Atari is once again shifting its focus in the gaming industry, as announced in a press release issued this morning. This time, it’s moving back towards premium PC and console games and away from free-to-play mobile games.
Wade J. Rosen, CEO and largest shareholder of the Group, said:
Our intent with any gaming experience is to provide accesible and joyful moments of meaningful play. That’s the core of Atari and what binds our history with our future. To that end, we feel that premium gaming is better representative of this type of gaming experience and the Atari DNA. Despite this new focus on premium gaming, we remain committed to growing and expanding our successful free-to-play games that we have in the market.
These changes will impact our 2020/21 financials and will generate a 5 million euro write-off for the financial year ending March 31st, 2021. This reorientation will give Atari a unique opportunity to be the bridge between the past and the future of video games, and I look forward to driving these changes.
The following free-to-play games will be discontinued or sold: RCT Stories, Crystal Castles, Castles & Catapults, Ninja Golf, Atari Combat: Tank Fury. Others that proved to be more successful will continue to be operated. Atari will also exit the Casino business it had in Africa, while the TV Show business assets will also be written down as the company aims to license its properties in the future.
With the reallocation of these resources, Atari intends to leverage its huge catalog of 200 intellectual properties to build premium games to be released on all platforms. The first wave of games is already in development and scheduled to be released in the fiscal year 2021/2022.
Of course, the new games will also strengthen the offering of the Atari VCS entertainment system, which was finally released about three weeks ago in the United States after years of development.
You can get it from select retailers such as Best Buy.
