Atari is shifting gears with its gaming division. While currently it has been focused on mobile games and free-to-play titles, it’s an approach that hasn’t worked out for the company as well as they may have hoped, and as reported by GamesIndustry, they recently confirmed that their board of directors had signed off on a new approach, one that will see them focusing on premium console and PC games going forward.
Atari’s recently instated CEO CEO Wade J. Rosen says this change has been implemented because “the competitive and marketing environment is weighing on the free-to-play business model.”
“Our intent with any gaming experience is to provide accessible and joyful moments of meaningful play,” Rosen says. “That’s the core of Atari and what binds our history with our future. To that end, we feel that premium gaming is better representative of this type of gaming experience and the Atari DNA.”
This approach will start seeing releases as early as the current fiscal year, so before April of 2022, but as a result of this shift, Atari has said it expects to take a $5.9 million impairment loss. While their successful free-to-play mobile games are going to be kept running, others such as Roller Coaster Tycoon Stories, Atari Combat: Tank Fury, Ninja Golf, and more are going to be either shut down or sold off.