Atari looks to sell off their internal studios

[Everlost_MI]

Next Generation (http://www.next-gen.biz/) has posted a news bit (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2299&Itemid=2) regarding Atari's shift in focus as they look to sell off their internal studios to stay alive.

Speaking to UK trade paper MCV, Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell said, "We have decided that we should refocus our creativity efforts on external studios rather than internal development. We will be looking to sell our studios, but that does not mean we're immediately putting a 'for sale' sign on them. They still; have important projects to finish for us."

The studios include England-based Reflections, Melbourne House in Australia, Dallas-based Paradigm, Shiny Studios in California and France-based Eden.
...!

[The Letter 3]

And so continues Atari's slow, painful fall into oblivion. Please, Please, EA; crush them now and put them out of their misery.

[Exodus]

This is what happens when you put out shitty games and don't have the money to throw at it to make another sequel that copies what more succesful games do.

[Heretic Machine]

And so continues Atari's slow, painful fall into oblivion. Please, Please, EA; crush them now and put them out of their misery.

Dude, you can't kill Atari. It doesn't work, they just come back. Everytime it dies, someone goes to Japan and gathers the Dragonballs and wishes them back to life.

[Exodus]

Dude, you can't kill Atari. It doesn't work, they just come back. Everytime it dies, someone goes to Japan and gathers the Dragonballs and wishes them back to life.

Oh my god, I didn't think I would be able to laugh/smile today until after we took down vael tonight, but you just fucking did the impossible. You sir may sleep with my wife any time you want to and if she finds you the least bit attractive sobre or drunk.

[fitbabits]

Ooooh, Dave Perry (Shiny) must be real pissed right now...

[Exodus]

Ooooh, Dave Perry (Shiny) must be real pissed right now...

I hope so if he had any hand in approving the shit in a box matrix license games. Look at this we provided exclusive story and movie footage in our game! but our game is buggy, and if you actually look closely, looks like complete shit!

[The Letter 3]

Dude, you can't kill Atari. It doesn't work, they just come back. Everytime it dies, someone goes to Japan and gathers the Dragonballs and wishes them back to life.
I have three classes today and I'm positive this will be the most insightful thing I read or hear today. Good start to the day, I say!

[Evil Avatar]

Did I just hear the sound of an axe falling?

[51|RandoM]

Hmm, nobody can afford to be developers anymore, so they try to stick to publishing.

Would seem to indicate that perhaps the Publisher<>Developer relationship/business model might be out of whack.

[emperordahc]

Oh, how the mighty Shiny has fallen. Once the developer of badass video games, now the victim of deserved scorn. Dave Perry's original Earth Worm Jim or (Planet Moon's) MDK... now just the bug filled Matrix games. *Sigh*

[EGO]

Oh, how the mighty Shiny has fallen. Once the developer of badass video games, now the victim of deserved scorn. Dave Perry's original Earth Worm Jim or (Planet Moon's) MDK... now just the bug filled Matrix games. *Sigh*

I still don't get all this "how the mighty have fallen" bullshit. WHEN was Shiny actually mighty?!?! When did they actually do ANYTHING, other than tell you how mighty they were?

The last truely good thing to come out of Shiny was Earthworm Jim, that's it. Everything else has been "okay", but always felt "unfinished" and don't say they had publisher pressure to throw something out, because they've been consistently late on EVERYTHING they've ever done.

[fitbabits]

I still don't get all this "how the mighty have fallen" bullshit. WHEN was Shiny actually mighty?!?! When did they actually do ANYTHING, other than tell you how mighty they were?

The last truely good thing to come out of Shiny was Earthworm Jim, that's it. Everything else has been "okay", but always felt "unfinished" and don't say they had publisher pressure to throw something out, because they've been consistently late on EVERYTHING they've ever done.
I think the perceptions of Shiny being 'mighty' comes from two sources:

1. Dave Perry
2. The fawning media who think (thought?) that Dave Perry shat gold nuggets.

Earthworm Jim was cool, but that's about it. Path of Neo is supposed to be better than average, but it's two years too late.

[Maskatron]

MDK 1 and 2 were good games.

[fitbabits]

MDK 1 and 2 were good games.
Key word being 'good'. Thinking about it, I can't recall any Dave Perry game that's scaled the heights of awesomeness.

[KNOTE]

I will give you 10 dollars for Shiny and Reflections.
*checks most recent projects*
...wait, nevermind.

[Sensei-X]

I still laugh when people give so much credit to Dave Perry for being nothing more than a glorified PR rep who talks about his glory days making games on his Commodore 64. The reason Shiny has gone to hell is because Perry was never a big creative force, it was all the other people, people who he pissed off and left once he sold the company to Infogrames. If there's anything Perry is good at is taking credit for someone else's work, pretty much every time they interview him you'd think he made the game all by himself.

[ChaosDent]

Sacrifice was good, a sequel that expanded on its unique gameplay and fixed its few flaws would have been great.

As for Infogrames, I hope they go down in flames. They were on the cusp of a renaissance of unique game franchises in the late 1990s but they burned their bridges with the old guard that made their name, changed their name to Atari and started pushing established franchises out the door as fast as they could get them out of Alpha stages.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

MDK2 was actually developed by Bioware, not Shiny.


I'll be glad to see them go. I stopped buying their titles when they stopped bothering to give me a jewel case.

[HALO 32]

3DO and Accliam all over again, the last good game that Atari released that i can think of is Indigo Prophecy

[ElectricMonk]

it's really too bad what happened to shiny. they were like another treyarch.

great game ideas but everything was too buggy.

[Teddeh]

Key word being 'good'. Thinking about it, I can't recall any Dave Perry game that's scaled the heights of awesomeness.

Pyjamarama!

And he did it on his own, too. Code and art.

[fitbabits]

Pyjamarama!

And he did it on his own, too. Code and art.
Good call.