BMK BMK The Bitmap Kid Presents... ----------------------------- Rant! -------- Today, I'll be boring you with a letter and some updates on Atari.... 1 - Atari letter. "I am sick to death of the fools who think they know everything there is to know about Atari and their business. 'It is time they launched an aggressive ad campaign' [so said a STF reader] - Rubbish! If Atari were to waste valuable amounts of money on a product that wouldn't make a massive amount of money ANYWAY, how are they going to support the REAL money maker, the Jaguar, in the long OR short term? They can't - it's impossible! If Atari were the richest company in the world, sure they would have the STE at œ150, sure they would invest a cool œ4 million in TV ads costing œ25,000 a slot and œ100,000+++ to produce for it and launch the STE-only software, but Atari can't at the moment. Atari are taking a big chance with this Jaguar, if they don't support it and struggle on with the ST or Falcon ranges then they may sell a few more ST or Falcon units - but will they be better off in the long run? No, they are worse because the ST will continue to slide down the drain (although still strong it will never be at the top again) and there won't be an ST Format for short sighted-fools like Mark Brill [another STF reader] to attempt to kill the ST market - it would be dead already. However, if Atari put everything they have got into the Jaguar (as they are), which is the true money maker (putting the ST and Falcon to one side for a short time), then are they better off in the long run when the Jaguar takes off? YES! YES! YES! As for Mark Harold [yet another STF reader], Darryl Still wasn't trying to create a sob-story, you know, no, he was just trying to right a wrong, something that Atari should (and, in fact are) be doing more of. Thanks, Mark, you've done 15-year-olds a great deal of good - you've just shown the world why 15-year-olds don't have executive jobs, because most of you don't know a thing about business. You sound like a six-year-old stamping his foot in frustration! For once Atari plead for justice to be done, to right one of the many wrongs, and what happens? They are hanged by those who don't know a thing about what they are trying to talk about." An interesting letter there - wouldn't you agree? 2 - Atari Update. Several issues ago I seemed to have started an argument about Atari and the Falcon. I know some didn't agree with what I said, but I was trying to put the balance right in a factual way. Here, I'll report on how Atari, in general, have been doing. As I had predicted when I first saw the Jaguar taking off, Atari have put the Falcon to one side for a while, this means that they have also put aside any real macho marketing of it and its consumer version, in contradiction as what I originally reported when the first version was released. I am not worried about this, recently the Falcon sales have hit an all-time high, and I can only put this down to the success of Atari's strong musical deals. True, at the moment the Falcon isn't a household name, and probably never will be that (it was never intended to be), but I will say that while things have only been going from strength to strength for Atari with a great Jaguar success, 3DO and Commodore have gone in the opposite direction, and hand on heart I'm not over the top here. With Commodore's CD-32 failure, the underwhelming sales of the 1200 and massive losses each year, an independent group of software companies voted that Commodore would be "totally gone" within five years, and with no real technical achievements on the horizon, I tend to agree. At the same time, the PC market has grown a lot, especially in the games area. Although still only a tiny fraction of the games market the PC continues to grow. Everything is not roses, however. Independent techie people are predicting the PC boom will probably end this or next year. Whether this means the market will fall out (which is very unlikely) or simply level out for a while (more likely) I do not know, but I do see the games market continue to grow from Amiga people. The 3DO really has been as exciting as I had predicted - not at all. For at time it has done well, but the only thing that is keeping it alive is its support, and even though support is important, it is very far from everything. The Jaguar however, as I said, has gone in the other direction, support, as you will see in my Jaguar article, is massive and sales are excellent too. All in all this is one Bitmap Kid who is very happy. Other competition to the Jaguar has all been non-threatening, all more competitors to the 16-bits than the untouchable Jaguar. All, that is except for one that may be on an even ground with the Jaguar, although even as I say that it will arrive no sooner than 1995, when the Jaguar will be very strong indeed with VR and the Jaguar 2 planned for around that time. All in all, I don't mind saying I was pretty much right all along....! BMK BMK @~I must add a comment here - I can't see the PC boom ending this @~or next year. Prices are dropping, products improving, new @~advances being made all the time. CD-ROM still hasn't really got @~going so there's a lot of scope in that direction too. Every @~issue several readers move from the ST (and occasionally Amiga) @~to the PC due to the wealth of adventure/RPG-related software @~available for it ... Sue - o -