Infogrames reports loss

French game publisher Infogrames Entertainment has announced a net loss of $20.7 million for the first six months of fiscal year 2001, ended December 31, 2000. Analysts attributed most of the loss to the publisher's changeover to next-generation video game platforms and the delay in shipments of Sony's PlayStation 2 console game system.

The company saw a recovery in its US operations and a return to profitability in the second quarter of the fiscal year. The company attributes these improved results to a successful restructuring strategy and the integration of GT Interactive Software, which it acquired in late 1999. Infogrames also noted that it had announced the acquisition of Hasbro Interactive during the same period, which gives it control of a number of licenses, including Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, and others, along with the entire line of Atari games.

The company will focus its efforts in the second half of the fiscal year on making Hasbro Interactive profitable. It is also looking forward to the upcoming release of the fourth installment in its Alone in the Dark horror-game series, Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.