Atari Going Down

Atari is a legendary name in the gaming world. Started by former programmers at Activision back in the 70s, it has had a very roller coaster ride history having changed more hands that most people can remember.

Most recently taken over by French "giant" Infogrames towards the beginning of the century, Atari seemed like it was back to being a name to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately, Infogrames haven't really done much with the brand except acquire reputed developers and fold them into the Atari family.

Atari the corporation has recently been in the news for its sale of major studios to rival publishers in order to stay afloat financially. Of note are their sale of studios and franchises like Timeshift to Vivendi, Stuntman to THQ and in the last few weeks, Driver to Ubisoft.

Infogrames have a reputation for this starting with then they acquired GT Interactive and all it studios only to fold them. Some of the best known developers and publishers have been treated this way including Gremlin Interactive, Ocean Games, Reflections Interactive, etc.

Perhaps its time the shareholders of Infogrames reassessed the capabilities of Bruno Bonnell and his colleauges on the board of Atari.

Coming Zune?

Well, it is about time.

The technology world was wondering when Microsoft would announce it's entry into the digital music realm.

The Redmond based giant has just announced its digital music project called Zune. Its primarily being touted as a music and entertainment experience, but going by Microsoft's commitment to the entertainment industry, it would not be surprising if the Zune had some gaming capabilities built in.

Should Apple be worried? Not at this stage. Not since they have sold gazillions of iPods around the world. But then going by their work on the Xbox, Microsoft have never been worried about winning the war first time round.

But Microsoft getting into the game is enough reason Apple to come out with something new. Perhaps the posting of a job on gaming industry site Gamasutra is a sign pointing to Apple's interest in entering the gaming space. Add fuel to the fire are the news reports of nVidia chips making it into the next generation of video iPods. Also supporting the argument is the fact that Apple is investing in gaming development talent.

Perhaps the strongest sign that this is the way things are going forward is the fact that industry analysts American Technology Research have upgraded their Apple stock recommendations from "hold" to "buy".

Looks like everybody wants to get into the game...

AMD-ATI Acquisition

There have been rumours abound about a potential buy out of ATI by processor giant AMD.

At the recently concluded Computex in Taiwan, rumour had it that Intel was in the game as well. The Intel possibility seems to have died down and according to Reuters, AMD seem to be on the verge of a $5.5 billion acquisition of ATI.

What does this mean for the gaming industry?

Well, while ATI has been successful in being the leading supplier of graphics cards in the portable computer space, when it comes to desktops they have had to play second fiddle to market leader nVidia. A merger with AMD could see them increasing their market share in the segment and it could also give AMD a big boost in their market share of AMD powered portable computers.

Currently, notebook manufacturers have to source their CPUs and graphics cards separately, i.e. CPUs from Intel or AMD and graphics cards from nVidia or ATI. There could be huge cost savings in acquiring CPUs and motherboard integrated graphics cards from one supplier. This would also make it a more viable option for the notebook manufacturer who may have more reason to go with AMD power as opposed to Intel.

AMD has always been seen by the hard core PC gaming community as more efficient in the cost-performance ratio. Such a move will also see ATI being able to penetrate that community better.