ATARI Dead...Arma Dead Too?

[SlipperyJim 0]

Is this partially why we haven't seen a patch for the game?

Quote[/b] ]Atari CEO Resigns as Company Withdraws from Production has word that David Pierce has stepped down from his position as CEO of the troubled gaming company, which has also announced its exit from the production end of the business. Here's a bit:

Amidst concerns about the company's lack of funds and ability to continue its business, Atari officials announced today that the publisher will "re-focus its operations on publishing and distribution in North America, completing its withdrawal from the production business."

According to the release, Atari's operations going forward "will involve title acquisition, sales and marketing, and physical distribution of products from [infogrames] IESA, its 51% shareholder, and other selected partners."

Atari has agreed in principle to terminate its Production Services Agreement with IESA in the near future. The company is planning to transfer certain employees and contract other staff on a project basis for a limited period of time. Unfortunately for Atari's employees, this restructuring initiative will also reduce the company's current workforce "in order to re-align the Company's cost structure with its on-going business base."

Along with the withdrawal from production, Atari CEO David Pierce has also announced his resignation. Curtis G. Solsvig III, Chief Restructuring Officer, has been appointed interim CEO and will assume Pierce's responsibilities for now. Atari said that an executive search for a new CEO has already been started.

Yes I know that Atari was the distributor in North America but they must have been funding the game too (??)

This game has been destroyed by cheaters and we haven't been given a patch to fix it. I haven't played Arma in months because of this horrible problem with hackers. I have been waiting patiently for a patch and there doesn't seem to be any progress. Did I miss some big news announcement?! Someone throw us a frickin' bone!

[max power 21]

Is this partially why we haven't seen a patch for the game?

Quote[/b] ]Atari CEO Resigns as Company Withdraws from Production has word that David Pierce has stepped down from his position as CEO of the troubled gaming company, which has also announced its exit from the production end of the business. Here's a bit:

Amidst concerns about the company's lack of funds and ability to continue its business, Atari officials announced today that the publisher will "re-focus its operations on publishing and distribution in North America, completing its withdrawal from the production business."

According to the release, Atari's operations going forward "will involve title acquisition, sales and marketing, and physical distribution of products from [infogrames] IESA, its 51% shareholder, and other selected partners."

Atari has agreed in principle to terminate its Production Services Agreement with IESA in the near future. The company is planning to transfer certain employees and contract other staff on a project basis for a limited period of time. Unfortunately for Atari's employees, this restructuring initiative will also reduce the company's current workforce "in order to re-align the Company's cost structure with its on-going business base."

Along with the withdrawal from production, Atari CEO David Pierce has also announced his resignation. Curtis G. Solsvig III, Chief Restructuring Officer, has been appointed interim CEO and will assume Pierce's responsibilities for now. Atari said that an executive search for a new CEO has already been started.

Yes I know that Atari was the distributor in North America but they must have been funding the game too (??)

This game has been destroyed by cheaters and we haven't been given a patch to fix it. I haven't played the game in months because of this horrible problem with hackers. Someone throw us a frickin' bone!

They were funding it in the same capacity that any other publisher that BIS has was funding it- through some rights-to-distribute / share-of-profits arrangement. Atari is publishing ArmA, as they will continue to do. Read the article for yourself. Does it not say that they will now focus on NA distribution and publishing?

BIS has stated that they are working on an anticheat scheme in their next patch.

Are you just stirring the pot here or what? Hardly any of your concerns are even relevant to the news article you posted.

[-Puma- 2]

even if atari went under that has nothing to do with arma or its patches. BIS is still developing the game, and others just selling it forward.

[mr_centipede 31]

from my understanding according to the article.. atari will continue to publish and distribute games (selling it) just not developing it (actually making it)... so what is that i missed implying arma will follow suit?

[Teliko 0]

Is this partially why we haven't seen a patch for the game?

You know they're just the publishers, right?

[KaiserPanda 0]

Friggen great. They haven't responded with a new serial number for my downloaded version of ArmA. Now I'll never get it.

[Madus_Maximus 0]

About the patch, Suma himself has said in another thread that the reason it's taking so long is because of the extensive testing they're doing to the anti-cheating meassures and so on they're putting in. This sort of system isn't as simple as say fixing a bug because of all the factors involved with the nature of cheats.

[BraTTy 0]

This game has been destroyed by cheaters and we haven't been given a patch to fix it.  I haven't played Arma in months because of this horrible problem with hackers.  I have been waiting patiently for a patch and there doesn't seem to be any progress. Someone throw us a frickin' bone!

I had been playing quite a bit lately.Not on PW'd servers either.And the hacking hasn't been bad at all.Hardly any hacking actually.Seen some teamkiller activity.

I don't think any magical patch will eliminate all problems anyways, people will still mess around.

Experienced coders within these forums are also working on counter-measures.

Its ok to play

[SlipperyJim 0]

Quote[/b] ]Are you just stirring the pot here or what? Hardly any of your concerns are even relevant to the news article you posted.

No, I am not stirring the pot. Forgive me if I missed a sticky but I haven't seen any recent news of an impending patch that will fix the massive security holes we have. Not a peep in a VERY long time.

The news story states that Atari is in deep financial crisis. Arma was released before this re-organization and could very well be part of the fat that gets cut away.

Where do you think the money comes from to make patches?

If they want us to buy Arma 2 they gotta fix this one first. One of the great things about Opflash is that they kept plugging away at patches.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Where do you think the money comes from to make patches?

BI's own pocket, after all, BI is still an independent developer, which is why every continent has at least 1 different publisher...

[dmarkwick 261]

SlipperyJim, are you just deliberately ignoring the stated facts so you can continue with what I can only describe as recreational moaning?

Atari only distribute ArmA.

[TRexian 0]

"Atari" has been moving out of the active development of stuff for YEARS.

BTW - current "Atari" isn't even close to being the "real" Atari we all associate with great games, but perhaps that's for another thread.

Basically, their business model for the last few years has basically been to be a clearinghouse for other people's work, and an intellectual property holder/licensor for other people to work on their IP stuff - like sequels and stuff.

They are like movie distributors. Other people fund and make the movie, but they use their existing infrastructure to distribute the product. The profit motive is that they get a cut of the sales, without doing any real work. Ok, I take that back. They can assume the cost of packaging and some transportation charges, but the can also take those straight out of the sales numbers, before passing money through. Sometimes, they can advance the creator some money from the distribution, but then they recoup that straight away on the back end, too.

I'm confident that BI gets a bigger cut from the online sales than they do from the brick-and-mortar sales.

For people who've followed the Atari/Infogrames saga for the last few years, this isn't particularly new.

[walker 0]

Hi all

The reason Atari is having troubles is the same reason loads of US business is having trouble CITI Group, GM, Merill Lynch etc. and in some cases going out of business. US Debt. Read the newspapers, not the crappy tabloids read the broadsheets. Or watch Bloomberg or even MSNBC.

Mainly big government debt at about 9 trillion dollars, much of it to China but also business and personal debt and additional 12 to 18 trillion then another 12 trillion in trade deficit. In the past the US economy has been financed by foreign lending but with the falling dollar and obvious weakness in the US economy, many investors both US and Foreign do not think it is a good time to be investing in the US.

The secondary problem is the understanding that a lot of the Sub-prime stuff was hidden in complex packages so that many foreign investors are wary that investing in the US may expose them to hidden debt. Basically it is a perceived lack of transparency in US markets

The big hit of the Credit Crunch is still to come, according to the economists and most do not expect the US to hit bottom till till late 2008 at the earliest; when many of the sub-prime loans get reset. Then investors will know how many foreclosures will result.

China is already threatening to pull out its loans to the US government as well as shift more of its currency reserves to the Euro. Many Oil countries are threatening to convert to the PetroEuro. Most countries have already started to shift their reserve currency to the Euro rather than the Dollar.

The problem for US tax payers is that they were bamboozled into thinking they were getting lower taxes by the Republicommies. They were not. Bush just kept paying the IRS bill on the credit card. Eventually you have to pay your credit card bill. If you are a US tax payer you have 8 years of tax to pay plus interest at credit card rates.

The US Tax payer was conned by the NeoConMen.

What you are seeing with Atari is what is going to be and is in some cases is already, happening with many US businesses.

Does it mean anything as far as ArmA is concerned? No it seems to be talking about the production side not publishing side. Even if it is the publishing side BIS will find another US publisher.

Kind Regards walker

[Madus_Maximus 0]

As long as it's not EA or Ubi we'll be safe!

[TRexian 0]

No offense walker, and not to address the "sky is falling" stuff, but Atari's business model has nowt to do with current US economics.

I'll find some links, but Atari/Infogrames started this process years ago.

Edit: should've wiki'd it from the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infogrames

[Madus_Maximus 0]

Didn't Infrogrammes buy the Atari name and change it to that to cover their poor reputation? Why change your ways when you can use a name that's trusted eh?

[Commando84 0]

hmm intresting so the Euro will pwn da dollar in a few years? lucky my country doesn't use dollars, hmm hope hardware and games from the Us will drop in price or something

i heard clothes and all kinds of stuff is alot more cheap in the us compared to Eu. about time to change the tables for a while.

[The Susser 0]

No offense walker, and not to address the "sky is falling" stuff, but Atari's business model has nowt to do with current US economics.

I'll find some links, but Atari/Infogrames started this process years ago.

Edit: should've wiki'd it from the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infogrames

Walker is actually right. Atari's business model is adjusting (Sacking people) to deal with the current economic climate.

[TRexian 0]

Actually, Commando84, you should see the price of US imports to your country drop.

US exports have been soaring last quarter because of the dollar's weakness.

Macroeconomics is a funny business.

[opteryx 1562]

As long as it's not EA or Ubi we'll be safe!

Amen to that.

[mattxr 9]

Quote[/b] ]Are you just stirring the pot here or what?  Hardly any of your concerns are even relevant to the news article you posted.

No, I am not stirring the pot.  Forgive me if I missed a sticky but I haven't seen any recent news of an impending patch that will fix the massive security holes we have.  Not a peep in a VERY long time.

I guess you dont get around very much do you.

Quote[/b] ]

ARMA Support And Patching Plans

ARMA 2 was announced, and yes, we are working hard on it - now what does that mean for ARMA? Will we still continue to support it?

The answer is: yes, we will still keep supporting ARMA.

Patch 1.09

Quote[/b] ]

Patch Plans

We're preparing a patch for ARMA, which will hopefully be released in one or two months. Currently we plan to include the following fixes or improvements:

Some AI detection fixes

Fixed fog on DX 10 cards

Fixed anti-cheat signature timeout

Added some additional anti-cheat measures

More reliable VON

Fixed CTD when resuming from a save in large and/or script intensive missions

Fixed spontaneous death while driving a motorcycle in MP

Fixed AI soldier can't fire behind the sandbags

Fixed compatibility problems caused by various copy protections uses

The patch will be completely independent of Queens Gambit, which will be running on 1.08, and no release data for this patch is currently set, but we intend to first release it as public beta 1.09 before the final release will be made available.

Happy Now. Jeesh. Open your eyes next time, this was taken from the BIS website its self.

[TRexian 0]

No offense walker, and not to address the "sky is falling" stuff, but Atari's business model has nowt to do with current US economics.

I'll find some links, but Atari/Infogrames started this process years ago.

Edit: should've wiki'd it from the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infogrames

Walker is actually right. Atari's business model is adjusting (Sacking people) to deal with the current economic climate.

Ok, I think I need to backup a step perhaps.

Atari = publicly traded US company, with a controlling interest owned by Atari Interactive, Inc. (or something like that).

Atari Interactive is a WHOLLY OWNED subsidiary of Infogrames, a French company. Infogrames owns the license to the name "Atari" and most of their intellectual property (which was bought from Hasbro in around 2000, IIRC).

I read that Infogrames recently sold off their Australian Atari development house to someone else.

Can't see how the US financial "crisis" (the "big picture" economically still is pretty good, even with the hit the real estate area is taking) would compromise a French company, and result in the sale of an Australian development group.

Rather, it still seems to me that this is Infogrames/Atari's newest step in getting out of the development business, not a "new" development based on current conditions.

IMHO.

[walker 0]

Hi TRexian

You may remember the US being pissed off at China keeping its currency value pegged to the dollar. Ditto the rest of the world with regard to the weak US dollar.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps....er=home

The US is no longer the big manufacturing centre for low price stuff it was so I think it is unlikely that it can compete with China on these items and do you really think the US workers want to try to out compete China on making T shirts? That is after all what the low currency value market is. Incidentally how will the US pay for its cotton if it cannot afford to buy Euros? Macro economics a bit tough to understand eh?

I am not saying the sky is falling. The days when the US economy going into recession meant the rest of the world did as well, are long gone.

Kind Regards walker

[TRexian 0]

Oh sure. (And overall, that's probably a good thing - remember when the Japanese economy was f'd?)

But, I really think that the Atari change is not related to the relatively new US economic conditions, but is part of a long-term plan to reorganize their business model.

There isn't much profit margin in game development nowadays. The highest margins are found in the licensing of the IP, and in the distributing (and the sales, but good luck getting any pennies out of WalMart or Best Buy). The guys (like BI) who do the hard work don't see nearly the profit they deserve IMHO.

Atari and Infogrames are trying to maximize their profits by focusing on the high-margin parts of the chain.

[SlipperyJim 0]

Matt Rochelle, yes I already saw that long ago but when was that dated? Hmmm August? As I have stated SEVERAL times (if people had bothered to read instead of getting all defensive) is that there has been no word in a long time as far as I know. Perhaps people with short memories have already forgotten how much hackers have crippled this game. The patch should have been priority number one to get out the door.

As for people's comments about the difference between the developer and the publisher, yes I knew someone would come along and point out the obvious, lol. What do you guys think independent developers pay their employees with? A modern game costs millions of dollars to make. Patches cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. This money comes from companies like Atari so that the developer can do the work.

Just like we saw with Swat 4, when Sierra's accountants (the publisher) pulled the money Irrational Games (the developer) had no money to fix the game.

I make no claims to be a games industry expert or even know Arma's funding model. I would love to be corrected by someone who knows the actual facts. However as a customer who paid for and who loves Arma I have a right to express concern that we will never see the game fixed.

After UBI's handling of the R6 series and GRAW I am fed up with buggy games that could be so good if the developers were only allowed to fix them.