Atari should perhaps look into making its own Resident Evil rip-off.  After all, much like a zombie, nothing seems to kill Atari.  Several failed consoles and different company banners, the name looks about ready to get another rebirth.

Infogrames is interested in changing its name to Atari.  CEO David Gardner said of the decision, “I’d like to consider that; I think that would be the final mark of the transformation from Infogrames to Atari.  We have a new board of directors, a new management team that’s less than a year old — so yes, it’s really continuing. We like to think of Infogrames, instead of being the tired, old company, we like to think of it as the best-funded, best-branded, most energetic start-up in the history of computer gaming.”

(more…)

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Ever so slowly, the two gigantic balls of clay meld into one. Soon, will anyone be able to tell where one ends and the next begins? If you’re the type to freak out and cite 1984 when just about anything in business happens, it’s probably time to get out your tin foil hat. Microsoft and Electronic Arts are in business together.

Microsoft owned subsidiary Massive Inc. and Electronic Arts have inked a deal for in-game advertising in EA games until through 2010. Massive Inc. is an advertising company specializing in placing ads within online games. Basically, the type of ads you see randomly changing in games from time to time. The deal is an extension of a current deal, but it will greatly expand the number of titles EA places Massive’s ads in. (more…)

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Yes, that headline is probably shocking to most. There’s a Mexican gaming market? Most Americans probably don’t think of Mexico much as a place to sell superfluous consumer goods such as video games. Research and Markets, on the other hand, claim it’s the beginning of something big.

In their Mexico Video Games Market Report 2007, Research and Markets claims that the Mexican gaming market could hit $1 billion by the end of the decade mostly thanks to YUGS. The report defines YUGS as young unmarried gamers, and there has been a significant rise in their numbers in recent years. (more…)

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If you happen to own Midway stock, now would be a good time to sell it. In fact, about a year ago probably would have been the best time. Despite a huge loss in 2006, Midway could not course correct in 2007 and bled another $97.4 million. Things do not look good for the house that Mortal Kombat built.

Things aren’t going to be getting any better anytime soon, either. Midway expects another loss for the first quarter of 2008. Yes, this is starting to get into Atari and Sega territory. But, despite all the doom and gloom, Midway is trying to put a positive spin on things. David F. Zucker, president and CEO, said of the future of the company (more…)

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How the mighty have fallen. Then gotten back up, dust themselves off, and fallen again. But yet, gotten up again. That’s basically the story of Sega over the last seven years or so as the once mightily publisher has flipped and flopped about, eventually merging with Sammy. Yet, despite all of this, they have no interest in joining forces with anyone else.

Sega’s Dreamcast was, in many minds, the last great old school console. The games were a mix of arcade ports and Japanese styled classics. When it died many hoped that Sega would bring its superb blend of games to other consoles as a third party. They did go third party, but the great games didn’t come with them. Instead, Sega as a third party basically drove itself out of business before Sammy stepped in and saved it. (more…)

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To be technical, the USA is not quite in a recession yet. However, many indicators show it a time of economic down turn, even if it does not technically fit the definition of a recession. What’s the most important question during these tough economic times? How will this affect video game sales?

The short answer, at least from those within the industry, is very little. They believe the game industry to be equivalent to the film industry, which traditionally suffers very little during bad economic times. Chalk this up to people wanting to be entertained during even the roughest economic situations in order to forget their problems. People flocked to theatres during the Great Depression for this very reason. (more…)

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Games are one area the major media companies have yet to quite figure out. While the third party gaming arena is still dominated by mostly game centric companies, it appears more and more that media conglomerates are going to force their way in. Hopefully this attempt is more successful than their attempt in the 1990s.

Paramount is the latest giant to ponder a move into gaming territory. They would join Warner Brothers and Sony (obviously) in the increasingly crowded market. This comes from an MCV interview with Paramount Digital’s general manager of worldwide distribution, Alex Carloss. Carloss sounds quite excited about the possibilities of Paramount’s move into gaming, saying (more…)

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Phil Harrison is no Peter Moore. He’s the quiet type who prefers to stay behind the scenes rather than show off his GTA 4 tattoo to thousands of attendees at gaming expos. Although, lately he’s been at the top of gaming news as the man who left Sony for the sinking ship known as Atari and left behind the platform he helped to succeed.

Though no specific reasons behind his departure have been indicated Harrison was very vocal at GDC recently publicly criticizing Sony Japan for not taking advantage of the booming casual games market. “It’s a very interesting and frustrating thing for me to experience because I have been banging the drum about social gaming for a long time, with SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz,” stated Harrison. “And our Japanese colleagues said that there is no such thing as social gaming in Japan — people do not play games on the same sofa together in each other’s homes. It will never happen. And then out comes the Wii.” (more…)

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The dread of many gamers is the eventual arrival in mass of in-game advertising. They’re about to get a lot more of it if one analyst prediction is correct, with expected in-game advertising spending to double in the next five years. While product placement is nothing new in games (you can find it in many NES era titles and earlier), the idea of served ads appearing in games is relatively new.

eMarketer predicts that in-game advertising will rise from $295 million in 2007 to $650 million in 2012. They base this upon, among other things, the continuing increase in revenue in hardware and software in the game industry. The interesting part is that this may actually be an under estimate of the increase gamers will see. (more…)

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