Atari bigwig Patrick Leleu describes the new strategy the company will be implementing in the coming years to turn around Infogrames' and Atari's fortunes. He also mentions that they will be concentrating on traditional titles such as Alone in the Dark; the latest in series scheduled to come out this May for the PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, and Wii.

For more details on the interview with Patrick Leleu, read the full article!

Atari has reported a loss of US$ 11.9 million in it Q1 financial report. These losses are up by more than 50 percent compared to the company's financial reports for the year-earlier period. With Atari in danger of losing the license to one of its key franchises, things are looking bleak for the Infogrames-owned company. A recovery plan is in the works, though, which started last month with a restructuring of the company's board of directors.

With the recent induction of Patrick Leleu as the CEO of Infogrames, he's decided that the decision to eject five directors from its loss making unit was something that had to be done if they wanted to recover from their current financial slump.

Infogrames is planning to name a "chief restructuring officer" as part of the recovery plan for Atari that it launched last month. Only three out of the eight directors will be staying and new directors will be nominated to round out the board.

Patrick Leleu explained his recent decision, saying:

The appointment of a new board for Atari will allow the group to get closer to achieving the key objectives of this plan, which include improving its finances, reviving publishing initiatives, improving distribution and leveraging the Atari name.

Infogrames was responsible for many well-known PC titles, such as the Alone in the Dark series and the Unreal Tournament franchise. Only time will tell if the company will able to rekindle its former glory days and finally get out of the financial rut it currently having.

Infogrames has finally decided to put its foot down as it announced recently that it will be unveiling plans to restore profitability to its U.S. affiliate Atari Inc. The latter has been blamed for causing huge operating losses at the group level.

Infogrames CEO Patrick Leleu announced his plans in a recent shareholders' annual meeting:

As I said in June, we are negotiating with the management and the board of Atari Inc. to restore (financial) equilibrium. We are looking after the interests of Infogrames and its shareholders. We are trying to negotiate action plans; talks are continuing. I should be able to announce some things rapidly.

Leleu took over the company last April, succeeding Infogrames founder Bruno Bonnell. Bonnell left the company after managing it for 24 years due to problems encountered in trying to wipe out the company's heavy debts and funding development in the money-hungry video games industry.

Currently, Atari is facing a continued operations loss of over US$ 66.6 million. Only time will tell if Leleu will be able to rise above the company's current financial slump. So far no word has been heard whether or not Infogrames plans to sell their Atari unit or not.