Atari's games systems after the VG crash and post warner ownership

carmel_andrews · July 18, 2009

how would have the atari games systems had faired post the vg crash and post warners ownership, if the new owners had invested some faith and confidence in atari's existing tech/R&D and product lines (less computers)

This includes not dropping the 7800 initally and updating the 2600 (possibly adding more memory for better gfx and also high mem. cap for better games and instead of keeping with the 5200, just add the 5200 hardware in the 2600 and update that to xl/xe standard and add a keyboard)

Whilst i accept that atari were losing some marketshare, they still had a significant share of the market, also you have to take into account that more 3rd party software houses where coming thru and people were still bending over backwards to writing software on the atari platform(s)

OK, so atari would have had to contend with nintendo...now think about the following scenario, if atari's new owners had stuck with atari's existing tech/R&D and products etc and also kept on track with the 7800 release schedule somehow, and got even more companies developing games for the 2600 (even to the point of updating the 2600 internally giving it more memory for better gfx and migher mem cap. for better games etc)

Would nintendo have been as successful in its new york test marketing (remembering that nintendo were basing this testmarketing as part of their decision whether to launch their console in the US)...I would thing that atari, along with the likes of coleco and inty, would have hurt nintendo's testmarketing somewhat, i accept that it would'nt have been a total disaster but i don't think it would have been as successful as it was, as there would have been a market for 2600 users to upgrade to either an updated 2600 or a 7800, therefore bypassing the nintendo and new consumer's would probably have gone either with atari/coleco or inty as new users probably would'nt want to waste their money on a games system that might not make it to the US

And remembering that atari's new owners, unlike the previous management had the confidence of taking atari's name and technology outside it's core market (the US) any launch of nintendo hardware would have been muted by the likes of atari, coleco etc and nintendo would probably have been scaping with sega for the stragglers

Or consider another possibly....OK so atari's new owners wasn't interested in existing atari/tech, R&D and product lines, well consider the situation that warners and atari's new owners work out an arrangement where atari's existing technology/R&D and product lines are combined into one company, atari's new owners and warners agree to allow the new company (via a tramiel/warners appointed new management team) using the atari name/distibution and production channels etc and allow atari's new owners to use the same channels so they can go off and concentrate on the ST etc, keep with the existing plans for the 7800/2600 etc in regards to marketing, release shedules etc, again, would the nes test marketing in new york been anywhere as successful as it was...again i would have to say that the competition would have hurt nintendo some, as nintendo would still have had the same problem of new users not wanting to spend money on a system that might not even reach the states (at least initially)

Now even if either scenario happened, i accept that nintendo will have eventually (say 18/24 mounths down the line) got their hardware in the US market either directly or via a tie up (sega or nec possibly), however this would have given atari the vital breathing space to start developing new atari console platforms to counter whatever nintendo were going to come up with and get it into the marketplace

Edited July 18, 2009 by carmel_andrews