Hello,
I suspect some people have heard Infogrames is going to sell Atari Europe to Namco Bandai. Well actually Namco Bandai gets all of the publishing business PAL territory+Japan while the remnants of Atari will be active in the rest of the NTSC territory. (Odd split in this digital television age).
This leaves some of questions. I don't think you would sell such a major share of your business if you are running okay. Not even if you are not so profitable. Only if the end is near.
I wonder what remains of Infogrames. Of course they still have Atari Inc., which originates from the publishing division of no longer existing Microprose (the other part of Microprose, the development studio in Hunt Valley, was shutdown by Infogrames in 2003). Does anyone know if Infogrames will have any other remaining business? If no it would be very odd that a French company will be active, well, basically mainly in the U.S.
I personally don't think Atari is in good health at all, and hasn't been for awhile. They didn't show up at E3 this year, and the rumor was that they flat out couldn't afford it and/or had nothing to show off. The latter part especially seems to have some merit...think about it, can you name 3 recent Atari releases off the top of your head? And if you do look the list up, aside from Ghostbusters (which has gotten pretty solid reviews), it basically reads like crap, crap and more crap.
They already sold the whole Euro publishing business to Namco Bandai, actually. And this is after selling off their Asian publishing arm. They don't have much in the way of content out on the market, they don't seem to have much on the way that really grabs your attention...I think Atari is quite possibly going swirly.
Heh, can't think of more recent releases since I don't bother about Atari games eversince MoO3, but this already brings us to my point. MoO3 and The Temple of Elemental Evil were absolute crap out of the box. So it's really not a big surprise they're going down the drain.
The important question is: What will Namco Bandai do with Ataris legendary franchises? Master of Orion & Master of Magic.
Don't forget TA, and I think Atari bought out some other good ones too.
wasn't the ghostbusters game from atari? it had to have sold well... everyone i know bought some format of it.
Namco Bandai didn't buy any apsect of Atari's development studios or their games properties, they just bought their European publishing and distribution systems.
lordkosc : Yes they did, and it has done pretty well. Prior to that, though...I honestly don't know what Atari's last hit game was. And Ghostbusters hasn't been the sort of mega smash that can help right a company's bottom line.
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