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We spoke with Atari CEO Wade Rosen to discuss what the future holds for the company and also what to expect from many of its recent announcements.
"Hey everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor.
Today, well you can probably tell, you can probably infer as to where I am right now.
I'm in the Atari booth right now with CEO, Wade Rosen."
"So tell me a little bit about Atari and where it is today.
Because obviously, you know, Atari used to be one of the biggest games companies in the world.
It's sort of, you know, as little things go, you know, it's sort of up and down, up and down.
And now it's on the trend back up, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's been a minute since it was one of the biggest."
"I would say, you know, for us, it was about four years ago I came on board and, you know, a lot of the team has joined since then.
We've just really tried hard to carve a name for ourselves in retro gaming.
We try to be the best retro gaming company in the world."
"Hardware being one component of that, our Digital Eclipse Studio being another, Night Dive being another, and then original games like Bubsy and some other surprises this year.
That, yeah, that's what we're working on.
We'll get to Bubsy in a second, because obviously that's on everyone's mind right now."
"So we'll get to that in a minute.
Yeah, shockingly.
So as of recently, you guys have been doing a lot of things about sort of going back and taking and expanding the treasure trove of IP that Atari represents, right?
So what's gone into that process of going, all these things that perhaps other people are overlooking, we're going to bring them in and we're going to bring them back to life."
"Yeah, so we do a lot with our own IP, but we also do a lot with third party IP.
And I think it really started by just first loving retro gaming, wanting, you know, knowing ourselves what we wanted to see, knowing that it's just not enough to put games in a box."
"You really have to do more than that.
You have to improve the game, make it as people remember it, not exactly as they are, as Night Dive is famous for saying.
And I think going beyond that is also providing context."
"You know, you play a game without context, it's not nearly as impactful as when the game initially came out.
So Digital Eclipse does a really good job of providing that context.
And then building tools, building the resources to provide all of those things around the games and working with great third party partners to bring it to life."
"How do you strike that balance then between, you know, producing all this quality software, but also producing all this quality hardware as well?
Yeah, I mean, we have a lot of great partners.
We're working with PlayOn on the 2600+, as well as the Pac-Man 2600+."
"You know, in terms of some of the IP projects that we work on, we're working with great partners like Disney and Warner Brothers, Universal.
Then, you know, we just, the dev teams, like we collaborate across those dev teams, but they're also very distinctly themselves."
"You know, Digital Eclipse is Digital Eclipse, Night Dive is Night Dive, but they work together, they'll play each other's game.
We all play the games, so they're, everybody's trying to boost the other team.
There's really no competition and things like networking, we have a lot of shared services and other help that we bring across those operating groups."
"So obviously, you have all these IP that you're looking to continue to represent and to continue to support, but there's also opportunities to throw some new things out there.
Like, for example, Pubsy, so tell me a little bit about this.
Are you surprised at the reception that it got?
Yeah, I mean, we always take a couple shots, right?
You know, maybe swings is even a better word, because, you know, there's games that you're going to put out, like Mortal Kombat, that we're pretty confident are going to do well."
"We know it's one of the most iconic IPs of all time, paired with an amazing studio like Digital Eclipse.
Like, okay, that's about as close to a sure thing as you get.
And then you just try games. It's not the first."
"You know, we had Yars Rising come out last year, Missile Command Delta recently.
And so we'll oftentimes throw – we kind of take these initial core IP and then look at them and reinvent them in a new way, do an original work.
Bubsy, because it's a bit newer than some of those other ones, probably was – we, you know, could lean on somewhat more modern gameplay and somewhat more – but it was still, you know, primarily SNES, Genesis, PlayStation, if you want to count Bubsy 3D."
"But, you know, the goal there is just to find the best possible developer.
And so, yeah, it's a surprise. It's always a surprise when Bubsy – like, people love Bubsy, some ironically, but a lot of people unironically.
And a lot of people don't, but also love, like, the infamy of Bubsy."
"And so when, yeah, it becomes the second most, like, tweeted game of Gamescom, it's always a little bit surprising to me, yeah.
You know, you mentioned there Yars Rising, which Yars was actually a really interesting one because it sort of defined the industry at a point when it came out, right?
It was a very generational game. It sort of really set the precedent for things to come."
"Bubsy's a little bit different, but it's still very popular.
Can we expect you to sort of go down this route in the future and constantly look to – I'm not just going to say, like, you know, preserve these older classics, but give them new life like you're doing with these other ones?
Yeah. You know, that's a nice tee-up. Thanks."
"You know, we will always – I can't see a future, or at least the foreseeable future, where we're not taking some swings on original games.
And that usually means taking that core and then finding a new way to bring it to life.
Now, I can't speak to which ones those will be specifically, but there will be new ones."
"It's a balance. It's a balance between, you know, what our internal dev teams are doing, what our external dev partners are working on.
And sometimes it also comes up because we get a great pitch and we look at it and we're like, yeah, that's worth a shot. Let's take that shot."
"But, yeah, no, it's a very thoughtful decision-making on that.
And there'll be more. And I think the Atari community and just hopefully the video games community at large will be really excited about what we have coming down the pike."
"So you guys, obviously, you do lots of hardware as well, retro-inspired hardware, of course.
Do you look at it at all and think, you know, the hardware space is particularly interesting and, you know, console market, the three main sort of manufacturers.
Do you ever look at it and think, maybe we could take a swing at that?
Absolutely not. Absolutely. No, I want to look right in the camera and be very honest."
"Definitely not. We do not in any way compete with Microsoft or Nintendo or Sony.
Great partners. No, I mean, we partner with them on a lot of projects.
I'm always very careful to make that clear.
No, we really love living in this space."
"I think the way we view it is like a lot of these classic consoles are viewed as dead consoles.
They're viewed as legacy hardware.
And what I realized just from myself, but also before coming to Atari and here, people are still making games for the 2600 and the 7800 and, you know, the Genesis and the Nintendo and the Game Boy."
"I mean, you can pretty much go to almost any, even the Jaguar and the Lynx have new games made for them.
And so are these dead consoles or are these living ecosystems?
And so that was really our desire."
"Like this first to give fans a way to play classic carts that doesn't involve, you know, a CRT television or a lot of modding and a retro ting trying to get this into a digital TV, but to really find an easy way to immediately dive back in to things that they love, to carts they have, and then to give the community more of an outlet to sell their, the games that they're making, to bring those to market, to have a bigger player base that can appeal to."
"So yeah, we treat it as a living ecosystem.
And I think that's, I think of all the major game companies that have had hardware over the years, that's probably the innovation there is realizing that these old systems aren't, are actually not dead at all, but they're living ecosystems."
"And if we want, we can bring them back and continue to function.
And I think they have a place in modern society. Yeah.
I'd say increasingly so, actually, as of recent.
You've seen a lot of people want to go back to the sort of retro stuff."
"So I think it's a very solid move in that regards.
Again, you've got Bubsy coming up, loads of new hardware coming out.
What's one thing that you're really excited for fans to know about Atari?
Well, besides Mortal Kombat and besides Outlaws coming from Nightdive."
"Wow. You kind of, you nailed some big ones there.
I, you know, I would just ask, especially for fans in the video game space, right?
I think in the pop culture space, Atari remains relevant.
There's a lot of love from the community."
"I know in the video game space, people have had their ups and downs with Atari.
And when I first took the job, there was a lot of like, hey, that sounds good.
Maybe I'll talk to you in a year when you've like proven that you're going to be around.
We've been doing this for four years."
"And I think we've brought a lot of passion and care and thoughtfulness to that, to that maybe assume we'll be around for a while.
And, and, and to take the stance that like this Atari is the real Atari and it probably shares the most with that core initial Atari of any of the iterations so far."
"Well, there's a final question and a bit of a curveball, but you mentioned a minute ago about, you know, all these other companies doing the things.
Video game adaptations are becoming increasingly popular and Atari has all these incredible IP."
"Do you ever look at it and think there's opportunity there?
Yes, definitely. Definitely we do.
I can't speak to it more than that, but yeah, certainly there's lots of opportunity in that space."
"You know that, that it's, I think when we're on the outside and we see, you know, season of the last of us or a movie come out, it's like, oh yeah, like it's out.
That must've been greenlit, you know, like 12 months ago.
These things are in development for half a decade usually."
"So that'd be the only thing I would say is it's a long process.
A lot goes into it, but absolutely.
We, you know, that's a side of the house that means a lot to us and one that I care about personally."
"Well, lots to look forward to with Atari.
Yeah, thank you.
Four years in the job already. Here's to another four.
For more on Atari, stay tuned."
"Another 40.
Another 40. Not four, another 40.
So yeah, for more on Atari, stay tuned to your local Game Reactor region."
