Atari revenues halved, losses nearly double

Atari today released earnings for the quarter ending September 30. The numbers were sharply off those reported a year ago.

Net revenue for the quarter was $38.4 million, about $30 million less than the $68 million in revenues the company reported for the same quarter a year ago. The bottom line saw a loss of $25.2 million, almost doubling the $16.9 million loss reported a year ago.

"As expected, through the first half of fiscal 2006, we have released fewer titles compared to previous years and as a result have reported financial results below historical levels," company CEO Bruno Bonnell said in a statement.

Two games, Indigo Prophecy and Dragon Ball GT: Transformation, were called out as revenue drivers for the quarter. As was the stand-alone Flashback 2 game unit. The company's Atari Flashback 2, a plug-and-play console that features classic Atari games, shipped about 450,000 units in the US and accounted for almost a quarter of the company's revenues in the past quarter.

Looking ahead, one product that was seen as a potential holiday hit, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, was hit with a delay. The multiplatform game, originally set for simultaneous release this November, is now due sometime during the company's fourth quarter, which runs January through March.

Two games Bonnell repeatedly referenced during the conference call with analysts were TimeShift, the company's first next-gen game, due on the Xbox 360 and PC sometime during the January-March quarter, and Driver: Parallel Lines for the PS2 and Xbox, due the same period. Bonnell also hinted that the long-standing Alone in the Dark franchise would get an Xbox 360 release, though he declined to say when.

With high hopes, Bonnell briefly addressed the company's upcoming release of The Matrix: Path of Neo. Due to retailers next week, the game will ship 1.5 million units worldwide, according to Bonnell. Commenting on the game, and reflecting on the post-movie trilogy world it will be released into, Bonnell still sees potential. "If you look at The Matrix, we did benefit at that time [from] a phenomena which was the movie release of The Matrix. We don't have this, but we have a much more sophisticated game, a much more polished game than we have seen."

Other notable data points that haunt the company is a still-vacant CEO slot (empty since June when Jim Caparro resigned), two board of director chairs that need filling, and dwindling cash reserves of just $2.5 million.

In after-hours trading, Atari stock was off about a dime to $1.19. In regular trading, Atari closed up a penny at $1.28.