Atari occupy a bit of a funny spot in the annals of gaming history. While they’re often credited with giving rise to the traditional home console experience we know-and-alternately-love-and-hate today – and rightly so, as their Atari 2600 system revolutionised the industry – they also absolutely, utterly, royally buggered everything. For a good few years.
Ever heard of the term ’80s video game crash’ while mooching around the internet? Sure you have. Well, that was them. See, so successful was the 2600 that Atari, in their cash-infused hubris, effectively ceased any kind of quality control on the kinds of games being released for the system. If a dev could slap it on a cartridge, they’d license it and sell it. This resulted in a myriad of godawful games (including the infamous E.T. movie tie-in) flooding a market which was already bursting at the seams with consumer choice by this point, causing folks to dismiss the console as naught more than a shovelware factory and shattering any remaining public interest in the medium. Just like that, gaming was not en vogue; it was out of vogue. Poof. Gone. As quickly as it had descended in the first place.
Of course, that’s not the end of the story. A certain company backed by a red-capped leakfixer from Brooklyn would happen along before the turn of the 90s to set things back on course, but Atari themselves never really hit that level of success again. There were a few feeble stabs from them throughout that decade, like the Jaguar and the Lynx (someone on that team must really have liked cats) but by then, it was a two-sided war. You were either Nintendo or you were SEGA. No room for outliers.
Hence, Atari’s systems and many other such competitors got totally marmalised on the sidelines; and hey, you can read all about that sort of thing in my feature, ‘The 90s Consoles that Time Forgot’, in our new physical magazine, available now! Plug. Shill. Plug, plug, shill.
Flash forward to the present day, and full credit to ’em; Atari are still alive and kicking, with a decent number of IPs under their belt and a brand name few would deny carries some serious swagger in this nostalgia-addicted demographic. In fact, 2022 marks their 50th year of operation, and to celebrate the occasion, they’ve only gone and changed their logo! Gutsy move, lads. Check it out below.
GamesPress reports on the change, and includes a quotation on the matter from Atari CEO Wade Rosen. “On behalf of the entire Atari team, I’m proud to unveil this commemorative logo and launch the celebration of our 50th anniversary,” he said. “Atari has an exciting year ahead, filled with new and commemorative products that will delight our fans; including the launch of new premium game titles, new business initiatives, and several really exciting lifestyle product collaborations.”
These products include “a 50th Anniversary Games Collection in 2022 that includes remasters of seminal Atari classics along with supplemental content that explores the origins of the titles and their impact on the videogame industry,” as well as a variety of – doubtlessly expensive – knickknacks like t-shirts and mugs. Something tells me Steven Spielberg won’t be rushing out to buy one.
Either way, happy 50th, Atari! Thanks for everything! And also, thanks for everything (!)
Are you impressed with the logo? Any Atari memories? Let us know!
Via, GamesPress.
