Nolan Bushnell and Tom Virden join Atari board; Harrison and Gardner depart

Apparently Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has ended his recent revisit with game development, as the publisher announced today the addition of Bushnell to its executive board alongside "online entrepreneur" Tom Virden. This is the second executive acquisition announcement that Atari has made in recent days, with John Burns, former European head of EA's online publishing, joining up just last week. The company has said it's focusing on moving towards an online-based business, and today's appointments will be overseeing that transition with the rest of the Audit Committee (a.k.a. the executive board).

"I am very excited to be reacquainted with Atari at a time when it is poised to make interesting strides in key growth areas of the games industry," Bushnell said. "The company and its iconic brands have always been important to me, and I look forward to further guiding them at the board level."

Meanwhile, Atari has also announced the resignations of David Gardner, former CEO and director at Infogrames, and Phil Harrison, former Atari president turned board member. Happy trails!

Update: An Atari rep got back to us, confirming that Bushnell and Virden will be filling the positions left open by Harrison and Gardner.

Reader Comments (34)

That's a historical moment right there.

Yea it is...

The wood pipe... the nice clean beard... the cheetah print tie. Timeless.

That's actually pretty cool that Bushnell is back.

New Atari console inbound? ;)

That would be phenomenal if there was.

We need someone to give a kick in the pants to Microsoft and Sony.

Everybody needs a kick in the pants.

Well, the Flashback 3 (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this was meant to be a comeback of the Atari 8-bit computer platform) and Flashback 2 Portable have been possibilities for a while. However, though one or both of those was supposed to be able to load software from an SD card, I take it you meant a wholly new expandable platform. Unless you know of some massive influx of capital at the current Atari that I don't, seems unlikely.

Right now would be a perfect time for someone to join the market. None of the three are in a position to market a new console for at least a year. While Atari may not have cash, plenty of companies do and might be interested in a partnership...

Atari is rising again...AS A GALACTIC EMPIRE!

No, but in all seriousness, this is awesome.

That picture makes me long for the burning bed.

is that some kind of venereal disease?

If I got a three way going with Zeldick and Kotex you bet there's gonna be some VD involved.

I still find it "funny" that Steve Jobs used to work for Atari back in it's hey-day.

Yeah, and he was screwing over poor Woz even then!

@ 32X - You say that like he just continued to screw him over, or that he's still being screwed over now. Woz left amicably (officially after Jobs, in fact), and they're both still good friends.

Arguably, he did. Jobs has always been a dirtbag.

Soo. . . . What does Atari have in development game-wise?

E.T.- The HD Remake. Celebrating the years of a timeless classic.

They do own Cryptic. And they publish some games. The Witcher 2 is one of the more notable games on the way.

Then there's the Flashback consoles.

So I guess that uWink thing wasn't workin' out so well, eh Bushy?

"I spent a decade on that idea only to get outdone in a week by some Aussie who does stick figure game reviews!"

Glad to see he's back where he belongs...

out with the new; in with the old. and what an improvement it is.

i hope bushnell helps bring back atari, the way jobs did apple.

It's seems only fitting.

After all, he probably never would've left, if he hadn't pissed off the brass at Warner.

And look what they did to Atari!

Don't forget to blame Tramiel. He contributed to Atari's fall.

The damage had pretty much been done by the time Tramiel took over.

Warner shot themselves by spending so much for the rights for Atari to make ET and a few other arcade titles. Then to add insult to injury, the games were just of piss-poor quality (except for maybe Berzerk, and a few of the later arcade ports...Atari learned their mistake after Pac-Man. But the public was pretty much apathetic, by that point. Colecovision has taken the top spot.)

Then came the debacle that was the 5200. That was pretty much it, as far as Atari was concerned.

Tramiel's Atari ST computers kicked ass for the price point though...hell, mine even emulated that Mac.

But the Atari of today is only Atari in name only.

Infogrames and all that.

Most people don't know that.

Does that left hand not seem huge?

Remember if you fail to run your company into the ground hard enough the first try...TRY AGAIN!

Wasn't Bushnell's fault.

My dear friend, EVERYTHING is his fault after having to take your child to Chuck E Cheese for an hour.

Warner destroyed Atari, not Bushnell.

Warner booted out Bushnell around the time the 2600 launched.

The blame squarely belongs to Ray Kassar, Steve Ross, and Todd Frye.

Dear Phil,

We forgive you.

Please come home.

-PlayStation Fans.

What are you talking about?? Playstation has gotten more viable without Harrison, that "Moby 2.0" douschebag, and Krazy Ken.

I wouldn't want him anywhere near Sony or Playstation. Isn't it already enough that he nearly drove two companies straight to the shitter?

Nolan Bushnell and Tom Virden join Atari board; Harrison and Gardner depart

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 1:23PM Ashkental said

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Posted: Apr 19th 2010 3:28PM BrianH said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 6:23PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 1:34PM TreyIM2 said

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Posted: Apr 19th 2010 2:12PM Granger said

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Posted: Apr 19th 2010 1:44PM Giroro said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 1:50PM Shadowbender said

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Posted: Apr 19th 2010 2:32PM Nmaster64 said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 2:47PM incendious said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 2:48PM Walter White said

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Posted: Apr 19th 2010 2:56PM Walter White said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 9:39PM kspraydad said

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Posted: Apr 19th 2010 3:27PM JoshMilewski said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 4:05PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Apr 19th 2010 4:16PM Dr Blight said

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