14 DAY TRIAL // Infogrames, the France-based publisher that owns the Atari brand, is announcing that its revenue grew in the first half of 2008 by more than 44%, which seems to indicate that the restructuring of the US activities of the company is working. The company is still bleeding money, but losses have narrowed as revenue reached 131.8 million dollars.
The best performing videogames released under the Atari brand were the new Alone in the Dark, the always successful Dragon Ball Z, and the Backyard Baseball series. A distribution deal with Namco Bandai is also seen as a big step forward, helping the company get its titles out to more gamers.
Alone in the Dark has seen strong sales, despite the fact that it was buggy in its initial release and some gameplay elements seemed broken. The PlayStation 3 version of the game is much more stable and offers a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Infogrames estimates that growth will continue by 12 to 18% this year, and that profitability will again be reached sometime towards the end of 2009.
David Gardner, the Chief Executive Officer brought in to turn the company around, said that, “Strong revenues growth for the first half of the fiscal year 2008/2009 reflect strong sales and solid distribution. This first half of the year also showed improvement of current operating income resulting from improved cost control, the early results of restructuring plan and profitability measures implemented since the beginning of the fiscal year.”
Atari has recently picked up Ghostbusters, which was initially set to be published by Sierra before the merger between Activision and Blizzard, with plans to release it during the first half of 2009. Another game based on The Chronicles of Riddick is also expected to boost the bottom line at Atari.