- Apr 24, 2013
- 1,200
It’s a fitting symbol for Atari that the most attention it has received in years occurred when one of its products, a notorious flop, was excavated from a landfill in April.
For three decades, it was rumored that Atari had buried that product, an unsuccessful video game based on the movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” in the New Mexico desert to get rid of unsold inventory. It took a documentary film crew scratching some copies out of the earth to confirm the legend.
Now, there’s another excavation of Atari, the pioneering video game company, going on. For many people, the Atari name lives on as little more than a retro cool brand name affixed to T-shirts and other nostalgic tchotchkes. All but the most dedicated gamers are probably unaware that Atari is still alive as a company.
Early last year, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, with the goal of selling off its portfolio of games in auction. Atari parted with a few of the games through that process, but most of them did not attract high enough bids. So the company held on to them. It emerged from bankruptcy protection in December and since then has been piecing together a plan to resuscitate its business.
Leading the turnaround is Frédéric Chesnais, a French game industry veteran and former banker, who became a major shareholder of Atari and its chief executive. This is actually his second stint as chief executive of Atari, a company that has had seven chief executives in the last 14 years and bears little resemblance to what it once was.
To say that Mr. Chesnais has his work cut out for him is a major understatement. Atari has plotted comeback after comeback since losing its way in the early 1980s, none of which has taken root for long.
But brands like Atari don’t die easily. If you were a child growing up in the 1970s, there was no more desirable gadget than the Atari 2600, the company’s groundbreaking home game console — at least until the Sony Walkman came out. Imagine the combined magnetism of an Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, and you get an idea of the coolness embodied by the company’s video game products during that era.
This commercial from the late 1970s is a reminder of what Atari once was:
In a phone interview, Mr. Chesnais said the company was now focusing on mobile and Facebook games, rather than on the far riskier console market, where development budgets are much higher. Atari has announced plans for a social casino game that will exploit vintage Atari games like Asteroids, Centipede and Breakout within slot, poker and blackjack games.
The company intends to enter markets it says are currently underserved by games. In one game under development, Pridefest, players will be able to create their own L.G.B.T. pride parade, designing floats and parade routes. It’s a variation on an existing Atari franchise, RollerCoaster Tycoon, that lets players design amusement parks.
Mr. Chesnais is exploring other, more inchoate concepts. He calls one Atari TV, a plan to produce exclusive video content. The first example is a daily video blog Atari is co-producing called TheRealPelé, which is following the activities of the Brazilian soccer legend in the days leading up to the World Cup in that country.
Mr. Chesnais believes there is also an opportunity to use Atari game brands like Asteroids as the basis for television shows. “What Hasbro did with G.I. Joe and Transformers is really relevant,” he said.
Atari is teaming up with outside firms to develop its new products. The company consists of a skeleton crew of fewer than a dozen employees now. A decade ago, he estimated, Atari had several thousand employees.
Mr. Chesnais said his goal was to make the Atari brand meaningful to people who did not even exist during Atari’s heyday.
“We’re trying to go after the young generation so they know what the brand is and what the brand means,” he said. “It’s difficult, but we have to do it.”
Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/snatching-atari-back-from-the-grave-again/
