Blame it on the Americans seems to be the corporate motto of Atari CEO Bruno Bonnell. “We have about 250 staff in the US. And that is too many. There has to be some adjustment. There will be none in Europe, though. They’ve had their pain already,� Bonnell told MCV. “Ahead of all this, we had decided in December that we should refocus our creativity efforts on external studios, rather than internal development. We will be looking to sell our studios, but that doesn’t mean that we’re immediately putting a ‘For Sale’ sign on them. They still have important projects to finish for us.�
Not so fast say analysts. “The first thing the company should do is shut down everything in Europe. Bruno is out to lunch. … The guys in the U.S. make games. The guys in Europe just sell them,â€? says Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan. “The reason Atari can’t succeed is because they have an obscene relationship with Infogrames,â€? he said. “Infogrames, as Atari dwindles, will go bankrupt. Once Infogrames is out of the picture, I believe someone will step up to fund Atari.â€?
