Atari expecting layoffs and IP sales

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 20th 2007 at 10:08AM }

Atari continues its death throes by announcing the cessation of work on current projects, the laying off of more staff and the sales of the remainder of its IPs. This is like the business equivalent of hitting the reset button instead of just quitting. Following the departure of the Atari CEO last week, the company also posted an $8 million Q2 loss -- this follows the recent and strategically delayed announcement of a $12 million Q1 loss.

Atari's parent company Infogrames has already made clear the intention of leaving its child on the side of the road, hoping it'll figure out the way home by its lonesome. What's even worse is that Atari's essentially admitting the fixes it has planned may not be able to turn the ship around, stating in a report, "We cannot guarantee the completion of these actions or that such actions will generate sufficient resources to fully address the uncertainties of our financial position." Translation: We ain't gots a clue what be happenin'. There's no word really on what games Atari is going to kill to save money, but at this point you'd think that Alone in the Dark would be the last development hurrah -- but we'll see.

Tags: atari, business, infogrames, ip, layoffs

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Donald @ Nov 20th 2007 10:13AM

Instead of good video game IP, package contained bobcat.

Would not buy again.

LiK @ Nov 20th 2007 10:16AM

goodbye Atari, it's about time

T3H WICKERMAN (FDF) @ Nov 20th 2007 10:16AM

Please just die. Ataris like a family member with a terminal illness. You know they are in pain and it hurts to see them this way. Im sick of seeing a part of my child hood flail about like some pathetic junky that took too much.

Briz9 @ Nov 20th 2007 10:42AM

If they're halting projects, then why did we just get an Alone in the Dark trailer a day or two ago? It seems like that game is still in the works (at least I hope).

XDragon @ Nov 20th 2007 10:55AM

Awe, common guys, maybe you're not old enough to appreciate Atari and what they did back in the day. While its true that they've done nothing or very little worth mentioning lately, its still sad news when something like this happens to one of the originals. Its one of those situations where I'd like to see the name live on even if its through another company's purchase.

XDragon @ Nov 20th 2007 11:13AM

*sequel*

Anticrawl @ Nov 20th 2007 11:06AM

@XDragon

This isn't the Atari we know and love from our childhood, this is and evil entity that is cloaked under the nostalgic Atari name. The Atari we knew died a long time ago and left only it's name for the world to inherit, unfortunatly untold evils found said name and used it's power to attempt to destroy gaming as we know it.

If Atari is curious as to what they're doing wrong it's perhaps that consumers aren't as stupid as they use to be and slowly have stopped buying all these lame games that only serve to milk an established TV show to death. Some of us have also realized what shovelware is, are aware of it and stay far away from that godless type of game.

Maybe Atari should focus their efforts on a decent game? But even then, it's to late for such a thing. They have lost all respect in the gaming community and no matter how good any game they make we will shrug it off and laugh at them. I guess the best option for them is to continue pushing the bolder up a hillside, but never reaching the top. Selling off IPs and firing people is probably the smartest thing they've done in 10 years.