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Hope Fading at Atari
hisham writes "On the heels of the bad news on SGI's financial health, another former giant of the tech world announces concerns of bankruptcy: 'Bad times got worse at Atari as the company posted a loss and a 35% decline in sales in the important holiday quarter.' The CFO has resigned, and the company released a statement saying 'the uncertainties caused by these conditions raise substantial doubt about [Atari's] ability to continue as a going concern.' An icon of videogame history; if things turn sour, it will be sad to see Atari go (again)."
OK, if this Atari goes under, won't some other company just buy them out and call themselves Atari? Should we really mourn the loss of a company that's already gone?
Atari, I'd rather spend my time focusing on The spicy italian sandwich from Subway. 2 layers of salami and Pepperoni topped off with 4 slices of american cheese. Put a little mayo on there, some lettuce, tomatoes, and black olives, and you've almost got yourself a sandwich. Next, have them cover the sandwich in salt and pepper, then spray some oil and vinegar over the top, wrap it up and there's dinner. I think we can all give thanks for a sandwich that good. mmmmm mmmmm
I'm just hoping this doesn't affect the release of UT2007...
I've never considered Infogrames to be an icon of anything. Let's face it ... the real Atari died a loooong time ago. From Wikipedia's Atari article:
In March 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million--less than a fifth of what Warner Communications had paid 22 years earlier. This transaction primarily involved the brand and intellectual property, which now fell under the Atari Interactive division of Hasbro Interactive. The brand name changed hands again in December 2000, when French software publisher Infogrames took over Hasbro Interactive.
... on The Temple of Elemental Evil, good riddance.
This is a rebought Atari. The orginial Atari already had gone under and been rebought by Infogrames. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATARI)
"Every time a bell rings, a Dell laptop bursts into flame."
with the current monoculture in video game design, it's not very surprising that people no longer buy games. They're over priced, uninteresting and some games are about as interactive as a dvd menu.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
What have they done lately that's all that exciting?
Rerelease their decomposing classics (again) or some Dragonball game?
Sorry, but dinosaurs have to go extinct. I never admired how the company was run and after Bushnell, the management always seemed like a bunch of know-nothing (or at least second-rate) PHBs when it wasn't a roach (lawyer) motel raking in the cash from IP lawsuits.
Good riddance. I hope this time they stay dead.
Even though this company has nothing to do with the real Atari from my home computer days, the news still makes me feel sad.
I start remembering the god old days when I got my first computer, the Atari 1040STFM! I think I'll take it down from the wardrobe and cuddle it a litte...
do you go out of business when all you do is license your old games, sell your old console, and license your logo to t-shirt makers? They have got to have like $113 in R&D spent per month, where the hell did the money go?
+5, Used the word "monoculture".
You'd think they'd have plenty of money from liscensing the logo alone, with all the Atari shirts i've seen the hip kids wearing the past few months.
Does this mean that Infogrames, which sells products under the Atari name in some parts of the world, is going down the tubes, or just that the division of Infogrames selling under the name Atari is doing poorly?
Infogrames officially changed their name to Atari a while back, so, by saying Atari is in trouble, they mean the whole company.
I would suspect that the millions in licenseing fees have been paid out to some fatcat PHB execs in the form of bonuses. Mostly, it just annoys me to see companies do this. it happens all over, not just the gaming industry. You name it - laundry detergent, cars, restraunts. I've seen it time and again.
First, "in order to maximize profit" the quality of the product begins to creep downward while the price either maintains or goes up. Then, because the product is absolute crap, the bean counters who dictated this are amazed when people get fed up and start buying something else.
As an avid gamer, I've played several of Atari's recent releases. They pretty much sucked. The graphics were poorly rendered. The games were buggy. It was quite evident that they didn't receive the polish that they should have. And the price? Well, they weren't any cheaper than anything that is well polished, like offerings from Microsoft, Bioware or EA.
Capitalism runs under darwinistic rules - survival of the fittest. Atari certianly isn't the "fittest" and while I will be sad to see them die since I loved Pole Position, I'll only be truly unhappy until someone better comes along with slick new games for me to play.
2 cents,
Queen B
HDGary secures my bank
As a former QA tester for them who was laid off without warning 6 days before Xmas, 2003, I can't help but feel distinct schadenfreude whenever I read bad news about them.
Sure, Atari was a household name from the Atari 2600 from the late 70s to early 80s, but after that, things went downhill. The 5200, the 7800, the not licensing the NES(I bet they kicked themslves in the head after that, or they would have botched it), and the godawful Jaguar.
Atari was that rock star who had a big hit or 2 in the early 80s, but then had no career after that. They walk into the Viper Room, say who they are, and still don't get free drinks.
Again, maybe the name is just cursed.
They quit Atari and founded Activision. Why? Because the new owners were morons, and stiffled their creativity with stupid things like dress code, to say the least.
More info on Activision
Imagine my surprise when I came out of my childhood years only to find my idol Atari didn't even make half the games I loved. I had to shift my adoration to Namco.
The Atari name surely is cursed. It causes management to get stupid(er), I really can't say I'm surprised at this news.
They did, at least, release Unreal Tournament 2003 + 2004, which are all-time faves of mine. Before and since? Nothing even got on my radar.
Maybe this is why they have been so quiet on whether they are working on a new expansion pack for RCT3 or not...
Indigo Prophecy was published by Atari last year, and it's a very unique take on the console adventure game. Think Shadow Of Destiny with tighter pacing, more playable characters, a more interesting interface, and no time travel schtick. And GameStop just dropped it to $20 new. Good stuff.
An icon of videogame history; if things turn sour, it will be sad to see Atari go (again).
"Again" being the operative word... Which incarnation of the Atari is that? Third[1]? So what? It will go under, and another company will buy the name in some time... Nothing to see here, move along.
Robert
[1] There was the Atari that started the "computer games" business, and then there was the Atari under the leadership of Jack Tramiel (800XL, Atari ST etc), and now is this Atari, about to go belly up.
Bastard Operator From 193.219.28.162
Infogrammes taking the Atari name was just a marketing stunt. The place has lost it's soul, since all the brightest and best left in droves a long time ago. I work with those people now, and I'll tell you, they ain't exactly pouring forth praises of Atari.
Most specifically they speak of poor management decisions, lack of direction and lack of respect for their developers. Most of all, they speak of a Chief Creative Officer (Bruno Bonnell) of being out of touch and steering the ship towards a massive iceberg. Everyone seems to be rubbing their hand with glee everytime Atari gives out bad news. To me, that seems a very strong indicator of the company they worked in. It doesn't really matter if they do go under. The industry will snap the developers up quick smart. The higher ups however....
scene interesting and fun these days.
http://www.atariage.com/ has an active home brew community that is working on some very interesting stuff. The tech is old, but that does not seem to matter very much where creativity is concerned. I've seen a steady progress of 2600 improvements over the years that's just great to watch and participate in.
It's a lot like the 80's when we were all writing games for one another, playing them and having fun.
Blogging because I can...
I saw this posted, with the same damn wistful tone, over on Metafilter too! There I was more understanding, but the fact that the same story is popping up everywhere, with the same tone, makes me a little suspecious.
This is NOT the classic Atari! The second-most classic Atari was the one that released the home computers and game consoles, which was fine for a while, but ultimately it died all on its own.
The MOST classic Atari, without question, is the one that got renamed Midway Games West before dumping everyone and dying themselves. The that used to be known as Atari Games. The arcade company. The only game company I can think of who made better games than Nintendo.
They made everything in the Infogrammes-Atari's "classics" catalogue (and most of them are still deserving of that name), and most of the good stuff in the three Midway Arcade Treasures compilations to boot. THEY should be mourned. Not, by ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION, THIS Atari.
void
Atari is like the Doctor (Doctor Who), this incarnation might die but it will be back after it regenerates. And thanks to all the confusion and due to my namesake and former shareholder in the older Atari, I will clear up the misconceptions.
The original Atari was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. After the lack of success with Bushnell's adaptation of the MIT "Spacewar" game as an arcade title called "Computer Space" manufactured by Nutting Associates, Bushnell wanted to make an easier electronic arcade game. Atari's "Pong" came next, programmed by the great Al Alcorn. True, it was an updated version of a game that Ralph Baer created (but his version sucked) and it became an overnight sensation.
Prior to 1976, Steve Jobs worked for Atari and Jobs would sneak in Steve Wozniak to help him do designs in return for Wozniak getting to play as much "Night Driver" as possible. Depending upon the account told, Wozniak was or was not an actual employee of Atari. The pair took parts from Atari and used it to work on what later became the Apple I.
By 1976, Atari was an established arcade player but it needed funding to finish designing what became the Atari 2600 VCS, the world's most successful home videogame system. Bushnell sold the company to Warner Communications, thanks to its charismatic chairman, Steve Ross. Money had been so tight that Bushnell had to pass on Steve Jobs' offer to fund and own what became Apple Computer, Inc., but Bushnell hooked Jobs up with the venture capitalist that had helped him, and the rest is Apple history. Bushnell stayed on with Atari until 1979 when he left because he did not see eye-to-eye with the Warner brass. Both were equally at fault in the equation; Bushnell for insisting that the 2600 VCS didn't have a much longer shelf life, and Warners for not backing Bushnell's suggestion to quickly fund the development of its replacement. Add to the fact that Bushnell had never backed the creation of the Atari Pinball division which Warner wanted, which later closed, and you have more of the picture of what happened. When Bushnell left, he bought back a new Atari division that he personally created, known as (Chuck E. Cheese's) Pizza Time Theatre.
In 1980, Atari's brass wanted to consolidate all their U.S. operations into a single Silicon Valley campus...which would have cost $500 million. Warner buckled. So instead, Atari went on to sprawl throughout the Valley into 72 different buildings, which was a cost waste. 1979/1980 also saw Atari's debut with the Jay Miner engineered Atari 8-bit computer line, the 400 and 800 computers which ran rings around the Apples, the Commodores, and all other home computers of that time in the graphics and sound departments. Miner later left when the Atari brass refused to fund the project he was pushing for which was creating a home computer based up Motorola's new microprocessor, the Motorola 68000. Miner went on to create what became the Amiga, which like the Apple Macintosh and the later Atari ST, was powered by that very same Motorola 68000.
79/80 also saw Atari programmers split over a disagreement with Atari boss Ray Kasser. They went on to found Activision, the world's first third party videogame developer. However, since most of their first games were coded during their time when they were paid Atari employees, Atari sued and the settlement dictated that Atari got a portion of the profits off each of their games sold. There was no model for third party licensing/restrictions at this time - with the exception of VHS and Beta in the home video industry - and Atari had between 80% and 90% of the home video game market AND the arcade (AND a sizeable portion of the home computer market) and thus had Atari attempted anything as such the government would have stepped in and broken up the company just as they were about to do to AT&T. Now compare the Atari monopoly to the later Nintendo monopoly. Atari's monopoly was a "natural monopoly". Atari had no control on any third party manufacturers. The only claim that
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Thanks for the detailed history. If you don't edit the Wikipedia article yourself, would you give permission for somebody else to put it nearly verbatim into Wikipedia?
The current Atari is not a friend to real fans of Atari. They have bullied and killed many 2600 projects, ending distribution of enhanced Atari 2600 binaries and threatening any homebrew ptojects with names similar to old Atari properties, even to the point of forcing "Joust Pong" to become "Flap Ping". As someone who purchased over 100 Atari 2600 cartridges just today, I hope we see a new owner, or better yet no owner, in the near future.
They're still called Infogrames in Europe (though they publish under the Atari logo and name) and according to their website their income in Europe went up by 6% even though their US income went down by 40%.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Oh Oh! Nortel/Enron alert: "...The CFO has resigned,..." I predict a major accounting fiasco, provided they stay above water and they actually had finances to squander.
"And Brand names in capitalism fall under the laws of reincarnation... The Atari you mentioned loving, based on your ref to Pole Position, died several lives ago. This is at least the 3rd incarnation since then and I doubt it will be the last. One day, I hope to own the rights to Atari..."
I fail to see how would Infogrames really be a "reincarnation" of the original Atari. It's like me changing my name to Mark Twain or JRR Tolkien. Regardless of whether I've paid anything for the name or it was just a quick trip through the apropriate bureaucracy, it doesn't make me the reincarnation of either, and it sure doesn't make me have the literary skill or style of either. It's just a PR stunt to get the attention of people who recognize the name.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
And it did NOT run rings around the Apple II. It had a membrane keyboard! Do you actually THINK before writing crap?
With DDO going live on Feb. 28th of this year, Atari should be getting some of the revenue for that. How much is the question.
Considering that DDO is one of the more anticipated MMO releases for 2006, their profits should get a kick in the pants.
[nothing else]