Atari is attempting a return to the console market

[Jedi]

http://nerdist.com/atari-making-new-console-over-20-years/

No this isn't April, but this sounds like a mistake to go into the console market right now when its dominated, and that PC is such a good gaming option as well.

Quote

Atari is one of the key companies in the history of video games, and one of the initial giants in the console industry. Atari is arguably responsible for both the rise and fall of video games in the ’70s and ’80s. Atari has never entirely gone away; however, the company hasn’t released a new console in 24 years. But at E3, Atari indicated that a new console is finally on the horizon.

Via Mashable, Atari announced that the upcoming console will be called Atari Box, and its exterior looks a lot like the classic Atari consoles, including the wooden finish. The exact details of the Atari Box have not yet been announced, but presumably it will be powerful enough to carve out a place for itself in a landscape that includes Xbox One, Playstation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Jedi

[TheGreatNothing]

I don't have high hopes for the console. It is coming out way too late to compete with the ps4 and xbox 1.

I mean, Nintendo was at least smart enough to market the switch as a handheld. 

 

[Locke087]

More competition is never a bad thing so I sincerely wish Atari good luck... they are going to need it because this is going to be one a heck of an uphill battle. That said this is probably going to go the way the OUYA (remember that thing few people do). IE. Some people will get excited about more competition in the industry and then everyone forgets about it.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Locke087

[Jedi]

7 minutes ago, Locke087 said:

More competition is never a bad thing so I sincerely wish Atari good luck... they are going to need it because this is going to be one a heck of an uphill battle. That said this is probably going to go the way the OUYA (remember that thing few people do). IE. Some people will get excited about more competition in the industry and then everyone forgets about it.

If they can pull this into a miracle I will be incredibly impressed and I do hope they can pull something haha.

[EricaofRenais]

I can't picture Atari having the line up that would make people buy this new console, but I wish them luck.

[Thane]

Doesn't Atari have a recent history of making some very subpar games? Even if they were to release a new console, would it even have anything of value? I'm not trying to sound harsh, I'm genuinely curious.

[Locke087]

23 minutes ago, Jedi said:

If they can pull this into a miracle I will be incredibly impressed and I do hope they can pull something haha.

As would I. I'd love to be proven wrong and that they can be successful. If for no other reason then Extreme G can exist again

18 minutes ago, Thane said:

Doesn't Atari have a recent history of making some very subpar games? Even if they were to release a new console, would it even have anything of value? I'm not trying to sound harsh, I'm genuinely curious.

They haven't published anything of merit since I think the PS2 & Gamecube generation.  

If they are actually serious then yes they would have the fire all the current game studios or alternatively better fund them if they simply just give them a zero budget because whoever's making games there now is either completely incompetent or is given zero budget. If they want to actually stand a chance they're going to have to pour billions (which I doubt they will) into funding games and making more studios for exclusives. 

On a less serious note I can't wait to see the hard-core serious reboot of Pitfall and Adventure. On a more serious note if we can get another Extreme G game i'll be happy as a clam.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Locke087

[Tolvir]

I dont see this going anywhere. As far as I know Atari has no exclusives to speak of, nor do I think they can create any to gain any steam. That is the biggest thing they would need to break into the market, its the entire reason Nintendo was able to make it with the Switch. Nintendo has iconic characters to throw around in games that people know and love.

Atari doesnt have anything. And even if they did have a few exclusives to announce, they have nothing to go off of. All the exclusives for the other consoles either have previous games in the series which were reliable (Uncharted, Gears of War, Super Mario, Zelda, etc.), or have a reputable developer controlling the project (Bloodborne for example had the Dark Souls team working on it). Atari doesnt have much, if anything at all.

Without exclusives they have no draw to their system. Why would someone pay for the Atari system to play something like FF15 or the new Dynasty Warriors that is already on other systems, and this is even if they can get a good bit of 3rd party developers to jump on board. Unfortunately for them they will be lucky if they get something like Koei Tecmo or Atlus, let alone big names in gaming like Bethesda, Square Enix, etc. And that is even if their system can handle these games, which I doubt it could run something like FF15 or Dark Souls 3.

Without exclusives to speak of, and likely no big name 3rd part support, this system is dead in the water before it even hits the market. They are going to have to rely on some crazy gimmick to make it, and I do not see what that could be.

[Tuvy]

Maybe the new Atari will have E.T. HD Remake

[Interdimensional Observer]

26 minutes ago, Tuvy said:

Maybe the new Atari will have E.T. HD Remake

They are making a Bubsy sequel, so the only way for gamers to be thrown into even greater disbelief of terror and awfulness would be remakes of E.T. and Superman 64.

[Azure Sen]

This is going to be an abject failure, just like most of Atari's recent ventures. Call me cynical, but Atari has given me no reason to consider them anything more than a relic of the past that doesn't know when to stop and couldn't design a paper airplane, let alone a video game console that can compete with the mainstays. As an aside, I'm not even sure why Atari still exists in today's video game industry. They have repeatedly proven themselves to be incompetent and unable to keep up with the times even when they're blatantly copycatting modern trends, they tanked the reputation of the Alone in the Dark franchise through sheer, dogged incompetence, and they've been bought and sold so many times I'm surprised they haven't ended up another trophy in EA's monument to all the dev studios they've destroyed.

As for the Bubsy sequel...did anyone really want a Bubsy sequel in 2017?

[Anacybele]

I don't have high hopes for this since Atari destroyed Roller Coaster Tycoon (The people that originally made the series left Atari, and I was excited about RCT World at first, but then pretty much everyone said it was horrible and that Planet Coaster, another amusement park game made by the same people who used to make RCT games for Atari, is way better. It's just too bad that my damn laptop can't run it...), but I do wish them luck. I wouldn't mind seeing them become successful again.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Anacybele

[Elincia]

I guess if they can get a decent amount of 3rd party devs on board with them, they may do alright.

I wish them luck, but it's going to be pretty difficult for them to compete with Sony and Microsoft this late in the generation.

[Randoman]

I truly wish them all the best, though I do wonder what strategies and plans they have for their new console, especially in terms of standing out from the other consoles on the market.

Is it bad that I'm hoping for Cybermorph and Attack of the Mutant Penguin sequels on their new console? I mean, "Where did you learn... to fly...?"  and the confusing penguin explanations must live on!!

[Thane]

8 hours ago, AzureSen said:

As for the Bubsy sequel...did anyone really want a Bubsy sequel in 2017?

Memers.

[Iridium]

I would love to see more serious competition in the current console market, as it's becoming abundantly clear that it's sorely needed. Unfortunately I do not see Atari/Infogrames as capable of being this competition without an absolutely incredible partner backing them -- something like Amazon, Apple, so forth. And if such a company were to get involved with the current market, I have doubts that they would be doing so out of love and kindness.

Basically it's either going to fail or they'll hit a one-in-a-million chance where we may end up wishing it had. It's a shame, since Atari actually has some nice IPs -- but considering how poorly they've treated even their more marketable ones recently, the thought of reviving them doesn't fill me with confidence.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Iridium

[Slumber]

It'd be nice to have another option outside of the same 3 companies we've had these last 16 years, but Atari hasn't even really had a place in the console landscape since before the NES came out. They're also not a mega-huge corporation like Microsoft, the last company to make a dent on the console market, so I do not see anything good coming out of this.

So yeah. Unless they have some huge bombshell of an announcement that makes an Atari Box appealing, this will probably be the the last we ever hear from Atari. Making a modern console is expensive. I don't even know how they have the capital for R&D for this kind of thing if they aren't putting everything they have and them some towards it.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Slumber

[DragonLord]

Weren't they on the brink of financial ruin? What makes them think they can afford to make consoles again? Curious, maybe I'm wrong I dunno.

[Etrurian emperor]

Uh....well good luck with it Atari. I think you're gonna need it. They'd be lucky if they do as ''well'' as the Ouya. 

[BakanGin]

My entire class of computer science had this topic yesterday, we all agree they have little chance. Or rather that their gonna bate on reminiscing.

[Sentacotus]

Wouldn't it be funny if this thing whatever it tuns out to be ends up being a bombshell surpassing everything else and putting Atari on top?  It would be the greatest comeback story of all time...if it had a change in hell of happening that is.  Though anything is possible I guess especially when you have Shia Labeouf saying so...

 

 

[The Baroness of Blainswal]

There's no way this thing will be any sort of competitor to the Xbox One PS4 or even the Switch. I think it's more likely to be something similar to the NES Classic, and even then Atari's track record hasn't exactly been glowing for the past 25+ years so I don't know if they can do that very well either.

[Zera]

56 minutes ago, The Baroness of Blainswal said:

There's no way this thing will be any sort of competitor to the Xbox One PS4 or even the Switch. I think it's more likely to be something similar to the NES Classic, and even then Atari's track record hasn't exactly been glowing for the past 25+ years so I don't know if they can do that very well either.

I haven't been in the loop about Atari, so could you explain "Atari's track record for the past 25+ years"?

[The Baroness of Blainswal]

3 hours ago, Zera said:

I haven't been in the loop about Atari, so could you explain "Atari's track record for the past 25+ years"?

From the mid 80's to the 90's Atari tried to remain relevant in the console market by occasionally making a new system, but ultimately failing at drawing people in. The most famous  being the Atari Jaguar, which had advertised itself as the only "64 bit" console of it's time (this is technically true), and featured a library of mostly forgettable games with a few competent ones. After the console flopped, Atari dropped out of the market and since then has acted as a publisher and licence holder for it's IPs. Many games with Atari's name attached to them since then have ranged from mediocre to outright terrible.

Admittedly, this isn't the whole story so if your interested in hearing more there are plenty of articles on the internet that will probably explain the situation a lot better than I can!