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Why Robin Makes Batman Better For fiscal 2008, Atari reported net revenues of $US 80.1 million, as compared with $US 122.3 million for the year previous, the company’s annual report revealed. This represents a steady year-over-year decline for the publisher since fiscal 2005, when its revenues were $US 343.8 million.
“We rely on borrowings to meet our operating needs”, said Atari, now that it has no more substantially-valued IP to sell. Atari’s majority shareholder, Infogrames SA, will preserve Atari through an acquisition and a $US 20 million loan, while BlueBay High Yield Investments has also loaned Atari $US 14 million.
Atari also relies heavily on publishing revenues from a single franchise – Dragon Ball Z, which it says generated 49.1 percent of its net publishing revenues in fiscal 2008. Godzilla accounts for 9.2 percent.
Atari’s fiscal 2008 annual report shows just how dire the publisher’s situation has become over the years. Beginning late in 2005, the company began a gradual and aggressive scale-back of its development activities, and by the end of 2007, it had sold away all of its development studios. The company now reveals that it’s remained in debt just to sustain its operational costs.
Infogrames SA has long been a majority shareholder in Atari, and announced it would officially acquire the company (and loan it $US 20 million) in April 2008. One of Infogrames’ founders, Bruno Bonnell, was Atari’s chairman and CEO until April 2007, presiding over the company’s decline.
On April 4, 2007, Bonnell was asked by Infogrames to resign, and the company agreed to pay him to step down. “Golden parachute” scenarios for corporate executives asked to resign during difficult times are not unusual. Yesterday, we reported that Activision chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick earned a $US 3,079,798 bonus for leading the company through a banner year. So how much did Bonnell receive in departure cash?
Via Shacknews late Friday, Atari reported $AU 25.12 million net loss in its fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, the last FY on its books before it starts getting a monthly allowance from Infogrames, and a lecture on the value of money.
The $AU 25.12M loss however is one-third the $AU 74.18 fiscal assbeating Atari took in FY07, precipitating the whole Infogrames merger/buyout/$AU 21.29M loan announced April 30 and taking effect the third quarter of this year. Also, Atari’s loss includes about $AU 6.92 million in corporate restructuring charges. rather than regular business. Still, revenue was about $AU 85.14 million, less than $AU 129.84 million of a year before. So there wasn’t the kind of expenses that go toward publishing crappy games games, but there wasn’t anything to sell either.
Some brands, no matter how sickly they become, can just go on forever because they got in the race early, no matter where they dropped out. Just ask United Press International. Or Ovaltine. So if Atari is shifting to social, casual, whatever you want to call it, that’s probably going after brand of low-awareness game consumer who thinks Atari’s been around forever and will give games under its title a benefit of the doubt that the publisher didn’t earn in the past five years.
Atari Reports 23.6M Loss for FY2008[Shacknews]
Seeing as the pair were running the show as far as the PlayStation brand was concerned, you’d think Kaz Hirai and Phil Harrison would have at least discussed Phil’s move to Infogrames, yes? No. Turns out big Phil’s move was as much a surprise to Kaz as it was the rest of us:
At the time, I didn’t know he was going to Atari. It was obviously a surprise when he told me he was going to move on. But, you know, it’s a small industry and he’s obviously remained in it and from his perspective, it was a great thing to move on to a new challenge.
Oh…oh Kaz. There, there. You’re still beautiful, OK? It was him, not you. Him.
Kaz Hirai interview…[Three Speech]
Before his new gig at Atari/Infogrames, Phil Harrison did tons of cheerleading for Home during his tenure at Sony. But Home keeps getting pushed back, causing PS3 owners to wonder if and when PS3 games will get Achievement-like trophies for Home. Since the PS3 version of Atari’s Alone in the Dark isn’t out until spring, it is possible for the game to have trophies? Let’s ask new Atari/Infogrames exec Phil Harrison:
If the libraries are available, then yeah, I would hope that the PS3 version can take advantage of that.
“Would hope”? Heck Phil, everyone would hope that.
Harrison Unsure [Multiplayer]
Remember when Infogrames/Atari exec Phil Harrison said the company wouldn’t be making another big-budge single player game? Sure ya do! Here, Harrison explains a bit better at what he was getting at: “I think the single-player, disconnected console game is probably in its dotage. Now, that doesn’t mean that those games aren’t relevant going forwards, but they will be enhanced by community features being embedded in them, or downloadable content becoming an inherent part of the experience, or some kind of user-generated content will be part of the experience. All of the things we see in other games, the things that we can point to in compelling games.” Fair enough! Speaking of single player, has Phil Harrison made an easy transition to Infogrames from Sony? Says Harrison:
Can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Infogrames, already the majority shareholder in the struggling Atari—the company recently delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange—will soon “acquire the remaining outstanding equity interests of Atari.” Atari will then become a wholly owned subsidiary of Infogrames, something both parties agree (at least in the press release) is good news for the financially underperforming publisher of Dragon Ball Z, Godzilla and Alone in the Dark games.
Infogrames has also agreed to spot Atari $US20 million to keep them operationally afloat. You know what that means, Atari employees? Bagel Mondays are back!
Full release after this.
Yes, Phil Harrison really does work for Infogrames/Atari. Like really. Instead, Harrison says this about upcoming Atari title Alone in the Dark and what the future holds for the company: I’m making is that I think the game is very relevant to the market, and I think will do very, very well. Can we afford as a company to chase that up, to USD 80 million, without downstream revenue? The answer is no.
So can we take that kind of production value and smash it into an online community and social experience? I hope so, but it won’t be Alone in the Dark.
Infogrames boss David Gardner has told Reuters “we want to stop losing money”. No shit, Dave! As for how they’re going to do that, well…they’re hoping to sell a lot of videogames. Like the new Alone In The Dark.
