Alone in the Dark confirmed for May 2008

Atari Chairman and Chief executive Officer Patrick Leleu has revealed what many have suspected for some time now: Alone in the Dark has been delayed, although only until May 2008.

“I have made a decision to release the new “Alone in the Dark” opus in May,” Leleu told French newspaper Les Echos. “Its development is nearing completion but some scenes in this fully immersive game deserve to be more polished and we will not take any shortcuts.”

The May date only applies to the Xbox 360, PC, Wii and PS2 versions though, with the PS3 version presumably set for release at a later date.

Leleu also discussed plans for Infogrames/Atari moving forward, which include regular releases of best sellers Alone in the Dark, Test Drive and Dungeons and Dragons.

“We are scheduling regular releases for those best sellers, but we will not position ourselves exclusively on this segment aimed at experienced gamers, which requires larger investments, where competition from majors is increasingly fierce and where development cycles are getting longer, actually too long for us. Still, Alone in the Dark will be a major release. But the company’s survival does not hinge on the success of that game, although we do hope it sells millions of copies,” he said.

In addition to the big budget titles the company is also looking to increase its investment “in games aimed at the mass market made up of consumers who were introduced to gaming on the DS and Wii”.

There are also plans to launch an Atari.com portal on which a series of specially developed games for playing online or downloading will be made available.

Interview is copyright © Les Echos 2008.