming.com for an interesting history lesson*

No atari t-shirts?

[PinkX]

So does this means that we won't be able to get any more unofficial Atari t-shirts with the Atari logo on it?

On a side note, the slashdot guys couldn't have chosen an uglier color scheme for the games section of the site?

Re:No atari t-shirts?

[gl4ss]

what makes you think that you could get them before any more better than now?-) like, they owned the rights to it before the full name change as well, and used the logo too.

while at the alternative-party they gave away atari shirts(they had atari/infogrames as sponsor) as prizes. funny thing was that there was this one infogrames employee who attended(and won one competition, and got a tshirt among other things) and when rewarded told that he had tried to get an atari t-shirt for a long time but couldnt get it through the company he worked for.

they also gave away atari coasters(the beer pint variety).

Re:No atari t-shirts?

[Tink2000]

Apple has the same issues... I worked for a University bookstore where you had to go if you wanted to get a Mac anywhere in about a 60 mile radius. I was also a rather staunch PC owner but enthusiastic Mac supporter. People who bought machines could get the shirts occasionally (read as: if they showed up to pick up their machine and our Mac corporate guy happened to be there, and they happened to beg for a while). But still, I interfaced with the general public for 40 hours a week, you'd think the rep would be giving me Mac shirts by the boatload. Still, I managed to get a very nice purple one that has the Apple logo very discreetly sewn on the sleeve, and I think out of all the gimme shirts I have it's my favorite. The Corporate guy swore up and down that it was hell for even him to score a shirt for himself, but he always had the really cool ones (the sweaters and pullovers instead of the white tees).

The Incarnations of Atari

[fm6]

• Founded by Nolan Bushnell (1972).
• Sold to Warner Communications (predecessor of AOL-Time-Warner) 1975.
• Warner splits Atari into Home and Arcade divisions. Jack Trammiel, founder (forcibly retired) of Commodore buys Home division, forms Atari Computer Corp. (1984)
• Arcade division gets renamed Atari Games, then Atari/Tengen, then Time Warner Interactive, then gets sold to Williams/WMS, which sells it to Midway, which renames it Midway Games West! (Dates and veracity dubious!)
• Atari Computer Corp merges with disk drive maker JTS (1996)
• JTS/Atari sells its "Atari assets" to Hasbro Interactive (1998).
• Hasbro Interactive absorbed by Infogrammes Entertainment SA as part of malicious French conspiracy. Renamed Infogrammes Interactive. (2001)
• Infogrammes Entertainment renames its North American acquistions "Atari". (2003)
• Chuck E Cheese buys Infogrammes Entertainment SA, renames it "Freedom Software" (2004).

In researching this timeline, I made a truely mind-boggling discovery: Atari was briefly in the engineering/scientific/graphics workstation business!

Re:The Incarnations of Atari

[QuackQuack]

Midway also recently shut down the "Midway Games West" division, prompting a wave of "Atari goes out of business" articles.

In researching this timeline, I made a truely mind-boggling discovery: Atari was briefly in the engineering/scientific/graphics workstation business [atarimuseum.com]!

Yep, They also made unsuccessful PC clones at one point. Tramiel's Atari tried lots of things that ultimately failed. They didn't have the resources to pull them off.

Also, in the Warner days, Atari was rumored to be developing a system and games that could be controlled by "thought" power. I kid you not. You attached sensors to your forehead, and positive thoughts caused the system to do one thing, and negative thoughts, something else. That was the theory, I guess they weren't successful at it, because I'm sure we would've seen such a system from somebody if it could be done.

apologies in advance...

[Hadlock]

Atari was briefly in the engineering/scientific/graphics workstation business!

Imagine a beowulf cluster of Transputers!

I'm okay with this.

[pommaq]

Well, the Infogrames armadillo was cool and all, but that "Fuji" logo is simply one of the most beautiful pieces of graphic design ever.
EVER.

Trying to hide shame behind a proud name

[Nice2Cats]

Infogrames just screwed up the release of Master of Orion 3 big time -- the game is a disaster and they still haven't released even the first code patch for it after, what now, two months? To say I now avoid products with that name is an understatement.

Now, Atari -- I still have my Atari ST downstairs, and from time to time I plug it in, boot it and cry a little over the clean, crisp picture on the screen, the ease of use, and how unfair the world in general is. I could even do uucp with that machine, and if it only had had a MMU...and if only IBM hadn't bought MS DOS...if only pigs could fly...

Shame, shame, shame on Infogrames for dragging Atari down into the muck with them. Of course, it won't help: The Brits tried renaming their continuous disaster of a nuclear plant "Windscale" to "Sellafield" (or vice versa, I keep forgetting) but that didn't fool people one bit.

Re:Trying to hide shame behind a proud name

[analog_line]

I highly doubt that Infogrames is undergoing the name change in the US to dodge scorn from pissed off customers over MOO3. Don't disagree with MOO3 being crap, but Infogrames has far bigger fish than that.

I suspect it has a lot more to do with appearing to be less French to the American game market. The country-wide unspoken, unorganized boycott of things appearing to be too French is really hurting French businesses. Not fatally, but it's leaving a mark. Just seems strange when they out of the blue take on the name that's as American as apple pie and blue jeans to most gamers in the States.

This supposition probably is not 100% true. Most people in positions of authority seem to be completely, utterly, 100% not at all influenced by events surrounding them, as all huge unexpected changes have always been "planned far in advance." One wonders if they have bathroom trips for the next four years accounted for. And frankly, even before saying someone looked French was turned into a political character assasination tool, the ATARI name is worth a lot of money, and Infogrames certainly has been using it pretty freely recently.

Good timing on their part, though.

Re:Trying to hide shame behind a proud name

[QuackQuack]

Now, Atari -- I still have my Atari ST downstairs, and from time to time I plug it in, boot it and cry a little over the clean, crisp picture on the screen, the ease of use, and how unfair the world in general is. I could even do uucp with that machine, and if it only had had a MMU...and if only IBM hadn't bought MS DOS...if only pigs could fly...

Ease of use? I always found Atari's GEM implementation hopelessly frustrating, at least if you wanted to do anything more than launch programs.

Still, if you like the ST, you might want to check out the aranym project, which aims to turn your PC into a modern Atari system. Many open source programs have been made to run under aranym, and many old ST programs will also work with it

A slap in the face...

[NetDanzr]

As a longtime Atari fan, I consider this to be a slap in the face. Having barely recovered from the slap caused by Spectrum Holobyte changing its name to Mindscape in 1995, now I need to suffer the gaming company with the worst tech support out there to appropriate the name Atari. Up to this day, Atari had a relatively good reputation, which now goes down the drain.

They should really produce side-scrolling games.

[mnmn]

I'm happy about the reincarnation of this brand name, now I just hope they dont just run blindly after technologies like ID software, and stick to some old Atari style games. Theres definitely a market and the brand name is well respected. People miss it.

Get them here

[TomatoMan]

Urban Outfitters has a nice one here (site uses stupid frames, this link is to the item out of its enclosing frame). Mine is dark blue, and the yellow Atari logo is fuzzy like those blacklight posters of the 70s. Perfect.

Re:Yeah, but...

[Tink2000]

Right after they release ET: The Extraterrestrial 2, I'd imagine.

Ooh look! A little dot! *raises neck and makes meowing-like noises*

Are they finally figuring it out? Or not?

[Hegemony Cricket]

...Infogrammes went on a massive buying spree and scored an amazing deal when they took Hasbro's properties.

Hasbro figured out it couldn't make video games so they dumped EVERYTHING. For a million cash and a bunch of now worthless stock, Infogrammes tied up the electronic rights to EVERY Hasbro property for nigh on fifteen years (that's Wizards of the Coast (TSR and all), Avalon Hill, Transformers, etc.).

I wouldn't be so irritated if they exploited these brands properly. However, up until this point Infogrammes has treated the treasures at their disposal much like Atari...as nothing more than names.

Oh well, they've been making positive rumblings for the past few months, so here's to Bruno ditching his "If it can't be played on a plane, or doesn't have the same appeal as a TV show then it's out" mentality and getting back to his ultra-nerd roots.

Maybe the switch to Atari is more than a cynical attempt to bundle the same bad decisions with a friendlier wrapper...maybe it marks a real groundshift in how they approach their business...

Here's hoping for the latter, since we have no other choice for more than a decade.

Brand Recognition

[Torvo]

It's less about the history of what has been produced under the Atari name & logo than it is about the relative recognize-ability of the logo and name. Yes, the Infogrames Armadillo (or "floating potato" as one of its incarnations was known) is reasonably well known amongst gamers, but the Atari name and logo are burned into the collective American consciousness as a video game brand. Infogrames has been spending huge buckets of dollars to get people to recognize and accept their branding (as well as spelling) for several years. Economically-speaking, it's a better dollar investment for them to adopt the Atari brand as their corporate identity -- people already know the name, know the logo and know how to pronounce it. (Four years ago, the Infogrames internal newsletter had a pronunciation guide of the corporate name so all the employees would know the "proper" way to say it -- "'info-GRAHAM', like the cracker!")