Atari reported in their most recent earnings report that sales of VCS consoles and cartridges dropped “from €2.3M to €0.2M, primarily resulting from cartridge activity and underperformance by the VCS,” a significant decrease from the first half of the year. In 2017, Atari unveiled its updated video game console, the Atari VCS (also known as the Ataribox). Despite raising over $3 million on Indiegogo in June 2018, the project’s delivery date was pushed back to December 2020. After several iterations on hardware and software, the final product emulated the appearance of an Atari 2600 while actually running a modified version of Debian Linux on an AMD Raven Ridge APU. Even though the Atari VCS 800 began shipping to early backers only two years ago, it appears to have already died a quick death. According to Atari’s latest financial results, “the suspension of direct hardware manufacturing relationships, particularly with regards to the Atari VCS, for which a new commercial strategy has been implemented as of the end of calendar year 2022.” -Atari The report also suggests Atari will implement “a new commercial strategy for VCS” and launch “a complementary hardware strategy via partnerships and under licensing agreements,” so it’s not like they’re completely abandoning hardware. This means that we may eventually see joysticks, controllers, and other add-ons for the VCS made by companies other than Sony and Nintendo. Alternatively, Atari could sell licenses to other companies to use the Atari brand on their own game consoles. In the meantime, they intend to keep releasing new “premium games” that use Atari’s IP as well as to make a profit off of that IP through “new NFT initiatives” and other blockchain-related projects.
