It’s every Gen Xer’s childhood dream come true: Atari just inked a $600k licensing deal with real-estate developer True North Studio and strategy agency GSD Group to build 8 Atari-branded hotels. The first will break ground in Phoenix later this year.
Amenities will include:
The company sees the Atari hotel as a primo destination for families as well as business travelers, which… yeah, OK.
After 3 decades of lackluster performance, Atari’s most recent half-year earnings showed a 16% year-over-year gross profit gain. Atari’s bottom line could get a boost if the hotels are successful, as it will take a 5% cut of hotel revenues.
But the company has been struggling elsewhere. Its systems could never compete with offerings from Nintendo, Xbox, and PlayStation, and in 2013 it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
A successful Indiegogo fundraising campaign in 2018 indicated that plenty of nostalgic gamers would be interested in a retro console called the Atari VCS, but the company failed to meet its delivery deadlines.
The console’s lead architect claimed last year that he hadn’t seen a paycheck in 6+ months.
Atari won’t be responsible for hotel operations, but it’s worth noting that similar concepts — the arcade-based theme park DisneyQuest and the Nickelodeon Hotel, for example — didn’t last long.