Sat, May 24, 2008 | 20:00 BST
Harrison: Atari’s done with one-player gaming
Speaking to Gamasutra, Atari games boss Phil Harrison has admitted that Alone in the Dark may well be the final “core” game Atari makes.
“I don’t see that we’re going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future,” he said.
“Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t have ambition to do really incredible games that have high quality, high execution, and high innovation, but they won’t be one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end games.”
We’re interviewing Phil later today. Anything you want us to ask him?
12 
Posted in: Action, Atari, Casual, Trade
Tags: Alone in the Dark, Phil Harrison
12 comments
#1
G1GAHURTZ
23/05/08, 11:23 am
I told you, didn’t I…
Single player games are old hat.
#2
Blerk
23/05/08, 11:25 am
Does he shave or wax?
#3
Killerbee
23/05/08, 11:37 am
That statement just seems so narrow-minded. Yes, multi-player and “sandbox” gaming is increasingly popular, but I do think the majority of gamers still go for that “one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end” experience. Sure, Halo 3 and GTA IV (the two biggest games of recent memory) offer a lot more beyond that, but at their heart they’re still both traditional one-player games with a story to play through and finish.
Unless Atari is going to become a studio that concentrates on MMOs, sports/racers or arena/tournament-style FPS games, I really don’t see where they’re going.
Kind of ironic that Phil should say this when Alone in the Dark is pretty much the only Atari title that has any sort of buzz around it at the moment. You’d think they’d want to capitalize on that (potential) success.
#4
Miserable Bastard
23/05/08, 12:04 pm
Is Atari jumping on the Wii Fit bandwagon as well then?
#5
fj
23/05/08, 12:12 pm
How is he going to stop American kids calling everyone fags?
#6
Psychotext
23/05/08, 12:25 pm
Automated wanker detection should do the trick.
#7
patlike
23/05/08, 12:28 pm
haha. I’ll definitely ask him about the fag thing.
#8
EdwardTivrusky
23/05/08, 1:10 pm
That’ll be the last Atari game i buy then. Co-op is fine but i don’t want it in every game! I like to do things on my own at times, get immersed in a game without having to deal with other people.
Maybe i’m strange.
*shrugs*
#9
Blerk
23/05/08, 1:31 pm
Adding multi-player doesn’t necessarily mean taking out single-player, Phil!
#10
Blerk
23/05/08, 1:32 pm
Oh yeah, ask him about the PS3 version, Pat.
#11
scratchy69
23/05/08, 2:38 pm
Blimey, somebody tell Squenix, quick. Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Quest IX are going to be total disasters what with their outdated single-player only gameplay.
What a berk.
#12
Blerk
23/05/08, 2:53 pm
To be fair, he didn’t say those games were “over”, just that Atari wouldn’t be doing them any more. And given the fact that Atari’s output over the last couple of years has been pretty nasty, that’s not really very surprising.
I suspect they’ve finally realised that they don’t have the clout to go head to head with EA and Activision and have instead decided to take on someone a bit easier. Like… er… Nintendo. Oh.