I don't understand why Infogrames changed their name to Atari.

[Bubsy3000]

I know the public reason was to break confusion and to have a "globally recognized name" but from mid 90's-2008 Infogrames seemed to be more recognized than Atari, at least for current titles then and now. Atari at the time was remembered for old school stuff, it wasn't a new software seller, and the results that followed showed that clearly.

 

At the time before the buyout, Atari-Hasbro put out remakes of old games on PSX and friends. Infogrames actually had a "recent" legacy connected to them with Alone in the Dark and other games. In fact the growth led to the massive buy outs, and got them a whole slew of popular IPS and big game company acquisitions.

 

I don't understand by what metric they measured to come to the conclusion renaming everything Atari was somehow going to make them big. A couple years later

after the name change, up until present day, "Atari" has basically done nothing but flop around and lose half of what they gained in the 90's.

 

Everything during the "though process" for considering naming themselves Atari, to the post name change, has done nothing at all. Who on the board, or rather who in the marketing apartment pulled a chart out their ass showing the board and CEO that changing the name to Atari would have done anything? They had to see SOMETHING to come to that conclusion, it can't be 100% incompetence.

 

They haven't really put out many notable software that was originally created by themselves since the merger either. Thye published already established brands or games from acquired companies at best. They haven't really put out any new hardware either, which infogrames at the merger had enough money to do and teased, but didn't because...They changed their mind. They'll likely never released new console but they may trick people into thinking they will for money.

 

At this point Infogrames name is more toxic than Atari now, just by how they have mismanaged the Atari name and basically destroyed their own earlier legacy. These were the Guys that did Alone in the Dark 1,2, and 3, North Vs South, Drakkhen, "Need for Speed" V-rally, and an early 3D platformed Alpha Waves.

 

I don't get why they threw that all away for absolutely nothing and kept on going even though it was clear things were not going to work out.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Bubsy3000

[Jess Ragan]

Imagine that. Somebody changing their name in a vain attempt to seem more appealing to an uninterested target audience. How absurd.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Imagine that. Somebody changing their name in a vain attempt to seem more appealing to an uninterested target audience. How absurd.

 

No kidding. And it totally ruined the opportunity for them to crowdfund the Inforgramesbox, which could have shipped with '

' (in its entirety) as its startup music.

 

There's no way I'd rather spend three-and-a-half minutes of my life after turning on my game console, let me tell you.

[CatPix]

I remember that, and the argument at the time was that in the Us, Atari was a more recognized brand than Infogrames. Which might have been true, but why did they changed the name for Europe too, where Atari, by abandonning the Atari ST line to spew the Atari Jaguar, left Atari fans with very bitter memories is beyond me.

Especially since in the mid 90's, Infogrames was specialized in making child comics into video games (Tintin, , Asterix, the Smurfs, Spirou... those games are often pointed today as very hard but they aren't so hard compared to other videos games of the era and the graphisms are just spot on in regard to the comics) so for many, many people, Infogrames was reminiscent of hours of fun. In addition to earlier titles, later games that they edited on PS1 and PC, one of the most famous being Driver 1 and 2.

 

Apparently, the real reason behind it is that Bruno Bonnell, co-foundator of Infogrames in 1983, was admiring Atari (an acceptable thing) so much that when Hasbro was for sale, he acquired it so (from what is rumored) he could say and write that he was the boss of Atari.

And after acquiring Hasbro, Bruno Bonnell had enough of his toy and left, when Infogrames/Atari started to get belly-up (Atari lost 65% of it's value in mere months in 2007 - and later it was found that Infogrames sold and bough their titles with shadow companies to keep their titles values high, at least between 2002 and 2003.

[Bubsy3000]

I remember that, and the argument at the time was that in the Us, Atari was a more recognized brand than Infogrames. Which might have been true, but why did they changed the name for Europe too, where Atari, by abandonning the Atari ST line to spew the Atari Jaguar, left Atari fans with very bitter memories is beyond me.

Especially since in the mid 90's, Infogrames was specialized in making child comics into video games (Tintin, , Asterix, the Smurfs, Spirou... those games are often pointed today as very hard but they aren't so hard compared to other videos games of the era and the graphisms are just spot on in regard to the comics) so for many, many people, Infogrames was reminiscent of hours of fun. In addition to earlier titles, later games that they edited on PS1 and PC, one of the most famous being Driver 1 and 2.

 

Apparently, the real reason behind it is that Bruno Bonnell, co-foundator of Infogrames in 1983, was admiring Atari (an acceptable thing) so much that when Hasbro was for sale, he acquired it so (from what is rumored) he could say and write that he was the boss of Atari.

And after acquiring Hasbro, Bruno Bonnell had enough of his toy and left, when Infogrames/Atari started to get belly-up (Atari lost 65% of it's value in mere months in 2007 - and later it was found that Infogrames sold and bough their titles with shadow companies to keep their titles values high, at least between 2002 and 2003.

Yeah but everywhere else Infogrames was a more notable name worldwide. What's even more baffling is the results of the mistake happened early put they continued on naming the rest of the smaller subsidiaries Atari as well.

 

It really seems to have been quite the odd decision. The stocks basically worthless these days. Worse than Sega.

[CatPix]

Well the day Bruno Bonnell resigned from Infogrames/Atari, the action jumped as high as 34% more... It was Bonnell's decision to merge all the brands they owned (Ocean, GT Interactive, Hasbro, Accolade, and probably a few others) into Atari as well (altough some of those had been renamed Infogrames before).

Bonnell was certainly a good businessman in the 80's and 90's, but apparently he took a bad turn or lost focus in the 2000's and his decision to rename Infogrames was the visible part of an iceberg.

 

Apparently today Atari went back up a bit. I remember at some point, the parent company in France counted as little as 15 employees and only managed to live from selling the rights from Atari 2600 era licences.

[Osgeld]

"I dont understand"

 

whats so hard to understand, whats the last infograms game you remember, alone in the dark? k that was from 1992 they changed their name in 2009, during that time they did nothing worth remembering off hand (maybe driver)

 

People remember the name Atari

Edited September 30, 2018 by Osgeld

[Bubsy3000]

"I dont understand"

 

whats so hard to understand, whats the last infograms game you remember, alone in the dark? k that was from 1992 they changed their name in 2009, during that time they did nothing worth remembering off hand (maybe driver)

 

People remember the name Atari

I mentioned a few games above.

 

The company was profitable, growing, and buying a bunch of companies in the late 90's. I don't get why some people think Atari was a more valuable brand. I mean as the above was going on Atari just discontinued the Jaguar and got sold off. The brand was tarnished imo.

 

I'd argue any future potential for the brand is basically dead now. Even if Atari SA went out of business, could someone revive the brand outside of 80's re-releases?

 

At this point Infogrames has done permanent damage to the Atari name imo. Oh well.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Bubsy3000

[Yakumo1975]

"I dont understand"

 

whats so hard to understand, whats the last infograms game you remember, alone in the dark? k that was from 1992 they changed their name in 2009, during that time they did nothing worth remembering off hand (maybe driver)

 

People remember the name Atari

Infograms had games on the Dreamcast including the very impressive LE Manns 24. What did Atari have? Some shitty collection of old games. In Europe the Atari brand was never that strong. Probably at its strongest point was when the ST was popular but after that nobody cared.

I can totally understand why the name change occurred in the US though.

[Osgeld]

never played LE Manns 24, did play wacky racers on ps1, returned it

 

but to my original point, oh wow generic forgettable racing game based on a license on a doomed from the start game console post playstation 2, I remember THAT (and I kept the dreamcast for over a decade)

[Osgeld]

I mentioned a few games above.

 

The company was profitable, growing, and buying a bunch of companies in the late 90's. I don't get why some people think Atari was a more valuable brand. I mean as the above was going on Atari just discontinued the Jaguar and got sold off. The brand was tarnished imo.

 

in 2008? they just discontinued the jag?

 

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 sole owner of Atari Inc., making it a privately held company.^[45]

 

or did they just discontinued the jag in 2001?

 

In October 2001, Infogrames announced that it was "reinventing" the Atari brand

 

 

I am confused

Edited October 1, 2018 by Osgeld

[Bubsy3000]

 

 

in 2008? they just discontinued the jag?

 

 

or did they just discontinued the jag in 2001?

 

 

I am confused

The context of my post was in reference to the buyout spree infrogrames was having in the early half of the 90's. Infogrames was growing at a fast pace then as it was happening Atari had already lost it's brad appeal, discontinued the jaguar and got sold to hasbro.

 

It's why even in the US I didn't understand the name change. They had some decent games not developed by brought out studios between 92 and late 90's as well. I don't know what Inforgrames marketing department saw but it told them to first initially name a bunch f American based subsidiaries Atari, and they used the Atari logo for publishing games that would usually have Infogrames logo on them. This eventually led to the full name changes several years later.

[JBerel]

Maybe they use a different name now because their old one is synonymous with idiocy, and nobody's buying their crap anymore.

 

[Bubsy3000]

Maybe they use a different name now because their old one is synonymous with idiocy, and nobody's buying their crap anymore.

 

You shouldn't insult yourself like that. After all we need you to bump more old threads in the Want to Buy section because you got nothing else better to do apparently. Edited October 1, 2018 by Bubsy3000

[HoshiChiri]

 

People remember the name Atari

 

To be specific, the RIGHT people remember Atari. The children of the late 70s/early 80s, the ones who would be grown up & running businesses in the era this name change happened. It makes sense to them- after all, Atari was synonymous with videogames during their impressionable youth. So, let's make people think we're synonymous with videogames by taking on that hallowed name.

 

The fact that they were out of touch enough not to realize it would only succeed in making them synonymous with being old, outdated, & just plain crappy- as their current customer base would know Atari- is certainly a factor in them not being a notable presence at all these days.

[CatPix]

The fact that they were out of touch enough not to realize it would only succeed in making them synonymous with being old, outdated, & just plain crappy- as their current customer base would know Atari- is certainly a factor in them not being a notable presence at all these days.

As rumors says, Bruno Bonnell was very impressed by Atari when he co-funded Infogrames in 1983; the total name change was probably done in that optic - that Atari was relevant to HIM.

And probably, as it's said, because being able to say he is/was CEO/owner of Atari made him feel all funny.

I mean today, when Bonnell talk about his past experience as businessman, he never say "Infogrames", he always says "Atari", even if people ask him about pre-2000 stuff.

[John Stamos Mullet]

Imagine that. Somebody changing their name in a vain attempt to seem more appealing to an uninterested target audience. How absurd.

[Bubsy3000]

As rumors says, Bruno Bonnell was very impressed by Atari when he co-funded Infogrames in 1983; the total name change was probably done in that optic - that Atari was relevant to HIM.

And probably, as it's said, because being able to say he is/was CEO/owner of Atari made him feel all funny.

I mean today, when Bonnell talk about his past experience as businessman, he never say "Infogrames", he always says "Atari", even if people ask him about pre-2000 stuff.

Kind of hurts Ataris real historical legacy though. Kind of jerk move against Nolan and Warners Atari to be honest.