Author: 0 (0)
Date: -0
I sure you've all heard by now, that hasbro interactive have got their 'dirty' mits on our beloved Atari- and for what, a paltry 5 million dollars, and what are they doing with it... nothing, after all what's the point of having an acquisition like Atari and turning it into little more then a software company, after all could you imagine IBM turning to manufacturing cosmetics, or sega manufacturing detergents, or sony corporation doing jeans and haute couture, no I didn't think so- so my question is what the bloody hell is Hasbro playing at, obviously they don't know much about Atari's past, because if they did, then they would have kept well away from software publishing, as the last two occasions Atari tried (without much success)to get into the software industry, only eventually led to Atari being sold or bought out
I also seem to remember a hasbro employee saying on their (hasbro/Atari's)website that with the acquisition of Atari, they are looking to recapture past glories (when was the last time Atari was ever successfull with s/w, as a hardware manufacturer- and past glories, what planet is Hasbro living on, it most certainly ISN'T planet earth) they also said that they are counting on the support of existing Atari owners and users... Do me a favour hasbro, why should we support you, when your producing s/w not for Atari format, but for competing formats, ie 4 sega, nintendo,sony etc... It's a big like Nestle asking it's retail outlets to stock or give shelf space over to Mars, or Versace to start selling Armani or Gucci, exactly who are Hasbro trying to insult, Atari- a software manuf.. I don't see the accountants at Eidos or EA or Activison losing much sleep, To put it another way, perhaps hasbro should start manufacturing shoes, telephones, clothes and then parhaps their see what i mean
It's not as if there isn't a market for Atari hardware, afterall according to the majority of Atari commentators, there is supposed to be between 30-40million users/owners of Atari h/w out there, plus on top of that you have Atari users who have since moved on to PC/Mac/Amiga, Sega Sony etc... If this market isn't big enough i don't know what is
Also what about Hasbro's existing infrastructure, manufacturing, distribution networks, marketing- Hasbro already has this, after all If hasbro can make a marketing success out of a well know brand of girl's doll, just imagine with what they could do with Atari- their litterally sitting on a goldmine, and yet they're doing sod all with it, Also as hasbro have constantly claimed they they are by and large the world leading supplier and producer/manuf. of toys and games w/w, you can only acheive this if you have extensive distribution and retail networks
Also at the end of the day where's the difference between manufCTURING TOYS/GAMES and computers, very little actually, apart from component supply, you are still running at the same cost levels, to put it another way, for hasbro to mnanufacture and market and distribute a new line of kiddies toys/games will cost between 5 and 10 times the investment, as it would to get Atari back into manufacuring
And not forgetting that there's very little difference between marketing a new line of kiddies toys/games to a toy/game shop, and marketing Atari to computer shops and dealers, after all it will take a lot longer to get the new line of kiddies toys/games accfepted by the retail trade and the buying public, as it would do to get Atari accepted in the same fashion
Also it's not as if Hasbro need to do much in Advertising Atari, after all if you search on the internet for Atari related sites, through engines like lycos, yahoo, msn, excite or altavista etc, you are litteraly bombarded with virtually 100's of 1000's of Atari sites, and look at all that free advertising, after all if jesus christ can do it with christianity, why cant hasbro do it with Atari
All i need to ask Hasbro is, if you want the support of Atari users, then you must earn it, and you certainly will not earn it by insulting Atari users by producing Atari software on competing formats, if you want the support from Atari owners, then I suggest that you produce Atari versions of the s/w beforehand, and for you to be able to do that, you have to be prepared to invest in your acqusition of Atari, and that is by producing new innovative h/w in the way only Atari know how, therefore you will gain new users for your software
If hasbro don't intend doing anything with Atari, beyond software for competing formats (and insulting the intelligence of Atari users), My suggestion to hasbro is put your'e money where your mouth is, or sell Atari to SOMEONE who will do something positive with it (at least more positive than what hasbros current actions suggest
TO ALL ATARI USERS
The only way that we will get Hasbro to start doing something positive with our beloved Atari is if anyone responding to this message, is please email a facsimile of this to hasbro interactive, and hopefully if enough of us do it, their server will crash, and perhaps then hasbro will get the message, get off their Ass and do something positive with atari
Yours Atarily
Carmel A
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