The Gamasutra article on Phil Harrison's move from Sony to Infogrames is here. Now, what exactly is happening here? Earlier in the year, the parent company of decaying Atari picked up David Gardner, an EA veteran (since '83!), to head up their publishing dept. and revamp their corporate vision, which until now might have been: "Bail the water out of this sinking ship". Indeed, Driver and Stuntman are gone, and what else is there? Not knowing the full history of either exec, I do know that both of them made their respective companies A BUNCH OF MONEY and that is exactly what Infogrames needs. I liken these events to a stock market scenario; when things are looking as poor as they possibly could be, that is the time to buy, and here we have two high-power execs doing just that. Will it be enough? I can only speculate just how financially ruined Infogrames is right now; probably the situation is grim but they are armed with some pretty big licenses, some of which are perennial failures in the marketplace and others that do OK:
-Dungeons and Dragons
-DragonBall Z
-Deer Hunter
-Dora the Explorer
-The Matrix
-Neverwinter Nights
-Rollercoaster Tycoon
As I read through these, I don't find a single killer app, but what's important is that within each target demographic these licenses represent there is room for a killer app. Dungeons and Dragons games have ever played fiscal second fiddle to, well, any other RPG title on the market; why? Why with such a rich base of lore and history does a license like this fail to sell? Improper handling. Why doesn't every member of the NRA own a copy of any one of the Deer Hunter titles? Mishandling. The Matrix games were awful. Neverwinter Nights? Eaten part and parcel by WoW. Rollercoaster Tycoon: why so little RTS/god game innovation? With any luck, Harrison will breathe a little life into all of these flagging franchises and maybe bring a few new prize horses into the stable.
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