Atari's Attempt To Relaunch The VCS Has Just Hit Another Brick Wall

These crowdfunded retro revival consoles are so interesting to follow. From a safe distance.

Seriously who's going to spend so much money on that anyway? Do you want a Switch or one of the new next gen consoles? No I want a $250 console that plays some old Atari games and not even the good licensed ones either

Is Nintendolife disappointed or happy about this?

Yikes.

@Damo - I resent "very old"!

Atari is now a big disgrace to the gaming scene. Ever since the end of the 2600, it's been all downhill

So what's been announced in terms of games for this? Just old Atari games right? And I can easily get 150 of those games for Switch for just $40. What's the point in paying $250 for this?

How could a company be this dysfunctional?! Every leader of that company must be a blockhead for every single thing they try to do turn out this poorly.

This was a disaster from the jump. It was crystal clear during the initial campaign that it was going to end up here. I've been following this out morbid curiosity and every single step of the way has had blinking red lights that spell out SCAM. Hope those who gave their money aren't in dire need of it and that they learn from this.

And y'all thought I was crazy when I said this smelled like the Coleco Chameleon.

Ladies and gentlemen, we got vaporware'd!
Join us next time for everyone's other favorite console that might be emulation, might be FPGA, but will never come out regardless, the Polymega!

@StableInvadeel That is as true of a statement as one gets.

This is one of those projects where from the start I haven't been able to understand how anyone thought it was a good idea. Even a giant like Google or Amazon has its work cut out pushing into the video games business. The only way for a small company to sell hardware these days is to go for something cheap that people can buy on a whim. This seemed doomed from day 1.

@hitherehello I believe the term is "Schadenfreude"

I knew this console would be a disappointment, but to not even be released at all. Big Yikes

In name only? I guess. Atari does put out alot of plug n plays and retro systems.

No one saw this coming right? Hello.....anyone?

pre-polymega

This thing's always been a joke. If you want something like this, just pick up the Intellivision Amico. It's real and looks pretty cool. People have actually played one also.

At this point this is just the Coleco Chameleon 2.0 except under a different name. We still hadn't seen an actual working prototype with actual games.

I questioned the purpose of this thing from the moment it was announced, and I know I'm not the only one. It just never made sense, especially since my understanding was that it was always going to be a low-spec desktop Linux PC in a stylized case. It's a shame that the project looks to be failing like so many others, but this didn't seem like a good idea from day one.

Sounds like Paprium all over again, those thieving B******s still have my money which I will unlikely ever see again.

Today you need billions of dollars to launch a new game console. Atari simply doesn't have the money to do this which was obvious when they took the crowdfunding route. Why anyone would be dumb enough to pay $250 up front for the promise of a console is beyond me. This thing will never come out.

@gloom there are 3 people in the company and boss pays himself $1 million a year bunch conmen that bought the name

People seriously need to realize that making a dedicated video game console requires millions and millions of dollars and years of research and development worked on by a team of dedicated engineers. Trying to compete against the Big 3 with a low budget isn't feasible and incredibly expensive. Not to mention, you also need a reason to give game companies an incentive to develop on your platform. I mean, just look at the OUYA

Technically, "Sega" isn't "Sega" and hasn't been for a very long time either. Sammy bought them out ("Sega Sammy") years ago too...

@Prof_Yoshtonics Was going to say that the Amico team seems to have at least set expectations and time to market more realistically. ... never noticed before but amico is the middle of Famicom. huh.

I'm hopeful for it, but it was always going to be a bit of a hard sell. Would have liked to see this Atari incarnation as well, but it is looking pretty doomed if you can't make basic payments to the chief architect of the hardware. :/

Trouble from the beginning...

It's a storied brand so it's a shame to see it end this way. Microsoft should have bought them up for pennies and used the name instead of xbox.

I have no idea why people still support these crowdfunded consoles

After backing the Atari GameBand (which also never saw the light of day, or refunds for backers) I wisely avoided this. Honestly couldn't believe they had the gall to start another crowdfunding campaign, or that so many people fell for it. It turned me off crowdfunding altogether, and at least for that it was a worthwhile long-term investment.

This is another sinking ship...

I have a rusty, waterlogged legit 2600 demo unit in the basement. Still worth more than this!

@Toy_Link They announced not that long ago that they had the entire Atari catalog, plus the game service Antstream.

Well, they're certainly celebrating Atari's legacy with this... probably not in the ways people were hoping for.

Atari needs to stick with game developer/publisher beside creating a damn console, like Sega back in the 90s when they stop making consoles after the financial losses.

I honestly don't believe today's "big 3" console manufacturers have anything to worry about coming from company's who "retired" from the business in the 90's.
I mean, even if the VCS launch goes smoothly (when/if it ever happens) and if it is as powerful and as rich in content as the other 3, it'll still have a hard time competing. It's a highly recognizable brand for sure, but from that to actually gain momentum against the others better structured and solid business plans is not an easy feat to accomplish.

@Electric-Dreams

If i'm not mistaken they came close to doing something similar with Sega before they (MS) decided to go their own way about it.
But I agree with you that they could have done it with Atari instead.

These going right next to ET game?

Did Nintendo buy Atari? I wasn’t sure since this is supposedly a Nintendo site... 😑

How long will it take for Atari to die?

When the original Atari died, it was a sad day for videogames, but when Atari III dies, it will be a time for celebration, besides, it's just another company that bought the name of another and pretends its the same thing.

Smells like vaporware...

As a young boy growing up with Atari it was quite an exciting time for us “very old gamers” so this is disappointing but realistically, they just don’t have the money to get it out the door if they couldn’t even pay Wyatt. The guy has bills like everyone else. If i was the current owner of Atari, payment to Wyatt would’ve been a TOP priority even if it means i couldn’t pay myself for a month or two!! I mean He’s your main guy right?? Man I wish Bushnell never sold to Warner!!

Very old?
Kiddo, one day you too will be old. However no one is very old in their 50s, let's hope by then you learn subtraction.

@victordamazio I think brands are effectively immortal.

Maybe when "Atari III" dies and reincarnates again, we would finally get some games worth our time.

I am so glad I decided against pre-ordering the VCS at the last minute before pre-orders started.

Nintendo should buy the Atari brand.

LOL, missing payments? It's like the new Atari is a re-incarnation of the old Atari!

@StarmanSSP its not as Nintendo is a video game company or something.

I'm glad I saved my money for the intellivision amico. I do hope Atari comes out with something for the poor people who put there money down on the vcs. I do think that done right this system could have been cool but I guess that is not happening.

@StarmanSSP really? I like Nintendo a lot, but Im not such a fanboy that I'm not interested in nothing else...
Surely, this is mainly a Nintendo focused site, but some articles about other game video news are welcome.
You make my point by clicking on the article (even if only to make a pointless comment)