Jump to content
IGNORED

New Atari Console that Ataribox?


Goochman

Recommended Posts

I haven't heard one iota about the Battlezone remake from Activision in like 15-years. So.. yeh, no re-imaginings, no reboots, no remakes, no retro styling!

 

 

Atari lost Battlezone to someone else (or sold it off so they could pay their light bill). So whatever this box thing is, it won't have my favorite arcade game on it. :(

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Atari lost Battlezone to someone else (or sold it off so they could pay their light bill). So whatever this box thing is, it won't have my favorite arcade game on it. :(

Rebellion.

© 2015 - 2017 Rebellion. The Rebellion and Battlezone name and logo are trademarks of Rebellion and may be registered trademarks in certain countries. All rights reserved.[/size]

I wonder if they are open to licensing the original Atari IP.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmmm, I've been seeing a couple articles recently about Atari partnering with Tapjoy to provide them with advertisements​ for F2P players to watch in order to get in-game rewards. Gives me another guess... This won't be an entirely F2P console, will it? That's what Ouya's initial pitch was, but they ended up being unable to attract many F2P developers.

 

That might be what Bill meant when he said it's not targeted at us...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ridiculous. Ataribox will never ever outsell iPhone. And even more ridiculous - gamers don't need any more options! We don't even have time to fully enjoy what we have today.

 

Sounds like fullashit paid clickbait style article. I'm not gonna read it.

What about Chinese gamers that fairly recently were legally allowed to have more gaming options? This device could be only meant to target Western developers with the gamers targeted mostly being Chinese.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about Chinese gamers that fairly recently were legally allowed to have more gaming options?

That's only good for as long as the Chinese government decides to allow it. One legislative change and it's back to throwing people into the happy fun death van for playing Halo or whatever wasn't in favor that week.

 

This device could be only meant to target Western developers with the gamers targeted mostly being Chinese.

Doesn't make economic sense. Given the vagaries of selling into the Chinese economy from outside of it, development (and marketing / sales) would be best conducted entirely within China itself. Cuts down on the nonrecoverable costs associated with mass piracy of both the hardware and software.

Edited by x=usr(1536)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's only good for as long as the Chinese government decides to allow it. One legislative change and it's back to throwing people into the happy fun death van for playing Halo or whatever wasn't in favor that week.

But until then it is good.

 

Doesn't make economic sense. Given the vagaries of selling into the Chinese economy from outside of it, development (and marketing / sales) would be best conducted entirely within China itself. Cuts down on the nonrecoverable costs associated with mass piracy of both the hardware and software.

If the rumors are true then Nintendo teamed up with Nvidia are already trying to do it from outside.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I first learned of Ataribox on the 10th and got my cookie cutter developer response email from the Ataribox guys on June 12th. It is now the 20th. Been quite the few days.

 

I know Bill said that it being PC-based was all we need to know for now, but I still wanna know if development will be open and also exactly what type of games this thing plays, so I can distract myself from the forums by thinking about what I might program for this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Atari announces the Ataribox. It slices, dices, mashes, dashes, and... Has Netflix. And Amazon Video. And Pandora. And <insert other video / audio streaming services here>.

 

When I can look at my desk and see four devices (laptop, TV, phone, and tablet) in just that one location that all support each of those services, none of those services are a value-add for the Ataribox.

 

Granted, those are my circumstances and others' may (and almost certainly will) vary. But in an era where even a $149 TV can do all of these things, that's really not enough to sustain a standalone device in the marketplace.

 

Software is what sells hardware. The Ataribox needs software, and it needs to be software that can't be found elsewhere. It also needs launch titles that compel purchase of the hardware in order to drive software (physical or downloadable) sales. Angry Birds on one more platform isn't going to cut it.

 

As I have said elsewhere, I'm really hoping that this isn't a repeat of past mistakes. I'd like to see this succeed. But to succeed in the modern marketplace, the Ataribox is going to need to have one hell of an ace up its sleeve to even make a splash let alone a wave.

You'd be surprised. Sony released the PS TV a few years back- it was a Vita-based microconsole that could remote-play PS4 games (it's main selling point) but also play Vita, PS1 and PSP games. Not a bad deal for a low price! Yet it didn't take off- one of the biggest complaints was that it didn't have Netflix and YouTube. I could not understand this criticism, because I'd look around and every device I owned could play Netflix. The people making the complain surely must have a way to watch Netflix now. But yet, that was surprisingly important to people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised there wasn't a full 3-D sequel to Crystal Castles on the PS 2.

 

After that flourish of loose remakes/updates in the early 2010s (Haunted House, Yars' Revenge: First War, etc.), I don't think Atari has really revisited their properties in that way since. Those are always tough projects to approach because you can't simply reskin the original game and, if you make too many changes (like many of those remakes/updates), it's hard to drum up sufficient interest, plus there's a danger of making a game that's just not fun (which was among the criticisms for much of that last batch). I wonder if Atari is going to bother going down that road again or stick mostly to branding hardware and leveraging Roller Coaster Tycoon IP?

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Kinda funny.. Streaming 4K bytes of "Game Program" in this day and age. Even funnier is that the entire VCS library wouldn't fill the cache on a modern microprocessor, let alone the buffers in the hard drive of a bargain bin PC.

 

Nobody likes likes uber-modern remakes of the classic Atari games. The few that have been made, like Star Raiders, bombed. They dumbed it down with pop-up text boxes and cartoon bubbles. The gameplay dynamics which made the original Atari 400/800 version from 1979 so famous must have been lost in a different galaxy.

 

I haven't heard one iota about the Battlezone remake from Activision in like 15-years. So.. yeh, no re-imaginings, no reboots, no remakes, no retro styling!

 

The new VR Battlezone is absolutely awesome! Holy crap, I can't tell you how awesome it is... I have it on PC/Vive. And while it is lame in the eyes of some due to it requiring to use a game pad instead of the Vive wands, it plays so well it doesn't really matter much, and it's not like you really need to interact with the controls. But it is pretty damned awesome.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rebellion.

I wonder if they are open to licensing the original Atari IP.

Hmm, did they lose the licensing, or did they just license it to Rebellion (who also famously made Alien vs Predator (Jag) and Battlewheels (Lynx)).

 

VR Battlezone does have the old classic game in it too.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, did they lose the licensing, or did they just license it to Rebellion (who also famously made Alien vs Predator (Jag) and Battlewheels (Lynx)).

 

VR Battlezone does have the old classic game in it too.

Atari sold off the Battlezone IP in its most recent bankruptcy.

 

Rebellion owns it now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlezone_(1980_video_game)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That was made by Beyond Games.

Ha, you are right, who also made Ultra Vortek... crap, what game by Rebellion on the Lynx was I thinking of?

 

Edit: Apparently they never developed anything for the Lynx.

Edited by leech
Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing's for sure. I am not getting on the free2play bandwagon. Because that means there will be microtransactions.

 

I've been sucked into that black hole. Pointless busy work games that lead to nothing. Endless cash grabs. Pay to win scenarios. Never again. It's a disgraceful business model.

 

Back on topic for a moment, I'm starting to think that it's time for Atari to play their hand. A person can only take so much endless speculation and teaser hype before they lose interest and walk away. Don't want to undermine the big reveal. Get to it already Atari.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

But until then it is good.

Not really. The problem is that nobody knows when the Chinese government may have a change of heart. Might never happen; might happen next Tuesday. From the standpoint of a company selling gaming hardware (and possibly software) in China, that makes developing a long-term strategy for the platform next to impossible because three minutes after launch you might not be able to put it on sale.

 

If the rumors are true then Nintendo teamed up with Nvidia are already trying to do it from outside.

And I wish them the best of luck. But I'm fairly certain that they've already developed an exit strategy if the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decides that Nintendo may no longer operate in China due to historical unpleasantness in Manchuria or similar. There's a solid chance it may be needed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way guys, I'm curious about who the third party company is that Atari is partnering with.

Further back in this topic, somebody mentioned this: https://www.sigfox.com/en/news/sigfox-announcing-global-partnership-iconic-gaming-brand-atari

So maybe it's with Sigfox?

Other people have also been saying it might perhaps be Sega, because they just recently put out a video called "The Future of Sega" around the same timing that Atari Box was teased.

I highly doubt it's the latter though.

 

On a sidenote, I do find it pretty amazing though, that all 3 companies of yesteryear are coming out big into the spotlight in 2017. You've got Nintendo seeing great success with the Switch, Sega teasing a rebranding of their company and "Sega Forever", and then the AtariBox.

Edited by Lodmot
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way guys, I'm curious about who the third party company is that Atari is partnering with.

Further back in this topic, somebody mentioned this: https://www.sigfox.com/en/news/sigfox-announcing-global-partnership-iconic-gaming-brand-atari

So maybe it's with Sigfox?

Other people have also been saying it might perhaps be Sega, because they just recently put out a video called "The Future of Sega" around the same timing that Atari Box was teased.

I highly doubt it's the latter though.

 

On a sidenote, I do find it pretty amazing though, that all 3 companies of yesteryear are coming out big into the spotlight in 2017. You've got Nintendo seeing great success with the Switch, Sega teasing a rebranding of their company and "Sega Forever", and then the AtariBox.

I generally try not to quote the person that is immediately before me in a thread... But that last sentence needs to be bolded. While everyone knew about the Nintendo, and they never really went away, just kind of ended up having to do their own thing... Which if you think about it has been the case since the N64. I mean everyone by that time had gone away from Cartridge, but not them.

 

On the other hand, for both Sega and Atari to be doing teasers like this? Very interesting times for gamers who remember back when they were great! Atari is a weird one because they seem to be the one who suffers the death of a thousand cuts, but still somehow survive.

 

I was thinking this the other day.... they better not leave the name as 'Ataribox' that's terrible. They should follow their tradition of cats (Yeah, I know they only had two that launched and one that didn't) and call it the Puma!

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way, a weird hint... Jeff Minter had popped into a thread talking about llamatron or something similar a while back, and mentioned he was working on a VR project.

 

I have no idea if that actually pertains to anything to do with the Ataribox though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...