Is it time already? Atari, whatever that name really means, announced once again that it was struggling financially. You can set your watch according to how often this happens. Who would have thought that launching a dashboard no one wanted, while investing in crypto, would not be the path to wealth for a failing company with nothing but a brand name. ever respected?
Atari passed away in 1984. Since then, its cursed skin has been loosely and grudgingly wedged around by a series of companies, each of which have fallen into dire straits, only to be freed when it trick another company into wearing a rotting leather suit. Even the company’s version that released the Atari ST in the mid-’80s was the result of financial collapse, splits, rebranding, and partial ownership by multiple corporations. Its history of buying and selling is confusing, the name is owned by Namco, Warner, Mitsubishi, JTS Corp, WMS Industries, Hasbro Interactive and Infogrames. This ship of Theseus has been sinking for decades.
It is nearly impossible to identify the latest company posing as the vampire Atari, but it started with the rebranding of Infogrames, which was almost acquired by Namco Bandai, which at one point employed a total of 10 reported people. , before going through another bankruptcy. trying to be a casino games company, and recently, an embarrassing mess is the Atari VCS: a console that very few people seem to want. And then it discovered the cryptocurrency.
VCS (modern) is intended to be this classic favorite, a PC-based console made with the name you remember your father loved in the early 80s, styled to look like like it’s time travel from the Reagan years. Fundraising via IndieGoGo, the apparently ruined project somehow raked in over $3 million from backers, though this somewhat fell short of its deranged goal of $100 million. Then it finally launched in 2020, after many delays, just behind the PS5 and Xbox Series X, far behind both. Based on Financial report released this weekit…not going very well.
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Like Tom’s Hardware found that, semiannual earnings show that while 2021’s hardware equivalent revenue is $4.65 million, this year’s revenue is just $212,466. That’s a whopping 92 percent drop, and the report itself identified the problem as “poor VCS performance.”
As a result, whatever Atari really is at the moment, it says it spent the first half of the fiscal year on (breathing in) “reorganizing the Hardware business, including suspending relationships. direct hardware manufacturing, especially with regards to Atari VCS, a new commercial strategy has been in place since the end of calendar year 2022 and that will continue into calendar year 2023.” I hope no one has to read that sentence out loud.
However, Atari doesn’t give up on the panel no kid has ever written a letter to Santa. The report continued, “In parallel, Atari is looking at developing additional new hardware for the Atari VCS with licensing partners.” It also emphasizes to Tom’s Hardware that “Atari remains committed to the VCS platform,” explains that it has added support for developers, including many older games, and intends to “expand the VCS ecosystem and create more utilities for user.”
You know what else it’s left dedicated to? Bullshit Cryptocurrency! The report boldly states that “the first half of this phase is primarily focused on laying the groundwork for Atari X, including collaborations and partnerships with Web3 partners as well as NFT sales implementations succeeded, despite unfavorable market conditions for blockchain-related products. activities.”
To be Atari X like the Atari Token, the company’s 2020 no-nonsense cryptocurrency? I just couldn’t care less, but still found out that wasn’t the case. The company has launched the Token in partnership with the ICICB Group, an organization that has just been announced as done. This week’s report addresses “licensing agreements that never materialized” in relation to the ICICB, stating that all licensing agreements between the two parties “terminated on April 18, 2022”. ,” wiped 11 million euros ($11.6 million) from its accounting records. The section adds, “Atari has announced its intention to create a new token focused on gaming, community, and utility.”
If you’re wondering what ICICB is, so am I, and that’s after reading the company’s “About” page. I swear this is true and not fake I wrote:
Building on an overall strategy to create value from unifying teams and applying “choice and focus” tests to businesses and create synergy from integrating management functions With business management and innovative tools & technologies, the ICICB Group shows significant growth in the banking and financial sectors.
So, following the massive success of the Atari Token, Atari “reaffirms its commitment to the blockchain business” by launching the Atari X instead, adding that it also proves “The belief that blockchain can be a key element of Atari’s strategy and business.”
“Maybe”!
Like Eurogamer to add, all of this commitment and dedication has resulted in Atari reporting “liquidity shortfalls and additional financing requirements.” In other words, it needs more money. Unsurprisingly, with an overall loss of 5.4 million euros ($5.7 million), significantly worse than the year’s 3.5 million euros ($3.7 million) loss last.
We reached out to Atari to ask if it is still tied to the Atari Token and why it plans to continue investing in VCS after its apparent failure. We also asked if their hotel joint ventures with ICICB would continue after that split, because, yes, they are building hotels. We’ll update if we hear back.
With luck, 2023 will be the year when trying to nostalgic for the games of 40 years ago and investing in crypto will finally pay off for Atari!
