In an interview with VentureBeat, Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais has hinted at plans to make the company “more than a software brand.”
In January 2013, Atari filed for bankruptcy and received court approval in December for a three year plan which would see the company emerge from the bankruptcy.
“Today, we have a company that is out of bankruptcy, and we are 10 people working under the studio-production model,” Chesnais said, in part. “We pay attention to three things: the IP, the production, and the distribution. Everything else is not our part. We go to and select third-party studios who make very good games. They are not a part of the company at the moment. And then we go into production, like a movie studio. So we select the IP’s; we go one-by-one and select the best one. We pick the one we want to do. There’s no rush.”
Chesnais also said that while the company is committed to making games, he also sees Atari as “a hardware brand,” but explained that this does not mean Atari will be making a new console. “I’m not talking about a new console but, like, a watch. A gamified watch. It’s not what we are going to do, but think about [something like] that.”
“[Atari is] a generational brand… It’s a lifestyle brand. You could never do that with a brand like THQ. I mean, back in the heydays, THQ was never a lifestyle brand.”
(via GI International)