Atari not prepared to give up on boxed product business

Atari’s UK managing director Jeremy Wigmore has told MCV that the company still has great faith in its boxed product business – despite all of the media speculation surrounding

Phil Harrison

‘s new online project.

Ever since their respective appointments at the firm, Harrison and new Infogrames CEO David Gardner have been very keen to talk of Atari’s prospects in the casual games market – and its intentions with web-based content.

However, Wigmore told MCV: The online business will be very exciting, even though David and Phil haven’t confirmed exactly what it will be. That’s a fascinating development, it’s where we should be and it’s where we’re looking to grow our business.

But what we can’t forget is the distribution strength we have around the world – and the boxed game reputation we enjoy as a publisher. From my perspective, developing the business is about opening up wider areas of distribution – both online and in a more traditional manner.

We have the Atari brand name and we’ll be pushing ahead with quality boxed content this year. That’s something we should have been doing, but we haven’t been able to because of the historical issues with Atari – which everyone knows.

Now we’re in a position of acting swiftly and bringing the right product to market – and you can see that with the likes of Alone In The Dark.”

Alone In The Dark – one of Atari’s biggest releases of the year – is due to go on sale later in the spring. It will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2 and PC.