Author Topic: Infogrames becomes Atari  (Read 2942 times)

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Offline RickPowers

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Infogrames becomes Atari
« on: May 07, 2003, 04:25:37 AM »
Infogrames, the company with the hard-to-pronounce name, picks up an easier one.

Infogrames Adopts Legendary Atari Brand in Worldwide Name Change


Wednesday May 7, 5:30 am ET  


NEW YORK & LYON, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 7, 2003--Thirty years after the Atari name first began a revolution in entertainment, Infogrames has returned the beacon of innovation to the forefront of the gaming industry it launched. Holding company parent, Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA) announced today that it has decided to adopt the legendary brand name of Atari for its global commercial operations, effective immediately. The company's U.S. operations will now be known as Atari, Inc., and will trade on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "ATAR." Although IESA will retain its name and its Euronext trading code "5257" on the French Bourse, all of the company's worldwide operations will become Atari, with their country of origin included in the name (e.g. Atari U.K.). Additionally, the Company's wholly owned subsidiary, Infogrames Interactive, Inc., which develops many of the game derived from the Hasbro line of board games, will change its name to Atari Interactive, Inc.  


"In any language, Atari is synonymous with video games and it's recognized for transforming entertainment," said Bruno Bonnell, Chairman and CEO of IESA and Atari. "Our industry is now outpacing the Hollywood box office and by choosing Atari as our signature, we are demonstrating our commitment to this growth and our determination to take entertainment to the next level for gamers worldwide.  


For several months, the Company has been using the Atari brand to publish great international hits developed in collaboration with the best talent in video games, including Neverwinter Nights from BioWare, several Unreal titles from Epic, Digital Extremes and Legend, Stuntman from Reflections, V-Rally from Eden, and the long awaited Enter The Matrix from Shiny Entertainment, which will debut on May 15, day and date with the film, The Matrix Reloaded. Effective immediately, these and all titles in the Company's extensive catalogue will be published under the Atari brand name.  


"It's the perfect moment in our history to make this change," continued Mr. Bonnell. "Next week we'll be launching Enter The Matrix, an extraordinary game which has redefined the Hollywood license, setting a new standard for the convergence of games and films. The 'break the mold' approach we took with Enter The Matrix exemplifies the very personality Atari has always represented and captures the personality of our Company today, from game development to deal-making to partnerships and so on.  


"Perhaps the greatest part of the Atari legacy is the recipe for creating games that capture an audience's imagination: creative ideas, the talent to bring them to life, and the passion to do so," stated Mr. Bonnell. "Those elements have never been more abundant within our Company than they are right now. We have the strongest line up of properties we have ever had, deep ties with some of the world's most talented game developers, and an excitement about the future that's palpable."  


Enter The Matrix joins an Atari line up that features some of the world's most popular and recognizable entertainment franchises, including Terminator 3, Mission Impossible, Dragon Ball Z, Superman, and Godzilla; an array of critically and commercially acclaimed children's games, including the Backyard Sports series, Nickelodeon licenses, (Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues), and original characters such as Putt Putt, Pajama Sam, Freddi Fish and Spy Fox; products for the hard-core gamer such as Driver, Neverwinter Nights, Unreal, and Dungeons & Dragons; and titles for the mass entertainment audience, including the Civilization series and the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise.  


Next week at the industry's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles (May 14-16), in addition to promoting its current roster of games, Atari plans to make several significant product announcements that further illustrate its commitment to bringing the most exciting new entertainment properties to the gaming audience, as well as transporting revered older titles into the future.  


Mr. Bonnell added, "When we acquired GT Interactive in December 1999 and the Hasbro Interactive assets in January 2001, we had a two-part strategy: to provide the Company with an international distribution network and a large franchise catalogue with which we could achieve critical mass, and to establish an exclusive and strong brand name on which to raise our worldwide profile. With today's name change, we have those goals."

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Offline cubedcinder128

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Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2003, 07:34:28 AM »
I had a feeling this was coming. With most of Infogrames' recent releases holding the Atari name, along with year-long rumors of the name change, I knew it was only a matter of time before they changed their name to Atari.
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Offline Patch

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RE: Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2003, 12:32:45 PM »
Hahaha, Rick... I was commenting to a buddy of mine (that's working for the distribution company for the Matrix games here in Oz and New Zealand) that there's no way they're gonna shift 4 million copies.

Dollars to cents there'll be a million or so buried somewhere in New Mexico in a couple years

Or, best case scenario, they'll all become bargain-table games that will be shifted at 10 bucks a pop.
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Offline NWR_Lindy

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Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2003, 05:05:10 PM »
This is great news.  As an old-school gamer, it warms my heart to see the old Atari name return to prominence.  There's also something really cool about having the Atari logo on Ikaruga's box.

silks
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Offline deminisma

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RE: Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2003, 12:02:36 AM »
SIlks: You're joking right? You almost had me there.

Let's take a little look at Atari history on atari.com

"Atari (formely Infogrames) was founded in 1983, and since that time has had quite a journey to become one of the leading global publishers in digital interactive entertainment software."

Confusing, no?

What is wrong with the name Infogrames anyway?

I see it like this: they're not Atari, they never were and who the f**k do they think they are masquerading as such?
It is just ridiculous. Plus, the type of looser who'd by a game just because it had Atari plastered on it is the type of looser I wouldn't want purchasing my products. My personal Infogrames boycott starts today.

To me Atari means River Raid, Pitfall, Pacman, Moon Patrol, Ka-Boom! and most of all simplistic but incredibly addictive gameplay. Not that crap-fest "Stuntman".

EDIT: I should point out that I am well aware several of the above games were not made by Atari but Activision and Williams. It's just they were on 2600.  

Offline RABicle

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RE: Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2003, 02:15:27 AM »
your lucky you edited that because i felt like being a smartarse.

But i do agree with you that these guys arn't atari and and shouldn't be masquerading as them, alhoung I wont boycott infograms products, I might want to buy one of their games one day, ie. if V-Rally 3 comes to Gamube (if it already is please tell me)

If enter the Matrix sucks as much as i think it will (and anyone who's followed fatbabies.com's coverage of the game would too) then I'll happily help bury copies in the Great sandy Desert, Western Australia.
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Offline oohhboy

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RE: Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2003, 03:23:14 AM »
This has got a freaky feeling all other it, with the name Atari resurfacing, a game based on a movie with what is percived to be over hyped and over produced, have we got another crash coming?
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Offline mouse_clicker

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Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2003, 03:31:33 AM »
It's a NAME people- don't get your panties twisted into a knot simply because Infogrames decided to adpot a name that hasn't meant anything since the 80's. Just calm down, deminisma- you're not going to have a brain aneurism over this, at least I hope not. There's more important things in the world to get pissed off over than this.
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Offline NWR_Lindy

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Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2003, 09:14:05 AM »
mouse_clicker: Couldn't agree more.

Deminisma: The Atari name has been pimped out so many times to so many companies that it doesn't mean anything anymore.  Its ties to the Atari 2600 are all but non-existent.  What I'm saying is that it's good to have a decent company backing the Atari name again.  You can boycott Atari/Infogrames if you want, but personally I'm going out and buy Ikaruga (I can't say I'm checking any of their other games though).

silks



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Offline ThePerm

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Infogrames becomes Atari
« Reply #9 on: May 11, 2003, 03:17:47 PM »
why not bring the name back? It was such a cool name and a cool company. Sure Infogrames was once Infogrames, but having the name Atari will change the attitude of the company. Atari is a classic name. You know Nintendo isn't the same people anymore. Most all the bigwigs retired in the last 3 years.  So this is a new Atari. Essentially Hal now owns Nintendo and Atari now owns infogrames. They both pulled a Kirby or...Majin Buu.
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