Alone in the Dark lights up Infogrames revenues

Atari shooter and Dragon Ball Z push its corporate parent's sales up 80 percent to $140.5 million.

Infogrames-owned Atari may be switching its focus to online and social games, but the publisher's parent company is still reaping rewards from more traditional fare. France-based Infogrames released its quarterly financial report today, which attributed its rising revenues to high-profile hits Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit and Alone in the Dark. Prior to going on sale last month, the anime-based fighting game shipped 930,000 copies, and Eden Studios' survival horror remake moved 1.2 million copies worldwide.

For the three months ended June 30, Infogrames raked in €90.1 million ($140.5 million), up nearly 80 percent from the €50.1 million ($78.1 million) that it reaped for the same period the year before. That put the publisher on pace to meet its goals, and it reiterated the previous guidance of 12-18 percent sales growth for the year. As for when it will finally return a profit, the company plans to hit positive operating income within the next 18 months.

In a statement accompanying the results, Infogrames CEO David Gardner said that the report "sets the pace for the rest of the year and gives us the time to begin our Publishing turnaround as the next key step to revitalizing the brand and company."

Alone in the Dark's success is ironic, given that it may be the last game of its sort to be released by Infogrames. In May, company president Phil Harrison discussed the "new Atari" with GamaSutra, saying "I don't see that we're going to be making huge-budget, single-player games [like Alone in the Dark] in the future."

67 Comments

  • wackyum

    Posted Oct 6, 2008 2:07 pm PT

    I wanted to play this game, but the reviews made me sad...but now,
    I guess I have a reason good enough to buy this game and play my hands on!
    Thanks Gamespot for this breaking NEWS!!!

  • RonTorque

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 1:08 pm PT

    Good for the company.

  • farizcleo

    Posted Aug 4, 2008 8:05 pm PT

    I love this game...Original of my collection

    It will help the company.

  • grigjd3

    Posted Aug 4, 2008 8:31 am PT

    Everyone remember seeing the ads up in stores? This just shows you can get crap to sell if you advertise it everywhere.

  • Pete5506

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 5:02 pm PT

    I didnt care for this game at all

  • CVM_123

    Posted Aug 2, 2008 6:02 pm PT

    i cant believe this game selled so much because its horrible...

  • brittoss

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 8:41 pm PT

    All I'm hoping for is that Alone in the Dark gets a sequel after the sales it has gottten. This way they can learn from the mistakes of this game and improve the next game so it lives up to the hype. There is lots of good qualities/ideas/potential in this game but some really bad ones too that drag ged it down.
    Atari "Please Fix"

  • Prasath1993

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 8:02 pm PT

    finally

  • callofblood

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 4:46 pm PT

    i hope that help the company>>>
    and it is time to release the game on web

  • rubdanielrub

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 3:31 pm PT

    the game is quite good actually online, but the offline is way to short, and no boo saga. Plus they could of had more characters like all the other dbz games. If u play online make sure u get an opponent with a green or yellow connection.

  • coold_steam

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 2:28 pm PT

    i was waiting for this game but from what i saw and heard this game sux bad ,from the game trailer you get the impression that this is the game of the year .

  • dubel_07

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 1:34 pm PT

    I thought AiTD bombed? How did it boost sales?

  • pidow

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 11:19 am PT

    If they FIX the game, it may improve their budget somewhat...I personally do not see shipping a game that has a lot problems and not fixing, a GOOD thing....I am at a lost here.

  • Yojimbo25

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 8:04 am PT

    Maybe Phil Harrison should have stayed with Sony. I don't think Atari can be helped. They are doomed to repeat history again.

  • jedikevin2

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 7:39 am PT

    Good to know alone in the dark got some kinda help for the company considering it is such a horrible game.

  • Jtweedd

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 5:58 am PT

    Lots of people wonder why companies buy licenses such as dragon ball z . This is the perfect reason. It basically gives you a license to make a crap game that sells. Anime fans just seen dragon ball and don't even take into account a game's quality.

  • Abercrombie6969

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 3:43 am PT

    I see a glimmer of hope for Atari.

  • kavadias1981

    Posted Aug 1, 2008 2:30 am PT

    Its odd considering Alone in the Dark's poor review scores and Burst Limit being poo IMO.

  • King_Chozo

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 11:21 pm PT

    I might have to pick up alone in the dark if it goes on sale or something, but i was sorely disappointed by burst limit. The only DBZ games atari has done well were the ones for GBA.

  • burstlimit514

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 9:47 pm PT

    alone in the dark looks of pure boredum and birst limit... Could have been better.

  • Dante9916

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 9:15 pm PT

    Dbz was cool.
    Alone in the dark,i dont know havetn played but looks crappy.

  • jazreal

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 8:43 pm PT

    THAT IS SO FUNNY seing as how everyone here @gamespot ran this game into the ground and THAT is why i NEVER listen to reviews....how do they know what I like anywayz

  • ZWarrior006

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 8:25 pm PT

    How dare Alone in the Dark make good money! That f*cking crappy game, and how dare DBZ make more money....again! I like DBZ, but this game was disappointing and average. God damn it, dbz fans for giving them more money....stupid fools.

  • SearchBomber

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 6:23 pm PT

    I have to give them credit; at least they made sure we never forgot about DBZ...

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 6:20 pm PT

    I like Infrogames as a company. I loved their racing games on the Dreamcast, Test Drive Lemans and Test Drive V-Rally. Alone in the Dark didn't recieve great reviews, but it still looked like a descent title. Glad to see it helped their revenues. More game publishers equals more games.

  • xchiefmegadethx

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 5:57 pm PT

    Cool...i might pick it up later,got it when it came out
    just couldn't get into it at that time...
    But yeah thank god i got it on 360!
    wouldn't want to wait wait wait for it

  • TheGum

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 5:42 pm PT

    Wow, I would have thought Alone would get poor sales. Here's hoping this encourages the team to make the PS3 version right.

  • Vampire_Turtle

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 5:33 pm PT

    It's a good game, if you can look past some of it's glitches. Yes I will admit, the driving sections of the gaming suck big hard buttocks but otherwise I enjoyed Alone in the Dark.

    As for Dragonball Z... I don't like fighting games, but I'm glad it did well I s'pose.

  • thpghalo3

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 5:28 pm PT

    alone in the dark is a really good game it's like a puzzel!!

  • EXxile

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 5:25 pm PT

    I'm glad Alone in the Dark helped Atari get closer out of the hole that they're in. IMO AITD is a cool game. Behind the glitches and problems it has, it seriously is like a hidden creative gem. Definately give it a look due to its creative ideas.

  • da_chub

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 5:14 pm PT

    Alone in the Dark is actually a really cool game. Yea, it has its problems, but it does a really good job at putting you into the story; which is really cool.

  • TWiSTEDmerc

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 4:31 pm PT

    Yay, those kind of sales might make ATARI release more high budget single player games.

  • Tandem_Toad posted Jul 31, 2008 4:31 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. login to show)

    Tandem_Toad

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 4:31 pm PT (hide)

    Kenichi34, "no reason?" How about broken controls, bad physics, stupid dialogue, and retarded puzzles. That's not reason enough?

  • BioShockOwnz

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 4:29 pm PT

    Good! AITD surely has its share of flaws, but it does break some ground in game design, while being a pretty damned solid game overall. More polish would've been nice, though.

  • Kenichi34

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 4:21 pm PT

    I'm glad Alone in the Dark did well. It was a good game that got slammed and hated for no good reason.

  • VenomRitual

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 3:43 pm PT

    "Alone in the Dark's success is ironic" given that its reviews slammed it. glad burst limit did so well though.

  • akiwak

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 3:16 pm PT

    I guess by the way they are restructuring the company all we are going to see from atari now is Wii games, and Live arcade or PSN games. they have to do whatever it takes to survive now maybe down the line when they stop being in the brink of being bankrupt will they switch back to the single player, with story games. They have a couple of ip's that i enjoyed a few years back and would like to play new versions of those games.

  • Superdude687

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 3:13 pm PT

    Guys since when is a 6.5 which = Fair game the worst game ever? It's Fair, it's better then mediocre and a little less then good.

  • umbaquaw

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 2:54 pm PT

    Thank gosh, they needed some light in their future especially since it is never good for a gaming company to fall. This way they can look back on mistakes and actually fix them.

    And to those that say Alone in the Dark sucks, speak for yourself. Many people like me actually enjoyed it. And besides, the average review scores are higher than a hell of a lot of games.

  • masterchief375

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 2:48 pm PT

    What's ironic is that people are buying that glitchfest known as Alone in The Dark, I cant prgress in story mode cuz i keep getting a glitch in the taxi cab level when i break the through glass in my taxi at the end of the level I fall through the level and die and have to start all over again. So how alone in the dark is doing good, i have no idea.

  • Stalker700

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 2:38 pm PT

    The ironic thing is,that the game is succesful because the pirates didn't cracked the game,so people simply...bought it...for once.
    I haven't tried AiTD and I doubt I will....
    Still...Burst Limit seems like a promising game.
    Way to go Atari!

  • beprice3

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 2:00 pm PT

    @mykel77 ...................So all you do is what people tell you to do........Robot.

  • lamprey263

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:54 pm PT

    Why are people saying "can't believe it"? Atari ported this game to the Playstation 2 with 140 million consoles in consumer hands, the Wii with 30 million in peoples' homes, the Xbox 360 with 20 million consoles, and the PC (go figure), and the PS3 version hasn't even been released yet. When you have a potential buyer base of over 200+ million from launch, as long as the game looks appealing ('cause not everyone reads reviews) it's going to be a commercial success, even despite being a critical failure. This isn't the first bad game to sell a lot of copies by being ported every which way. Just look at THQ, they make tons of money off their crappy games based off family movies, and even though they too are critical failures, they're commercial successes because they did the smart thing, which is going multiplatform with their titles.

  • klugenbeel

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:51 pm PT

    "Who the hell bought all of those copies of Alone in the Dark?"
    " can't believe that "Alone in the Dark" is successful. That game couldn't be worse."

    First of all, there are MANY MANY MANY more bad games out there that are worst than Alone in the Dark...and how they sold 1.2 millions....probably because this is a game that was released years upon years ago...and there are many fans out there that went out and bought this game because of that...was i one of them, no, but Alone in the Dark is an Atari IP and there are still Atari fans out there. But this is good news since, even though it didn't do well in reviews, people bought it...Atari is making some money and they now may have more money to put into new and continued projects.

  • miladesn2

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:47 pm PT

    It seems there are more fools on earth than expected.

  • jknight5422

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:45 pm PT

    Absolutely amazing. I guess this means that awful controls doesn't necessarily break the game. It's annoying to hear Harrison say he's abandoning money-making franchises. He should sell it to someone who will if he isn't going to pick up the torch & carry it.

  • cc623

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:44 pm PT

    Owned it for 2 weeks and was happy Ganestop gave me half my money back when i traded it back in!!!Had tremendous potential but,felt like it was an early demo instead of the finished product.

  • gin_rummy89

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:35 pm PT

    Who the hell bought all of those copies of Alone in the Dark?

  • VegasAceVII

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:31 pm PT

    Terrible news. I played Alone In The Dark on the PS2. Even if it was a god awful port of it or not, I can tell you, if the game is even remotely similar to what I experienced on other consoles, I can say with confidence it's one of the worst games ever made.

  • Tandem_Toad

    Posted Jul 31, 2008 1:28 pm PT

    I can't believe that "Alone in the Dark" is successful. That game couldn't be worse. Story, gameplay, graphics, controls, and the physics aren't even laughable. I cried my way through the first few levels just trying to give it a chance, but it just got worse. I honestly think someone should get fired over a broken game like that. All the critic reviews are bad and they should be.

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