Last year, Phil Harrison made quite a ruckus when he severed ties with SCEI as their president, and then jumping on board Atari's team, via parent company Infogrames,  to serve as President. Today, however, we receive word that he will be stepping down from the position, and will assume instead a non-executive Director role.

When contractual obligations are not carried out according to stipulations agreed to by both parties, you can expect an ugly lawsuit to come next. What more if the agreement is not carried out at all? 3D Realms is about to find out the answer to that scenario as Take-Two Interactive files suit against what's left of the developer company for failing to deliver Duke Nukem Forever, via its parent company, Apogee.

Two years ago, Atari Europe was fortunately in the safe zone, despite the mother company's grim and disheartening financial report of Q2 2007. Back then, the problem was isolated only to the US offices, and the Atari branch was said to be unharmed by the restructuring overseas. Today, however, Atari Europe is no more, now having been officially acquired by Namco Bandai.

Cryptic Studios, independent developer for games like Star Trek Online and Champions Online, will soon be officially acquired by Atari's parent company, Infogrames Entertainment, this according to a press release sent out today.

The end of physical media is nigh! That's according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he's "pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product" in the future - that's counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes... Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? "Err, daddy what's a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?"

It looks like Namco Bandai's presence in Europe and the rest of Asia is set to expand as the company has picked up a 34% stake in Infogrames' European and Asian distribution operations. In other words, Namco Bandai and Infogrames have teamed up to distribute Namco Bandai games in Europe and Asia. Learn more about this partnership after the jump!

Phil Harrison, Infogrames' new top boss, was never secretive over his plans to cater games to the new broader market. Alone in the Dark (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox 360) will probably be the last major mainstream title queued up in Atari's arsenal if this was true. Thankfully it's not - well not in entirety. Atari will still be catering to hardcore, but not in the same respects as before. Go to the full story for more.

Atari has been sufficiently warned by NASDAQ as early as March to raise its stock value. Atari didn't, even with the completed merger with Infogrames. Thus, Atari is now delisted. What are its implication? Details over at the full article.

Finally, the marriage is complete. After asking for a deadline extension, Atari has finally accepted Infogrames' proposal last March for a merger - to the tune of US$ 11 million. More details after the jump.

Wondering just who the unlucky suitor was that got shot down by SCi Entertainment? Then wonder no more, as it seems the jilted lover pretty much came up and admitted to it. Who is it, you ask? Infogrames, the guys who brought us the Alone in the Dark series. Check out just what could have gone wrong in this deal at the full article, and why Infogrames thinks they could've been perfect for one another.