The best interview with Atari CEO Wade Rosen to date has just been released

[JPF997]

Check it out for yourself, lots of interesting information in here do dig into 

 

 

[Lord Mushroom]

I like how they first find a developer they like, and then let the developer choose what IP to make a game out of. Smart.

 

I haven´t seen the whole interview yet, and I fast forward a lot, but I am getting the impression the emphasis on retro games might be partly out of necessity. And that if the financial situation allows it in the future, they will take bigger bets, and go for something new with more potential.

[Lord Mushroom]

One interesting thing in the interview, for those who don´t want to watch it, is that he is basically saying there will be a Bubsy game at some point, but they haven´t started the process of making it yet.

[Lord Mushroom]

Wade come across well in this interview. He seems intelligent and passionate about the company. I am not getting the snake-oil salesman vibe that Frederic Chesnais gave me.

 

The interviewer, who otherwise did well, doesn´t seem to know that Xybots isn´t owned by Atari SA.

[Nall3k]

7 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

Wade come across well in this interview. He seems intelligent and passionate about the company. I am not getting the snake-oil salesman vibe that Frederic Chesnais gave me.

 

The interviewer, who otherwise did well, doesn´t seem to know that Xybots isn´t owned by Atari SA.

Wade admitted the company wasn't profitable either, but that is kind of expected for now. I would be surprised if Atari isn't the publisher for System Shock on consoles (unless Nightdive already had a contractual partner for that). 

[JPF997]

41 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

Wade come across well in this interview. He seems intelligent and passionate about the company. I am not getting the snake-oil salesman vibe that Frederic Chesnais gave me.

 

The interviewer, who otherwise did well, doesn´t seem to know that Xybots isn´t owned by Atari SA.

The Atari hype train is going so strong right now that it's easy to forget that the company is still suffering from financial issues as well as a tarnished reputation amongst the gaming community at large because of the previous administration's many failure's, Fred Chesnais was (just like Bruno Bonnell and Ray Kassar) one of the most incompetent gaming CEOs Atari and this industry as a whole has ever seen.

[Matt_B]

1 hour ago, Lord Mushroom said:

The interviewer, who otherwise did well, doesn´t seem to know that Xybots isn´t owned by Atari SA.

That's a common problem with a lot of other games too. Just have a look at all the "why isn't this game on Atari 50?" discussions across the internet.

 

I'd even go so far as to say that most of the games that people would readily associate with the Atari brand either aren't owned by them, or never even were. As well as all the post-split arcade games, there are all the license deals, the localized Japanese games, everything that got flogged off in bankruptcy fire sales, plus a tendency to forget that Activision and Imagic were different companies.

 

Attempting to reacquire, or just plain acquire for the first time, is obviously part of the company strategy now. I'd suspect that most of them won't come as cheap as Bubsy though.

[JPF997]

17 minutes ago, Matt_B said:

That's a common problem with a lot of other games too. Just have a look at all the "why isn't this game on Atari 50?" discussions across the internet.

 

I'd even go so far as to say that most of the games that people would readily associate with the Atari brand either aren't owned by them, or never even were. As well as all the post-split arcade games, there are all the license deals, the localized Japanese games, everything that got flogged off in bankruptcy fire sales, plus a tendency to forget that Activision and Imagic were different companies.

 

Attempting to reacquire, or just plain acquire for the first time, is obviously part of the company strategy now. I'd suspect that most of them won't come as cheap as Bubsy though.

Most games people associate with Atari are definitely owned by them, Missile Comand, Centipede, Asteroids, Tempest, Adventure and Pong are all owned by Atari, what isn't owned by them is mostly stuff that  never belonged to them but the general public wrongly associated it with them like Pacman and Space Invaders ( and of course the Atari Games ip's like Paper Boy and Gauntlet currently owned by Warner Brothers).

[buescherking]

Just watched the entire video, very eye opening. Some of the things I got from it: Wade would like to explore more Jaguar and Lynx content--Awesome! Wade says that the Atari VCS is the showcase for new Atari titles that are being released--Also Awesome! I love his reverence for older Atari, it's properties and history, referring to retro gaming as a form of Art. I like his vision for Atari going forward, he seems like a really decent guy I must say (any Ed Grimley fans?). I didn't know much about him, but after seeing this interview I think I like him, he's a good egg. I feel better about Atari now. He also mentions some new games and release dates in the interview at the end so make note of that.

[+Stephen]

I've been hyper critical in the past and will open minded about this.  The thought of not going for the knockout every time is a good longer term strategy.  But it's sad that they are still not profitable.  I hope this does not turn into what AEW is (please pardon the analogy, but it fits).  AEW is a wrestling promotion.  Shahid Khan has more money than god.  His young son was a wrestling fan from a young age.  So his dad is giving him his inheritance now so he can have fun with it.  Tony has built this little toy empire but has ZERO clue how to run it.  It's a fun vanity project for him, but it's not a sustainable profitable long term viable thing.

 

Sorry for the rant.  I do wish Wade the best of luck, this is a much better direction than the previous hucksters were going.

[Matt_B]

1 hour ago, JPF997 said:

Most games people associate with Atari are definitely owned by them, Missile Comand, Centipede, Asteroids, Tempest, Adventure and Pong are all owned by Atari, what isn't owned by them is mostly stuff that  never belonged to them but the general public wrongly associated it with them like Pacman and Space Invaders ( and of course the Atari Games ip's like Paper Boy and Gauntlet currently owned by Warner Brothers).

Yes, Atari definitely own those six games.🙂

 

I'm just saying that there's a much longer list of notable games that they're associated with but don't own.

The association with Pac Man and Space Invaders is correct, even, because Atari published the VCS versions of those games alongside many other arcade ports like Defender, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, and so on. These games were, generally speaking, more popular than the Atari-owned titles were back in the day too. Also, let's not forget all the film licenses such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween and, of course, E.T. that were games that they made but don't own.

 

The distinction between Atari Corp and Atari Games wasn't that obvious at the time either, because the former published a lot of the latter's games when it came to home computer and console ports. If you'd only ever played Xybots on the Lynx, you wouldn't necessarily even know of it as an arcade game, for instance. It does, of course, mean that Atari owns none of those games now.

 

Oh, and could you tell me why Atari don't own Battlezone any more without looking it up? Even if you can, most people aren't going to do that.

[Lord Mushroom]

11 hours ago, Nall3k said:

Wade admitted the company wasn't profitable either, 

Yes, and then he was about to say something, but stopped himself because he didn´t want to reveal market sensitive information. So maybe they are profitable now.

[Flojomojo]

13 hours ago, Matt_B said:

The distinction between Atari Corp and Atari Games wasn't that obvious at the time either, because the former published a lot of the latter's games when it came to home computer and console ports. If you'd only ever played Xybots on the Lynx, you wouldn't necessarily even know of it as an arcade game, for instance. It does, of course, mean that Atari owns none of those games now.

 

Oh, and could you tell me why Atari don't own Battlezone any more without looking it up? Even if you can, most people aren't going to do that.

That was really confusing to me at the time because there were a LOT of Atari Games licenses on the Atari Lynx from Atari Corp. Stun Runner, APB, Steel Talons, Hard Drivin', Pit Fighter, Xybots, Roadblasters ... and probably more, these are just off the top of my head. It confused me for a long time why these never appeared on the Atari Jaguar. It seems reasonable to assume that different companies with the same name would work together. 

 

It doesn't really matter anymore, but just for emotional/nostalgic reasons, I think it would be "neat" for them all to be in the same house again. 

 

I know why Battlezone isn't owned by Atari anymore but I agree most people won't. I daresay many people who knew the original game forgot all about it, or maybe don't recall that the VCS version in color is not how the arcade original looked. 

 

Y'all have piqued my interest in this interview and I'm going to listen to it now. I hope it's worth it!

[Flojomojo]

ahhhhh flip it's over an hour long
my kingdom for a text transcript

[PowerDubs]

There are clickable time stamps in the video....

[zzip]

19 hours ago, Stephen said:

I've been hyper critical in the past and will open minded about this.  The thought of not going for the knockout every time is a good longer term strategy.  But it's sad that they are still not profitable.  I hope this does not turn into what AEW is (please pardon the analogy, but it fits).  AEW is a wrestling promotion.  Shahid Khan has more money than god.  His young son was a wrestling fan from a young age.  So his dad is giving him his inheritance now so he can have fun with it.  Tony has built this little toy empire but has ZERO clue how to run it.  It's a fun vanity project for him, but it's not a sustainable profitable long term viable thing.

 

Sorry for the rant.  I do wish Wade the best of luck, this is a much better direction than the previous hucksters were going.

I think they were modestly profitable a year or two back.

 

But right now Atari seems to be trying to expand and raise their profile,  they are constantly announcing something new.    So it's understandable to not be profitable during such a phase,  but hopefully they can turn a profit from some of the things they are setting in motion now.

 

18 hours ago, Matt_B said:

The association with Pac Man and Space Invaders is correct, even, because Atari published the VCS versions of those games alongside many other arcade ports like Defender, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, and so on. These games were, generally speaking, more popular than the Atari-owned titles were back in the day too. Also, let's not forget all the film licenses such as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween and, of course, E.T. that were games that they made but don't own.

Dig Dug, Pole Position, Kangaroo and probably some others were in the arcade with Atari logos splashed all over them.    Atari was building arcade cabinets for other game developers.  So I can understand why people are confused about Dig Dug.   More so than say Donkey Kong or Mario Bros.

 

10 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

Yes, and then he was about to say something, but stopped himself because he didn´t want to reveal market sensitive information. So maybe they are profitable now.

Anything that could affect the share price up or down is best revealed in a press release or earnings call than on a podcast where it won't reach all investors.

[zzip]

5 hours ago, Flojomojo said:

It doesn't really matter anymore, but just for emotional/nostalgic reasons, I think it would be "neat" for them all to be in the same house again. 

Even if they could just get a license to release.   It would be awesome to have an arcade game collection featuring both sides of Atari.   Maybe they could release a few more Lynx/Jag titles as part of the deal too.

 

Midway stopped releasing such collections some time back.

[Matt_B]

Yeah, I'd like to see something like Atari 50 but with third party content, so Atari Games, Activision, Namco, the works.

 

Still, the barrier to this is that everyone's got to get paid enough to make it worth their while and, even if Atari are starting to shuffle back into profitability, I'm not sure if sales are quite that good yet.

[Flojomojo]

Just to circle back, that interview with Wade Rosen is indeed very refreshing, he seems focused on the art, and also seems to be a straightforward, smart guy. Thank you for the recommendation.

[GraffitiTavern]

On 10/9/2023 at 5:06 PM, Lord Mushroom said:

One interesting thing in the interview, for those who don´t want to watch it, is that he is basically saying there will be a Bubsy game at some point, but they haven´t started the process of making it yet.

My hot take, Bubsy is one series I would definitely be content if they did nothing with it. It was one of the most irritating of the myriad of 90s Sonic knockoffs.

[Lord Mushroom]

6 minutes ago, GraffitiTavern said:

My hot take, Bubsy is one series I would definitely be content if they did nothing with it. It was one of the most irritating of the myriad of 90s Sonic knockoffs.

He says in the interview that a new Bubsy game needs to recognize in a humourous way that some of the Bubsy games were really bad. If they have a lot of fun with the character like that, I can see the character actually being enjoyable.

[+Spriggy]

On 10/11/2023 at 5:42 AM, Flojomojo said:

Just to circle back, that interview with Wade Rosen is indeed very refreshing, he seems focused on the art, and also seems to be a straightforward, smart guy. Thank you for the recommendation.

Don't show old Johnny Phelan that video ..... you'll set his head on fire whilst having simultaneous bowl evacuation! 

[Matt_B]

You've got to hand it to Johnny. I don't think anyone's got as much out of the VCS as he has.

[KidGameR186496]

I do hope we see Atari acquring the IPs to Atari Games in the future. There is a lot of potential with games such as Marble Madness, Paperboy, Stun Runner, Xybots, Rampart, Klax, and more

[Lord Mushroom]

On 10/10/2023 at 3:06 AM, Stephen said:

I hope this does not turn into what AEW is (please pardon the analogy, but it fits).  AEW is a wrestling promotion.  Shahid Khan has more money than god.  His young son was a wrestling fan from a young age.  So his dad is giving him his inheritance now so he can have fun with it.  Tony has built this little toy empire but has ZERO clue how to run it.  It's a fun vanity project for him, but it's not a sustainable profitable long term viable thing.

Do we know if Wade Rosen has earned his fortune himself, or if he got it from his family? He has an MBA, and finished in the top 1% of his class, so he certainly has the proper education.