It’s not often that any video game company gets to turn 50

In no sense is this company 50 years old. Atari was cleaved in half by Warner 40 years ago. One half was purchased and used for branding, right before the new parent company also went out of business… five separate times. The other half did quite well in arcades until those stopped existing. The absolute latest you could say “Atari” lasted was 2003, when Midway Games West ceased operations.

Even the modern company calling itself Atari, formerly Infogrames, has been in and out of bankruptcy, and no longer owns most of the IPs either brand was known for. This company is that shambling wreck.

This brand is such an L factory that their bold new direction is re-releasing the machine that came in third place behind the NES, basically unmodified, and pretending it’s downright archaic 1970s hardware that was brought low by the technical demands of Pac-Man.

And it’s honestly a good idea.

I’m excited to see how it goes. More companies should do it. But acting like this is a victory lap for a titan of industry is a punchline in itself.