Talk:Atari

Redirection of Atari_(ST_)Demos pages to Atari page is inappropriate

I think the redirection of Atari_ST_demos and Atari_demos pages to this pages is completely inappropriate. Demos are about the demo art-scene, people involved in it, the parties and what that community creates for free for others to enjoy.

Linking the pages to an article about a commercial entity is close to advertising and somewhat insulting to people making the demos. Atari company had nothing to with the demos themselves and the early & late Atari companies didn't even have any relation to the HW on which e.g. the Atari ST demos run.

I would expect a demo page to contain:

• Section about the history of the demo scene on that machine (phases, when started, "golden age" etc)
• Section about the most well known demo groups and maybe also what became of their members (some e.g. started to make games)
• Section about the most well known demos and why they're well known (because of style, technical merits or message) along with the screenshots of them
• Section about the demo parties (community gatherings), where the were, are there still such etc
• Demo scene connections to the demo groups on other platforms and e.g. game cracking
• Demo scene connection to artists (music, graphics, generated art)
• Links back to the Wikipedia HW platform and generic demoscene pages
• Links where to get these demos (e.g. pouet.net)

NOT irrelevant information about some company. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.78.195.37 (talk) 10:28, 19 July 2009 (UTC) http://corporate.atari.com/infogramesgb/2007/05/endettement.php in 2009 they were 56.4 million in debt —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.94.139.16 (talk) 04:45, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

   I agree, seeing as nothing was moved across I've restored the pages and added some new stuff. Alex (talk) 17:17, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

Designers

This article should address the injustices Atari committed against the game designers and programmers it hired. Designers were nowhere credited on or in the games they created and recieved no royalties. 70.58.218.10 (talk) 04:47, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

If material like that were to be addressed, it would belong over at the Atari, Inc article. This article is a summary of the brand itself. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 06:14, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Readability Improvements

Please improve the readability in the first paragraph of the "Atari Corporation (1984–1996)" section, notably these sentences:

At the time Atari, like many other personal computers of that era, had their own operating system, which fell victim to Microsoft's success. But, gaming revived and Tramiel missed the boat.

--Shawn Wilson —Preceding undated comment added 16:47, 13 October 2010 (UTC).

Merge all the Atari Pages Into One Main Page

Now all of those other Atari pages thats spawn out from this article are nonsense. They are horrible, no information, just nothing more than expanded stubs. The history of those pages is clearly stated in this page already and I see no need to keep them. Remember, this is not Wikia. Now this is what I propose: Make one page named Atari. In that page, put in the whole history of Atari and part of Infogrames History as well (but not all of it, just starting from the acquisition). Now here is my idea for the layout of the page, start with early years, Atari Corp, Hasbro, Infogrames (this should be one of the only two sections with a Main Page thing), then the last section should be Atari, SA, which should actually be a sub-section of Infogrames. Then include the Noteable Games Published Section, then include subsidaries and then finally a products section which has a Main Page thing. --Schmeater (talk) 17:56, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

The discussion is already taking place at the original discussion you started at the main video game project talk page. Please keep discussions at a single location (the video game project talk page) for completion sake. What you are proposing is against the previously established consensus and where the article came from originally (a single unified page) years ago. So far, the current consensus is again against this. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 18:00, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

Bringing it back?

I saw a brand new one at Rite Aid today. It even had classic games with it (under generic names) for $40. Are there any press releases, etc that talk about a revival of the classic Atari? Ambiesushi (talk) 02:52, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

What you saw was the Flashback 3, it's already included on the Atari Flashback page. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 19:40, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Missing History

Atari Games was bought by WMS, from Time-Warner Interactive in 1996. In 1998, WMS spun off its video game holdings, including Atari Games, to Midway Games. In January 2000, Midway changed the name of its "Atari Games" subsidiary to Midway Games West to avoid confusion with the other Atari company, then owned by Hasbro Interactive. In February 2003, Midway closed Midway Games West, ending what was left of the original Atari. Mtotin —Preceding undated comment added 18:30, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

• Well, its not missing exactly; its just that this page is not really set up to cover that. This page traces the Atari brand on its path to the current company holding that name. The Atari Games branch of the original Atari, Inc., which has nothing to do with the current Atari brand, is covered on its own page. Indrian (talk) 20:41, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

History - Infogrames still existing in 2008?

I'm trying to make sense of the companies history from the beginning of the article. I've even made diagrams on paper but even so I bumped into the wall when I reached year 2008:

On October 11, 2008, Infogrames completed its acquisition of Atari, Inc

Wait, what's Infogrames doing in 2008? Two companies by that name have been mentioned, Inc. and Interactive, but, believing the text, both of them have already changed names:

IESA bought Hasbro Interactive in 2001 and renamed it to Infogrames Interactive. IESA changed the company name entirely to Atari Interactive in 2003 (I'm a little confused as to the name of which company was changed)

In 2003, Infogrames Inc. licensed the Atari name and logo from Atari Interactive and changed its name to Atari Inc.

I'm not asking to explain this to me but to rephrase the text so that the matter is clearer. Ustt (talk) 20:57, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

Ok, so here is the problem, and yes, it is confusing. Infogrames, Inc.. is the North American subsidiary formed (if memory serves) after the purchase of GT. It changed its name to Atari, Inc. in 2003 as stated. That same year, Infogrames Interactive, the former Hasbro Interactive, changed its name to Atari Interactive. The parent company is Infogrames, SA. It did not change its name to Atari SA until 2009. In 2008, Infogrames SA reabsorbed it's North American subsidiary, Atari, Inc., which was a publicly traded company before then while still subservient to Infogrames SA. I believe that is not too hard to follow in the article right now. Indrian (talk) 21:37, 30 August 2012 (UTC)

I think the issue is people come here expecting there just to be one "Infogrames" and one "atari," and are confused to find out there's number of companies that use/used the names. Unfortunately there's not a lot we can do about people's expectations other than educate, which is what the page is currently doing. I don't see another way to reword the intro to make a convoluted naming/renaming/corporate abosorption/etc. out of our control any less convoluted. Maybe a chart in a later section on "tracking the Atari properties" would help somewhat with a visual aid. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 00:13, 31 August 2012 (UTC)

I think the structure of the introduction is good, but the wording could be improved. What tripped me up personally was that GT Interactive appears out of nowhere. It is forumlated very differently from the previous paragraph, so it's not very clear how that company suddenly figures into the picture. I agree with Marty that a diagram would probably be very helpful. The crucial point is that there were two companies, Hasbro and GTI, which were completely unrelated until IESA purchased all of the former and a majority of the latter. Only Hasbro Interactive had rights to the Atari name, and was renamed Atari Interactive by IESA. Because GT Interactive was not wholly-owned by IESA yet, they had to license the Atari name from the ex-Hasbro "sister company" to become Atari Inc. Maybe the much-later renaming of IESA to Atari SA should be mentioned at the end of the introduction, to clarify the relation between ex-IESA holding, ex-Hasbro development arm and ex-GTI publishing arm? 89.217.193.250 (talk) 01:52, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

Is Atari still in business?

They haven't updated their Facebook page since May 2013, they took down their support forums and haven't updated their website in almost a year. Does anyone know the current status of Atari?74.100.45.175 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 01:39, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Of which Atari? Atari SA? Atari Inc.? Atari Interactive? All three are currently still in operation. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 06:26, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Atari.com hasn't been updated in months. Neither has their official Facebook page. If they're still in business, why is it so hard to find up to date information about their company? 173.58.47.102 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:00, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

The Atari.com website is the site for all three of those companies, all of which are running on skeleton crews. I'm not sure what you mean by hard to find though, a google search brings up news related to all three as recent as this month. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 16:42, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Atari is back! May 7, 2018 Atari SA France announced the new console vis Indie gogo. https://www.producthunt.com/posts/atarivcs Riptide360 (talk) 22:41, 7 May 2018 (UTC)

What about where it was formed.

I'm doing a school project on any topic and I chose video games. I love all the info except, what about where it was formed. What country, what state, town. it would be helpful if someone could-- help me on this. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.18.45.3 (talk) 14:15, 13 March 2015 (UTC)

This article is just about the brand. If you want where the original company was formed, that info is all in that's companies articles, Atari, Inc. --Marty Goldberg (talk) 01:57, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

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AtariBox

Ataribox.com, new Atari system in the making — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.142.7.5 (talk) 15:50, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

What's the point of having the link to ataribox poiting to the same section in the same article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.97.110.59 (talk) 16:28, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

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Fails

There should be a section talking about consoles like the Game Brain and Mirai that were never released. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tealyt (talk • contribs) 01:49, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 1 May 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

---

Atari → Atari (brand) – Many companies mentioned here are unrelated and this page title should be used as the page of the original Atari Inc, as it is the most well known. Lyanbox782 (talk) 08:34, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

• Support. The original company Atari Inc. is clearly the primary topic. All these new brands are simply reusing the established brand name. JIP | Talk 11:33, 1 May 2021 (UTC)
• Oppose. None of the companies are unrelated; each one took ownership of some portion of Atari’s intellectual property; they were not just purchasing a name off the scrap heap. And there is no evidence in page views that Atari, Inc. is far and away the most well known. If you were a British kid in the late 1980s, Atari for you meant the ST Computer of Atari Corporation. If you were a 2000s kid, Atari SA games are the most familiar. Atari, Inc. is just one part of the Atari story, not the main story. Indrian (talk) 15:58, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Atari, Inc. which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 09:04, 1 May 2021 (UTC)

Edit war regarding ownership

A rapper is claiming he is now the owner of Atari, the company disagrees. An IP is trying to insert this in, but unless a reliable source (not the rapper's social media account) confirms this, I would advocate not including it. Ifnord (talk) 19:39, 29 August 2021 (UTC)

I agree, that is false Soulja Boy does not own Atari. Chip3004 (talk) 20:05, 29 August 2021 (UTC)

Steve Jobs was an employee

Would that be noteworthy? I'm reading about it in his biography. 98.151.135.61 (talk) 07:21, 17 October 2022 (UTC)