Atari SA


Atari SA is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. Because of continuing pressures upon the company, and difficulty finding investors, it sought bankruptcy protection under French law in January 2013; its subsidiaries in the United States have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as well. All three subsidiaries have since exited bankruptcy, and are all going through a vigorous turnaround campaign.

History

Early history

The founders wanted to christen the company Zboub Système, but were dissuaded by their legal counsel. According to Bonnell in a TV interview, they then used a mix-and-match computer program to suggest other names, one of which was "Infogramme": a portmanteau of the French words "informatique" and "programme". The final choice, "Infogrames", was a slightly modified version of that suggestion.
The company logo and mascot is an armadillo, chosen when the company was moved to Villeurbanne. Bonnell commented: "This dinosaur is our symbol. The armadillo has always survived changes to its environment, from the melting of glaciers to the worst of heat waves."
In the late 1980s, Infogrames was noted for its French computer games that often featured original game ideas and occasionally humorous content. They had acquired several licences for popular Franco-Belgian comics.
In 1992, they released Alone in the Dark, a 3D horror adventure game, to international attention.

1996–2002: Growth through acquisition

In 1996, Bruno Bonnell's Infogrames embarked on an acquisition campaign that would last seven years and cost more than $500 million; the objective was to become the world's leading interactive entertainment publisher. While the company's debt increased from $55 million in 1999 to $493 million in 2002, the company's revenue also increased from $246 million to $650 million during the same period.
In April 1996, Infogrames announced they would buy and merge with British company Ocean International Ltd., the owners of Ocean Software and fellow-subsidiary Ocean America, for $100 million. After the merger, Ocean International Ltd. was renamed to Infogrames United Kingdom, Ltd., with Infogrames retaining the Ocean Software brand until 1998. With this merger, Infogrames Entertainment S.A. classified themselves as a "Super Publisher", referring to them being the largest in Europe. In 1997 Infogrames acquired Philips Multimedia BV, and transferred the multimedia software publishing and distribution activities from the company to them. The company also purchased game rights from German publisher Laguna Video Games in the same year.
In 1998, IESA acquired a majority share of 62.5% in the game distributor OziSoft, and in 2002 IESA bought the remaining shares of OziSoft from Sega and other share holders, then renamed them to Infogrames Australia and Infogrames New Zealand. for $3.7 million. Also in 1998 the distributors ABS Multimedia, Arcadia and the Swiss Gamecity GmbH were acquired.
In 1999, IESA bought Gremlin Interactive, alongside DMA Design for $40 million, and renamed the developer to Infogrames Sheffield House. Infogrames though would later sell off DMA Design to Take-Two Interactive in the same year. In the same year, IESA also bought Accolade for $60 million which was renamed as Infogrames North America, Inc. and Beam Software, which was renamed to Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd.
Then in December 1999, IESA made one of the most expensive acquisitions in the company's history. Infogrames bought 70% of GT Interactive for $135 million, and assumed the new subsidiary's $75 million bank debt. By June 2000 Infogrames had invested another $30 million in GT Interactive. IESA justified the purchase by stating that GT Interactive provided Infogrames with a "distribution network for all of its products in the United States, as well as a catalog of products that includes Driver, Duke Nukem, Oddworld, Unreal Tournament and Deer Hunter".
Included in the GT Interactive purchase were the game development studios SingleTrac, Humongous Entertainment, Legend Entertainment and Reflections Interactive.
GT Interactive became Infogrames, Inc.
In 2000, the developer Paradigm Entertainment was bought for $19.5 million and in-flight games developer Den-o-Tech Int. , later renamed to Infogrames DTI, was also acquired for $5.6 million.
In the same year, Infogrames, Inc. acquired Infogrames North America, Inc. and both companies were merged into the former.
In January 2001, IESA purchased Hasbro Interactive and the handheld game console Game.com from Hasbro for $100 million; with $95 million as 4.5 million common shares of Infogrames and $5 million in cash.
With the acquisition of Hasbro Interactive, which was renamed as Infogrames Interactive, Inc, IESA became the owner of:
Also under the terms of the sale agreement, Infogrames gained the exclusive rights to develop and publish games based on Hasbro properties, which included Dungeons & Dragons, Mr. Potato Head, My Little Pony and others, for a period of 15 years plus an option for an additional 5 years based on performance.

2001–2003

In October 2001, Infogrames announced that it was "reinventing" the Atari brand with the launch of three new games featuring prominent Atari branding on their boxarts: Splashdown, MX Rider and TransWorld Surf. The brand was a success for Infogrames, and they continued to use Atari as a brand name for console games aimed at 18–34 year olds. PC, educational and casual games retained the Infogrames banner.
MicroProse's UK studio in Chipping Sodbury was closed on 20 September 2002 after the release of the last game under the MicroProse name, Grand Prix 4.
In the same year, IESA acquired the remaining 80% of game development studio Eden Games for $4.1 million. In May, Shiny Entertainment was bought from Interplay Entertainment for $47 million. With Eden Games, IESA would publish all of Eden Games' titles, such as V-Rally 3 and later Test Drive Unlimited, and with the Shiny Entertainment acquisition, IESA obtained the rights to develop and publish Enter the Matrix which was the first game based on The Matrix films and sold more than 5 million copies.
In the fiscal year of 2002, IESA had a net loss of $67 million on revenues of $650 million, and in 2003 the net losses increased to $89 million.
In 2006, IESA reported a net loss of $201 million on revenues of $525 million, and debts of around $290 million. From 1999 to 2006 IESA accumulated losses totalling €500 million.

2003

In 2003, Infogrames closed down the Sheffield House development studio.
On 7 May 2003, IESA officially reorganised its Infogrames Inc. US subsidiary as a separate Nasdaq listed company known as Atari Inc., named its European operations as Atari Europe, renamed Infogrames Interactive, Inc. to Atari Interactive, Inc.,, rebranded Infogrames Australia Pty Ltd as Atari Australia Pty Ltd, renamed Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd to Atari Melbourne House Pty Ltd, Infogrames UK became Atari UK, while IESA became a holding company.
Atari, Inc. is a public company that, as of 2007, had, as a majority stockholder, the company California U.S. Holdings, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of IESA. Atari Inc. licences the Atari trademark from Atari Interactive, a licence which will expire in 2013. Atari, Inc. has the rights to publish and sublicense in North America certain intellectual properties either owned or licensed by IESA or its subsidiaries, including Atari Interactive.
Atari's Australian subsidiary also distributes games for Konami of Europe, Codemasters UK, Eidos Interactive and SCi. Konami has an Australian headquarters but this is for Konami's Gaming Machines.

Sell-offs

In 2003, Infogrames closed down the Atari Hunt Valley studio and in January 2004, they closed down Legend Entertainment.
In 2004, Infogrames sold the Civilization franchise to Take-Two Interactive for $22.3 million. Also that year Infogrames lost the rights to the Unreal franchise when the game's developer Epic Games signed a deal with Midway Games. In June 2005, Infogrames sold back to Hasbro the digital rights to most Hasbro properties including Transformers, My Little Pony and Connect Four, but not Dungeons & Dragons, for $65 million.
In May 2006, IESA sold the Games.com site to AOL. They also sold the Stuntman franchise to THQ and the publishing rights to TimeShift to Vivendi Games. The sales generated $13 million in revenue. THQ also bought the developer Paradigm Entertainment from IESA. In July 2006 IESA sold the game developer Reflections Interactive and the Driver franchise for $21.6 million to Ubisoft. In October, Shiny Entertainment was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment for $1.6 million. In November of the same year, Atari Melbourne House was sold to Krome Studios and renamed to Krome Studios Melbourne. After this the only developers still owned by Atari were Eden Games and Humongous, Inc.
In April 2007, Infogrames' founding chairman Bruno Bonnell left the company after 24 years; on the day of the announcement of his departure IESA's shares jumped 24%. After his resignation, Infogrames through the remainder of 2006 sold intellectual properties and some studios in order to raise cash and stave off the threat of bankruptcy.
In the same year, Infogrames fired the majority of Atari's directors and laid off 20% of its workforce. For the 2006–2007 fiscal year, Atari posted a net loss of $70 million.

Atari Inc. buyout

On 6 March 2008, Infogrames made an offer to Atari Inc. to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of US$1.68 per share or US$11 million total. The offer would make Infogrames the sole owner of Atari Inc., making it a privately held company.
On 30 April 2008, Atari Inc. announced its intentions to accept Infogrames' buyout offer and merge with Infogrames.
On 9 October 2008, Infogrames completed its takeover of Atari Inc. With that acquisition the Atari brand was re-united under Infogrames. Infogrames said that it planned to reduce administrative costs and to focus on online gaming.

Bandai Namco buyout of Atari Europe and distribution partners

In December 2008, Infogrames bought Cryptic Studios for $26.7 million in cash plus performance bonuses. Cryptic Studios is a massively multiplayer online game developer and its acquisition is in line with the company's new business strategy which focuses on online games.
Namco Bandai and Infogrames formed a joint venture called Distribution Partners in September 2008. Distribution Partners was defined by Infogrames as a regrouping of "Infogrames' distribution operations in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America." This new entity consisted mainly of Infograme's distribution network in the PAL region. Distribution Partners was 34% owned by Namco Bandai and 66% owned by Atari.
In May 2009, Namco Bandai acquired Atari Europe from Infogrames. Its sale and marketing personnel were transferred to Distribution Partners. In March 2009, Infogrames announced that it was getting out of the distribution business in the PAL region with its decision to sell its 66% stake at Distribution Partners. According to an Infogrames press-release, this sale allowed "Atari to focus its financial resources and creative energy exclusively on developing and publishing online-enabled games".
In July, the deal valued at €37 million was completed; Distribution Partners was renamed to Namco Bandai Partners. At that time the company had operations in 50 countries and 17 dedicated offices.
Despite restructuring, Infogrames continued to struggle to become profitable. For the 2008 fiscal year the company posted €51.1 million in net losses and for the 2009 fiscal year, which ended in March, Infogrames posted losses of €226.1 million.

Transition from Infogrames Entertainment

During their fiscal year meeting, IESA announced that it would be changing its corporate name to an Atari branded name, in line with the use of the name for its subsidiaries. In reference to this, Atari, Inc's CEO Jim Wilson said: "We've gotten rid of the Infogrames and Atari duality, the confusion around that. We are one simplified company, under one management team, under one brand."
Infogrames' 29 May earnings report stated:
An earnings press release on 24 July 2009 also provided clarification regarding the ensuing name change that was initially announced some two months prior, rebranding themselves as Atari, SA from Infogrames Entertainment, SA. Furthermore, this release also stated their intentions of henceforth utilising the much more recognisable 'Atari Group' moniker with all Atari-related brands and similar such subsidiaries already under their control.

BlueBay restructuring

On 21 October 2010, Atari announced Atari's reference shareholders BlueBay Value Recovery Fund Limited and BlueBay Multi-Strategy Fund Limited are exploring a disposal of the shares and equity-linked instruments held by them. However, BlueBay shareholders later interrupted the sale process of its holding in Atari. BlueBay later converted the conversion of a portion of the ORANEs held by them.
In 2012, Atari, SA, BlueBay Value Recovery Fund Limited, and The BlueBay Multi-Strategy
Fund Limited reached an agreement following their negotiations regarding the restructuring of the debt and capital structure of the Atari group. As part of the agreement, the €20.9 million Credit Facility Agreement was extinguished via €10.9 million loan forgiveness from BlueBay Value Recovery Fund Limited and Atari's payment of €10 million; the cancellation of the dilutive effect of the ORANEs held by BlueBay; €20 million capital increases to be submitted to the vote of Atari shareholders.

Bankruptcy

On 21 January 2013, Atari, Inc., Atari Interactive, Inc., Humongous, Inc. and California US Holdings, Inc. filed petitions for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.
In July 2013, Atari began to sell its game assets, developers and the famous tripod logo and the Atari name in auction. The Battlezone and MoonBase Commander games were bought by Rebellion Developments. The Backyard Sports franchise was sold to Epic Gear LLC and later to Day 6 Sports Group LLC. Tommo bought Humongous Inc. and over 100 different games. Total Annihilation was sold to Wargaming and lastly, Star Control was bought by Stardock. Atari also had plans to sell off the Test Drive and RollerCoaster Tycoon franchises. Eden Games also closed down during the bankruptcy, but reopened up a year later as an independent developer by its founder, David Nadal.
In 2014, All 3 Ataris emerged from bankruptcy and entered the social casino gaming industry with Atari Casino. Frédéric Chesnais, who now heads all three companies, stated their entire operations consist of a staff of 10 people.
In 2015, Alternative Software acquired Hogs of War and Fragile Allegiance from Atari, SA and re-released them both on Steam.
In December 2016, 3 years after the bankruptcy sale, Atari sold the Test Drive franchise to Bigben Interactive. The V-Rally series was also sold to Bigben Interactive around this time without a formal announcement.
In 2017, Piko Interactive acquired 40 Winks, Bubble Ghost, ', Death Gate, Drakkhen, Eternam, Glover, Monty Mole, Hostage: Rescue Mission, Marco Polo and ' from Atari, SA.
On 19 September 2018, THQ Nordic announced they had acquired the Alone in the Dark franchise and from Atari, SA.

Turnaround strategy

In 2015, Atari announced a turnaround strategy that would focus on re-releasing the catalogue of Atari games. The strategy is focused on "download games, MMO games, mobile games and licensing activities, based in priority around traditional franchises."
Projects currently in production or included in the turnaround strategy include:
On 8 June 2017 a short teaser video was released, promoting a new product; and the following week CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed the company was developing a new game console – the hardware was stated to be based on PC technology, and be still under development. In mid July 2017 an Atari press release confirmed the existence of new hardware, referred to as the Ataribox. The box design was derived from early Atari designs with a ribbed top surface, and a rise at the back of the console; two versions were announced; one with a traditional wood veneer front, and another with a glass front. Connectivity options were given as including HDMI, USB, and an SD card – the console was said to support both classic and current games. According to an official company statement of 22 June 2017 the product was to initially launch via a crowdfunding campaign in order to minimise financial risk to the parent company. In March 2018, the Ataribox was renamed the Atari VCS. In October 2018, Atari SA was listed on the Nasdaq Intl. Designation: PONGF on the U.S. OTC Market. In April 2019, Atari announces that they will began trading in Nasdaq Nordic under the ticker ATA SDB.
In march 2020 Atari announced a game on The Sandbox Plattform.
Atari plans eight gaming hotels in the USA. Atari is member of the Blockchain Game Alliance.

Subsidiaries

Game franchises owned by Atari, SA

As of 2018, Atari, SA own the rights to the following games and game franchises. The majority of these are original works by Atari, Hasbro Interactive or Infogrames, however the most notable outside of these are a large number of intellectual properties formerly belonging to Ocean Software, which Atari never lost the rights.