Atari Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

[Clint Thompson]

The problem is how much money does Curt really have. I am saying that because he had to sell items for paying the bills for his heart operation. I would have love Curt to have the rights to though. I know Curt a few years ago was looking at creating a New Atari Compatible Console & Controllers after the 7800 Expansion Module was done. Getting the rights to the games actually would help for a project like that and also would allow homebrew authors to develop parts of the games Curt gets rights to.

 

It's highly unlikely Curt has the money needed for this obviously, which is why the Kickstarter is suggested but not before an agreement of sorts could be met with Atari and the actual price they are looking to get is revealed. I can't imagine it being more than the $5 million it sold for years ago but who knows, they may be trying to nickel and dime it as it almost sounds like they are willing to part both the name and the individual game rights away which would only further destroy the Atari name... (I could be very wrong on that though as it may be sold completely).

 

I'm anxious for Curt to chime in and see what he thinks about it. It's much more than a one man show as well.... there's just much more to it than that... but it only takes one person to change everything and I think Curt is that one person.

[Csonicgo]

It doesn't look like Atari US is closing but rather looking to split from Infogrames.

 

As the Huffington Post article suggests "It is thought the company could now be sold to an outside buyer, or a team of backers led by CEO Jim Wilson."

 

Exactly. They're tired of Infogrames, and now they'll get protection whilst doing so. Maybe Atari will actually be Atari again. Who knows?

[8th lutz]

I read on a forum outside of Atariage that a member of Nintendo life claims that Namco Bandai is planning on buying Atari.

 

My thoughts if happens is Namco would care about the product, but they would be carried away on the Museum Compilations they do based on the amount of Namco Museums that have released through the years starting with the Playstation.

 

From a homebrew standpoint, I think they would be safe doing Atari Arcade games now without a chance of getting a letter if Namco does buy Atari. I said from homebrew standpoint because of Namco hasn't after the homebrew versions of Namco arcade games.

[svenski]

 

It would be great if there could be some sort of community effort to save the brand at least. Wishful thinking maybe but would be nice.

[The Usotsuki]

Namco actually owned part of the original Atari for awhile (Tengen), and sold it off.

 

I'd like to see people here (e.g. Curt) try to obtain the name. Pie in the sky, I know.

[GadgetUK]

I think it's a real shame for all those affected by this - ie. their jobs, invested monies, unpaid debts etc. =(

 

The only potential positve thing for consumers is that a company that buys the trademark, IP, copyrights etc may do more interesting things with those IP rights - but that's just wishful thinking. I would love to see a re-incarnation of the Atari brand on some new hardware but I think the market is saturated by MS, Sony and Ninendo.

[Gregory DG]

Would love to see a new Atari rise from the ashes. Preferrably with Curt and/or Nolan involved along with many of the former programmers. THEN it would be the REAL Atari coming back!

[Bill Lange]

Whoever ends up with the brand, intellectual property and copyrights, it would be nice see an entity like the “Atari Program Exchange” make a comeback. Not just for the 8-bit lines, but for all product lines (dedicated, pinball, 2600, 5200, 8-bit, 7800, Jaguar, mobile, online, etc.), where Atari enthusiast could get official support and recognition of their homebrew (hardware and software) projects.

[OBO]

So, Atari US want to be free from Infogrames ?

YES ! YES ! YES ! YES ! (jumps like Daniel Brian all over the place)

 

I have a personal grudge against Infogrames (maybe one day, I'll tell about it)

[AtariLeaf]

Maybe Activision will buy it.

 

Boy that would be something eh?

[cimerians]

Someone needs to get the band back together and co

Would love to see a new Atari rise from the ashes. Preferrably with Curt and/or Nolan involved along with many of the former programmers. THEN it would be the REAL Atari coming back!

 

Someone really needs to put the band back together. Where's David Crane?

[Pixelboy]

Boy that would be something eh?

 

It would be a case of double irony. On one hand, Activision buying Atari would be poetic justice for all the shit Atari shoved at Activision in the early days. But on the other hand, the Activision of today is so totally unlike the old Activision of the 80s that they'll probably won't know what to do with the Atari brand any more than Infogrames did.

[svenski]

If we all put together a few dollars we could form an Atari cooperative, and stop the brand being whored out even more.

[OBO]

Infogrames had a clear idea of what they wanted to do with Atari : use the name to sell their stuff (I almost used another word beginning by S and ending with T) outside of the countries they were known.

 

On a side note, many enthusiasts on atari forums are dreaming about buying the brand...

Edited January 21, 2013 by OBO

[Pixelboy]

On a side note, many enthusiasts on atari forums are dreaming about buying the brand...

 

If there was ever a reason to start a Kickstarter campaign, this would have to be it.

 

EDIT: But the guys who would run the KS campaign would need to be familiar with all the legal mumbo jumbo, to do things adequately if they actually manage to gather enough moolah to buy the brand.

[svenski]

I'm all for a kickstarter campaign but I'm guessing, despite the bankruptcy protection, it wouldn't be cheap. Those working at Atari have their jobs and their own plans - what is in their interests are not going to be the same as ours.

 

I'm in though, let's start it.

[AtariNerd]

Atari, if you're reading, releasing the rights to the obsolete chipsets of the od consoles/computers to the public domain would do well to cement much good will toward the brand, especialy if grace is given to the porting of any of the old Atari games to those old platforms ,without fear of prosecution.

 

Just saying...

[solidcorp]

I'm all for a kickstarter campaign but I'm guessing, despite the bankruptcy protection, it wouldn't be cheap. Those working at Atari have their jobs and their own plans - what is in their interests are not going to be the same as ours.

 

From same article I quoted earlier: "But its financial position has not improved markedly thanks to its debts to London-based BlueBay Asset Management, and it now needs $5.25 million of financing to keep running."

 

That's just to continue operating, not pay off its debts or bring new or old products to market.

[svenski]

If Atari secured the $5.25 million debtor-in-possession funding they are seeking then I guess they would soldier on licensing back the use to the logo and properties they hope to sell off, a bit like large corporations selling off their real estate to raise cash and then leasing them back from the buyers. For many companies this has proved to be a very short term approach and just delayed the inevitable.

 

Thinking about it, a kickstarter campaign isn't necessarily a good thing as it is for a publicly stated target amount. It would work if there was an agreement to sell if the target was reached, otherwise it probably just reveals any community position to other potential bidders.

 

I'm guessing if Atari was allowed to go under then the brand and properties could potentially be bought for less than the $5.25 million, but then the administrators would be holding out for the best possible price. A community driven effort doesn't have to be a blanket purchase of all the IP and the brand, but the more I think about it the more I think it would be very complex and costly to put together.

[Tickled_Pink]

 

It would be great if there could be some sort of community effort to save the brand at least. Wishful thinking maybe but would be nice.

I was thinking that. Unfortunately, even the IP alone would cost a few mill. To be honest, that's pretty much all Atari is these days anyway. Personally I'd love the chance to do something with the Atari brand and IP (wouldn't everyone at AA) but I'm not sure how easy it would be to raise the money through crowdfunding, particularly as it may be a difficult company to value and the fact there would be some stiff competition for ownership of the brand.

 

And another problem is the IP itself. Last year Atari launched a development competition for developers to create new versions of ... PONG! There was quite a hefty prize fund as well. Some of the entries were very interesting and in the end, more entries than just the winner was due to be released on the iOS. I was tempted to enter but, as usual, they didn't give me nearly enough time at my typical working pace.

Edited January 21, 2013 by Tickled_Pink

[Retro Rogue]

"Insert coin to continue" was the best comment I found about this. But after reading the articels it all sound just like "another bankruptcy trick to split/merge a legal entity as desired with positive financial impact". Yawn. But if they fall below 100 EUR I'll of course go any buy them :-)

 

No, it's not. This is the real deal. Curt and I found out yesterday about it through our contacts and have the full inside scoop. Can't say much about it all, other than someone who Curt and I would consider "good hands" is very intersted in it, and we're hoping he gets it (there's going to be bidding by a lot of people). And no, it's not Jim or Nolan. Keep in mind, the craptastic remakes and mobile titles over the past few years were all under Jim and Nolan's direction. Jim as CEO of Atari SA and President of Atari Inc. and Nolan as an advisor to the Atari SA board whose job has been to review and sign off on these games, such as the horrible Star Raiders reboot all the way on up to the current "offerings" of this past year.

 

What I find truly amazing is that the problems happened during a year that should have been one of the most profitable. They just wrapped up celebrating the 40th of the brand, how can you fuck up making money during that?

[Atariboy]

Hopefully their IP will be sold as a group rather than piecemeal if it comes down to that. And I hope RetroRogue is referencing a corporation for the party interested in these properties.

 

Beyond the cool factor, I think some of you are being shortsighted with hoping these properties fall into our hands. Beyond losing the occasional cease and desist letter, how do you guys think a community led project could really leverage these assets and actually put them to use?

 

I don't even know how a few individuals would be able to afford actually even doing some semblance of enforcing the copyrights of these properties unless there are some people in this community with extremely deep pockets that I've never heard about.

 

After all you can only ressurect your back catalogue of retro format games so many times before people just get bored of them

 

All they had to do is get a bit more adventurous. Instead it was the same dozen or so arcade game's we had seen 20 times before and the same 70 or so 2600 games (Many of which were poor at best). Beyond AtGames getting a few additional games (Including a Taito license for a handful of games) and the arcade Food Fight on the 360's Game Room, it was pretty much the same thing every time.

 

They needed to get a bit more adventurous but their legal team has seemingly been overly cautious clearing Atari owned 2600 releases that involved outside IP (A lot of their licensed 2600 games could've been easily rereleased... such as Indy 500 for instance using the generic Sears name of 'Race'), they needed to start emulating their B&W microprocessor arcade classics like Night Driver and Fire Truck, I believe there are 3-4 color arcade game's presumably clear to release that have been ignored, and their 8 bit computer and 5200 library of classics would've made for an excellent addition to a collection.

 

Glad I bought Food Fight recently on Game Room just in case (The only Atari owned property there that I had an intention of buying since it had never popped up in things like Atari Anthology).

 

Too bad that I don't think any Atariage member has the money to buy the rights to some of the games. I am saying that because I think it would have be a great thing for this community to get the rights to games such as Battlezone, Millipede, Black Widow, Tempest, Gravitor, Liberator, Major Havoc, Crystal Castles, Adventure, Warlords, and Yar's Revenge from a homebrew standpoint. It would think it would have been cool if a member of this community gets the rights to one of the games I mentioned.

 

The fact is I think homebrew programmers were discouraged from developing homebrew games that came from Atari. I am saying that because Kirsten Keller was busy sending letters. I remembered Adventure II being delayed because of Infrogrames aka Atari.

 

It would be far worse for their classics to fall into personal hands. The homebrew community is largely willing to not be ruled by copyright lawyers and such so I don't think it was ever much of a deterrant (Even Adventure II... I can't speak for Cafeman but I bet if the worst happened and Atari was being obstinant that he'd of simply choosen a different name to brand his homebrew as if an amicable agreement couldn't be found).

 

All that would be accomplished by individuals buying pieces of Atari IP would be to ensure that a commercially released product would never include something like Battlezone ever again. And I think that would be a shame.

 

Maybe Activision will buy it.

 

With how little LackaVision is doing with its own back catalog of classics (They've even stopped releasing their 2600 library this generation which represented the vast majority of what they had been willing to release in the past... some of their games are on Game Room merely because they were licensed from Activision), I can't imagine them buying even more classic properties.

 

I read on a forum outside of Atariage that a member of Nintendo life claims that Namco Bandai is planning on buying Atari.

 

My thoughts if happens is Namco would care about the product, but they would be carried away on the Museum Compilations they do based on the amount of Namco Museums that have released through the years starting with the Playstation.

 

Namco does relatively little with their own back catalog these days.

 

For console's, we had a single Namco Museum release on the 360 with a decent lineup, a few standalone downloads on XBLA, a download with a handful of games on the PS3, perhaps a half dozen Virtual Console arcade releases on the Wii with most of Namco's VC arcade releases being Japanese only, and a small Namco Museum release on the Wii that harkened back to the pitiful lineups of years past and then a rerelease with a few more games tacked on to the roster. And most of this was years ago at this point.

 

All in all, if you aren't Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga, chances are that you're not going to see rerelease. And in recent years even those big names are largely relegated to 3rd party licensors for plug and play tv games rather than full fledged Namco releases.

 

From a homebrew standpoint, I think they would be safe doing Atari Arcade games now without a chance of getting a letter if Namco does buy Atari. I said from homebrew standpoint because of Namco hasn't after the homebrew versions of Namco arcade games.

 

What makes you think they'd suddenly stop enforcing the copyrights for some of their most valuable assets (Tempest, Asteroids, Centipede, Millipede, Missile Command, etc)?

Edited January 21, 2013 by Atariboy

[svenski]

Star Raiders was a case in point. A massive franchise that could have been a massive money spinner but they probably had it done on the cheap and then rushed to get it out. It has been a cycle of selling off assets and franchises and ending up with not a lot - the only option being to farm out games for mobile and social gaming. Use that as part of your strategy but not all of it.

 

Make use of the historic back catalog but don't focus all your attention on it - I think Atari has focused too much on trying to squeeze out cash from ageing titles.

[Retro Rogue]

Star Raiders was a case in point. A massive franchise that could have been a massive money spinner but they probably had it done on the cheap and then rushed to get it out.

 

We were called in at the very last minute to try and help it but it was just too late, they couldn't implement any actual changes. We even came up with an entire backstory to tie it into the original and expand for future related titles.

[Zoyx]

I hope everyone is treating this as good news. Atari is separating from the former Infogrames, and will emerge out of this as an American company. Bushnell is on the board of directors of Atari SA, and it is a pretty good bet he will move to the new Atari.

 

So many potential for Atari and their brand on the emerging platforms. Exciting news.