Atari has today announced its results for the fiscal 2004 third quarter and for the nine months ended December 31, 2003. The company's revenue figures are all down from last year, but according to the most recent NPD Funworld data, the company finished the last calendar year ranked as the number four independent games publisher compared to number five in 2002.

　　Atari's net revenues for the third quarter ended December 31 were $174.4 million for publishing and $16.2 million for distribution. Those figures are down from $179.8 million and $30.8 million respectively for the same period a year ago. Net revenues for the nine-month period ended December 31 were down from $371.7 million to $355 million for publishing, and from $77.9 million to $47.5 million compared to the same period in 2002.

　　"This was a challenging quarter for us, as some of our titles met our expectations while others fell short. Some of our holiday lineup did not achieve the same success as titles from our Dragon Ball Z franchise or new franchises such as Beyblade and Yu Yu Hakusho, but successful sales are not confined to the holiday season," said Bruno Bonnell, chairman and CEO of Atari. "In the coming months, we have a release slate that we believe possesses the high-quality entertainment consumers demand. Unreal 2: The Awakening and Unreal Tournament 2004, coming this month and in March respectively, are the two latest installments in a franchise that has sold more than 4.5 million units to date. Transformers, which we will release exclusively for the PS2 in May, should fulfill the wishes of every fan who has longed for a game worthy of this great brand. And, in June, we'll release Driver 3, which has already been described as 'a stellar game' and 'bigger and more beautiful than ever before' by the media."

　　For the fiscal year ending March 31 Atari anticipates a full-year net revenue of between $460 million and $470 million.