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Nexon, Wargaming, Zynga CEO back mobile startup fund
Venture capital firm London Venture Partners is offering initial funding for mobile game development startups. The firm plans to invest between $50,000 and $500,000 into developers that are primarily in Europe. LVP General Partner Paul Heydon told TechCrunch that the firm plans to invest in 20 to 25 projects "of up to half a million dollars each over the lifetime of the fund." The money is coming from Asian publisher Nexon, World of Tanks creator Wargaming and Zynga CEO Don Mattrick. London Venture Partners includes former Atari CEO David Gardner with Microsoft's Corporate VP Phil Harrison serving as a special advisor. Harrison joined Gardner's firm in May 2010. LVP's previous investments include Clash of Clans developer Supercell, the now-Zynga-owned Backbreaker studio NaturalMotion, as well as development platform Unity. [Image: London Venture Partners]
Phil Harrison returns in: 'London Venture Partners'
Phil Harrison is joining former Atari CEO chum David Gardner at London Venture Partners, an investment firm looking to fund "disruptive new technology in the online, social, mobile and web game space" -- you know, the type of stuff that was supposed to happen over at Atari during the pair's "extreme makeover" of the publisher. Develop reports that Harrison and Gardner will join former Electronic Arts VP David Lau-Kee and investment banker Paul Heyden as founders of the company. The firm's business will allegedly have something to do with the Unity engine. As for what type of Atari full-circle executive board member Nolan Bushnell inherited from the two former show runners? We'll find that out when the publisher announces its earnings May 28.
Nolan Bushnell and Tom Virden join Atari board; Harrison and Gardner depart
Apparently Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has ended his recent revisit with game development, as the publisher announced today the addition of Bushnell to its executive board alongside "online entrepreneur" Tom Virden. This is the second executive acquisition announcement that Atari has made in recent days, with John Burns, former European head of EA's online publishing, joining up just last week. The company has said it's focusing on moving towards an online-based business, and today's appointments will be overseeing that transition with the rest of the Audit Committee (a.k.a. the executive board). "I am very excited to be reacquainted with Atari at a time when it is poised to make interesting strides in key growth areas of the games industry," Bushnell said. "The company and its iconic brands have always been important to me, and I look forward to further guiding them at the board level." Meanwhile, Atari has also announced the resignations of David Gardner, former CEO and director at Infogrames, and Phil Harrison, former Atari president turned board member. Happy trails! Update: An Atari rep got back to us, confirming that Bushnell and Virden will be filling the positions left open by Harrison and Gardner.
Atari CEO David Gardner steps down, Jeff Lapin steps up
Atari's ongoing corporate shuffle is still, well, going on. The company formerly known as Infogrames has just named a new CEO. Current COO Jeff Lapin is to replace David Gardner as CEO and has executive experience with Take-Two and THQ, as well. It's unknown whether the move is Gardner's decision or Atari's, but he will stay with the company as a "director." Lapin doesn't appear to be getting a raise with this new position, but don't weep for him too much: his current compensation package includes "an annual fixed gross compensation of €400,000 [or nearly $585,000] and an annual variable compensation, subject to the achievement of performance criteria, up to €200,000," as well as 900,000 stock options. "We will launch our second MMO game - Star Trek Online -- in February 2010," Lapin said in the announcement. "I am excited to take on these new responsibilities at this important time and look forward to developing Atari's strategy to bring the company back to profitability." [Via IndustryGamers]
Revenue results show Infogrames/Atari continuing its comeback
Although Infogrames won't announce profit/loss figures for a couple of weeks (it's a French thing), the company's sales figures show that it's surviving. The half-year fiscal results show that net revenues are up by 44.5%, with Atari seeing the largest growth of 145% to $46 million. CEO David Gardner thinks that the economic climate will make the holiday season competitive, but he still projects revenue percentage growth of mid- to high-teens and a "return to profitability" by the second half of the next fiscal year. He reiterates that the company's new distribution deals and recent title acquisitions show the path to profitability.
CCP Games and Atari partner on EVE retail box sales
When EVE Online launched in 2003, it came in a box through the game's publisher, Simon and Schuster Interactive. But for much of EVE's lifespan, it's been a digital product. Nothing to buy at a store, no physical media to save. It seems CCP Games has gone retro, from what was announced by CCP's CEO Hilmar Pétursson today, live from EVE Fanfest 2008 in Reykjavik. He announced that CCP Games will be partnering with Atari to establish a retail presence once again... which is fitting really, as Atari will also be publishing Ghostbusters. Hilmar introduced a short presentation by David Gardner, Atari's CEO, who discussed the partnership with CCP Games. EVE typically has a winter expansion and a summer expansion. The winter expansion, Quantum Rise, is just days away. The summer expansion is expected (but not confirmed) to include Walking in Stations, only there's a little twist with the timing... They're not waiting for summer. It's coming in March. In a box. In your local game store. That's the information we have at this time, but we'll keep you informed as more details surface.Update: Note that we haven't locked down a release date with Walking in Stations yet. Massively will report on Walking in Station's official release date once that's available -- at this time we only know it's tentatively slated for 2009.
It is done: Infogrames now fully owns Atari
Infogrames has completed its $11 million stock purchase of Atari, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher now. Infogrames CEO David Gardner stated the full buyout (it previously owned 51.4%) was another key part of the company's extreme makeover, which has seen the shocking revelation of profits show up in the publisher's coffers.We wonder if this is the key step needed for us to bid adieu to Infogrames and see its name changed to Atari?
Atari outlines more of its extreme makeover
Atari's reinvention continues as CEO David Gardner and President Phil Harrison delve into the company's strategy to fully embrace an online business model. Speaking to Develop, the pair expresses the company's necessary geographic expansion outside of France (home of Atari parent, Infogrames), which we're starting to see in the establishment of a UK studio and the hiring of SingStar guru Paulina Bozek.Atari also plans to produce a variety of games for PSN, iTunes, Facebook, Xbox Live Arcade, and to stay, as Harrison puts it, "broadly online distribution agnostic." Gardner quips that he has no programming skills and Harrison says he's not a good graphic artist, so they expect to hire more top talent who believe the future of the industry lies online.
Atari plans to make billions off distribution
The amalgam of Infogrames/Atari apparently has a plan in place to make billions off game distribution. The strategy came to light earlier last week when Infogrames struck a distribution deal with Namco Bandai. Now Infogrames CEO David Gardner gives a little more detail about the scheme to MCV.Gardner states that the company's main focus will still be "online social games," but that distribution in the European market holds a lot of financial potential. He explains that EA, Activision and Ubisoft have a firm grip on distribution in the region, but that other publishers are struggling to get product to retail. Gardner states that if Atari can get 25% of the business it should become a "billion dollar distribution force" on the continent.
Infogrames could change name to Atari
Infogrames CEO, David Gardner, tells GI.biz that the company may drop its name (which rocks our world) completely for the Atari marquee brand. He wants the company thought of as a "start-up" and the name change to represent the "final mark" of transformation. Directeur Général Délégué Phil Harrison chimes in that the company, as it stands now with a new management team less than a year old, is "absolutely a start-up" -- it's just a start-up with 25 years of history (and some serious financial drama).Harrison and Gardner had apparently been talking about doing their own company for a long time. Harrison explains that the two had made significant plans and then the Atari opportunity came along. It was a company that had global infrastructure, offices, branding and was exactly the type of company the two were looking for. It'll probably become much easier to think of Atari as a "new" company once it announces some new IPs and gets the "old" company's games out the door, like the oft-delayed Alone in the Dark.
Infogrames CEO: Alone in the Dark will sell 2-3 million units this fiscal year
Infogrames CEO, David Gardner, tells Reuters he believes Alone in the Dark will sell two to three million copies this fiscal year. That means that, between its June 24 release and next March, the title needs to perform better than a game like BioShock. Given the fact that the title is being released on Wii, PS2, Xbox 360 and PC (PS3 is "sometime in 2008"), it just may hit that projection when combining all the systems ... maybe.Gardner's currently focused on getting Infogrames / Atari to stop hemorrhaging money, and has Directeur Général Délégué Phil Harrison and friends looking to "get a business plan together that gets [Atari] to a break-even level." Unsurprisingly, Gardner couldn't give specifics on when he expects that to happen.[Via GameDaily] %Gallery-14429%
How 'bout a pink PS2 to go with that pink Razr phone?
Everyone knows girls aren't quite as hardcore the gamer as the male species. There are, of course, exceptions. Look at the Sims. The ladies love a game about simulating life. As a quote from an old Electronics Gaming Monthly went, "I was moving to a new house and I thought to myself -- this is just like in the Sims! And then I realized I was comparing my life to a game that simulated life." Why this came to mind, we shall never know. Anyway, Electronic Arts is starting to focus more on the female demographic with their games. At least, they want to.To quote EA's David Gardner, "They don't want 'pink games'. They are not trying to play girly games where Paris Hilton and Britney Spears go shopping and put make-up on." Do those two really go shopping together? Not important. His plan to get girls into games? Make more games about relationships, about chatting. Like the Sims, basically. Oh, not to mention the pink PS2 being released in the coming months. Isn't it just cute? You want to pack it up in a purse with your tiny dog and like, totally go shopping with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, right? Lame. Stop trying to separate girls from guys like this. It can't work... can it?
Fun = DS, not PSP, says EA exec
"Disgruntled" EA executive VP David Gardner recently went on record with MCV, worried about the current performance of the PlayStation Portable. "I don't think Sony can afford to sit back," Gardner told MCV. "I think they still have things they can do with the price and performance of the machine – things that they need to address."Sure, EA's made a lot of money off of the PSP, and their support remains strong. However, it looks like things will change, as the company refocuses its efforts on the DS: "There's no doubt that EA has historically bet more on PSP. I think we were excited by the technology, but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun. We must never forget that what we need to focus on is fun and so EA is putting more effort behind DS games – and creative ones that really take advantage of the hardware."[Via Joystiq]
