Alex Posted October 3, 2001 Share Posted October 3, 2001 [img' target='_blank'>/images/news/Splashdown.jpg[/img]FGN Online Splashdown and MX Rider, are scheduled to be released before Christmas. Infogrames CEO Bruno Bonnell said "We're thrilled to introduce our reinvented Atari brand on PlayStation 2 and are confident that PS2 fans will be riveted by these new games." If you're itching to get your hands on these titles, you can pre-order Splashdown at EBgames.com and pre-order MX Rider at Amazon.com. [ 10-03-2001: Message edited by: Alex ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariDude Posted October 4, 2001 Share Posted October 4, 2001 It is nice to know that Infogrames is going to be using the Atari name in their new games. I hope that they do well with the name and that it causes some renewed interest in the history of Atari. Hopefully they will have better luck with the name then Hasbro Interactive did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted October 4, 2001 Author Share Posted October 4, 2001 I'm not terribly thrilled by these titles - a sea-doo game and a motorbike game. They may turn out to be good games, but they're already overdone genres, I don't see anything groundbreaking about them. I'm still glad to see the Atari label has returned, I hope it is used for more creative projects in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhindle The Red Posted October 4, 2001 Share Posted October 4, 2001 quote: Originally posted by AtariDude: Hopefully they will have better luck with the name then Hasbro Interactive did. Hasbro actually had quite a bit of luck with the Atari name. The collections and Pong sold well, as did Q*Bert. I just think with poor sales across the board last year, they couldn't justify staying in the games business. That's why they sold the 'Interactive' division to Infogrames as well as licensing all their own properties to them. Infogrames is a gaming company. Hasbro is not. As for these new titles, I don't care if they're established genres or not, there's just nothing 'Atari-like' about them. You can hardly say that the 'Rush' series was original, but for some reason it just screams 'Atari.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhindle The Red Posted October 4, 2001 Share Posted October 4, 2001 On another note, Infogrames seems to be making one of the mistakes that Hasbro made. They are not actually branding these games as 'Atari.' They are co-branded. Many of the Atari titles from Hasbro also featured a prominant 'Hasbro' logo. Thus, most game sites listed their games as being from 'Hasbro' or 'Hasbro Interactive' and not 'Atari.' If they are going to use the name, they need to have the courage to go all the way and only use the Atari name on the packaging. It should, of course, say 'a division of Infogrames' or something, but co-branding only dilutes the impact of the Atari name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 4, 2001 Share Posted October 4, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Rhindle The Red: On another note, Infogrames seems to be making one of the mistakes that Hasbro made. They are not actually branding these games as 'Atari.' They are co-branded . Many of the Atari titles from Hasbro also featured a prominant 'Hasbro' logo. Thus, most game sites listed their games as being from 'Hasbro' or 'Hasbro Interactive' and not 'Atari.' If they are going to use the name, they need to have the courage to go all the way and only use the Atari name on the packaging. It should, of course, say 'a division of Infogrames' or something, but co-branding only dilutes the impact of the Atari name. Well, if there is any truth that Infogrames is starting up a division called Atari Labs, then perhaps we'll see some original Atari-branded titles come out of them. However, I don't have grand hopes that we'll see a return to the Atari of yesteryear, and I'm not even sure that's really possible these days. Perhaps they'll rehash parts of the vast Atari library into modern PC and console titles, but even if they do that it'll probably just be more along the lines of the titles Hasbro was shipping. These two Playstation 2 titles are only the first Atari-branded games to be released, I'm sure they have many more around the corner. Infogrames publishes quite a few games ever year, it'll be interesting to see what they end up slapping the Atari label onto. I just hope that these first two "Atari" titles don't suck. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spider-ham Posted October 4, 2001 Share Posted October 4, 2001 I understand that the first "big" atari game is suppose to be Unreal Champion on the Xbox. These first games are just getting things started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 4, 2001 Share Posted October 4, 2001 quote: Originally posted by spider-ham: I understand that the first "big" atari game is suppose to be Unreal Champion on the Xbox. These first games are just getting things started. You know, I've heard this rumor as well, although I'm not sure where. Would certainly be an interesting move on Infogrames' part and would make for a huge Atari-branded title. But it's not like Unreal Championship is being developed by "Atari". It would certainly increase awareness of the Atari brand again, although most people will probably associate it with Infogrames (who is just publishing the title, Epic Games is actually doing the development). ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Zeptari Posted October 5, 2001 Share Posted October 5, 2001 I think if infograms is gonna use the Atari name they need to bring some of atari's classic games onto the new systems. Yar's Revenge, Defender, etc... Activision should do the same thing.. River Raid, Hero..... Or even better they should hire some of the guys that programmed those wonderfull games.. Just slapping atari's name on just any infogram game doesn't make it atari quality! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mos6507 Posted October 5, 2001 Share Posted October 5, 2001 >> You know, I've heard this rumor as well, although I'm not sure where. Would certainly be an interesting move on Infogrames' part and would make for a huge Atari-branded title. << This is the problem. Atari was not just a logo. There were people that made the brand. People with a collective creative vision starting from Nolan through to the programmers and engineers and to the industrial designers down to the factory workers. It was a way of doing business that no longer exists in the industry. To simply slap the logo on a franchise title like Unreal does nothing to breathe life back into the brand. It just dilutes it into being just a worthless symbol. I really don't think you can create anything truly Atari-like within the confines of business as usual in today's conservative, Hollywood-like game industry. You really have to do a Xerox Parc sort of thing and get a bunch of bright people together in an office, close the door on them, and say "Call us back when you have something for us to ship". That takes an enormous amount of courage and trust on the part of a huge corporation. It also means accepting the notion that maybe business as usual isn't perfect. Most corporations are too prideful for that. We'll see if Atari Labs is just that or whether it winds up being just another anonymous game developer house run by market-research committees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liveinabin Posted November 9, 2001 Share Posted November 9, 2001 Well, I was dead against this, but after reading initial impressions of Splashdown, it looks as if Infogrames have stuck the Atari badge on a winner. I hope they keep it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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