Whatever Happened To Atari?
Atari pioneered the home video gaming industry in the 1970s with their 2600 console, which brought (at the time) state-of-the-art games like "Space Invaders," "Pole Position," the "Pac-Man" series, and "Donkey Kong" to living rooms across the world. Atari was founded earlier that decade in California by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, and its first product was the arcade game "Computer Space."
The success of that game gave the company the capital to develop its breakout hit "Pong" but a lack of business savvy almost sunk Atari before it got off the ground; the company failed to secure a patent for "Pong" before its release and when the game saw immediate success a host of imitators followed. Atari quickly shifted its focus to developing new games, and the company hired Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as part of that effort before the pair left to found Apple. Jobs and Wozniak developed "Breakout" for Atari in the middle of the decade, just before Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications.
The funds from the sale were used to develop the 2600 console, which sold nearly 400,000 units in its first year and saw another big boost when Atari licensed the development of games to third-party companies. By the early '80s, the rest of the home game console and computing industry had caught and surpassed Atari, however. And when Warner decided to sell Atari off in 1984, there weren't many interested buyers.
Atari was splintered into several divisions and sold in pieces
The company was split into gaming and home computing divisions at that point. Commodore founder Jack Tramiel bought the home computing division of Atari, but his efforts to revive the brand with the 5200 and 7800 gaming consoles fell short. In 1998, Hasbro bought the gaming side of Atari for only $5 million, but just two years later, the French software company Infogrames purchased Atari's gaming-related intellectual property from Hasbro along with the Atari Games division.
From there, the tale of Atari Games became a decade-plus-long litany of lawsuits, rebrandings, and other legal actions culminating in a bankruptcy filing in a New York court in 2013. In 2017, Atari announced that it would be developing a new gaming system for the first time in decades. The crowdfunded console was dubbed the VCS, and after a series of production delays, the Linux-based system with retro styling that paid tribute to the original 2600 console was finally released in December 2020.
Atari has a new CEO and a new direction
In April 2021, Wade Rosen took over as Atari's CEO, promising to provide the company with a new focus. In a statement on the company's website, Rosen said he is looking to his company's storied past to help find a path to a successful future: "The legacy of Atari — especially the early history of video games — is the history of Atari. The way we consume games, the way we play games, is really because of Atari... it transcended video games and is now part of our cultural ethos."
One product Rosen will be counting on to help bring back Atari's halcyon days is the 2600+ console, available for preorder at Atari.com with a projected shipping date of November 2023 and a retail price of $129.99. The console ships with a classic style joystick and 10-game cartridge featuring the following titles: "Adventure," "Combat," "Dodge 'Em," "Haunted House," "Maze Craze," "Missile Command," "RealSports Volleyball," "Surround," "Video Pinball," and "Yars' Revenge." The console will also play vintage 2600 and 7800 cartridges and has an HDMI output for easy connection to modern TVs and monitors.