Company News Atari releases corporate stuff

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Atari; Temple of Elemental Evil

There's a <A href="http://corporate.infogrames.com/corp_pressreleases.php?op=story&sid=442">press release</a> about how well <A href="http://www.atari.com">Atari</a> did this last quarter, basically they won some and lost some, but this is neat:
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<blockquote>"We maintained our ranking as the #2 independent publisher year to date, while increasing our market share by more than 55% year-over-year," Mr. Bonnell continued. "Driving that growth were titles such as Enter The Matrix, one of our most valuable licenses and on which we've begun working on a follow-up game; new titles from our Dungeons & Dragons series, including D&D Heroes and Temple of Elemental Evil; and titles from our Dragon Ball Z series, among others."</blockquote>
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I wonder how much more you could have squeezed from that marketshare if <A href="http://www.greyhawkgame.com">Temple of Elemental Evil</a> had been given a few more months.
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Thanks, <b>Sharpei</b>!

 

[Voss]

Quick questions:

Independent of who? Infogrames owns their sorry butts, and they're Mr.Big in the European market.

Enter the Matrix is driving their current market share?
Hee.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Well, Infogrames doesn't own Atari, really.. kinda.. They own the name, and they're using it because they think Americans recognise the name more than Infogrames. Think of it like changing your name to a celebrity name to get more votes in an election. You're still who you are, but people are more likely to vote for Will Rogers than Fred Grahm.

 

[Sharpei_Diem]

Personally, I like the $200 M in raised capital followed immediately by $39 M in dividends....Man, that would piss me off if I bought into that deal. "Thank you for your money and your support. We're now going to reward ourselves (because of our net loss, no less) by dispersing to us some of your money...

I also like the bit about how revenue declined from 106 M to 60 M but market share increased 55%....hmmm, what's that i smell cooking? Is it books? I think it is!

And i'm not even mentioning dora the explorer....oh wait, i just did...

 

[Sharpei_Diem]

Well, Infogrames doesn't own Atari, really.. kinda.. They own the name, and they're using it because they think Americans recognise the name more than Infogrames. Think of it like changing your name to a celebrity name to get more votes in an election. You're still who you are, but people are more likely to vote for Will Rogers than Fred Grahm.

Shit, by any other name, is still....oh wait, that's supposed to be roses....

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Looks like Atari is earning more money the old fashioned way.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Looks like Atari is earning more money the old fashioned way.

It's sad to see an age old company like Microprose go down. I will always remember them for some of the greatest strategy games of their day. X-Com, Masters Of Magic, the Master Of Orion series. Well, all except the third for that last one.

So long, Microprose. I'll miss ya. :holds his hat to his heart and takes a moment of silence:

 

[Rosh]

Pfff. MicroProse was in the same situation that Origin is in now; they are just a placeholder, used to put out ungodly games, nobody worth anything is left, and are basically just in name only. MicroProse got fucked over by the idiots at Hasbro, much like EA did a number on Origin, except Origin was changed into a one-trick pony cash whore for EA, while Hasbro had no clue about the gaming industry outside of changing the version of their PC board games.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Pfff. MicroProse was in the same situation that Origin is in now; they are just a placeholder, used to put out ungodly games, nobody worth anything is left, and are basically just in name only. MicroProse got fucked over by the idiots at Hasbro, much like EA did a number on Origin, except Origin was changed into a one-trick pony cash whore for EA, while Hasbro had no clue about the gaming industry outside of changing the version of their PC board games.

This is true, but that goodbye has been a long time coming. For the longest time I've always loved Microprose games. Hasbro can hug my nuts for all I care. I never really liked Origin. They did put out some decent titles, but nothing really that got my goat. I just hated alot of the people there. As for EA... well they're just another corporation only concerned about their wallets and nothing more. Geee.... think we'll see a Madden 2005? I do.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

The Madden football games are about the only thing EA sells that are worth buying as far as I can see.

Rosh is correct, MicroProse has been lackluster, being merely a name rather than what they once were. It's rather odd that Hasbro didn't handle MicroProse better, considering they've made quite a few great titles that deserved follow ups like Master of Magic.

 

[Sharpei_Diem]

I like the hockey series....2004 is continuing where 2002 left off (no, there really wasnt a year between...really. Odd years don't count)

Once upon a time microprose was my favorite developer....there was really nothing that they did not do well, and accordingly, there was nothing that they did that I didn't buy...helped that they almost always had a manual detailed enough that God would use...

I can't think of a single publisher whom I'm particularly fond of, though Strategy First gets a passing nod (despite the Hearts of Iron debacle) for its continued support of turn-based (and other) strategy titles....I wish Matrix Games was a little more accessible product line - though i attribute that to their being more developers than publishers.

Hmmm....It's odd how i can think of a number of developers i respect (Monolith, Firaxis, Troika) but not one publisher....

Origin has some great stuff back in 'the day'....Ultima 3 and 4 alone delayed the loss of my virginity by some 3 years (or so i figure....hmmm...class action case?) and I really liked autoduel...

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Origin has some great stuff back in 'the day'....Ultima 3 and 4 alone delayed the loss of my virginity by some 3 years (or so i figure....hmmm...class action case?) and I really liked autoduel...

Autoduel was a beautiful game. Still is really. A great job of converting the Car Wars rules into a PC game. I even still have my original floppies of it. As far as Ultima goes, well of course I loved those, but I don't accredit them or Autoduel to Origin. They may have supplied the money for them, but Lord British was the meat and potatoes behind it all.

And to think.... this whole time I've been keeping hopes up of seeing Master Of Magic 2. What the hell?