Time-Warner & Atari--Boys Back in Town (Nov.07,1993)










From: Atari SIG (xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)

Date: 02/20/94-01:16:40 AM Z









From: xx004@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Atari SIG)
Subject: Time-Warner & Atari--Boys Back in Town (Nov.07,1993)
Date: Sun Feb 20 01:16:40 1994


 |||   Andreas' Den
 |||   By: Andreas Barbiero
/ | \  Delphi: ABARBIERO   GEnie: AEO.2
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//// Assault on the Computer Monarchs:
//// Will Atari Find a Place in the Shuffle?

...

//// Time-Warner and Atari - The Boys are Back in Town??

As was previously released, Atari has obtained the rights to
Time-Warner Entertainment's library of copyrighted multimedia clips,
which should allow the Jaguar, and possibly the Falcon to have some
amazing games and interactive entertainment. But we all know the aims
of Atari - its the aims of Time-Warner that is interesting to me.
Time-Warner has stated previously that within 5 years they expect to
have full interactive systems rolled out via fiber optics including
full motion video, on demand movies, and interactive videogames.

Now, what is needed for this is not just the entertainment titles
(which they have) and the cable lines (which they have) or the future
fiber optics (which they are getting through relationships with
telephone companies) but the hardware that will allow a user to easily
control all the options he is faced with. Typically a home computer
would be the thing to use, but by the vast majority of people who own
things like a VCR and cable TV, don't own a computer. Computers, are
not appliances yet, and for the average person who doesn't want to
learn anything more complicated than how to use a phone or a VCR, the
implementation of a computer into the interactive entertainment
market will scare people away.

Videogame consoles, on the other hand are more appealing, as they have
been in homes for years, and a console sophisticated enough to perform
the tasks of a interactive entertainment controller, will sell. This
is what the Jaguar will be perfect for. Considering that Time-Warner
still has a hand in Atari's stock, a strategic alliance could take
place, placing a Jaguar, or modified Jaguar, at the heart of
Time-Warner's system. For those of us who are more sophisticated, the
use of a full computer like the Falcon030, or any future 040 machine
to interface the possibilities of wide bandwidth fiberoptics will
afford a wealth of options only glimpsed at with the meanderings of
cyberspace writers.









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