Major Concerns Raised Over Atari VCS Status
In July 2017, Atari announced that it was getting back in the business of creating consoles. The announcement was completely unexpected and was treated by many as a positive sign that after over 20 years of failure, the company might have been getting back on the right track. Fast forward us 15 months into the future (and a subsequent name change from the AtariBox to the Atari VCS), however, and the console is still nowhere to be seen. In fact, on the whole, it’s all looking rather bleak.
It has led many to question if this console is ever going to be released or if it’s starting to get more than a little sniff of yet another crowdfunding disaster.
The Ouya MK II
Back in March this year, I already began to express some concerns over the console. I even went as far as to call it the ‘Ouya Mark II’. It seems, however, that the voices of discontent are growing and quite significantly. In addition to this, YouTuber ‘Smash JT’ has found that the company behind the Atari VCS is bizarrely aggressive in its attitude towards questions and criticisms over the console.
Referring back to my concerns in March, it should be noted that in the 7 months that have passed since then, we’ve literally had nothing to report about it. Zilch! Nada! Not what you want to hear about an upcoming console!
Lack Of Good Updates!
At present, the Indiegogo page is still active. That being said though, there has not been an official status update since August and even then, the details were somewhat alarming showing a very crude ‘prototype’ board. A board which, incidentally, may have had its serial number airbrushed off to hide the fact that rather than custom, it’s entirely standard. Remember how they were supposed to have a fully operational prototype?…With many now expressing concern at the apparent lack of direction for the project, some are even beginning to strongly recommend asking for a refund on your pre-order now, before it’s too late!
I don’t want to sound downbeat on this system. I sincerely want Atari to be a name again! If I had a pre-order on this though… I think I’d be planning my exit strategy and quickly! This is still very much looking like another Ouya, except the Atari VCS may never release!
What do you think? Did you pre-order an Atari VCS? How do you feel about the project so far? – Let us know in the comments!
How is any of this negative speculation helpful? You have no facts, no news and no inside knowledge. All us backers know the situation with little news comming out but that does not mean good or bad. Reading this just depresses me, I hate feeling like that. So stop speculating and report real news.
Cheers.
Plenty of facts, some speculation, loads of experience! – I’m a lot of things, but I’m not deluded.
Don’t know why you’d even consider buying an Atari product. They’ve been shit since circa 84.
I did order a VCS. I don’t think anyone who is serious about gaming thinks Atari is trying to replace the PC, or any of the current consoles. Atari is primarily in the business of licensing the logo for t-shirts and coffee mugs, and to companies like AtGames, who do economical systems that get floor-stacked at Bed Bath and Beyond. The VCS industrial design and notion of basically being a PC inside is why I think most are buying it. Nobody is expecting Atari to put the effort or love into a properly done updates of Star Raiders, Major Havoc, or Swordquest.
Talk about hysteria journalism, they gave an update August 29th; getting hardware and software up to spec isn’t going to be done over night. The product isn’t meant to ship for another 9 months, take a day off.
No offence, but you clearly need to take a more sceptical look at the development since the initial announcement.
I agree. Tell em. I so desperately want Atari to be a real thing again but this looks bad. It looks even worse now but it was already bad to begin with. Trailers and empty boxes. Nothing more shown by this point? Something is seriously up.
I hope to god the same thing does not happen to the new Intellivision Amico, though it may be worse as all they seem to have is design concepts at this point. An 2D graphics that will be better than Ps4? No console, just a name and a drawing and a release date of October 2020.
I really want to see Atari and Intellivision get their shit together. All I see is alot of talk. No action. Nothing concrete. No UI, gameplay, jack.
I’ve been looking at both sides of the situation since the indiegogo campaign, and I can understand both angles of it.
I’m leaning more towards the side that I want to see this thing happen and support it, mainly because I’ve tried having civil discussions about it with skeptics, and they can’t get through a conversation without getting hostile with me, even though I answer their questions on my perspective thoroughly and politely.
Having said that, I would say the complaints against Atari are legitimate, and I believe Atari should do a better job communicating with backers on development progress. That’s really where I see most of the problems arising from– their poor communication (or lack thereof).
My positive side believes that Atari legitimately wants to make a console and ship it, and it would be highly illogical for the team members to jeopardize their careers for a scam. The other thing is, IndieGoGo’s reputation as a viable crowdfunding platform will surely flounder if this turned out to be a scam, given how popular the VCS campaign was and how much advertising was put into it. Some people are also saying that Atari is apparently doing the VCS just to boost the stock of the Atari name so the owner can sell it. That tactic would only be successful if they deliver a real product to the market, so the way I see it– they realistically have no choice BUT to legitimately fulfill backers’ pledges. How would they be able to otherwise?
quote: “YouTuber ‘Smash JT’ has found that the company behind the Atari VCS is bizarrely aggressive in its attitude towards questions and criticisms over the console.”
I think “bizarrely aggressive” is a good description of every single video that Smash JT has done on Atari. I mean, just look at the cover shot of the video you linked to… EPIC FAIL and his overly dramatic shocked expression… That’s all you need to see; it’s the summary of basically all of his Atari coverage. So Atari’s publicity firm finally got tired of humoring him and said they aren’t going to talk to him anymore, and that just prompts him to launch yet another unhinged attack on them.
I’m ignoring all this noise. It means nothing.
So, if they never put anything out, are we out our money?
more like retro vgs 2.0
I ordered one so I can flip it on ebay to a fanboy. NIB baby.
I was super stoked when hearing about the indigogo campaign and (unwisely?) joined right up. The 2600 was my first console and I saved up for almost a year to get mine. The lack of updates on this project is seriously concerning and reading at another site about Atari Token being allegedly dead does not inspire confidence. Is there any recourse or are we just screwed? Can you back out of this or is my money already stuck in this slot machine with odds and payouts worsening daily? Any suggestions appreciated. I’m just hoping for the best but expecting the worst at this point.
I saw someone claiming you could still get your money refunded by going thru your Indiegogo backer account page. Have you tried that?