Atari posts $12 million Q1 loss. Who's got the will?

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 7th 2007 at 2:00AM }

At this very moment in the town of Couer d'Couers, Ned, the pie maker, with the gift to bring the dead back to life for a short time (without consequences) stood over the body of Atari. The facts were these: The company of Atari was 35 years, 16 weeks, 4 hours and 9 minutes old. After already posting a $70 million loss in the last fiscal year, firing most of its board, borrowing $10 million and now reporting a $12 million loss for Q1, it was believed Atari had finally expired. But, just as the pie maker was about to touch the body -- to bring it back to life ever so briefly -- and ask where Atari stashed the will revealing its alleged secret fortune, a wholly unexpected thing happened. Atari popped up from the table and exclaimed, "I'm not dead yet!" And so, the startled pie maker left the morgue still trying to catch his breath, knowing he'd return soon enough.

Atari finally filed their delayed financial report for the quarter ending June 30 and laid out the bad news that they're down another $12 million. The company already sold most of its franchises like Stuntman and Driver; they're also in a dispute about potentially losing their Dragon Ball Z license as well. According to the quarterly report Atari states "substantial doubt about [their] ability to continue as a going concern."

Tags: atari, doom, financial, pushingdaisies

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mike @ Nov 7th 2007 2:23AM

what a great post. I love pushing daises. Best new series this season IMO. Hope it works out with this writers strike and all.

ukickmydog (NDF - Earth) @ Nov 7th 2007 9:34AM

seconded, one of my favorite shows now

Jerk Face @ Nov 7th 2007 9:48AM

Yep. Pretty damned alright TV, to be sure!

mafafu @ Nov 7th 2007 10:24AM

The only new show on my tivo list

ThornedVenom @ Nov 7th 2007 2:30AM

Well Atari, if you're back on your feet, start making good games from now on, and only then will we cut you some slack. =)

Otherwise, instead of being a noble Spartan, you're still going to be that zombie character fanboys are still going to mock.

MOT @ Nov 7th 2007 3:30PM

A Pushing Daisies reference. I love it.

samfish @ Nov 7th 2007 2:40AM

Atari needs to come up with a brilliant, risky new franchise and bet the rest of the bank on it. What have they got to lose at this point?

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 7th 2007 5:08AM

I like the way you think.

And look...

Undead Priest @ Nov 7th 2007 2:43AM

Kudos for the great Pushing Daisies style newspost. :)

I'm sure nobody (the general public) but the employees and shareholders of Atari cares about it's imminent demise. They haven't released anything worth mentioning, even negatively, in how long?

Kenofthedead @ Nov 7th 2007 2:48AM

As someone who has been fired from Atari.

I hope the ashes owe debt.

SHADO1980 @ Nov 7th 2007 11:39AM

As another ex-Infogrames/Atarian, I second that. Sadly they got rid of anyone who actually loved games in the company.

Mike Healy @ Nov 7th 2007 2:49AM

This is by far my favorite post here in a long time. I love Pushing Daisies and I couldn't help but hear the narrators voice say that post to me!

Keep it up Joystiq!!

Poisoned Al @ Nov 7th 2007 2:58AM

I can't say I'm sad. I never grew up with Atari (all us older Brits had ZX Spectrums) and reading their history it serves them right. Nintendo, Atari, Sega, Sony and now EA have proved that if you act like dicks, karma bites you in the arse.

Singapura @ Nov 7th 2007 3:04AM

Atari is nothing but a name anymore. Some one will probably buy it and try to cash in like they did with Commodore. They should go back to making arcade games.

Xbudz @ Nov 7th 2007 4:38AM

Hey Atari, just make a few more Test Drive games.. I'll buy them! Test Drive Unlimited was actually really good.

Joe @ Nov 7th 2007 7:07AM

I love the effort. And you guys would definitely make better TV writers than the amateurs on TVSquad.

JLTorrente @ Nov 7th 2007 7:42AM

On one side, I'm sad about Atari... they were a big part of gaming and the history of them is what comes to my mind when I read those 6 letters.

On the other side, I'm happy... they have pissed all over the DBZ name.

I say: BURN! Learn from Sega or go away.

Also, loved the Pushing Daisies Intro; Keep that level of awesomeness :)

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 7th 2007 7:46AM

Meh I have to disagree with that. The DBZ gamees are actually pretty fun (Budokai 3 is still the best one yet). But I wonder who will take the DBZ mantle from Atari? Maybe Ubisoft could do something with the franchise.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 7th 2007 7:45AM

Well done Joystiq, well done. Pushing Daisies is by far the most brilliant show I've seen so far. I hope it makes it to 2 seasons before it gets canceled (you know it will).

And if you don't watch it, you're the reason why T.V. sucks today.

josh @ Nov 7th 2007 11:55AM

TV sucks today? TV is better in the last few years than I can ever remember it being... especially if you have HBO/Showtime/etc.

Batzarro @ Nov 7th 2007 8:32AM

Pissed over DBZ: That's a laught!

I'm actually sad cause Telenet closed. No Valis sequel, then.

baby sea tuna @ Nov 7th 2007 8:42AM

Fuck Atari. Touch em again, Ned!

GD86 @ Nov 7th 2007 9:25AM

... wow I watch the show and that sounds really dirty.

But even now the last game I remember buying from Atari was enter the matrix and that was a such a bad decision.

baby sea tuna @ Nov 7th 2007 9:38AM

Last good Atari game I played was Driver 2 for PS1. Back in like 2000.

That's just sad.

The 84th @ Nov 7th 2007 8:43AM

atari is already not the same company as the old school atari, they went through this similar process before and were just a division of another publisher (i believe), the old atari has been dead for a while, this atari is just in name and nothing else, so it will probably just go through the same pattern again.