Questions about new Atari products....

[Skyyking]

If Atari is longer a company, where are the profits distributed to? Do the programmers/coders of the games get anything from the products that come with the games built in?

[kskunk]

If Atari is no longer a company, where are the profits distributed to?

Do the programmers/coders of the games get anything from the products that come with the games built in?

 

It varies on a game-by-game basis, so there is no one answer. "Atari" (as a copyright owner) is not dead. If you want to buy a legal copy of Star Raiders right now, here you go: http://atari.com/buy-games/arcade/ataris-greatest-hits

 

Generally, the programmers won't get anything. Even in Atari's early days, they didn't pay royalties to programmers. (That policy famously led to the founding of Activision!) Later, Atari gave bonuses to employees who wrote successful games, so they wouldn't quit. But once they quit/were fired, they get nothing.

 

There are exceptions: Some games you remember as "Atari" games were written by 3rd parties, and sometimes those parties get the profits. In other cases, one of the many Ataris over the years sold off the rights, and now some other company owns it.

 

At least in the US, all games are still under copyright and all of them have rightful owners. So to be legal, toys with built-in games must sign a license deal with Atari (or others), and by license, Atari gets part of the profits.

 

With 40 year old games, the owners sometimes don't know/don't enforce their rights. A few toy makers take advantage of that and just steal the games. I've bought at least one toy with pirate ROMs in it. In that case, some Chinese company got the profits.

 

- KS

Edited May 24, 2017 by kskunk

[spacecadet]

Programmers/coders are generally salaried employees. They got their paychecks at the time, that's it. Their coding expertise was what they were hired for, and they were paid a salary for that on an ongoing basis for the duration of their employment.

 

You can debate the morality of that, but it's not really different than any other job, even creative jobs. The cameraman or editor on Jurassic Park, for example, does not get royalties every time a new syndication contract for that film is signed. He/she got paid at the time and that's the whole deal.

 

Generally it's only whoever holds the copyrights who gets the profits, and the copyrights can change hands. Currently the rights holder for most of Atari's home console IP is Atari SA, aka the former Infogrames, a French game publisher. That's where the licensing fees for something like the Atari Flashback would go, although I'm sure AtGames gets most of the actual profits.

 

Any third party games included would need to have a separate contract with whatever company owns those rights. But it's really doubtful that any of the actual original coders of any of those games would get any of that money. Though Activision was founded on the notion of credit sharing so I really don't know about them. In their case, it's possible the coders share the copyright with the company for those very early games. (They definitely do not now, for new Activision games.)

[Skyyking]

Thank You so much for the great answers! I understand it still varies widely, but how are game programmers paid now (royalties,salary combonations etc.?) Is there an industry standard? Are there any great books on this topic? I find the whole history of video games fascinating! I just wish I didn't pirate all those programs in the 80's! But it was how I rebelled! I didn't go out and party....I pirated! But now, I don't download COMMERCIAL music,movies etc. There is PLENTY of PD music,movies,software etc. out there!

 

I honestly don't think people know how destructive it really is. Music and Movie stars flaunting their bling don't know either. People see them and think that all of the workers in their industries are rich too! Know they are thinking of getting rid of CDs/DVDs and just download the songs they like.

 

It's just sad really....so many truly great songs that were never meant to be hits were discovered because of how releases were put together.

 

Some of my favorite songs are 'b-side' songs.

 

Shopping malls and record stores were great! EVERYBODY benefitted....I still make an effort to support them, but others don't and I am GREATLY outnumbered!

 

Getting older REALLY sucks sometimes!

[Flojomojo]

If Atari is longer a company, where are the profits distributed to? Do the programmers/coders of the games get anything from the products that come with the games built in?

As others have said, most game developers back then were treated as employees, not authors or artists. I would assume most big development houses are run the same way today // you can find stories online about the (relatively) low pay and long hours endured by Electronic Arts employees. The analogy of the cameraman on a movie set fits well.

 

It's probably for the best, considering the hit-driven nature of the industry. Most of the big selling games are multi-million-dollar productions with as many "crew" as a major motion picture. The days of a single person programming a game over many months is only done by indie developers. They're out there, but they're not getting rich and many of them have day jobs.

 

Whether it's better to be a cog in a big machine and draw a steady paycheck, or go it alone and be your own boss against tough odds of making any money is probably left to the entrepreneurial books.

 

You said you wanted to read more about the game industry. I recommend the Features section of Gamasutra, because it's full of interesting pieces on history and game development. My favorite bits are the "postmortems" on games I have played. They talk about the business and technical challenges, what worked, what didn't, and so on.

 

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/

 

Another good book on the early-ish history of games is Steven Kent's book "the history of video games." It's everywhere and even the old editions are pretty good.

 

I do not share your opinion that "EVERYONE benefitted" from shopping malls and record stores. Retail employees are paid low hourly wages will fee opportunities to move up. Rent on brick and mortar stores is expensive, and only well marketed products find space on store shelves. We have an order of magnitude more choice with online and digital shopping, including reviews and sample listens (sometimes whole albums to stream legally for free) at the touch of a button.

 

New doesn't have to be better or worse, but different. I like independent record stores, but I'm trying to avoid extra physical media in my life. As I get older, I find that the urge to have something "forever" is fleeting. I might like a song from 35 years ago, but having a CD is just another hunk of plastic taking up space. If I can play a digital purchase or stream, I get the same feeling, with no mall store or physical artifact needed.

 

Thanks to online services, I haven't pirated any* entertainment media in almost a decade. The artists get a few fractions of a penny but more than nothing.

 

*MAME ROMs excluded. Everybody needs emulated arcade games.