Atari Box ?

Richard Kain

Richard Kain

CAGiversary!
The Atari Box

?

What is this?

Seriously, what even is this? What's going on here? I'm very confused, but my curiosity is firing on all cylinders. This is a highly effective teaser, but I'm flummoxed by the possibilities.

Okay, a quick synopsis. Atari, whatever form that company now exists in, has made a teaser video announcing some unknown manner of box. They're calling it the Ataribox. (not the most original title, but I can roll with it) As of right now, we just a have a teaser video that gives us next to no relevant information. I'd be willing to swear that whatever it is, all we are seeing is a concept rendering, and not any sort of actual, physical product. That said, the video is reasonably well produced, and outside news sources have confirmed that the web-page and teaser video are not a hoax.

Supposedly, Atari is working on this product with an outside partner. (so they are likely not doing the hardware development themselves) But they have not identified which company that partner is. They also claim that this product has been in development "for years." (so it is likely at a fairly advanced stage of development, and not in the prototype phase)

But they have quite conspicuously failed to share WHAT THE PRODUCT EVEN IS! Is it a home console? We don't know. Is it some manner of media or streaming box? We don't know. Is it some legacy box for playing old Atari games, but perhaps with slightly higher production values? We don't know. Is it some manner of FPGA-powered hybrid console like the RetroUSB AVS or the Analogue Mini NT? We have no idea!

Speculation will likely be rampant until they decide to actually reveal what they're doing here. What could they be up to? My imagination is running wild.

 
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Whatever it ends up being, it will fail miserably despite being made fairly well...because it's Atari and that's what they do.

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Kerig said:
Whatever it ends up being, it will fail miserably despite being made fairly well...because it's Atari and that's what they do.
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Well, that's a bit of an over-simplification. The Atari of today is not the same company of yesteryear. Not by a long shot. They've been bought out, passed around, re-formed, and now have no real direct connection to their roots aside from their name and whatever IPs they have a hold of. So you can't really use their past behavior or success as a metric in this case. In recent years they've mainly just been licensing their name out to various retro-themed products, but haven't made any serious projects themselves. This is the first product of any significance to come from modern Atari. As such it is an entirely unknown quantity. There's no way to predict what it will be, or how it will fare.

This is what intrigues me. This thing could be anything. It could be an Atari-themed smoothie-maker, we don't know. The general thrust of the teaser is that it is some manner of video-game related box, but that's all we have to go on, and even that could be a red-herring. Maybe it's an on-line service. Maybe it's a Christmas ornament. (with light-up Atari logo) Maybe it's an Atari-themed Nintendo Switch game-holder. (literally a box) All we really have to go on at the moment is "Atari" and "Box."

 
Well, I'm intrigued. I sent them an email to their jobs link talking about my industry background from Nintendo NES to internet start-ups and also some VR mainstreaming ideas.

 
Uhwhatusay said:
Cant wait hopefully its better than the x and ps4 lets see what a classic consol come back can do
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You may be disappointed. The chances of this project being anywhere on a similar level of the PS4 and Xbox One is very slim. Atari hasn't been a big enough name in the video game industry to warrant the kind of investment needed to be punching in the same weight class as Sony and Microsoft. They only hope they would have to break into that market is with a highly disruptive product. And Nintendo is already doing that a little bit with the Switch, so there would even be competition from that quarter. Atari attempting to make a rival console would almost certainly crash and burn quickly.

Personally, I'm expecting something a bit more niche. Likely it will have something to do with Atari's past legacy in the video game industry, and draw on nostalgia to some extent. I would also expect it to be slightly more premium in its production values, and with a price to match. Atari can't afford to subsidize this thing. Whatever they make, they have to sell the hardware itself at a profit. At that point, you either make the product really cheap to produce, which can lead to an under-powered platform that looks and feels cheap. Or you go the premium route, and just swallow the sticker shock. Given the fact that they went with a teaser instead of a marketing-push media blowout, I'm thinking the latter option makes more sense. They likely won't be spending big on the marketing, which means a smaller expected initial roll-out, which means they likely will be prepared to not sell very many units quickly.

 
If the NES mini is any indication, this system could be a runaway success. Of course Atari doesn't have the same hardware track record as Nintendo, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised with a blast to the past box.
 
NES Mini but the Atari version. Load a ton of games on that charge 50-100 bucks give it the classic look and controller like Nintendo did. Nintendo could pretty much print money if they keep going down that path. My guess is Atari is trying to get some of that money before Nintendo over saturates the market. 

I really don't see anyone being able to enter the console market outside of the big three at this point. 

 
DSBrad said:
NES Mini but the Atari version. Load a ton of games on that charge 50-100 bucks give it the classic look and controller like Nintendo did. Nintendo could pretty much print money if they keep going down that path. My guess is Atari is trying to get some of that money before Nintendo over saturates the market.

I really don't see anyone being able to enter the console market outside of the big three at this point.
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Am I the only one that would LOVE a dedicated retro handheld from Nintendo that only plays NES and SNES games? I imagine something like the Gameboy Micro in terms of styling but with a larger screen. They wouldn't be able to take my money fast enough. Of course the Switch might also fill this purpose once the Virtual Console is up and running, but I like the idea of a portable SNES in 2017.

 
And if you don't mind ponying up for an Analogue NT Mini, you're basically covered for any legacy system before the 16-bit era. The custom firmware for the NT Mini allows you to play ROMs off of a SD card, and it provides support for pretty much every home console that it has the hardware to handle. Thanks to the nature of its hardware-emulation approach to legacy systems, you basically get the most accurate representation of those systems possible, even when playing off of the SD card. So technically, the best legacy Atari system that money can buy already exists.

 
Atari have been my childhood play box, in fact the first one before nintendo. Let's see what coming, pretty interested! :)

 
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