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."
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