Atari, Bethesda-Parent ZeniMax Snag Funding

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In separate announcements, both ailing publisher Atari Inc. and Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media have secured significant bundles of cash to continue operations. New York-based Atari, owned by Paris-headquartered Infogrames, received $10 million credit from Infogrames shareholder BlueBay High Yield Investments, and Providence Equity Partners bought $300 million worth of Maryland-based ZeniMax's preferred stock.

But the $10 million won't come close to solving Atari's problems, whose parent company recently announced plans for a major restructuring after Atari filed a delayed fiscal year 2007 report detailing a $69.7 million loss. The announcement from Atari described the $10 million credit as "a first step in securing financing to build inventory for the 2007 calendar holiday season and for day-to-day working capital needs," though it added that "additional financing is being sought."

ZeniMax, on the other hand, has a much brighter outlook, with the $300 million planned to "fund future growth, increase game development and publishing, facilitate acquisitions, and finance massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs)," according to the announcement.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 25, 2007 1:42 PM

    [deleted]

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      October 25, 2007 2:20 PM

      Dood zenimax has the Fallout & Elder Scrolls IP. If those aren't gonna be 2 awesome MMOG then I lose all hope for the genre at all.

      • reply
        October 25, 2007 2:48 PM

        That said, Interplay has licensed the Fallout MMO rights from ZeniMax/Bethesda.

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          October 26, 2007 7:10 AM

          Interplay didn't "licence" anything. Bethsoft bought the entire IP.

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        October 25, 2007 2:55 PM

        what does that have to do with making money?

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          October 25, 2007 3:00 PM

          Oblivion was a major title on the 360, and Morrowind on the XBOX. Elder Scrolls has been a big deal on the PC for even longer. While not Warcraft-big (maybe), TES is big. A big brand translates to big money, as long as the game is worthwhile.

          Fallout, while not as big a brand right now, could become much larger after the release of Fallout 3.

          Regardless, "small subscriber base" doesn't necessarily imply "no money made". Look at EVE Online. Their subscriber base is miniscule compared to WoW, but they're still making money.

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            October 26, 2007 8:21 AM

            The cost of making EVE and keeping the servers running is also a lot less than the cost of making WoW and maintaining it.

            What am trying to say is, in no way could you screw up a Star Wars MMO, somebody DID screw it up. I don't think any IP is a guaranteed money printing machine in the MMO market.

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      October 25, 2007 3:36 PM

      Because the potential ROI on MMOGs is very large compared to other genres and the genre is considered to be on the rise which is something publishers look for. Also, the long life of MMOGs and recurring revenue make them very attractive to publishers.

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