Atari Teases New Gaming Console

Four years after it declared bankruptcy and decades after its wood paneled-gaming console first hit the market, Atari is working on a new gaming machine that might reignite its cult status.

The company suffered from mismanagement and faded into obscurity during the 1990s and early 2000s under the ownership of a French video game holding company. It's now profitable again, Atari CEO Fred Chesnais said in an interview with GamesBeat last week, and it is teasing a new product.

Details are extremely scarce—Chesnais says only that "We're back in the hardware business"—but he hinted that the new machine will be based on PC hardware.

A YouTube video posted earlier this month to a teaser website suggests that the new product will be called the AtariBox, and have wood paneling akin to the original Atari Video Computer System. But it leaves fans guessing as to the rest of the details, with little more than an offer to subscribe for email updates.

Atari's previous owner, French video game publisher Infogrames, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US in 2013. Realizing that its US subsidiaries, including Atari Inc., were the most viable parts of the company, it spun off those divisions with a skeleton staff of 10 people under Chesnais's leadership, according to VentureBeat. One of the restructured company's first moves saw it team up with FlowPlay to produce online casino games. It also released its own mobile games, like Roller Coaster Tycoon 4.

If Atari positions the AtariBox as a premium console with a combination of powerful hardware and retro styling, as the teaser video and Chesnais's comments suggest, it will be entering a crowded but lucrative market. Nintendo's retro console, the NES Classic, was almost constantly sold out during its limited run of less than a year beginning last fall. And Microsoft just unveiled its new Xbox One X, which could be the most powerful home game system yet, with a $599 price tag to match.

:story: PC Magazine