Sega to own Atari???

[NovaXpress]

I just saw a news piece indicating that Sega might be buying Infogrames, thus acquiring the rights to the Atqari name as well. Here's where i found the story

http://www.gamers.com/news/1191965

[Albert]

That's quite interesting, although I don't put much stake in rumors like this. Still, it would be very strange if Sega ends up with the Atari license. I'm going to need a chart to show how ownership of Atari has changed hands over the years.

[Tempest]

I don't know if I'd be happy with that or not. I mean Infogrames is an ok company and all but I really don't know much about them. Sega on the other hand is a well established company with a rich history and lately I've had a growing respect for their games. I'd also bet they have more resources than Infogrames to dump into Atari. I guess I'd be happy with anyone other than Nintendo owning Atari. If Nintendo ever got their hands on Atari I'd scream.

 

Yeah I'm a bit confused on the ownership cycle myself. AFAIK it went: Nolan Bushnell --> Time Warner --> Sam Tramiel --> JTS --> Hasbro --> Infogrames. I probably missed a level in there somewhere.

 

Tempest

[krisjohn]

Maybe they could release a CD-based console that plays Mega CD, Saturn and Jag CD games.

[Rick Weis]

i hope sega don't get it!! how long would it be before they just discard the atari section!!

 

Take care,

 

Rick

[Gregory DG]

Actually, Sega would probably do right by Atari more so than any other company. I think they would make Atari a division like the AM2 divisions only the Atari division would focus on making modern games but with the classic twist that we've all been longing for! Imagine more abstract games like Tempest 2000 and you can see where I'm going with this!

[AtariKen64]

maybe sega is doing to it to get their original shares back from atari that they lost around 1995 hehe,,,, if you cant remeber its too long to explain, but if atari had any sense then we would have seen a jaguar phantasy star!

[san-d-2000]

I rather have Sega owning the Atari brandname than any other company.

[Miles Tails Prower]

I don't know if I'd be happy with that or not.

I would be thrilled with that. Sega and Atari are my two favorite companies, and both are very good too. I think Sega might have built up enough money to release a system, and if Atari was on their side, it would get nothing but better. Sega would also probably take Atari very well, unlike Hasbro ands The Tramiels did. Infogrames did ok, but in my opinion, they only released 2 good games. (Unreal Tournament and Atari Anniversary edition.) So I hope Sega Buys Atari.

[Miles Tails Prower]

I rather have Sega owning the Atari brandname than any other company.

 

 

I couldnt agree with you more.

[Atarinvader]

that [sega] would look for developers that had expertise in areas that Sega lacked, such as RPGs

 

Hmmm... Sega lack expertise in developing RPGs?

 

I really don't think this is gonna happen, especialy not with Infogrames, but stranger things have happened before. Anyway, who cares who owns the rights to Atari? It's just a name now, the company as it was in any way shape or form doesn't exist, so I couldn't care less.

 

But I don't like Infogrames punching the name on to games like V-Rally 3, which is already a well know and established franchise. I really don't see what they are trying to achieve with that.

 

Eventually, as all of us get too old to care about videogames, the trademark will become worthless and then that'll truely be the end of Atari, but at the moment it's sort of cool in a nostalgic kinda way.

[Malix]

that [sega] would look for developers that had expertise in areas that Sega lacked, such as RPGs

 

 

Eventually, as all of us get too old to care about videogames,

 

That is blasphemy my friend.

 

You must do ten hail Mary's or suffer the consequences.

 

[atarifan49]

If Nintendo ever got their hands on Atari I'd scream.

 

 

I would be screaming with ya! :

 

 

Yeah I'm a bit confused on the ownership cycle myself. AFAIK it went: Nolan Bushnell --> Time Warner --> Sam Tramiel --> JTS --> Hasbro --> Infogrames. I probably missed a level in there somewhere.

 

 

You basicly got. If you want to be a slightly more correct then I would say this:

 

Nolan Bushnell --> Warner Communications --> Jack Tramiel --> JTS --> Hasbro --> Infogrames --> ??? (who's next?).

 

I just hope that the Atari name is used correctly and is associated with new and very innovative and exciting game ideas. And not treated like a dirty whore that's being passed around to be used!

[cwilkson]

Nolan Bushnell --> Warner Communications --> Jack Tramiel --> JTS --> Hasbro --> Infogrames --> ??? (who's next?).

 

It really is hard to keep up with.

 

Heh...I think Joe Decuir said it best when he referred to Atari (newly acquired by Infogrames) as "Atari the Nth". And you should have seen the look of surprise when we told him that Atari was a FRENCH company!

 

So I think we should, from now on, always end the lineage with "Atari the Nth".

 

-Chris

[KAZ]

From that gamers site...

 

Yes it is!

Infogrames is innovation

The power of imagination

Infogrames is entertainment

That rocks my world!

 

tra la, la do re me fa so la ti doe

 

Infogrames is hard to say

The power of grames

Infogrames is entertaining

That confuses my world!

 

 

That last part was of my making.

[Tempest]

Did I put Sam Tramiel? Whoops! I meant Jack of course, did Sam actually do anything with Atari other than watch his brother run it into the ground?

 

I think it's interesting that so many companies want the Atari name and library, but don't seem to know what the heck to do with it once they actually get it.

 

I keep hoping Nolan can come through with his Atari 2.0 idea, but that seems like a far off fantasy at this point. Sort of like seeing another Atari system...

 

Tempest

[KAZ]

Eventually, as all of us get too old to care about videogames, the trademark will become worthless and then that'll truely be the end of Atari, but at the moment it's sort of cool in a nostalgic kinda way.

 

 

Yes, blasphemer, you will pay homage to the High Atarians!

 

But seriously, what about the fact that I want to collect for Atari more, but simply don't have the funds. The older you get, the more money you got. I wasn't a millionaire as a teenager, so I was unable to get systems or games that I wanted to see. What if it takes me till I'm 35 to get some more nostalgic systems and games? I don't yet even have the funds to get a larger place, to house my collecting interest. It may take me till 40 to do that. See what I'm saying?

 

My dad always told me: "when you get older, and want to buy this stuff, then go ahead". He was thinking I'd outgrow it and develop "better" priorities, and that irritates me. Now I am older, and I've enjoyed seeing some of the games I used to want for the Atari 5200 for example. Just last week I was denied by yet another woman, who just "wants to be friends". I'm trying to get the right priorities in order, but it isn't working. So I continue to enjoy my gaming interests. When I'm 60 I plan to have a classic gaming palace, how's that for a goal? It will take that long just to have enough money to build it.

[atarifan49]

Did I put Sam Tramiel? Whoops! I meant Jack of course, did Sam actually do anything with Atari other than watch his brother run it into the ground?

 

 

All I know is that Jack aquired the company back in 1984. He might of transferred ownership to his son Sam years later. Sam was pretty much running things when the Jaguar was going. Jack I think was doing the retired thing or controlling things from the shadows.

 

But I always think that if Sam never had that heartattack the end of the Tramiel era would've been different. I think when that happened, Jack came in to kill the thing (Atari) that nearly killed his favorite son.

[Ze_ro]

Sega on the other hand is a well established company with a rich history and lately I've had a growing respect for their games.

 

Well, Infogrames may not have as rich a history as Sega, but their history is almost as long. I'm not an Infogrames expect, but I do know that they've been around at least since the '80s, when they were writing software for the Commodore 64. Any company that can stay around that long deserves at least some credit. I think the main reason people don't know Infogrames very well is because most of their work has been done overseas in Europe, and it's only lately that they've been making big headlines in North America. Although I can't say that I'm too excited about the games they've put the Atari logo on, at least they haven't screwed it up too badly...

 

As for Sega, I think it would be weird to see games with both the Sega and Atari logos on them... But whose to say that Sega even really wants the Atari name? I mean, Infogrames bought it for more name recognition, but Sega definitely doesn't have any troubles with that... There's a very real possiblity that if they were to buy out Infogrames, that they might just sell the Atari name to someone else.

 

I sort of hope that doesn't happen though. Sega is one of the few companies in these last few years to actually come out with original ideas. You don't see Nintendo coming up with crazy crap like Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Floigan Bros, Shenmue, and Monkey Ball. Atari has traditionally been about creativity, and I think Sega is one of the few companies that can do the name right.

 

--Zero

[NE146]

So does this mean that Tac-Scan would then be considered a first-party game?

[Mindfield]

I don't know if I'd be happy with that or not. I mean Infogrames is an ok company and all but I really don't know much about them. Sega on the other hand is a well established company with a rich history and lately I've had a growing respect for their games. I'd also bet they have more resources than Infogrames to dump into Atari. I guess I'd be happy with anyone other than Nintendo owning Atari. If Nintendo ever got their hands on Atari I'd scream.

 

Yeah I'm a bit confused on the ownership cycle myself. AFAIK it went: Nolan Bushnell --> Time Warner --> Sam Tramiel --> JTS --> Hasbro --> Infogrames. I probably missed a level in there somewhere.

 

Tempest

 

If you want to get technical, Jack Tramiel bought Atari from Time Warner, then retired and left it to his sons, Sam, Gary and Leonard.

 

Anyway, Infogrames is a fairly well established company. Not nearly so much so as Sega, who originated IIRC around the 1950s making pinball tables under their full name, Service Games, before being bought by media giant Gulf & Western. Infogrames popped up around 1983, but didn't really become very well known 'til they started making games for Atari ST and Amiga. Among their more memorable titles are Sim City, the Alone in the Dark series for PC, and quite a numher of adventure-style games on the ST. Some of their titles were a little on the dull site, but one thing I can say about their titles is that they usually had style. Their modern stuff tends to be rather me-too, nothing of any particular note. I have been seeing a lot more of the Fuji log on modern games, though; Neverwinter Nights (PC), Splashdown (XBox), and a few others. I'm not sure how I feel about that to be honest, and I actually don't really like how they supplant the "A" in Atari with the Fuji. Kind of strikes me as a little simple.

[mos6507]

I have always thought that the Atari brand should not just be a symbol but it should represent a kind of special wing of a company like what GM did with Saturn.

 

It should represent an entirely different way of doing things in the industry, and it should be filled with really bright people who are not being smothered by the typical game industry beaurocracy. The entire ORG structure would have to be different. It has to be a return to a more laid back anything goes atmosphere that was symptomatic of the mid 70s.

 

The way the game industry works now just isn't conducive to the creation of games that resonate the same way the classic Atari games do.

 

That being what it is, I'm sure Neverwinter Nights will be no disgrace to the Atari name. But even then, NWN was created by Bioware and it just happens to have the Fuji on it. The whole deal with Atari was that the games reflected the consistent spirit of the programming teams inside Atari at that time. It wasn't until close to the crash that Atari Inc. started contracting out games to 3rd parties.

 

Atari's titles were a highly personal expression of the people at Atari at the time through the silicon. That's what made Atari games (and the systems themselves of course) so different in look and feel from the O^2 or the Intellivision, as all of these companies had their unique way of doing things. The games were not created in committees to appeal to some kind of global lowest common denominator. The games were quirky and ideosynchratic.

 

The only way to get that back is for a corporation like Infogrames or Sega to deliberately separate Atari out into its own subsidiary and let them do what they want.

 

I think that Sega is probably one of the more innovative companies out there making games. Typing of the Dead, for instance, is probably a good example of something that might make sense coming out of a modern Atari thinktank.

[Miles Tails Prower]

If Nintendo ever got their hands on Atari I'd scream.

 

 

I would be screaming with ya! :

 

 

 

You better belive I would too!