atari this article is about the corporate brand for other uses see atari disambiguation atari satypesa corporationindustryconsumer electronics video gamefoundedjune 28 1972 as atari inc 1984 as atari corporation and atari games1998 as atari interactive division of hasbro interactive2003 as atari interactive formerly infogrames interactivehasbro interactive2003 as atari inc formerly infogrames incgt interactivefoundernolan bushnellheadquartersparis francekey peoplefrdric chesnais ceoproductsvideo games consumer electronicswebsitewwwataricom atari sa tri is a french corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972 currently by atari interactive a subsidiary of the french publisher atari sa the original atari inc founded in sunnyvale california in 1972 by nolan bushnell and ted dabney was a pioneer in arcade games home video game consoles and home computers the companys products such as pong and the atari 2600 helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid1980s in 1984 as a result of the video game crash of 1983 the original atari inc was split and the arcade division was turned into atari games inc infogrames entertainment iesa bought hasbro interactive in 2001 and renamed it infogrames interactive which intermittently published atari branded titles in 2003 it renamed the division atari interactive another iesa division infogrames inc formerly gt interactive in 2008 iesa completed its acquisition of atari incs outstanding stock making it a wholly owned subsidiary iesa renamed itself atari sa in 2009 it sought bankruptcy protection under french law in january 2013 history atari inc 19721984 atari inc in 1971 nolan bushnell and ted dabney founded a small engineering company syzygy engineering the third version of the atari video computer system sold from 1980 to 1982 in 1973 atari secretly spawned a competitor called kee games headed by nolans next door neighbor joe keenan to circumvent pinball distributors insistence on exclusive distribution deals both atari and kee could market virtually the same game to different distributors each getting an exclusive deal joe keenans management of the subsidiary led to him being promoted president of atari that same year in 1976 bushnell through grass valley ca firm cyan engineering started development of a flexible console that was capable of playing the four existing atari games the result was the atari video computer system or vcs later renamed 2600 when the 5200 was released the introductory price of 199 equivalent to 856 in 2017 included a console two joysticks a pair of paddles and the combat game cartridge development of a successor to the 2600 started as soon as it shipped the original team estimated the 2600 had a lifespan of about three years it then set forth to build the most powerful machine possible within that time frame midway into their effort the home computer revolution took off leading to the addition of a keyboard and features to produce the atari 800 and its smaller sibling the 400 the new machines had some success when they finally became available in quantity in 1980 from this platform atari released their nextgeneration game console in 1982 the atari 5200 it was unsuccessful due to incompatibility with the 2600 game library a small quantity of dedicated games and notoriously unreliable controllers under warner and ataris chairman and ceo raymond kassar the company achieved its greatest success selling millions of 2600s and computers at its peak atari accounted for a third of warners annual income and was the fastest growing company in us history at the time however it ran into problems in the early 1980s as interference from the new yorkbased warner management increasingly affected daily operations its home computer video game console and arcade divisions operated independently and rarely cooperated faced with fierce competition and price wars in the game console and home computer markets atari was never able to duplicate the success of the 2600 these problems were followed by the video game crash of 1983 with losses that totaled more than 500 million warners stock price slid from 60 to 20 and the company began searching for a buyer for its troubled division in 1983 ray kassar had resigned and executives involved in the famicom merger lost track of negotiations eventually killing the deal with ataris financial problems and the famicoms runaway success in japan after its july 16 1983 release nintendo decided to remain independent financial problems continued to mount and kassars successor james j morgan had less than a year in which to tackle the companys problems he began a massive restructuring of the company and worked with warner communications in may 1984 to create natco an acronym for new atari company natco further streamlined the companys facilities personnel and spending unknown to james morgan and the senior management of atari warner had been in talks with tramiel technology to buy ataris consumer electronics and home computer divisions negotiating until close to midnight on july 1 1984 jack tramiel purchased atari warner sold the home computing and game console divisions of atari to tramiel for 50 cash and 240 million in promissory notes and stocks giving warner a 20 stake in atari corporation who then used it to create a new company under the name atari corporation warner retained the arcade division continuing it under the name atari games but sold it to namco in 1985 warner also sold the fledgling ataritel to mitsubishi logo the atari logo was designed by george opperman who was ataris first inhouse graphic designer the design is known as fuji for its resemblance to the japanese mountain although the designs origins are unrelated to it opperman designed the logo intending for the silhouette to look like the letter a as in atari and for its three prongs to resemble players and the midline of the court in companys first hit game pong atari corporation 19841996 atari corporation atari st under tramiels ownership atari corp used the remaining stock of game console inventory to keep the company afloat while they finished development on a 1632bit computer system the atari st st stands for sixteenthirtytwo referring to the machines 16bit bus and 32bit processor core in april 1985 they released the first update to the 8bit computer line the atari 65xe the atari xe series june 1985 saw the release of the atari 130xe atari user groups received early sneakpreview samples of the new atari 520sts and major retailer shipments hit store shelves in september 1985 of ataris new 32bit atari st computers in 1986 atari launched two consoles designed under warner the atari 2600jr and the atari 7800 console which saw limited release in 1984 atari rebounded earning a 25 million profit that year in 1987 atari acquired federated group for 673 million securing shelf space in over 60 stores in california arizona texas and kansas in 1989 atari released the atari lynx a handheld console with color graphics to much fanfare a shortage of parts kept the system from being released nationwide for the 1989 christmas season and the lynx lost market share to nintendos game boy which despite only having a black and white display was cheaper had better battery life and had much higher availability tramiel emphasized computers over game consoles but ataris proprietary computer architecture and operating system fell victim to the success of the wintel platform while the game market revived in 1989 atari corp sued nintendo for 250 million alleging it had an illegal monopoly in 1993 atari positioned its jaguar as the only 64bit interactive media entertainment system available but it sold poorly it would be the last home console to be produced by atari and the last to be produced by an american manufacturer until microsofts introduction of the xbox in 2001 by 1996 a series of successful lawsuits ataris role in the new company largely became that of holder for the atari properties and minor support and consequently the name largely disappeared from the market as a division of hasbro 19982000 atari interactive in march 1998 jts sold the atari name and assets to hasbro interactive for 5 millionless than a fifth of what warner communications had paid 22 years earlier infogramesatari sa 2001present atari sa in october 2001 infogrames now atari sa announced that it was reinventing the atari brand with the launch of three new games featuring a prominent atari branding on their boxarts splashdown mx rider and transworld surf infogrames used atari as a brand name for games aimed at 1834 year olds other infogrames games under the atari name included vrally 3 neverwinter nights stuntman and enter the matrix on may 7 2003 infogrames had its majorityowned but discrete us subsidiary infogrames na officially renamed atari inc renamed its european operations to atari europe but kept the original name of the main company infogrames entertainment the original atari holdings division purchased from hasbro hasbro interactive was also made a separate corporate entity renamed as atari interactive on march 6 2008 infogrames made an offer to atari inc to buy out all remaining public shares for a value of 168 per share or 11 million total on december 9 2008 atari announced that it had acquired cryptic studios a mmorpg developer namco bandai purchased a 34 stake in atari europe on may 14 2009 paving the way for its acquisition from infogrames in may 2009 infogrames entertainment sa the parent company of atari and atari interactive announced it would change its name to atari sa in april 2010 atari sa board member and former ceo david gardner resigned original atari cofounder nolan bushnell joined the board as a representative for blubay holdings as of march 31 2011 the board of directors consisted of frank dangeard jim wilson tom virden gene davis and alexandra fichelson on january 21 2013 the four related companies atari atari interactive humongous and california us holdings filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in the united states bankruptcy court for the southern district of new york on june 22 2014 atari announced a new corporate strategy that would include a focus on new audiences specifically lgbt social casinos realmoney gambling and youtube on june 8 2017 a short teaser video was released promoting a new product on september 26 2017 atari sent out a press release about the new atari vcs which confirmed more details about the console it will run a linux operating system with full access to the underlying os but it will have a custom interface designed for the tv computer science portal video games portal history of video games golden age of arcade video games tengen company wikimedia commons has media related to atari atari official site former atari brands official global site the atari history museum atari historical archive site atari times supporting all atari consoles atari gaming headquarters atari historical archive site atari on film list of atari products in films the dot eaters classic video game history comprehensive history of videogames extensive info on atari offerings and history vteatari hardwarededicated video game consoles pong stunt cycle video pinball flashback series video game consoles vcs2600 2800 5200 7800 xegs lynx jaguar cd vcs 2019 personal computers 400800xlxe st mega ste tt030 atari transputer workstation falcon portable computers stacy st book portfoliopc folio cancelled prototypes game brain tank ii cosmos 2700 panther sierra other arcade games atari video music atari cx40 joystick authority control musicbrainz 42167b066645433eb7550146fc491d54 