I suspect Atari is kicking themselves about now.

[Willem]

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Atari Inc. (Nasdaq:ATAR - news) on Thursday posted a wider quarterly loss as sales fell 44 percent after the video game developer and publisher released fewer titles amid a transition to new video game console technology.

The seller of such games as "Indigo Prophecy" and "Dragon Ball GT: Transformation," had a fiscal second-quarter net loss that widened to $25.2 million, or 20 cents a share, from net loss of $16.9 million, or 14 cents, in the year-ago quarter ended September 30. Atari's loss from continuing operations in the most recent quarter was 19 cents per share.

Revenue dropped to $38.4 million from $68.0 million.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company to post a net loss of 14 cents a share and a loss excluding items of 18 cents a share on revenue of $30.5 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

In a conference call with analysts, Atari chief executive Bruno Bonnell called the retail environment "lackluster." He added that the company would be shipping major releases -- including its first Xbox 360 title "TimeShift" -- in the second half and soon announce two new directors.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT - news) is shipping its next-generation Xbox 360 console to North American stores on November 22. Game sales have slumped recently as consumers wait for games for the new system.

Atari in recent months has closed studios and sold non-core assets. Its parent company is Infogrames Entertainment (IFOE.PA) of France.

Company shares, which closed up a penny to $1.28 on the Nasdaq prior to its financial report, were unchanged in after-hours trade.

[Harovan]

I refuse to call them Atari. Atari is an old honorable name, which does not deserve to be ruined by this company. They are Infogrames, and will always remain Infogrames.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
I refuse to call them Atari. Atari is an old honorable name, which does not deserve to be ruined by this company. They are Infogrames, and will always remain Infogrames.

I agree

Infogrames


There should be a law against stealing old wellknown names and trash it!!!

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Adagio


I agree

Infogrames


There should be a law against stealing old wellknown names and trash it!!!

There is a law like this and it is called free market - and Infogrames is now paying a hefty "fine" under it, apparently.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
I refuse to call them Atari. Atari is an old honorable name, which does not deserve to be ruined by this company. They are Infogrames, and will always remain Infogrames.

QFT

Atari

Infogrames

Infogrames in Atari clothing

[clarkcd]

WTH is a grame anyway?

[wilebill2]

Ain't you never eat none of them 'grame crackers?

[FinnishGuy]

Originally posted by clarkcd
WTH is a grame anyway?

Maybe it means something in French? Infogrames was a French company originally.

[xxFlukexx]

Yes, I hate them too. Hate them with a vengeance. What there should be a law against it screwing over your customers/employees and then immediately changing your name to fool everyone.

Seriously though, Atari/Infogrames *ruined* Civ3 and MoO3, which instead of being awesome were both pretty sub-standard games(MoO3 being a complete failure) and that ushered in a new dark age of TBS games that almost threatened to kill the genre. I mean name any worthwhile TBS game that came out in the last 2-3 years.

It's really despicable what Atari did, I mean Civ3:Play the world, MoO3, Temple of Elemental Evil, all three released as buggy and/or horribly unfinished games. They wanted the cash and then sold off the licenses that they could. The real weird part is that they sold the Civ license to a mysterious buyer? Wtf was that all about, can't you say that you sold the license to such and such or are you so crazy that you think that would be like advertising for them?

The only people that gained anything were the people who left before Infogrames messed everything up, Brian Reynolds + crew, who went on to make the best RTS game in a long time.

I do think that if we can liberate NWN from Atari's grasp that Atari will just naturally kill itself by making bad games, yay.

[MarkG]

Revenue dropped to $38.4 million from $68.0 million

As much as Civ4 sells, it cant cover 30 million in sales

[MarkG]

Originally posted by xxFlukexx
The real weird part is that they sold the Civ license to a mysterious buyer?

it's not unknown, the civ license is now owned by Take2 Interactive http://www.take2games.com/

[Skanky Burns]

At the time it was unknown, and not everyone saw the announcement that take2 had bought the license. Actually, despite having the game, I still didn't realise who owned Civ now.

[sabrewolf]

xxFlukexx, you can blame the publisher for failures in games. maybe in terms of quality because the pressure for earlier release... but MoO3 was iirc broken by design.

and the missing of multiplaying in civ3 vanilla and the very modest SP changes in PTW are mainly the development firm's fault.
and btw... PTW (imho the worst of the 3) was not by atari/infogrames anyhow...

[sophist]

I don't think Atari is looking that the Civ4 sales and thinking OMG!!!!!11111 They got money for selling it. They had to have had some clue what the expected sales were and what they were walking away from. They might not be the sharpest knives in the drawer, but they're not as dumb as the OP thinks.

[Willem]

Originally posted by MarkG

Revenue dropped to $38.4 million from $68.0 million

As much as Civ4 sells, it cant cover 30 million in sales

Still, it was a stupid move on their part to sell off a franchise that was pretty much guarenteed to sell well. And now that Civ 4 is getting near perfect reviews, they're probably realizing that. When the first patch comes out, the game will probably be flying off the shelves. They're getting just what they deserve for being shortsighted, and just looking for a quick buck.