Infogrames posts

The DRM-free web site GoG.com has added another classic game to its library of titles. The latest entry is One Unit Whole Blood, a collection of the 1997 first person shooter Blood with its expansion packs Plasma Pak and Cryptic Passage. The game was originally under development by 3D Realms but then the game was passed onto Monolith Productions in what became their first game. The developer later on went to make acclaimed PC titles like No One Lives Forever and F.E.A.R.

If you want some entertaining, funny, gory and even scary fun, the Blood collection might be right up your alley. You can get the game now at GoG.com for just $5.99.

This time last year Atari (and its parent company Infogrames) was in deep financial trouble. After years of losing money and releasing a lot of games that just didn't sell, Atari got a lifeline by being bought out completely by Infogrames. They also got major new executives a year ago with Phil Harrison (formerly of Sony) joining the company as President and David Gardner (formerly of EA) as its CEO.

Now there are signs that Atari might be in trouble again. We've already reported that Atari has sold off the rights to publish Ghostbusters in Europe to Sony in Europe. They have also sold off their European sales and marketing team to Namco Bandai and decided to pull out of this year's E3 after originally booking exhibits hall and meeting rooms.

CNBC.com reports on Atari's financial situation and while Atari itself declined to comment for the article it speculates that sales of the Ghostbusters game in the US (when it releases this June) could keep revenues going while Atari finds its footing. Analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities is quoted as saying, "I think they're quite close [to break even]. That said, I doubt they're going to be immensely profitable this year."

It looks like Cryptic Studios had its choice of buyers rather than being courted just by Infogrames/Atari. While the publisher announced that they have purchased Cryptic earlier this week, Edge Online reports that Ubisoft was also in the running to buy the original City of Heroes developer.

Ubisoft's chief financial officer Alain Martinez admitted during a speech today in New York, "We lost one deal, which we were a bit mad to lose: Cryptic, a U.S. company that was taken by Atari. We were disappointed, but that was one try at an MMO." Ubisoft has made it no secret that it wants to enter the MMO genre including one based on their Tom Clancy franchise.

Meanwhile our sister site GameDaily has posted up a new chat with Atari's president Phil Harrison who talked more about this week's Cryptic Studios purchase. Harrison stated that in terms of future MMO revenues, a micro-transaction model is looking more and more viable. He states, "I think it's going to become the preeminent business model for the future, but not all games will work for that style. Some will be subscription-based, some will be micro-transaction-based and some will be a combination of the two."

Earlier today we reported on Cryptic Studios' acquisition by Infogrames/Atari. Today our sister site Massively has a bit more info on the deal via a very brief Q&A with Cryptic's co-founder Jack Emmert. While there's not much more concrete info in the chat, Emmert did hint at possible future MMOs for their new owner.

Emmert states, " Atari also has a number of terrific IP's that would make great MMO's". This suggests that Cryptic could develop titles for Infogrames/Atari that might be based on, say, Baldur's Gate. Indeed Atari CEO Phil Harrison suggested that Baldur's Gate is a franchise that will be revived at some point by the company. Could the unnamed MMO that was mentioned in today's press release be based on an Atari property? Stay tuned.

Earlier today, Infogrames/Atari announced they had acquired MMO developer Cryptic Studios. However that new business deal made us wonder about the arrangement announced earlier this year for 2K Games to handle the publishing for Cryptic's upcoming super hero MM Champions Online. It was the publisher's first move in the MMO genre and 2K Games showcased the game at last July's E3 event.

So will this Infogrames/Atari deal have an effect on 2K Games' previous agreement with Cryptic? Maybe. Big Download contacted 2K Games for comment and a spokesperson told us, "This is all exciting news for Cryptic and we are very happy for them. We haven't yet finalized all of our discussions though so we'll let everyone know if this means a change for 2K's involvement with Champions." Naturally we will keep you informed of the latest developments.

Publisher Infogrames/Atari has been on a growth spurt lately after years of decline and today the company announced perhaps their biggest acquisition yet; MMO developer Cryptic Studios. The publisher will buy Cryptic for $26.7 million in up front money. Yet another $20 million could be given to Cryptic depending on the performance of their upcoming games.

Those games include the super hero MMO Champions Online, due for release in 2009, and Star Trek Online which Infogrames/Atari states will be released in 2010. In addition a third unannounced MMO is due for release in 2011. Not only that but Infogrames/Atari will use Cryptic's MMO tech for other unannounced games. One question that is unanswered in the press release is whether 2K Games will continue to be the publisher for Champions Online.

Once sinking under its financial feet, the new 2.0 version of Infogrames' Atari brand has a pretty ambitious 2009 slate of games include a number of titles (Ghostbusters, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Codename Panzers: Cold War) that they have picked up from other publishers. However, Atari still has a few properties of their own they plan to revive as well.

According to Eurogamer, Atari/Infogrames president Phil Harrison said during a press conference today that they plan to put out new games in the Baldur's Gate fantasy RPG series. The property was once owned by Interplay and developer BioWare made its first big mark in the game industry by developing the first two acclaimed PC games in the series. Last August, Interplay and Atari settled a long-standing dispute on the ownership of the Dungeons and Dragons PC/video game rights which gave Atari all of Interplay's previous D&D game rights, including the Baldur's Gate license.

Eurogamer reports that Harrison also mentioned the Test Drive racing game franchise as one they plan to revive at some point but like the Baldur's Gate IP it may be a while before we actually see these games in stores with Harrison saying, "You will hear more from these but not today, because we're focused on 2009."

Infogrames completed its purchase of the US based Atari last month and now the France based publisher has announced its latest financial numbers. According to our sister site GameDaily, revenues at Infogrames jumped over 44 percent to 131.8 million euros for the first half of the company's fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. While the company is still not yet profitable Infogrames execs predict it will return to profitability by the second half of their 2009/2010 fiscal time period.

Infogrames/Atari already has a lot of upcoming games due for release in 2009. Two of them came from the former Vivendi Games; Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena and Ghostbusters. They also plan to publish Heroes over Europe and will distribute a boxed copy of CCP's space based MMO EVE Online in 2009.

Atari's comeback in the US market just increased its game tally today. The publisher announced a new deal with the US division of CDV to distribute, among other games, the upcoming fantasy RPG Sacred 2 in the US. The sequel to the acclaimed Ascaron-developed title

Getting the Sacred 2 distribution rights has to be considered a good thing for Atari which was recently bought out in whole by its parent company Infogrames. The game is currently scheduled for a Nov. 11 release in the US (console versions are due in early 2009) . Youi can check out a sample of the open world RPG via a demo that you can grab right here at Big Download.

It's finally official. After first announcing their intentions earlier this year Infogrames has now completed the purchase of the remaining stocks of US based game publisher Atari. The deal, which cost $11 million, now makes Atari a full subsidiary of the France-based Infogrames.

Atari's executive team including their President and CEO Jim Wilson, will remain with Infogrames and continue to grow the US operation. Just before the merger was completed Atari posted their first profitable quarter in nearly three years but it remains to be seen whether the new setup will solve their previous financial problems on a permanent basis.