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Atari Cashes in on Big Name Games

Techstination feature for Friday, June 20, 2003

Atari cashes in on big name games. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Within a week of its release last month, Atari's Enter the Matrix video game sold more than a million units. It was timed to the release of The Matrix Reloaded. Now the video game company is working on titles that tie in with The Terminator and Mission Impossible... (sound) Atari's Brandon Smith...

"What we're looking for with the Terminator products are to hit the DVD launch of the movie. The movie will come out this summer, actually, in a very short time period. And we'll be targeting the DVD launch which will be in the fall of the year. Mission, we're actually going to be out before the movie. We won't have a connection to the movie per se, but again we're going to bring in the feeling of being part of that universe and then hopefully what we'll do is create another product on the back end when the movie comes out."

Next year. The movie tie-ins raise the game production costs substantially... but Smith says...

"That's a fact that your games do have to sell to make up for that, but at the same time you're gaining that exposure of that product... that existing mindshare within the consumer base. They understand what Mission is, they know what they're looking for when they see that on the box, they're more likely to pick that title up."

Some studios are becoming more involved in the actual production of the games... and taking a percentage of the sales. Infogrames Entertainment acquired the name of the classic Atari video game company. So far, it's paying off. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.