D&D Computer Games

[Mokona]

Atari posts $71.3 million loss (GameIndustry.biz, 7/2/07)
By Mark Androvich


Goodwill impairment charge confirmed

Atari has announced that it will report a wider-than-expected loss for the fiscal year ended March 31.

As reported last month, Atari delayed filing its annual report in order to determine the amount of a goodwill impairment charge related to erosion of its market capitalisation.

The company now says it will report a loss of USD 71.3 million, or USD 5.29 a share, compared with a lost of USD 69 million for the prior year. Without the goodwill impairment charge, Atari would have posted a loss of USD 17.2 million, or USD 1.28 per share.

In April, Atari's parent company, Infogames Entertainment, replaced founder Bruno Bonnell with a new CEO, Patrick Leleu. In early May, Atari cut its workforce by twenty per cent.

The original Atari was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Infogrames acquired the Atari name from its purchase of Hasbro Interactive and officially changed the US subsidiary's name to Atari Inc. in 2003.

If Atari/Infogrames go out of business Wizards of the Coast would presumably get the rights back to Dungeons & Dragons video games. Gleemax could take off if it was the exclusive access to a new version of D&D Online.

 

[DemonKing]

Atari have done absolutely nothing I've really enjoyed with the D&D license.

The few CRPGs they've release have been either too multiplayer focussed for my taste (NWN series) or horribly buggy and pushed out the door too soon (TOEE). Aside from those two titles, all they've released have been a very average RTS game, a MMORPG that is probably doomed to extinction and a bunch of console action fodder.

Forgive me if I'm wrong but all the Monster hits for D&D have historically been single player PC CRPGs (ala Baldur's Gate, Eye of the Beholder and Gold Box series). I'm sure if someone could produce a decent game in the vein of those titles it would be pretty popular.

 

[dagger]

ToEE was great with a community made patch that was put out, but it was very buggy even after the official patch.

 

[Thurbane]

ToEE was great with a community made patch that was put out, but it was very buggy even after the official patch.

Aside from the bugs, ToEE was easily the most enjoyable CRPG I have ever played.

Heck, I still fire up now and again years after having bought it. I must've completed the game over 30 times, but I'm a sucker for going back and trying with a different party.

If someone could license the engine and work the bugs out, it would be a great platform for more D&D games...

 

[Doug McCrae]

I loved ToEE. It's great provided:

1) You have the three patches.
2) You know where the dungeons are, and avoid most of Hommlet.

Otherwise it sucks.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Forgive me if I'm wrong but all the Monster hits for D&D have historically been single player PC CRPGs (ala Baldur's Gate, Eye of the Beholder and Gold Box series). .

You would be wrong.

Both BG2 and NWN1 posted comparable sales figures.

Both feature multiplayer play. NWN1 may seem to be a multiplayer game to you, but 80% of the players who played it played it in single player mode.

The wealth of quality community modules for NWN1 made it the breakthrough game for the RPG mod scene. I am surprised that you did not enjoy it, to be honest. My expectation is that you did not give it as much of a chance as perhaps you should have.

NWN2 still has a way to go to meet NWN1's sales, but its early still. And NWN2 is, if anything, even more a SP experience than NWN1 was. (NWN2 features full party control if you did not know.) Indeed, one of the biggest gripes form the NWN2 community is that NWN2 featured less robust multiplayer support.

 

[Asmor]

As long as we're waxing nostalgic, I think it's a crime that anyone can mention Baldur's Gate without mentioning Planescape: Torment.

Best. CRPG. Ever.

 

[Lancelot]

Color me as a huge fan of both NWN and NWN2, all of the Infinity Engine games (incl. the sometimes-maligned Icewind Dales 1 and 2), and even ToEE.

Both NWN's have their "challenges", but they still feature an immense amount of single-player goodness. The original NWN had a terrible single-player campaign... but this was much improved in the two expansion packs, and the amount of community-created modules online is incredible. NWN2 has a much better single-player campaign (*almost* as good as Baldur's Gate, IMHO), but it could benefit from a few more patches and at least one expansion pack. And some usability improvements for the toolset.

ToEE is nice for dungeon-crawling nostalgia's sake, and (again, IMHO) features the best translation of D&D's combat rules EVER. However, it's inconsistently paced... has virtually no story-line... unmemorable NPCs... and the demonic guardians of the nodes are a bit ridiculous (400hp Hezrou at 10th level, anyone?). I still enjoy the game and have played it to completion three times, but it's not without significant flaws.

Oh, and Planescape Torment is the shizzle. That is the only game I'd actually give a body part to see a sequel being made. I would seriously give an arm (...well, a finger, at least...) to revisit with Morte, Fall-From-Grace, Dakkon, and all the rest.

 

[Asmor]

I honestly don't know that I'd want a sequel... I don't see any company putting out a game like that nowadays. Too cerebral... Hell, you spent half the playing time reading dialog (if you were doing it right, at least ). I don't think it's possible for anyone to create a game as good as PS:T

 

[Lancelot]

Sigh - probably true.

Still, I haven't given up all hope. I honestly believe it's still possible to build a "deep" RPG, without compromising "mass market" appeal. Oblivion (to me) was a step in the right direction. It had some complex storylines and (a few) memorable NPCs and (some) bizarre settings and (some) things which bucked the RPG norm.

I'm going to be watching Bethesda's work on Fallout III with intense interest (another Black Isle property that I absolutely loved).