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Atari Is Not Forgotten, Stay Tuned
Infogrames developing publishing strategy for Atari brand,
new games expected for this holiday season.
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By Brian C. Rittmeyer
What is it that makes an Atari game an "Atari" game? What should Atari, the
grandfather of today's home video game industry, be in the 21st Century? That's
what Infogrames, the new owner of the legendary video game name, is trying to
figure out.
Infogrames, which acquired Atari in its 100 million dollars purchase of Hasbro
Interactive in a deal finalized in January, expects to complete a publishing
strategy for Atari within 30 to 60 days and release games under the brand this
holiday season, Paul Rinde, senior vice president of Infogrames, Inc., said
June 15.
"There's a lot of exciting new opportunities out there both for the traditional
franchises as well as some new franchises we can put under the brand," Rinde
said. "Once that gets finalized and locked down, you are going to see more
things happening and we will get more pro-active in letting the world know what
our plans are for Atari. "We have a lot more aggressive plans for the brand
than the previous owner."
Hasbro Interactive had bought Atari from hard drive maker JTS Corp. for five
million dollars in March 1998. Recognizing the interest in "retro-gaming,"
Hasbro Interactive used Atari and its famous fuji logo for a number of updated
classics, such as Frogger, Centipede, Missile Command and Pong, as well as for
new titles, including Nerf Arena Blast and Glover.
Infogrames' agreement with Hasbro includes three main elements:
1. Infogrames' acquisition of all of Hasbro Interactive's assets, including
Atari and MicroProse.
2. Acquisition of the Web site games.com.
3. A 15-year licensing agreement with Hasbro, Inc. giving Infogrames exclusive
rights to develop and publish games based on current and future Hasbro
properties including the games Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue, Risk and Boggle ;
children's games and toys including Mr. Potato Head, Tonka Trucks, Action
Man, My Little Pony and Candyland; and the game Dungeons and Dragons. Hasbro
received an annual guarantee from Infogrames based on sales generated from
the licensing agreement, which includes an option for a five-year extension
based on performance.
Based in Minneapolis, Minn., Rinde, 42, joined Infogrames when it bought a 70%
interest in his former employer, GT Interactive, in late 1999. An Atari
enthusiast, he volunteered early to help with Infogrames' planning for Atari in
the United States ; similar research is underway in the European market and
Infogrames plans to use Atari on a global basis.
Rinde said Atari was a "key asset" Infogrames saw in Hasbro Interactive that
Infogrames believes has been underutilized.
"It's a brand that's been kicked around for a number of years. We think it has
a lot of potential," he said. "We are trying to research what everybody's
impressions of the brand are and what the brand means to different audiences,
if anything. There's certainly a core audience out there that for many years
has been very loyal to the brand. What we are trying to do is figure out what
types of games really fit within that brand and what the brand means to
gaming."
What Atari means to a person may relate directly to his or her age, as Atari's
identity has changed over time, Rinde said.
"There's a fair amount of younger people out there running around wearing Atari
T-shirts and what not," he said. "I don't know if it means the same things to
them as to people that grew up and were gaming when those systems first came
out."
Rinde said Infogrames is looking not only at updating classic Atari titles, as
Hasbro Interactive had done, but is looking at the style of play that made the
classics appealing and developing entire new franchises under the Atari brand
that retain the "feel" of an Atari game - addictive games that are easy to
learn and hard to master.
"We strongly feel we'd like to breathe some new life from a game standpoint
onto the Atari brand with some new games outside the traditional catalogue but
will still be true to the core gaming aspects the Atari brand means," he said.
"We've started to identify the core attributes to those types of games to be
under a brand like Atari," he said. "We're also looking at the entire catalogue
to see if there are some really old games that are viable to be totally
revamped to be played in a modern gaming environment, versus being a retro game
on a new system which has been done and done and done."
Rinde said Infogrames won't abandon the practice of updating classic games, but
that it won't be the company's entire strategy.
"What we're trying to do is identify some new games under the brand or some of
the catalogue that hasn't been done yet but that might be viable now," Rinde
added. "We think there's legs to continue to revamp some of the catalogue and
do them in new ways on new platforms without losing the traditional feel of
what made the game really fun and appealing to a fairly broad audience over a
long period of time."
Rinde said consumers can expect to see low-scale Atari activity for this
holiday season beginning in September or October, with titles for the personal
computer and PlayStation 1 platforms. Rinde said Infogrames will identify the
titles scheduled to be released under the Atari brand during the next 12-to-18
months, as well as the platforms they will be for when the publishing strategy
is completed.
Rinde said consumers can expect to see "significantly scaled up and revived up"
marketing of Atari products for all next generation console and handheld
platforms, and other forms such as wireless, in 2002.
So far Infogrames' only use of the Atari brand to date was on bottled water
distributed at the Electronics Entertainment Expo, known as E3, held in Los
Angeles in May. Rinde said it was a "very low key way" to keep the name in the
public eye.
"We did not really have anything new to show from a product standpoint or
anything like that. We were not ready to talk to retailers or the rest of the
world about what our plan is," he said. "It was just our way of saying Atari is
still around. It's not forgotten, stay tuned."
Rinde said Infogrames is aware of the rumor, believed to have originated in
Europe and spread via the Internet, that Infogrames is considering changing its
name to Atari. He would not comment on the matter. "It's certainly something I
don't where they got it," he said.
Said Nancy Bushkin, vice president of corporate communications for Infogrames
in New York City, "We don't comment on rumors or speculation." When it comes to
possible Atari hardware, such as a new game console, Infogrames' position is
the same as Hasbro Interactive: "We are a software publisher. We are not in the
hardware business," Rinde said. "I would be very surprised to see us get into
that type of business. That would be an uphill battle for anybody."
However, Rinde said Infogrames is aware of and is impressed by the grass-roots
activity on the hardware side, such as the development of a portable Atari
2600. He said the company is keeping an eye on such development.
"We're looking at what that is and what that means and for any opportunities to
partner with somebody or endorse somebody if it's the right situation and could
potentially be good for the brand," he said. "It's at a very early stage."
Infogrames now owns all that Hasbro Interactive had of Atari, including one or
more warehouses of Atari products. He said the items include 2600 and 7800
cartridges, systems, boards and engineering specifications. "That stuff is
still out there and it is probably in a warehouse. Nobody has sat down and
catalogued it to see what we have," he said.
Rinde said he doesn't know what Infogrames will do with the contents of the
warehouses, which would be an Atari fan's dream to dig through. "Maybe some day
there will be an Atari museum built," he said. "It would be a shame to discard
it. It is history as far as the video game business is concerned."
Noting that the Tramiel family, which had bought Atari's home computer and home
video game divisions from Warner Communications in 1984 and sold it to JTS in a
"reverse merger" in 1996, was never big on Atari's history, Rinde said,
"Whatever was there was there by luck or never got discarded. I don't think
they cared about that aspect of it."
Ultimately, Rinde said fans of Atari will be a lot happier with its ownership
under Infogrames than under Hasbro.
"The amazing thing is there's a lot of people out there rooting for this brand
to make a return and become a meaningful gaming brand again," he said. "I
happen to share that enthusiasm. There's a lot of support within Infogrames for
that to happen."
Is this the 3rd coming for the venerable Atari brand?
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