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[IFireflyl]

POV: you're the CEO of Atari. Your job is to bring the company back to the heights they reached in the 70s/80s. What do you do?​

 

[Havoc2049]

-Reaquire Atari Games and all their IP from WB Games, so you can get everything back under one roof. Create new games in the Rush, Area 51and Gauntlet series.

 

[Captain Toad]

Give up

 

[calistan]

I'd start with the Atari 50 compilation and built from there. I mean, that got them a lot of goodwill, to the point where I could almost consider them not to be just some shitty holding company / parasite trading off the name of a company that died 40 years ago.

As deep as Atari 50 was, they could easily go further with that. There's a lot of missing pieces to it, and I'd be happy to buy Atari 50 parts 2 and 3 if they included more of the Atari ST story, more about the Jaguar. There's surely an interesting story to be told by the Konix people, Jeff Minter, etc. Hell, rope in other vintage brands and include things like competitors that rose on the back of Atari's success. Midway, Williams, etc. They already bought a bunch of Stern stuff, right? Include pinball emulators too.

Back to the actual heights of the glory days though? Impossible.

 

[Northeastmonk]

Get loaded on beer and marijuana.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

You took my answer

Ditto

 

[TLZ]

Hire good Devs. Make good games. Maybe make modern games from their popular classic ones.

 

[Rudius]

This would probably doom the company and my career, but I would invest in new versions of classic games for VR.

Basically take the concept demonstrated below and copy it to the most famous IPs of the 70's and early 80's.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

As the CEO of Atari, my goal would be to revive the company's legacy and bring it back to the heights it reached in the 70s and 80s. To achieve this, I would focus on the following strategies:

1. Revive classic games: Atari has a rich legacy of classic games that are still loved by fans today. I would focus on reviving these classic games by remastering them with modern graphics and gameplay mechanics. Additionally, I would work on developing new iterations of classic games that could appeal to a wider audience.
2. Expand into new markets: Atari was primarily known for arcade and console games in the past. However, the gaming industry has evolved significantly since then, and there are now numerous new markets to explore. I would explore opportunities in mobile gaming, virtual reality, and augmented reality to expand Atari's reach.
3. Focus on quality: Atari's reputation was built on the quality of its games. To bring the company back to its former glory, I would prioritize quality over quantity. This means investing in talented game designers and developers and ensuring that each game released is of the highest quality possible.
4. Engage with the community: Atari has a dedicated fan base that has kept the company's legacy alive for decades. I would work to engage with this community through social media, events, and other initiatives to build a stronger relationship with them. This would help to ensure that Atari's future games resonate with its core audience.
5. Collaborate with other companies: The gaming industry is highly collaborative, with many companies partnering to develop new games and technologies. I would explore partnerships with other companies in the gaming industry to leverage their expertise and expand Atari's reach.

Overall, my strategy would be to honor Atari's legacy while also embracing the future of gaming. By focusing on quality, engaging with the community, and exploring new markets, I believe that Atari can once again become a leading player in the gaming industry.

This would be a rousing speech for the Atari employees…in the year 1985. Gimme my Mega ST!

 

[nush]

I'd go right back to basics. Pull all the Atari licensing, retro consoles, T-shirts and publishing with the Atari name. Then focus on a barcade brand.

Then if successful, it would be a good barcade brand and then make custom arcade hardware for that barcade with Atari sensibilities and then make a competitive game league thing that you had to play on those arcade cabs in those barcades. Exclusive hardware, exclusive games. After that, port those titles to home.

 

[Daniel Thomas MacInnes]

make lots of new good games.
real games, not some pong or space invaders reboot garbage.

and get a restraining order against whoever thought this was a good idea:

That’s funny, my imaginary Atari revival involves bringing back the Jaguar. Hah!

Realistically, there isn’t much the current Atari owners could do that the last two owners (Hasbro and Infogrames, respectively) hadn’t already done before. The new Atari 50 compilation is excellent, and does show an awareness of other Atari platforms beyond the 2600.

If I ran the circus, I’d promote that back catalog much more, especially the 8-bit and ST computers. Much depends on what assets Atari still owns, as many IPs were sold off after the last bankruptcy.

One thing I would do: join forces with Atari Age and release digital versions of all the homebrew games on all the Atari consoles. Really, the greatest 2600 videogames of all time are the indie titles on the Atari Age store.

Another thing I would definitely do: Atari Lynx Mini. This would be a compact handheld, the same size as a smartphone but retaining the original 3.5” screen size. Include as many of the original Lynx games in the hardware, as well as indie & homebrew titles. Either use a modern variation on real hardware or emulation, but only use the latter if coders could successfully run Roadblasters & Shadow o/t Beast.

Put it all together and sell for $99. Maybe include an art book and maybe the official 1995 cheat codes book.

 

[GermanZepp]

I would start bringing some atari games to mobile and steam with a nice retro package deal and maybe launch a new mobile game from a old franchise there. I would start publishing/distributing games (the vibe Sega does) expand until be able to make a AA indie and keep groing.

 

[DryvBy]

Remaster E.T. and the CE has a garbage bag.

 

[Tams]

Bury everything in the desert.

 

[Henry Panic]

Infogranes S.A. renamed the company after originally using the Atari brand for publishing Atari S.A. because they had nothing else to make money with.

The only time we will see Atari returned to relevance is if a competent company gets the brand rights.

Unfortunately that won't happen until the company itself closes and is forced to sell it's assets.

Luckily, we may not have to wait that long for that to happen. Infogrames S.A. sold their pride and joy Alone in the dark because they were almost about to run out of money and wanted to fund the VCS (2022) computer 'game console' you can install Linux on. It flopped.

I imagine these recent anniversary collections are a last effort to stay alive. This may be the last year for French Macrons Atari before bankruptcy.

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

Imagine being the CEO of Atari. Atari's dead, buried, irrelevant, no one cares about them these days besides retro gamers talking about the 2600.

How would you bring them back into the mainstream? Would you create a new console? Make new IPs/games? Capitalize on boomer nostalgia? what... do you do?

I would invest in collections for the classics(specially arcades) but with a really good and secure (algorithm verifiable) leaderboard... I would also promote this leaderboard and try to bring back the hype of "fighting for the highest score".

Those collections would also have dozens of quality of life, like fast boot(save where you left), cool CRT/arcade shaders, easy modes, achievements etc...

After that I would invest in publishing some reboots/remakes of the same classics but with modern graphics and upgraded mechanics just like some indies have done In the past.

I would promote everything as the "Back to the Arcade era" and if everything worked sponsor some lan championships like they did in the 80/90s

 

[Madserb2023]

Don't make hardware would be the first move and the second would be to buy a competent studio and a relatively successful IP like Tomb Raider and start there. Atari will never be like they were but they could become a big publisher like Ubisoft.

 

[polybius80]

sell NFT's images of atari games

 

[fart town usa]

Buy Nightdive studios and get the rights to remake/remaster Realms of the Haunting.