Infogrames

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Infogrames Entertainment SA
Type	Public
Founded	June 1983
Headquarters	Lyon, France
Key people	Bruno Bonnell, Chairman, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer Thomas Schmider, Chief Operating Officer
Industry	Software & Programming
Products	Alone in the Dark Unreal Tournament North & South Civilization RollerCoaster Tycoon
Revenue	EUR 701 million (2004)
Website	www.infogrames.com

Infogrames Entertainment SA (IESA) is an international holding company headquartered in Villeurbanne, Lyon, France. It owns controlling interest in Atari, Inc., headquartered in New York, N.Y., USA, and Atari Europe. It was founded in 1983 by Bruno Bonnell and Christophe Sapet using the benefits from an introductory computer book. Through its subsidiaries, Infogrames produces, publishes and distributes interactive games for all major video game consoles and computer game platforms.

The founders wanted to christen the company Zboub Système, but were dissuaded by their juridical consultant^[1]. They then, according to Bonnell in a TV interview, used a mix-and-match computer program to suggest other names, one of which was "Infogramme": a portmanteau of the French words "informatique" (information technology) and "programme" (a computer program). The final choice, "Infogrames", was a slightly modified version of that suggestion, and is pronounced [ˌɪnfo'græmz] in IPA pronunciation.

The company logo is an armadillo (tatou in French), chosen when the company was moved to Villeurbanne. Bonnell commented: "This dinosaur (sic) is our symbol. The armadillo always survives to the changes of his environment, from the thawing of the ices, to the worst of the heat waves."^[1]

Infogrames, Inc. was also the name of the official North American subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA. It was founded in 1993 as GT Interactive, and purchased in 1999 by Infogrames. In 2001, Infogrames, Inc. purchased and absorbed Hasbro Interactive, which encompassed MicroProse, Atari and Game.com. In October 2001, Infogrames announced that it was "reinventing" the Atari brand with the launch of three new games. On May 7, 2003, Infogrames officially reorganized its US subsidiary as a separate entity known as Atari, Inc.. It named its European operations to Atari Europe, and kept the main holdings company as Infogrames Entertainment.

In late 1980s Infogrames was noted for its French computer games that featured often original game ideas and occasionally humorous content. They had acquired several licences for popular Franco-Belgian comics, such as Tintin, Asterix and Les Tuniques Bleues. Since 1996 Infogrames/Atari has acquired many companies in the video games market. In addition to GT Interactive and Hasbro Interactive, they include: Ocean Software, Gremlin Interactive, Accolade, and Shiny Entertainment. However, on October 2, 2006, Shiny Entertainment was acquired by Foundation 9 Entertainment. ^[2]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b Author excerpt from Daniel Ichbiah, La saga des jeux vidéo. Vuibert. 2004. ISBN 2-7117-4825-1
^ Foundation 9 Acquires Shiny From Atari, GamaSutra, October 2, 2006

[edit] See also

Crystal Squid Indie game developer started by ex Infogrames employees.
Moonpod [1] Indie game developer started by ex Infogrames employees.
Sumo Digital [2] software development company started by ex Infogrames employees.
History of computer and video game companies