– 4 December 2008 – Today’s ATARI LIVE showcase event in London provided 300 invited guests from across Europe and the US with an exciting vision of the future of Atari, one of the world’s most recognised video game publishers. The vision was unveiled by CEO David Gardner and President Phil Harrison during a keynote address held at Matter, the state-of-the-art live venue inside London’s imposing O2 Arena, while the Ghostbusters Stay Puft marshmallow man braved the weather to stand guard outside.
Following the recent announcement of a long term distribution partnership between Namco Bandai Games and Atari, the distribution by Atari of the eagerly anticipated arcade fighter TEKKEN 6 was announced by Project Lead Katsuhiro Harada who flew in from Japan especially for the event.
Another very special guest from Japan was Tetsuya Mizuguchi, CCO of Q Entertainment, the visionary mind behind Rez, Lumines and Every Extend Extra. Mizuguchi-san attended the event to announce the worldwide retail launch next spring 2009 of Q3 (Qubed – working title) for Xbox 360, a pack comprised of Rez HD, Lumines Live! and E4, and to reveal the first details of a forthcoming music game to be published by Atari.
CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski arrived from Warsaw the morning of the event to announce the forthcoming launch of The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, a remake of the highly acclaimed million-selling PC RPG, to be published by Atari in Spring 2009 for PLAYSTATION®3 and Xbox 360.
Other highlights were the announcements of Ready 2 Rumble Revolution for Wii coming in March 2009; Demigod for PC to be distributed by Atari in early 2009, and the retail version of Sam & Max: Season 2 for PC and Wii, another title which, like EVE Online, Atari is growing from the online space into retail. EVE Online also featured in the keynote with a presentation by CCP CEO Hilmar Peterssun who flew in from Iceland.
“This is a very exciting time for Atari, with a rapidly expanding line up of extremely high quality products, the new distribution partnership with Namco Bandai Games, and our new studio in London, all of which will see us move forward with confidence towards our vision for Atari’s future,” said Phil Harrison, President of Infogrames Entertainment, the parent company of Atari. “We’re very proud to be working with such a wealth of incredible game development talent and the exciting prospects that these collaborations will yield for Atari as a publisher and for the ever-expanding audience of gamers across the globe.”
Also making appearances during the course of the presentation were Paulina Bozek, recently announced as the development director of a new Atari online development team based in London; David Nadal, studio head at Eden Games; Daryle Tumacder, game designer on Afro Samurai at NAMCO BANDAI Games; Andrew Haworth, creative director at Ghostbusters Xbox 360, PS3 and PC developers Terminal Reality; Dustin Dobson, creative lead at developers of Ghostbusters for Wii and PS2 Red Fly; Jerk Gustafsson, lead designer on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Dark Athena at Starbreeze Studios; Mike Marr, lead designer at Demigod developer Gas Powered Games; and Henrik Roos, CEO of renowned racing sim developer Simbin, who was there to talk about RACE Pro for Xbox 360, which in January will bring Simbin’s phenomenal expertise to console for the first time.
Following the keynote presentation, retailer, partners and media were treated to game presentations of the titles mentioned above, plus Heroes Over Europe coming to Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PC; Codename Panzers: Cold War on PC; and The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity for DS.
Game presentations to media will continue on, following a party at which music game legend Tetsuya Mizuguchi has promised to show London how to DJ, Tokyo-style.
The entire keynote presentation will be available to watch streaming online or as a download NOW at www.atari.com.