Atari Revenues Down Significantly As Company Shifts To Online Focus

Atari's revenues for the 2010 holiday quarter were down significantly as the company focused on "selling fewer but more profitable games" and transitioned into an online focus. The Paris-based company revealed total revenues for the quarter were down 52.5 percent from the year before to €11.4 million ($15.3 million). That leaves the company 55.7 percent behind 2009 for the last nine months of the year, with €41 million in revenue for the period in 2010 ($53 million). (The firm does not disclose profits on a quarterly basis, since under French financial rules, it is only required to do so yearly.) But while retail revenue was off substantially, subscriptions revenues from Star Trek Online and Champions Online helped online revenue for the first nine months of fiscal 2010/11 rise nearly 500 percent from the year before, to €18.4 million ($24.8 million). These growing online revenues now represent roughly 45 percent of the company's revenues, compared to a mere 3.4 percent in 2009. In a statement accompanying the release, Atari CEO Jim Wilson said initial results for Champions Online's January switch to the free-to-play model have been "promising," and that early sales performance for Test Drive Unlimited 2 has been in line with expectations. Over the rest of 2011, Atari's line-up includes extensions of unspecified classic Atari brands into XBLA, PSN and PC downloads, as well as casual and social games.