Earlier this year, the home console gaming industry's original pioneer, Atari, announced that they were making a return to gaming in the form of a retro throwback console similar to that of the NES Classic released by Nintendo last year. This would mark their return to the gaming hardware business after almost 35 years.
The console is reported to be running a Linux-based OS, powered with a custom AMD processor. The developers promise a wide array of classic Atari games, but unlike Nintendo's device, it will offer a broader range of features, such as streaming services, multimedia, web browsing and more.
The system is expected to ship sometime in the first half of 2018, but most astonishingly, will cost in the region of $249 - $299.
This pricing scheme however, seems really awkward. On one hand, Nintendo's classic devices, (that it was presumed to be mimicking), costs only $59.99 and $79.99 (provided they're in stock and scalper prices aside). On the other hand, the more high end offerings on the market, from Sony Microsoft and Nintendo, start around a similar price range ($249 - $299). So it remains to be seen who exactly are the target audience, and, if Atari is planning to compete at the higher end of the market they will have to have enough compelling content to do so.
Personally the nostalgia factor has no effect on me since the original Atari released long before my time, and I've never actually seen one in real life. I honestly don't even know what games to expect, the only thing that comes to mind is probably Pong...but that's hardly worthy of a $50 dollar device much less $249+. The only thing keeping me interested at this point is mere curiosity to see how it eventually unfolds.
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
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