Mobile is the new arcade, and that's the reason Atari is gunning for it.

The French-US company has been going through a transition; moving from a retail products business to one with a growing digital focus.

And as part of that, it's building up its mobile experience, hiring Giancarlo Mori (previous chief creative officer at Glu Mobile) as its executive VP of product development.

It also recently appointed Olivier Rameil from Gameloft as its European sales and marketing director.

"Mobile isn't optional any more. We need to make Atari's brand relevant in the mobile space," Mori says of his brief.

"In terms of its ease of use and fun, mobile is the new arcade."

Resetting the sails

Of course, this change won't happen overnight.

Atari's currently the US distributor for Frogster's PC MMOG Tera, while its next big retail release is console game Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends.

"The challenge is to transition the entire organisation," Mori points out.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, he expects Atari will crack out its own internal development teams.

"It's difficult to plan your pipeline relying on external development," he says.

"When the timing's right, we'll have internal development, especially for our key franchises and IP."

Green shoots

And there are already some encouraging signs that the company's heading in the right direction.

Atari's had over 10 million iOS and Android downloads of titles such as Atari's Greatest Hits, Asteroids: Gunner and Breakout: Boost in less than 12 months.

Its Pong Indie Developer Challenge contest got 87 submissions from studios with ideas about reinventing the classic game for the mobile generation. 20 are going forward to the next stage of the competition.

"When you have strong, existing IP, you need to be careful how you use it," Mori says.

"Nostalgia and innovation is a fine line to walk."

Rip it up, start again

However, he's adamant that Atari can't and won't coast on past glories.

"Innovation and new IP built Atari," he argues. "We need to establish ourselves as a company with new IP or we're irrelevant."

Of course, the landscape now is very different to the 1970s and 1980s. Social-mobile and free-to-play is the environment in which Atari has to flourish.

"Apart from some obvious exceptions, there are very few watercooler games [on mobile] at the moment," Mori ponders.

"We need to focus on personal experience and social connections. That's what made Atari games addictive."