Atari issued a press release earlier this month stating that that are in the process of a workforce reduction of approximately 20%:

Atari Announces General and Administrative Overhead Action Plan
– Reduction of approximately 20% of the total workforce –

NEW YORK, May 1, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR), an interactive entertainment company, today announced a reorganization of its general and administrative functions.

The reorganization plan reduces Atari’s total workforce by approximately 20%, which includes a reduction of administrative workforce of approximately 26%. This plan was approved by the Board of Directors on April 10, 2007 and communication to employees was completed on April 30, 2007. The Company anticipates the workforce reductions to be completed by July 31, 2007 and will record a restructuring charge during fiscal 2008 of approximately $0.8 million to $1.1 million.

“We expect that today’s reorganization will continue to reduce Atari’s general and administrative cost,” stated David Pierce, President and Chief Executive Office of Atari, Inc. “These actions, though difficult, are a significant first step in reorganizing Atari and demonstrate our commitment to restoring shareholder value.”

About Atari, Inc.

New York-based Atari, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATAR) develops interactive games for all platforms and is a third-party publisher of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company’s 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre- defining franchises such as Test Drive(R); and mass-market and children’s franchises such Dragon Ball Z(R). Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext – ISIN: FR-0000052573), an interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit http://www.atari.com.

This probably won’t affect much in the way of Dragon Ball stuff… that is, of course, until the company finally falls apart. They have not exactly been putting out the greatest figures the last few months/years, and not too many press releases are all that favorable if you actually read into them. Ah, well. Such is the way of “enhancing shareholder value” in this fantastic capitalist world.

The next game in the “Sparking!” series of Dragon Ball fighting games is heading to the PS2 and Wii, officially announced for Japan thus far later this year (no concrete date has been set, but if the past two games/years are any indication, look for it in the fall before the holiday season for sure). This one will be entitled “Sparking! METEOR”, sure to yet-again incorrectly be known as “Budokai Tenkaichi 3” when it hits North America.

A few images are starting to trickle out of the latest “V-Jump”, but it would appear some of the new characters include Nail, King Vegeta, and King Cold. The game is shooting for around 150 characters in total.

Let me begin by saying that things in the video game industry can — and do — change at any time.

With that out of the way, let us take a look back at this time last year. We first heard about “Sparking! NEO” around this time, and if history continues to repeat itself, it would make sense to hear about this year’s big game(s) relatively soon. If the little birdies’ songs are correct, expect to hear something about the franchise’s next foray onto the Nintendo Wii in that same “soon” category… and do not expect it to be another typical fighting game.

It looks like France is getting a pretty sweet deal with a great release of the movies! Over on our forum, sangofe has detailed a bunch of information regarding the two-volume release — which seemingly features “remastered” versions — of all of the Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Z movies and TV specials (excluding, unfortunately, the 10th anniversary movie), a special book, cards, and more. This beast is due out on 27 June 2007 for a little under 70€ featuring the French and Japanese language tracks (along with French subtitles). It is available for purchase over at Amazon France.

If you check out Z-Store, you will see that FUNimation now actually has not only their own listings for the first two Spanish DVD volumes, but now also has cover art for the two discs. Be sure to take a closer look, comparing them with the canceled “Ultimate Uncut Edition” covers:

We still have absolutely no official word from FUNimation, but it would appear they are going back and re-releasing the “Ultimate Uncut Edition” DVDs from the beginning as Spanish-only (this would be the same Mexican dub that the actual “Ultimate Uncut Edition” DVDs featured until their cancellation).

What we do know is that volume two is indeed supposed to be “El Plan de Piccolo” (not “El Pan”), and FUNimation has a price for the two discs around $9, themselves (Volume 1 / Volume 2). Sadly, according to a thread over on the official FUNimation forum these discs will be using the “remastered” footage with Spanish-only and English subtitles. Apparently they already started releasing these down in Mexico. As always, we will keep you up-to-date on anything else we are able to dig up.

Thanks to Lavender Saiyan on the forum for keeping up on this.

According to Anime News Network & Oricon the three Dragon Ball DVDs that came out this month are kicking ass and taking names over in Japan, taking the numbers 2, 4, & 6 spots on the charts.