Atari CEO Wade Rosen says the company is done being a 'fast follower’

[PowerDubs]

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/atari-ceo-wade-rosen-says-the-company-is-done-being-a-fast-follower-

[CharlesEChuck]

Good that he mentions it. While everyone says Atari is still losing money I seem to have been the only one realizing that they reported a positive cash flow from operations for the second half of 2023/24 (Sep-Mar). First one since Wade Rosen took the chair. I guess thanks to interviews like this more people can see the turnaround coming. Good!

[HatefulGravey]

I'm interested to see what they do. They keep talking about retro-gaming, and they have released the 2600+ with the 7800+ on the way. Maybe they hit a homerun on this thing. I just can't help but wonder how much money there is in the retro market right now for a company like Atari. I was shocked to hear about the Atari+ stuff for the same reason, but they are adding new stuff so it must be working on some level. I'm hoping for more good things from this Atari.

[TopDrawer]

Like I've said before, Rosen's aim seems to basically be the same that Embracer had in its infancy - back when they were still just THQ Nordic, only had a couple of studios under its belt, mainly only focused on preserving their acquired THQ and AA eurojank titles from other defunct European companies.

But play it as safe as possible to avoid falling under the same trap Embracer fell into recently - go on crazy shopping sprees of other publishers/studios/other media companies without any kind of a proper strategy whatsover.

[CharlesEChuck]

He pretty much tells the Embracer story in the interview, suggesting that "the game industry's biggest problem is taking the past and assuming it will become the future."

 

He's aware. You just know the guy follows his own words and is dedicated to take Atari's horrible past to turn it around into the best in the world in what they do in the future.

Edited September 12 by CharlesEChuck

[HatefulGravey]

22 minutes ago, CharlesEChuck said:

"the game industry's biggest problem is taking the past and assuming it will become the future."

I read this in the story and it didn't hit me then that this is an interesting take to have for a man that is banking on retro-gaming to be a big hit for him.

[CharlesEChuck]

I get you. I think this quote was related to the broader industry move. Assuming the Covid situ with the world sitting at home playing video games would go on forever. When a sane mind knew it wouldn't. Banking on retro is different. He thinks long term, knowing that a good game today will be a good retro game tomorrow. Is Surgeon Sim retro? Certainly not! Is it a good game? Yes! Right now 8 people play it. Play Tracker says 6.3m people played it before. The take is assuming that more people will want to play those games in the future so it's worth and a viable business case preserving them. 

Edited September 12 by CharlesEChuck