Phil Elliott
08:00 (BST)
14/04/2008

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Gardner to consider ditching Infogrames name

David Gardner has told GamesIndustry.biz that he will consider losing the Infogrames name in favour of a full transition to the better-known, further-reaching Atari brand.

"I'd like to consider that, I think that would be the final mark of the transformation from Infogrames to Atari," said the company's CEO. "We have a new board of directors, a new management team that's less than a year old - so yes, it's really continuing.

"We like to think of Infogrames, instead of being the tired, old company, we like to think of it as the best-funded, best-branded, most energetic start-up in the history of computer gaming."

And president, Phil Harrison, added: "We are absolutely a start-up, we're just a start-up with 25 years of history."

Harrison also talked about how he and Gardner had spoken about forming a company previously, and why the Infogrames job persuaded him to leave one of the top jobs at Sony Computer Entertainment.

"We had a very interesting series of dreams, of discussions, about if we were to create a company, what kind of company would it be, and what direction would it be headed in," he said. "We got quite a long way down that path, and then, out of leftfield, this opportunity came along.

"When we were evaluating it, we thought about what we would want from a successful company. You'd want people, products, you'd want revenue and cashflow. You'd want some infrastructure, some offices around the world, and it'd be great to have a brand that was a global brand.

"And I tell you, that was the hardest thing when I was trying to brainstorm this, when I was trying to come up with a brand that we could use worldwide - every time I came up with a new name for a games company, I'd Google it and find that somebody had already taken it.

"So when we were looking at what we'd need to create a successful company, and then we evaluated what Infogrames has, it ticked all the boxes."

The full interview with David Gardner and Phil Harrison is available now.