Atari exec gives Driv3r a kicking

By Games Industry.biz Published 11 August, 2006

'Half-baked', he says. Spotted.

Atari's sales and marketing VP, Nique Fajors, has slammed the third instalment in the publisher's Driver series - just weeks after the franchise was sold off to Ubisoft.

Speaking at Atari's annual press event in LA, Fajors described Driv3r as "a half-baked product that was pushed out the door for revenue reasons."

Driv3r met with a poor critical reaction when it was released for PS2 and Xbox in 2004, and failed to perform well despite a high profile marketing campaign. Series creator Martin Edmondson resigned from his position at developer Reflections in December of the same year, and later sued for unfair dismissal, eventually reaching a US$4 million settlement.

A fourth instalment in the series, Driver: Parallel Lines, was better received by the critics - but that didn't stop Atari from selling the franchise and most of Reflections' assets to Ubisoft in a deal worth 19 million Euro.

Fajors went on to state that Atari intends to focus more on quality control in the future, and is seeking to hire development staff who feel "disgust with losing and disgust with being mediocre."

He also revealed that Atari plans to re-release titles from its back catalogue via Xbox Live Arcade, and establish a new Atari Online community.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • oreillymj #1 6 years ago

    I'll have half my money back please.

  • Scientist #2 6 years ago

    "and is seeking to hire development staff who feel "disgust with losing and disgust with being mediocre.""
    Any such person would want to work for Atari???

    BTW, doesn't "Nique" means f*ck in French?

  • jaxon58 #3 6 years ago

    "a half-baked product that was pushed out the door for revenue reasons."

    And that's my experience of most Atari titles. Having worked for them years ago, they do this with most games.

  • repairmanjack #4 6 years ago

    "Atari" and "quality control". No. Don't belong in the same sentence.

  • Talha #5 6 years ago

    Good words, noble thoughts. Doesn't mean SHIT to anyone who wasted his/her money on Driv3r. The least he could do is not spout this apologist BS at this late stage, given how many people have actually paid for the game.

    And, to put it midly, history doesn't do any favours to Atari quality control in general, so why put the blame on one game?

  • ManicDrunkMonk #6 6 years ago

    The only quality control Atari can do is to simply shut down.

  • RMXtreme #7 6 years ago

    "a half-baked product that was pushed out the door for revenue reasons."

    Well thank you for pointing that out.

  • ManicDrunkMonk #8 6 years ago

    The worst thing about this is that it shows they weren't just being dim, they knowingly put out an unfinished game. Surely its time for some Americans to bring a class-action.

  • TripleSeven #9 6 years ago

    Law suits? It's your own fault however bought that game. There are plenty of options to avoid such mistakes.

  • coojam #10 6 years ago

    I really enjoyed Driv3r

  • Darren #11 6 years ago

    Oooooooooooooooo so the game was crap then if Atari said so!

  • chupachups #12 6 years ago

    "The worst thing about this is that it shows they weren't just being dim, they knowingly put out an unfinished game. Surely its time for some Americans to bring a class-action."

    You can't sue someone for boring you, otherwise Kevin Costner and David Duchovny would be in debtor's prison right now.

  • Darren #13 6 years ago

    "And that's my experience of most Atari titles. Having worked for them years ago, they do this with most games." - Jaxon58

    Damn... that's very bad news for Test Drive Unlimited then...

  • President_Weasel #14 6 years ago

    "Fajors went on to state that Atari intends to focus more on quality control in the future, and is seeking to hire development staff who feel "disgust with losing and disgust with being mediocre."

    I doubt the development staff were the problem. Maybe they should hire financial staff who realise that if you bundle half finished crap out the door for financial reasons you end up losing more money in the end, not to mention the last vestiges of your reputation.
    Then again maybe the fact that Atari are now selling off every asset that isnt nailed down in a desperate effort to keep afloat might have taught them that already.

  • Steroyd #15 6 years ago

    wow that was smart slam the game after you sold the rights.

    oh well with Ubi acquiring the Driver franchise and reflections they can only go up.

  • korky #16 6 years ago

    He must have checked his diary and seen "make a complete knob of myself in public" the day he spewed forth this garbage. Since when did developers under the thumb of a largish producer ever decide when to ship a game? It is knobs like him who foist this kind of garbage onto the public and rob them of their hard earned cash. Sitting in their "Middle Manager's Monthly Mediochrity Meeting" deciding the fate of games they don't understand or have barely played and kow-towing to the whims of marketing people who've already blown their marketing budget and need a release.

    Like the Guinness, I'm not bitter ;-)

  • Steve007 #17 6 years ago

    Just how did Driv3r score so highly in certain mags? Hmmmmmm!

    So who's going to buy Atari's 'Test Drive Unfinished'?

    Edited by 1 at 11/08/06 @ 13:58

  • kangarootoo #18 6 years ago

    Atari have a bit of a history of periodically saying odd stuff. I remember some head honcho over there suggesting that devs should be paid royalties based on review scores rather than sales. Of course that only works one way round, I can't see them paying royalties for a well received game that didn't sell.

    His reasoning was that a poor game could damage a good franchise, giving the example of the first Matrix game. Quite how he reasoned this against the Matrix films themselves harming the Matrix franchise by getting progressively worse (but selling regardless) I'm not sure.

    We all brain fart from time to time, and often as not we write it here. Knee jerk thoughts that just pop out before we have had a chance to think things through. It seems though that when you get to a very senior position you occasionally have one of these moments whilst pointing your gob at a journalist.

    Just like politicians, company execs are unfortunately normal people (as opposed to the wise prophets we hope they must be, given the power they wield) and everyso often they do or say something bloody ridiculous that they later regret. Case in point.

  • Cyhwuhx #19 6 years ago

    .::: E.T. would be proud.

  • Sko #20 6 years ago

    "wow that was smart slam the game after you sold the rights."

    Well, Ubisoft have the chance to turn the franchise around but Atari will always be the people who made Driver3. Still, this is fun, ain't it? All apologies until the next time they pull the same stunt.

  • Steroyd #21 6 years ago

    it's questionable if the game is worth a fiver.
    Edited by 1 at 11/08/06 @ 14:36

  • Kinkster #22 6 years ago

    So would you ever trust a man again who just said, "Hey we fucked you, but we wont anymore."?

    Also agree with the statement that says they are hiring "people who are disgusted with mediocrity". Surely an impossible task?

  • Eighthours #23 6 years ago

    That infamous Gamesradar thread should stand as a monument for all time. Shame it was purged as soon as possible.

    Fragments remain on Stu Campbell's site, mind.

  • fawe3 #24 6 years ago

    Driv3r was bad becouse Atari rushed it, if they would give developers more time it could be much better game. In the end they blame it on them cos they dont want to be blamed by shareholders becouse they spend huge on advertisement.

  • Steroyd #25 6 years ago

    @furby I remember the on foot sections being so cack.... i don't even wanna talk about it :(

    I swear they must have an after thought just as the game was being launched.

    Sorry so much problems with the game they'd have to pay ME a hefty sum to play it.

    /tries not to get drawn into a rant.

  • Skooch #26 6 years ago

    "Martin Edmondson resigned from his position at developer Reflections in December of the same year, and later sued for unfair dismissal"

    Huh?

  • Steroyd #27 6 years ago

    ROFL

    America - Where the lawsuits run rampant.

    I can't believe i didn't catch onto that.

  • Luigi #28 6 years ago

    Driv3r was in development for at least 2 and half years. Reflections had plenty of time to make a decent and playable game. Atari became so pissed that they just wanted to put the game out. Of course, it's not a very inteligent way of thinking. I think it was better NOT to release the game. They could have used the huge driv3r map and make some other game. Ubisoft had the same problem with Tomb Raider : AOD

  • smelly #29 6 years ago

    Right.. So he waits until they SELL it before slagging it off.. Sigh.. Typical fucking infogrames (oh sorry, "atari";)

  • ave #30 6 years ago

    @Skooch: perhaps he sued them for constructive dismissal(think thats the term) instead of unfair.

    @Atari: I used to respect Infogrames, they put out some of the best games in the late 90's and early 2000's, but they started turning shit shortly before the took over the Atari name.

    Anyone with a bit of cop-on has known Atari has been going the way of interplay for at least 2 years though.

  • Max_Powers #31 6 years ago

    "ROFL

    America - Where the lawsuits run rampant.

    I can't believe i didn't catch onto that."

    America? Atari is French and Reflections British. Still ROFL'ing?

  • urban #32 6 years ago

    atari are teh suck

  • azizur #33 6 years ago

    Just thought I'd say that I attended the Test Drive Unlimited playtest in London, and I thought that the game was pretty cool. Only reason I won't be buying it is that it looks rubbish on my TV (can't afford a high-def TV yet).

    And not all Atari games are bad - I loved Fahrenheit, though it was a bit ugly

  • Atari_Boy #34 6 years ago

    You can't wholly blame Atari for the mess that was Driv3r, Reflections had more than enough time but problems with Stuntman and woeful project management internally crippled the game. It's a shame because on paper it should have been amazing and the art work was fantastic, it's just once it was running on the console it look poor and played bad. Atari should have taken steps to remedy this early on in the development cycle.
    The comment about "...seeking to hire development staff who feel "disgust with losing and disgust with being mediocre..."" makes me laugh, most people who feel that way left a long time ago.

  • NegativeZero #35 6 years ago

    The Atari name is clearly cursed. It makes their execs slowly go insane, like mercury poisoning.