Atari - Q3 Results

It's a little quiet today so we may as well look at Atari's latest results with their Q3 financials just released. This last quarter (ending December '06) still saw a net loss of $700k but that represents a huge improvement from the loss of $4.8M in the same period last year. There's no specific figures but NWN2 is quoted as meeting their "targets":

"Atari continues to focus on improving product quality and is committed to growing shareholder value. Specifically, Never Winter Nights 2, Dragon Ball Z(R): Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and Test Drive Unlimited achieved our targets of quality and market place acceptance on a global basis," stated David Pierce, President and Chief Executive Officer of Atari.

It's interesting to note their platform mix shows their PC sales rose around 10% over the last year to 31.5% - not that far behind the PS2 at 39.8%.
More information.

no profit after NWN2 either? I would say this doesn't bode well at all.

The latest nwn2 dev chat log a player brought up BG3 but Obsidian themselves liked the idea it was clear to me they don't have any secret plans to make it. Although the players seems to to forget that Obsidian holds the rights to IWD. BG3 could be a powerful license but Atari hasn't done anything to exploit it.

I can't see any major titles after NWN2 that could possibly turn Atari around for the long haul.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
I can't see any major titles after NWN2 that could possibly turn Atari around for the long haul.

Maybe The Witcher ?

I can't see Witcher being a runaway hit anywhere but Poland..but maybe I'll be proven wrong.

I can't wait for the sequel, the Warlocker.

As long as Atari commits to building the Flashback 2 portable & the Flashback 3, I don't care. From my understanding, the Flashback 2 met their "target" in terms of sales.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Although the players seems to to forget that Obsidian holds the rights to IWD. BG3 could be a powerful license but Atari hasn't done anything to exploit it.

Why does Obsidian hold the rights to Icewind Dale? I read this already on Codex, but never found an official announcement. And what does it say?If I'm right you also need a D&D license. And at the moment Atari is the only company that is allowed to make D&D games. But please correct me, if I'm wrong. Would be interesting for me to know the truth.

If NWN2 really "achieved the targets of market acceptance", that's a good news. I can't agree that it "achieved the targets of quality" but I hope, Atari now is willing to improve this with further patches and addons. Would be better for Ataris and Obsidians reputation, imho.

Obsidian is kind of a successor to Black Isle, if I'm correct.

And maybe the rights are being held by different companies in different countries.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
I can't see Witcher being a runaway hit anywhere but Poland..but maybe I'll be proven wrong.

There is decent press and buzz about it, but I don't expect to see it 'tear up the tracks' either.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Obsidian is kind of a successor to Black Isle, if I'm correct.

A "spiritual" successor. But BIS was part of Interplay and them are still alive. And what I "heard" was, that Interplay made a deal with Atari when they could not afford the D&D license any longer. They got the right to make another BG but lost all other rights. And for me it seems as if Wizards now tries to keep all licenses together (not like TSR).

As I understand it, Interplay has the rights to the "Icewind Dale" name but not the basic D&D rights to be able to exploit it.