Atari Founder: “Shareholders Only Care About Paying Themselves, Not Game Business”

Following its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in January, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell has lashed out at the shareholders of the company for only caring about their own salaries over game development.

Speaking to VG247, Bushnell stated that,”Atari has been really abused by a succession of shareholders who were really just interested in the royalty streams associated with the IP, but not really interested in the game business,” he told VG247. He added those shareholders had lost sight of making innovative or interesting content.

“It was just a case of them paying themselves large salaries and nursing the brand. I mean the brand took in $10 million in royalties every year just from t-shirts and sheets and peripherals and stuff like that, because the logo was strong. That didn’t mean the company had anything, it was just historical with no attempt to bring it into today.”