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Atari Chairman Outlines Future + Slight Alone In the Dark Delay News
Chris Leyton
17/01/2008
Alone in the Dark pushed into Atari's next financial year as the French publisher mounts a defiant push forwards...
In an interview featured in Les Echos, Atari's Patrick Leleu Chairman and CEO, has revealed a number of interesting points regarding the future direction of the publisher, whilst confirming a slight delay to the release of Alone in the Dark.
Revealing a bullish outlook for the future of Atari and parent company Infogrames, Leleu confirms that pushing Alone in the Dark to May has allowed Eden Studios extra time to apply further polish, even if it means pushing the game into Atari's next financial year.
Following the sale of licenses such as Driver, Leleu exclaimed that the publisher is not looking to offload anymore franchises in the near future. Nevertheless, Leleu remains cautious about the outfit's troubled US operations, claiming, "Much remains to be done if Atari Inc. is to regain its market share in North America."
Regarding a potential increase of BlueBay Asset Management's share ownership, who've made considerable financials investments in the past, Leleu suggests that such ownership has provided the current funds needed by the management and to focus on rebuilding, but refuses to rule out a possible increase in their ownership to 60%.
Having returned to stability after the bond issues faced by the company towards the end of last year, Leleu confirms plans for a reverse stock split to increase the share value of the company in the near future.
Following the recent major mergers and consolidation, Leleu maintains that Atari/Infogrames will remain independent, provided that "Infogrames becomes profitable, is positioned on promising segments, and the Atari name is promoted." Leleu does state within the interview, however, that if a "good opportunity" arose they would have to look seriously at it.
Highlighting a possible future direction for the publisher, Leleu attempts to downplay the significance of major traditional properties and suggests a move away from long development periods and increased costs. Hoping that Alone in the Dark will "shift millions of copies", Leleu remains adamant that the future of the company does not rest on the game. Certainly it seems as though the mainstream aspirations of the Nintendo DS and Wii will take on increased significance for Atari moving forwards.
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Date Added:Fri 11th Apr 2008 10:50
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