In Lyon, France today Atari has announced its fiscal results for the first quarter ended June 30. Total revenues were up 30.1% to 54.5 million euros, thanks mainly to the success of two titles: Ghostbusters: The Video Game and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.
The U.S. business drove the bulk of sales with 45.5 million euros in the quarter, which is an 82% increase. This offset a nearly 49% decline in the European business, as revenues dropped to 8.6 million euros. In the U.S., Atari also noted that it saw improved third-party distribution revenues, which now represent approximately 33% of U.S. Distribution revenues (thanks to local distribution deals with ZOO Games and CDV Software Entertainment).
Atari also pointed to revenue from licensing operations, such as the deal signed with Sony Europe to launch Ghostbusters exclusively on PlayStation in Europe. You may recall that Atari recently completed its divestiture of the distribution business in Europe by selling it to Namco Bandai. This enabled the publisher to exit a "fragmented distribution business in Europe and Asia/Pacific, which is no longer part of the Company’s strategic focus, thereby reducing sharply the resources tied up in working capital and the risks associated to this business."
Atari also said that its Q1 performance "is mainly due to a favorable game release schedule and should not be extrapolated for the remaining of the year." The company expects operating income to be "at or above breakeven" for the second half of the fiscal year. It's two biggest launches include Champions Online and Star Trek Online.
5 Comments
July 24, 2009
Two major major bets in the MMO space over the next couple quarters... if I were an investor I would be pretty skittish right about now.
July 24, 2009
Well they have the talented folks at Cryptic to help them out, but that's hardly a guarantee of success in the MMO space. It's going to be interesting.
July 24, 2009
This doesn't seem to jive with the NPD data about how poorly Ghostbusters is doing in the retail channel here in the US.
July 24, 2009
NPD data may not be encouraging, but the game reportedly sold around a million units globally: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/ghostbusters-game-cost-15---20-million-may-launch-third-film/
July 25, 2009
Good for Atari. I hope they make some great games. I want to see them and Sega prosper.
You guys need to get Dimps to restart the DBZ franchise. Because Raging Blast looks just like the ps2 games. Change the art style. Upgrade the graphics an animations. Add more detail and better environment damage. Put in all the special moves and why not create a few of your own? Make it more like the show with limb lost, disintegration's and body damage. Put in a character creator along with all the major fighters from DB to DBGT. Create a non cannon story with new villains (like the the dbz movies) just for the game. Though not for me, add a online co-op mode where you and a friend fight a load of Mecha cooler's. IDK just do something because people are getting tired of the same old same old. It might have to be M-rated by try making one and see how it goes. I know i'd pre-order this game instead of waiting to pick it up cheap like i've done with the last couple of Dbz games. It's time for a change. Take a chance. If it fails you can already return to the old formula.
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