Atari quits production and the CEO resigns

[Pavlos]

Source

As Atari exits game production to focus on publishing and distribution, the North American game publisher announced Tuesday that CEO David Pierce has resigned.

ImageCurtis G. Solsvig III, chief restructuring officer will be filling Pierce’s position on an interim basis as Atari searches for a replacement.

 

Atari had announced Pierce as CEO back in September 2006.

 

Meanwhile, Atari will refocus its business on publishing and distribution in North America, completely withdrawing from the production business.

 

Atari has also licensed its Test Drive franchise to Lyon, France-based parent Infogrames Entertainment S.A. for a $5 million advance royalty.

 

Atari will now focus on title acquisition, sales and marketing and physical distribution of games from Infogrames and “other select partners.”

 

A statement from Atari adds, “Atari has agreed in principle with IESA to terminate its Production Services Agreement in the near future. As a result, Atari will no longer provide production and quality assurances services to IESA. Rather, Atari plans to transfer certain employees and contract other staff on a project basis for a limited period of time.”

 

Atari will make additional workforce cuts as part of this latest round of restructuring.

 

The firm announced in 2006 the first inkling of a plan to get out of game development, as the studio began an initiative to sell off its internal development studios.

 

Atari recently reported a Q1 loss of $11.9 million and expressed “substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.”

 

Well, things aren't looking too happy for Atari are they?

[tk102]

Atari exits game production to focus on publishing and distribution

I thought that's all they were doing anyway.

[Aash Li]

Things never looked happy for Atari... worst gaming company. Ever. Im still amused/disgusted over Temple of Elemental Evil...

 

Glad they arent doing games anymore...

 

In other news; TK, whats your avatar from? Kinda looks like 80s anime.

[tk102]

Atari... worst gaming company. Ever.

Whoa whoa whoa. I hope you mean post-1990 Atari. The original Atari was a gaming pioneer in the 70s-80s and of us old-timers have our childhood memories forever intertwined with the Atari 2600.

 

TK, whats your avatar from? Kinda looks like 80s anime.

It's actually 2003 from Daft Punk's Interstella 5555 anime video for their Discovery album (1 hour video). It features the track "Harder Better Faster Stronger" which Samuel Dravis introduced me to.

[Web Rider]

Heh, after how horribly they've been doing recently, I think this is more welcomed than surprising.

[Balderdash]

Whoa whoa whoa. I hope you mean post-1990 Atari. The original Atari was a gaming pioneer in the 70s-80s and of us old-timers have our childhood memories forever intertwined with the Atari 2600.

The first computer I had was an Atari ST. The first RPG I ever played was Legends of Valour on there. This was more in the early 90s, if anything I believe. Heh, my childhood friend had an Amiga and we used to argue over which was best.

 

Atari is a fairly good publisher still so this isn't entirely unwelcome news from a consumer's point of view, so long as they don't go completely out of business.

[JediAthos]

Actually, Atari owns the rights to and has been developing the D&D games that have come out in the past few years: Temple of Elements, D&D tactics for PSP etc...

[Aash Li]

Of course I meant post-80s... my first platform was the 2600! I fondly remember playing Yars Revenge for hours... hehe