Via Shacknews late Friday, Atari reported $23.6 million net loss in its fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, the last FY on its books before it starts getting a monthly allowance from Infogrames, and a lecture on the value of money.
The $23.6M loss however is one-third the $69.7 fiscal assbeating Atari took in FY07, precipitating the whole Infogrames merger/buyout/$20M loan announced April 30 and taking effect the third quarter of this year. Also, Atari's loss includes about $6.5 million in corporate restructuring charges. rather than regular business. Still, revenue was about $80 million, less than $122 million of a year before. So there wasn't the kind of expenses that go toward publishing crappy games games, but there wasn't anything to sell either.
Some brands, no matter how sickly they become, can just go on forever because they got in the race early, no matter where they dropped out. Just ask United Press International. Or Ovaltine. So if Atari is shifting to social, casual, whatever you want to call it, that's probably going after brand of low-awareness game consumer who thinks Atari's been around forever and will give games under its title a benefit of the doubt that the publisher didn't earn in the past five years.
Atari Reports 23.6M Loss for FY2008[Shacknews]