If the recent Games Industry interview with David Gardner, Infogrames' new CEO, is any indication, there's a big possibility that Atari may be going online in the near future. It's not the first time that Atari made known its intentions to go live; last year the company unveiled its other project, Atari Online.
Gardner expressed his observations about the boom in online gaming industry, which he notes is a worldwide phenomenon:
The business and the industry is moving online on a global basis. It's moving at different speeds in different countries, but it's pretty clear to me that the whole way that people are going to want to buy their games, play their games, interface with their games is network centric.
However, Gardner has something slightly different in mind when it comes to offering games online. Unlike most other MMORPGs that are being distributed through online downloads, the new Infogrames CEO wanted to distribute possible Atari online games the more conventional way - off the shelf. He explained:
Personally I'm in the category of not having to wait for downloads that take hours and hours...I think that frankly, it's quicker to go into GAME and buy a boxed copy off a shelf.
So does Gardner believe that Atari will be successful in its endeavors if the company tries to tackle the online gaming industry? Yes, he does, and believes that the IPs that Atari owns will see them through. "The good news is that we have a massive catalogue of properties," he said.
