Atari partly on track, looks for a brighter 2007
Former Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell didn’t get to finish his re-organizational plans for the company when he was replaced by David Pierce last September. It would be remembered that when Atari was suffering from heavy losses, Bonnell suggested that the answer lies in re-focusing their creative efforts on external studios rather than internal development. On the other hand, Pierce announced recently they are now ready to move on.
“With the sale of the Shiny development studio, we have completed the divesture of our internal development studios streamlining our development operations,” explained Pierce. It’s uncertain if the new guy is gearing the company towards a new direction or if the plans of the former leader was completed. Aside from selling Shiny dev studio, a good number of Atari studios had been sold off:
- Stuntman developer Paradigm Entertainment to THQ
- Reflections Interactive and its once-coveted Driver license to Ubisoft for U.S.$ 21.6 million
- Enter the Matrix studio Shiny Entertainment to Foundation 9 for only U.S.$ 1.6 million
Regardless of which path they followed, the plan seem to have paid off in some way as Atari announced its first profit in years (for the July-September 2006 quarter) at U.S.$ 311,000. Unfortunately, overall revenue is still down as it took a U.S.$ 28.6 million blow. With that mentioned, Pierce chose to see the brighter side of things as he said, “finally, we are realizing the results of our previously announced cost reduction plans as general and administrative expenses are down 31 percent.”
Speaking of the same period, Atari’s best offer could be the well-accepted Neverwinter Night 2 (PC) which was release at the end of last month. If plans continue to turn out well, other notable releases from Atari this fiscal year will include: Bullet Witch for the X360, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 for Wii and PSP titles Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics and HOT PXL.
Via Gamespot
Former Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell didn’t get to finish his re-organizational plans for the company when he was replaced by David Pierce last September. It would be remembered that when Atari was suffering from heavy losses, Bonnell suggested that the answer lies in re-focusing their creative efforts on external studios rather than internal development. On the other hand, Pierce announced recently they are now ready to move on.
“With the sale of the Shiny development studio, we have completed the divesture of our internal development studios streamlining our development operations,” explained Pierce. It’s uncertain if the new guy is gearing the company towards a new direction or if the plans of the former leader was completed. Aside from selling Shiny dev studio, a good number of Atari studios had been sold off:
- Stuntman developer Paradigm Entertainment to THQ
- Reflections Interactive and its once-coveted Driver license to Ubisoft for U.S.$ 21.6 million
- Enter the Matrix studio Shiny Entertainment to Foundation 9 for only U.S.$ 1.6 million
Regardless of which path they followed, the plan seem to have paid off in some way as Atari announced its first profit in years (for the July-September 2006 quarter) at U.S.$ 311,000. Unfortunately, overall revenue is still down as it took a U.S.$ 28.6 million blow. With that mentioned, Pierce chose to see the brighter side of things as he said, “finally, we are realizing the results of our previously announced cost reduction plans as general and administrative expenses are down 31 percent.”
Speaking of the same period, Atari’s best offer could be the well-accepted Neverwinter Night 2 (PC) which was release at the end of last month. If plans continue to turn out well, other notable releases from Atari this fiscal year will include: Bullet Witch for the X360, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 for Wii and PSP titles Dungeons and Dragons: Tactics and HOT PXL.
Via Gamespot
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