Atari is engaged in so many bizarre business practices at the moment that it’s hard to think of tit as a game company anymore.
Back in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, Atari made games. They continued to make games in the ‘90s and early 2000s with titles like Roller Coaster Tycoon and Neverwinter Nights. Now they make some games, but they mostly license out their brand to make online casinos, hotels, and bizarre versions of Pong that got crossed with an RPG.
What the heck happened, Atari?
Since the mid-2000s, Atari had been losing a ton of money with every passing year. In 2013, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and emerged six months later with a total staff of 10 people and a renewed focus on seeking "new audiences.”
Just who are those audiences, you ask? Let’s check in with Atari and find out.
Atari VCS
The first new audience is more reclaiming the old one. The Atari VCS is a mini-console jam-packed with classic Atari titles and ships with an honest-to-God joystick. How quaint.
Unfortunately, it is also mired in controversy. After receiving over $4.5 million in crowdfunding on IndieGoGo, development hit snags in late 2019. Originally intended to launch in December of that year, Atari pushed back the release of the VCS to March, and then again to April after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down factories in China.
On top of that, the lead architect for the program left in October after Atari apparently failed to pay his salary. He’s now suing Atari for unpaid wages, which Atari says it's paid in full. This doesn’t bode well for a fully-functional Atari console set to arrive next month.
Pong Quest
Seeking brand new audiences to get hooked on Pong, Atari is recreating the classic first-ever video game in an action RPG format. Sort of. You still play Pong, but your paddle is actually a character that you can dress up in little costumes.
You can also swap out the regular ball for one of 50 variations that drastically change the way Pong is played, causing the ball to bounce strangely or make buzzsaws appear on the field.
Pong Quest is coming out for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch later this year, but you gotta believe there's a mobile version in the works too. Something like this is just screaming for microtransactions.
Atari World
The Sandbox is a blockchain-based game world that's one part Minecraft, one part Roblox, and one part Ready Player One. It's a digital game space where everything a creator makes is stored in a blockchain with the owner given exclusive rights to their creation. This means that you can make games in The Sandbox and monetize them as you see fit.
The word "blockchain" should be enough to drive a healthy amount of skepticism, but Atari has decided to dive in head-first. They've purchased a parcel of digital landscape in The Sandbox to turn into Atari World, a digital playground where you can go to play Atari games.
We’re not 100% certain that this sounds like a sound investment. Which leads us too…
Atari Hotels
Yes, you read that right. Atari wants to make a chain of hotels across America, with the first one breaking ground in Phoenix, Arizona later this spring (hopefully--coronavirus has a way of upending plans these days). Atari has partnered with GSD Group and real estate developer True North Studio to make Atari-themed hotels in Las Vegas, Denger, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose.
The big draw will be state of the art virtual and augmented reality arcades along with game-themed rooms and accommodations. There will also be spaces for e-sports and private gaming events, and the side of the building will even have a projection of Donkey Kong.
Atari Crypto Casino
Last but not least, Atari is getting into online gambling. Not only that, Atari is once again getting in bed with blockchains and letting gamblers use cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The casino will have classic games of chance like blackjack, roulette, and slots, as well as Atari Special games where players can essentially wager on the outcome of a competitive version of Pong (or Asteroids or Centipede or whatever).
Don’t have any Bitcoins? That’s fine: you can buy Atari Tokens, which are like Bitcoins, but worthless outside of Atari’s virtual casino.
Don't forget Atari's mobile endeavors, such as Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch and the upcoming Missile Command: Recharged. You might consider those scams too depending on how you feel about microtransactions.