New Atari Console that Ataribox?

[PlaysWithWolves]

He did say 2nd round of preorders at e3. He says the box (which he keeps referring to as a "Streaming box") is going to release by end of FY, which he says is March 31 of 2020.

I'm curious where March 31, 2020 falls in their draft timeline?

 

 

"You are here" shamelessly stolen from Flojomojo:

 

Do you suppose their draft timeline as presented on the campaign reflects calendar year, or fiscal year? Either way, it's total bunk.

0 delivery timeline.jpg

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[JBerel]

At some point that graphic needs to be updated to: "You are still here"

Edited April 22, 2019 by JBerel

[TACODON]

Every time I think this circus hits maximum stupid. BAM!

 

I am honestly impressed.

[PlaysWithWolves]

I didn't watch the video, so I don't know if M. Chesnais meant March 2020 for all consoles delivered, or if just the second round of pre-orders.

 

Either way, they don't want it brought up on IGG. This comment was also deleted/hidden:

 

 

indiegogo :

 

Maxime Boissard less than a minute ago

I don’t understand, my message deleted ? why it disturbs or it is wrong ?

second pre-sale at E3 confirmed by M Frederic Chesnais

Hope demonstration of Atari VCS with Games and Leader Partner ( during the E3 )

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

I didn't watch the video, so I don't know if M. Chesnais meant March 2020 for all consoles delivered, or if just the second round of pre-orders.

 

Either way, they don't want it brought up on IGG. This comment was also deleted/hidden:

 

 

Max, you should really read this article and see if any of it applies to you.

[racerx]

Either way, they don't want it brought up on IGG. This comment was also deleted/hidden:

 

Even if I was a "dreamer," I'd never want to do business with a company that treated supporters and their concerns the way "Atari" has over the past year.

[Flojomojo]

I didn't watch the video, so I don't know if M. Chesnais meant March 2020 for all consoles delivered, or if just the second round of pre-orders.

Damn your oily hides for making me sit through that wretched sales pitch because no one else wanted to. I took 136MB of screen grabs if anyone "needs" them -- speak soon or I'll delete them. I used fast forward a lot but I'm pretty sure I got the gist. The "best" part is at the end when he squirms in the face of questions about debt, but the whole thing is pretty horrible. He's not a great speaker, though he's also very self-effacing and seems to mostly stick to the truth. There's no Feargal/Wyatt puffery here. Think Mike Arzt filibustering with a French twist.

 

The audience was Swedish investors and Fred mostly kept to his slides. There was a lot of repetition, especially talking about outsourcing risk. I don't think much new ground was covered here:

1. Fred saved the company because he knew it inside and out;
2. Fred used to manage 2,500 employees and he could do it again, but it's much cheaper to only have a few employees on staff;
3. Fred believes in outsourcing and having others shoulder the risk of development or manufacturing;
4. Fred thinks that Asteroids would be well suited to a Tetris99-style Battle Royale game;
5. Fred said that the little tabletop arcade games sold 60,000 units;
6. Fred said that the 1UP "home arcade units sold in Walmart in the United States" put $1.5M into the Atari company, to which he seemed to roll his eyes but was happy with the money;
7. Fred showed a slide that broke out the lifetime revenues for all of their classic IPs;
8. Fred knows that you need to do soft launches of mobile games in Australia and New Zealand, because if they don't work you can fix them before launching in bigger territories, because you have to make a big splash in the United States;
9. Fred thinks that people in the Netherlands really like simulation games, so it's best to launch those there first;
10. Fred plans on launching the Atari VCS "streaming box" first in the United States because that's where you need to get the numbers. He repeatedly pointed out that their fiscal 2019 ends on March 31, 2020 and that's what they're shooting for;
11. Fred said that the community would not have been happy with the performance of the prior AMD chip and he's glad they delayed it;
12. Fred dodged a question from their host about whether or not you could play games you already purchased on the "streaming box" Atari VCS;
13. Fred thinks the Amazon video interface is not user friendly, in part because it doesn't use a keyboard or a controller;
14. Fred hopes that the "sandbox" nature of the Atari VCS will allow developers to make great things for the device;
15. Fred says that the Atari VCS is much more than video games, it's also a streaming box;
16. Fred doesn't want to wait 100 years for the old debt to go away, and would love a "marriage" with another company, presumably this is the buyout we can all smell from here.

The dearth of new ideas should be really troubling to any would-be investor. The notion of multiplayer Asteroids has been done for years, for free (this one looks fun) and I seriously doubt "Atari" can execute this any better, let alone monetize it. Branding slot machines is just sad. Fred said something about having 200 pieces of IP but they've really only mined one of them, leaving 199 to go, which I didn't quite understand, but it seems like what you see is what you get with this guy. He implied that they were going to do something with "Adventure" like Bethesda did after they bought up the Fallout IP, but wasn't ready to show anything or say more about it.

 

Watching this, even with many skips, was a pointless waste of time which I could have used catching up with Game of Thrones. You, my taco brothers, need to pick up some of the shitposting slack in the future. Here are some selected screenshots, in the hopes that maybe you guys could mark them up or otherwise make us laugh. I expect you to be less disappointing than the "breakfast chat" in Sweden.

 

[Flojomojo]

Oh just one more. I don't know what's going on with the logo here. Up in smoke? Something NSFW?

 

 

"Best of luck" to Mr. Chesnais, by which I hope he comes around to freeing up these ancient old properties and stops doing silly things with the old name we used to love before he stunk it up.

 

While watching him talk about the "new value chain" in which they no longer make anything themselves but "executive produce" everything else from others, I have to wonder: how long til all of us who care(d) about Asteroids no longer bring out our cash for their nonsense?

 

Oh, and one more edit, because I post too much: Fred DID say something about a second fundraiser during e3, but didn't elaborate and there were no further questions. Maybe they'll take it to Kickstarter when they [finally] have a prototype to show? e3 2019 is June 11-13. I wouldn't hold my breath.

[+x=usr(1536)]

You, my taco brothers, need to pick up some of the shitposting slack in the future. Here are some selected screenshots, in the hopes that maybe you guys could mark them up or otherwise make us laugh.

 

Shitposting, you say?

 

Like this gem of a strategic partnership?

 

 

FWIW, GameTaco's website has a similar feel to Tin Giant's, only with non-default content. They claim to be launching in Q2, but note that the Q2 of which year isn't actually specified.

[PlaysWithWolves]

I'm at the tail end of a week at the inlaws' house, so I just couldn't muster the energy to make myself watch. You're a trooper, Flojo.

 

So, the delivery date has changed again. I'll suggest a slogan for the second pre-release sales event: Remember when? Pigeon again!

[+frankodragon]

I think Cheesenuts' beard has been piercing into his brain.

[carlsson]

I wonder if the Ataribox will be streaming this series?

 

[TACODON]

They can never mention BladeRunner or Rollercoaster Tycoon enough can they? What about Speakerhats?!?

[PlaysWithWolves]

Deleted, because I'm on a potato-powered network.

[+frankodragon]

Maybe Fred should go back to the way of the filmstrip since he's always going one step forward, two steps back.

 

 

 

[+x=usr(1536)]

Maybe Fred should go back to the way of the filmstrip since he's always going one step forward, two steps back.

 

My suspicion is that the first three frames are different, the next thirty or forty exactly the same, and the filmstrip itself melts on the last one.

[Flojomojo]

Shitposting, you say?

 

Like this gem of a strategic partnership?

 

 

FWIW, GameTaco's website has a similar feel to Tin Giant's, only with non-default content. They claim to be launching in Q2, but note that the Q2 of which year isn't actually specified.

Calendar Q2 2019 is right now (April) through the end of June. Their team is full of financiers except for the cartoon of the games guy. I don't know about you, but whenever I see someone bragging about multi-billion-dollar "exits," I just want to barf up my lunchtime tacos. ?

 

Esports seems like something for millennials and younger. Atari seems like a GenX brand. I wonder how much crossover appeal this idea has with either segment?

[Clint Thompson]

Watched it.

 

He definitely does not want to be held responsible for any failures as a result of their license usage and will absolutely place all financial risk on anyone and everyone else, starting with dev houses as well as their so-called customers - those who paid for the concept idea known as the AtariBox VCS. Not sure what the point of claiming you can oversee x amount of people multiple times if you have zero desire to scale your company past 12 employees. Who cares...

 

Sold off the Alone in the Dark franchise, I'm guessing as a means to make the books look bigger.

 

Pong scratch off tickets for everyone! Such a wild card!

[AlecRob]

cant wait to add VCS to my collection of failed consoles.

[Flojomojo]

Sold off the Alone in the Dark franchise, I'm guessing as a means to make the books look bigger.

It was the cause of a neverending series of lawsuits over who owned the IP. I doubt it was ever much of a moneymaker. I thought he sounded relieved to be rid of it. I would not be terribly surprised to see AtariBox get the same treatment at some point in the future.

 

PSA: you don't have to give your real address to the website if you want to watch this for some reason. It will spam you for confirmation after the fact, but that's it. So if you used fred.chesnais@atari.com you'd still get access to Fred's boring talk.

 

[JBerel]

 

 

Wake me when they get to 4 tenths of a cent.

[Flojomojo]

That's pretty funny, but I suspect their statistical model is counting the spike and drop from "Atari's" blockchain announcements. Their stock has held pretty steady except for that burp.

 

I've compared cryptocurrency to Tulip Mania before, so imagine my delight to see this in the paper today. After the Bust, Are Bitcoins More Like Tulip Mania or the Internet?

 

[toiletunes]

[+frankodragon]

 

My suspicion is that the first three frames are different, the next thirty or forty exactly the same, and the filmstrip itself melts on the last one.

I tried that effect and it looks like Fred's in hell.

 

[toiletunes]