Atari Inc (not Europe) in serious trouble.

[Eudemon]

Source: http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/atari-losses-total-almost-12m-in-q1-future-in-question/18441/

 

How much longer can Atari sustain massive losses? Atari said its seeking additional financing, but Infogrames may not come to the rescue.

 

Beleaguered publisher Atari, U.S. subsidiary of French publisher Infogrames, today filed its delayed fiscal report for the first quarter ended June 30, 2007. Net revenue fell from $19.5 million to $10.4 million while the company's net loss amounted to $11.9 million, up from last year's net loss of $7.3 million during the same period.

 

Additionally, while publishing net revenue was basically unchanged ($9.7 million versus $9.8 million), distribution revenue fell to $700,000 from last year's $9.7 million.

 

Atari is hopeful that the filing of its delayed 10-Q will prevent its stock from being delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange. The company said it's awaiting Nasdaq's "final determination."

 

There's no doubt, however, that Atari's future is seriously in question. The company in the past has looked to its parent Infogrames (IESA) for help, but that help may not be guaranteed.

 

"Historically, IESA has sometimes provided funds we needed for our operations, but it is not certain that it will be able, or will be willing, to provide the funding we will need for fiscal 2008 or subsequent to that. Management continues to seek additional financing and is pursuing other options to meet the cash requirements for funding the 2007 holiday season and to meet the working capital cash requirements of the current quarter but there is no guarantee that we will be able to do so," Atari explained in its 10-Q filing.

 

Atari also recently revealed that it's in a battle with FUNimation to hold onto its Dragon Ball Z license, which is one of the more lucrative series for the struggling publisher.

Source: http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/atari-losses-total-almost-12m-in-q1-future-in-question/18441/

 

Read more at Google News by searching for "Atari".

[Iced_Bullet]

:mad: I take it TDU:2 will not be brought about if this is to end the wrong way :(

[SupermAnthony]

Atari don't make TDU they just publish it.

[Iced_Bullet]

good Point ;) I kinda forgot that :p

 

Ah well Eden can find another publisher rofl!

[Eudemon]

Eden are inhouse Atari developers.

[Aquila DK]

Then they'll hopefully sell the rights to some other game producer.

[SupermAnthony]

I wouldn't put it passed EA buying them. They're all for one developer and they're slowly buying companies... *Ahem* Bioware....

[Mb]

Wel if EA buys it we're getting Need for Unlimited or something :cry:

[Iced_Bullet]

Might not be a bad thing, aslong as they kept the Driving sim features and HANDELLING, as EA own the rights to BMWs in games - dont they?

[Eudemon]

NO chance, eden should stay with Atari or remain independent and stay well away with the scum that is EA. If Atari were to go under then I would like to see Ubisoft take over Eden or just remain independent. I wish EA would just die as a company but it seems that someone highup is friends with Satan as they can never do any wrong even when all they release is complete and utter crap.

 

EA would probably put Eden on one of their joke annual releases and kill TD as it would compete with their inferior NFS as it is today. They've done it once and they'll do it again. (Lamborghini the Game by Rage)

[Who]

EA constantly underdeliver :(

 

i was really looking forward to a game called railsimulator, what was being touted as the first proper successor to Microsoft train simulator, EA even hired the same team that made the original. they know what they were doing, yet unbelievably, EA still made an unadulterated pile of crap. *tries to act surprised*

 

oh, and with simcity societies, they've screwed up the perfect formula that used to be in SimCity.

 

Need for speed Hot pursuit 2 --*chavified*---> Need for speed underground... 'nuff said

 

in a nutshell, TDU should never go to EA, ever. you think atari has bad customer service? you aint seen nothing.

[Eudemon]

Reading some of these I noticed Atari has the rights to the back catalogue of the old Atari titles so why not put an HD version of Centipede on the Arcade, that game could rival Geometry Wars for addictiveness! Hell even an HD Pong, not 3D or nothing just simple 2D HD but with some nice effects in the background or pack Centipede and Pong HD together as the one for 800 MSP!

[Mb]

If Atari dies before PC DLC's i kill 'em all... :p

[Eudemon]

This quarter should be better what with The Witcher getting some excellent reviews and tbh it's a brilliant game, Ace Combat 6 has done not too bad in North America and Europe should be the same. Then you have Alone in the Dark 4 which is looking amazing.

 

What Atari need is more quality control, have people testing their games that know what they should be looking for and suggesting improvements and such. They also need to listen to their customers and act on it. After all it's their customers or lack of them that will either sink or swim the company and it's games as a whole. This silent treatment and complete blanking is not helping them one bit. One happy customer usually means 10 due to word of mouth however 1 unhappy customer can mean 100+ through the same means as bad news travels fast!

[SupermAnthony]

Diablo, get on the marketing team for Atari. You seem to have some good ideas, and could show them a thing or two of what we, the customers, want. Just look at TDU DLC - a small percentage of the cars are what the masses want, the rest are just cars that we have played or are playing in other games. Either that, or since you're a mod at Atari forums just give them a little hint at what is expected of them - and I don't just mean TDU.

 

Gotta agree with your comments on The Witcher and Alone In The Dark 4. They both look great; I'm quite looking forward to AITD4, though there's been very little media to get me "hyped" about it and the Atari forum for it is...dead? I'd like to play The Witcher just for the story, apparently it's amazing? Shame my PC is bobbins.

[Eudemon]

The eden games website has a very nice trailer for AITD4, go check it out, and Gametrailers has a very short but stunning trailer also.

 

I'd love to get on Atari team, though I probably wouldn't be there too long as I would never be a "yes" man, I'd always be questioning and trying to get info out of those above. Thanks for the kind words though Super.

[Pherelas]

Most people hate Atari, or at least they did when I was still on the official forums. Most gave them the benefit of the doubt so many times about things and they never got done so most people seem to have left (and come here I suppose which can't be a bad thing).

 

I couldn't really care if Atari went down (I know there is a lot of gaming history there but all thing come to an end, and the arcade games are a great idea, go back to small and build up again before taking a huge game like TDU with about 43p), may sound harsh but if TDU went to another developer where there was more money to be put into the game but with the same people doing it and the ideas from the community put in it will be brilliant. It really is as though with TDU they had a large sum of money at the beginning that they built most of the game with but at the end they didn't have the funds to polish it off leaving a great game that just has to many bugs, that extra money could have done that polishing.

 

EA have ruined a lot of game chain, need for speed as people have said was destroyed but they had a lot more money out of it and they are a business so I can understand that. Its customer service that is key for me not the games they make, don’t like don’t buy but when you buy you need customer service. So wherever it goes its needs money and Atari just can’t deliver that even if they get more money given to them, there never gunna pull it around.

[Eudemon]

I would think that this could be the kick up the arse they sorely need! Screw your customers, screw yourselves.

[Pherelas]

They have been in financhal difficulty for years havn't they, it isn't new, I don't think its going to happen, and they don't have the money to make it happen. Maybe if a rich russion or somthing took over and gave it a boost they can do it but untill then I think its game over (no pun intended).

[Eudemon]

Atari have been having to fend for themselves but only recently did they rearrange the board of directors with people who know nothing about games, now I know you think this is a bad thing but these people know how to run a business more than making games and when you're at the top you don't have to worry about making games, only making sure that the finances and business are running like a well oiled machine.

 

It might be too late for them, only time will tell.

 

What they really need is a restructuring of the business, one unit doesn't communicate with the other without communicating with another who has to get permission from another and this takes ages, whereas if they had a structured form of communication and a clear and linear method of travel between the different regions then this lack of knowing and then not informing their community would improve you would think significantly.

[Who]

I seem to remember coming onto this topic about a year and a half ago, with a guy called rParr (Atari community ID - TDU1, Atari europe ID = TDU12) he used to be the lead moderator on atari community, according to him, he couldnt see atari staying afloat much longer, and what's more, is he said that he'd been told that atari would never let go of the license, and would take it to the grave with them.

[S71NG3R]

An update and looks like good news for TDU we hope.

 

http://us.gamespot.com/news/6182833.html?tag=latestnews;title;1

 

Edit: post if you have found a better news story.

[Eudemon]

Yeah there's stories all over, Atari Inc (US) is concentrating on other things and have sold the licence for TDU to Infogrames who in fact are essentially owners of Atari Europe who own Eden Games who now own the TDU licence.

[Baldy]

This could be good news or it could be bad news, who knows.

[SupermAnthony]

What's Infogrames customer service like and does this mean that Infogrames will be dealing with new DLC news (if there is any left - still praying for that Zonda F)?