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Overview template used with permission and in conjunction with Chris at Spatial Awareness.
Introduction
On every page of Atari’s website, you’ll see all the way at the bottom in big bold Atari font: Since 1972. That is Atari. As the forever-respected godfather of the video game console, Atari has engraved itself in the history of video games as one of the oldest living video game companies out there and at the same time has saturated its brand throughout fashion, art, and culture. Old age comes with hardships, but Atari has weathered it all: the advent of the internet, the birth of polygon-driven game design; and now that we’ve entered the advent of the greater metaverse Atari has a new challenge: to make a 50 year old company thrive in web3.
This report is somewhat unique, as through my research into Atari’s business and financials, I found absolutely no analysis in Wall Street-centric reports indicating any awareness at all of what Atari is doing in Web3. Hopefully, that makes this useful to those of you interested in this material, and should be clear that the purpose of this report is solely to provide analysis and criticism of Atari’s observed business strategies and operation within the web3 ecosystem, not to provide any form of investment solicitation or strategy on behalf of myself, my consultancy Immutable Labs, or Atari.
Timeline in web3
April 20th, 2010 - Phil Harrison leaves Atari, and co-founder of the original Atari Nolan Bushnell rejoins the company. Emphasizes a vision on future gaming and platforms that can provide quick gaming transactions and widespread access.
March 27th, 2020 - Atari partners with The Sandbox; buys up the most area collectively in TSB’s metaverse game for a metaversal theme park and arcade
July 17th, 2020 - Atari partners with WAX blockchain to bring their video games into Web3; Joins WAX’s advisory board alongside Marvel
August 4th, 2020 - Atari expands its partnership with Animoca Brands (The Sandbox) and declares Animoca Brands as the preferred supplier of blockchain gaming content on the Atari VCS
October 1st, 2020 - Atari announces ICICB Group collaboration and listing of the Atari Token with Bitcoin.com exchange
October 30th, 2020 - Atari Token (ATRI) begins public sale
November 3rd, 2020 - ATRI token plummets post public sale, falling 70%
March 9th, 2021 - Atari Chain announces it will start using Fantom and sees a 72% increase for its token.
April 6th, 2021 - Atari announces plans to launch a ‘crypto casino’ in Decentraland
April 30th, 2021 - Atari casino launches, with a virtual party hosted in Decentraland
July 21st, 2021 - Auction process for 20 exclusive Atari NFTs for ZED RUN game raises over $410k USD in one week
November 19th, 2021 - Atari SA announces change in leadership of Atari Chain and updates organizational structure
March 30th, 2022 - Atari announces the termination of its relationships with Crypto Blockchain Industries
April 18th, 2022 - Atari announces planned creation of new token and termination of joint venture with ICICB who handled the creation of ATRI token and its technology.
May 24th, 2022 - Atari Announces New Web3 Initiative ‘Atari X’ and Reaffirms Commitment to Blockchain Business
August 25th, 2022 - Atari reveals “50 Years of Atari” NFT Collaboration with artist Butcher Billy
October 5th, 2022 - Atari launches NFT collaboration with NFT artist daz3d through his Fight Back Apes NFT collection prior to public mint
October 7th 2022 - Atari partners with OxyaOrigin to provide Atari-branded assets to their realism metaverse game
Notable web3 Initiatives
Atari has had a mixed bag of initiatives made in the web3 ecosystem. Despite a rocky start over the last couple of years, here’s a few notable collaborations and projects Atari has come out with over the last year that have made a considerable turnaround for the brand in the space.
Atari x RTFKT
On March 11th 2021, Atari partnered with metaverse asset monster RTFKT to create a footwear series designed and inspired around 8 iconic Atari franchises, the crown jewel of which was a 1 of a kind Atari x RTFKT “ATARI SNEAKER SHINY ltd edition” on SuperRare,
as seen below:
Original purchasers of these NFTs would have a digital copy available for their avatars to wear in The Sandbox, and the 1/1 “shiny” edition would also have digital copies available to wear in Decentraland.
The collection was minted on March 11th, 2021 and the 1/1 “shiny” edition NFT was sold the following day for 10.0Ξ (what was at the time $17,469 USD)
Atari X
After ending its partnership with ICICB Group in April of this year, Atari set out to continue its pledge to blockchain development and gaming. Its first step was to create a new site and platform: Atari X.
Atari X’s sole purpose is to be the umbrella under which all of Atari’s web3 operations fall, and will be the platform that represents Atari in the metaverse. This is going to be the larger brand that handles its official partnerships, NFTs, web3 assets and merchandising.
50 Years of Atari
Atari has turned 50 this year, and to commemorate the event they’ve enlisted virtual comic master and prolific pop-art master Butcher Billy to invoke classic Atari IPs in gorgeous retro promotional “poster” NFTs.
The collection consists of 2,600 unique generative fine art posters that provide access to the Atari X web3 ecosystem. These NFTs not only include truly awesome artwork in every asset, they provide the holder with utility within Atari’s vast ocean of partnerships, including $100 credit to Unstoppable Domains (once per holder), The Sandbox Alpha Season 3 passes, exclusive prints of their NFT poster, and more to come in the future.
888-ATA-RI50
Along with publishing the AtariX.com website, Atari also published a site at 888atari50.com. This site provides users with all of the information they could possibly want to know about Atari X through its Knowledge Base, but it also provides visitors with the opportunity to participate in an easter egg hunt through interaction on their site and a point-and-click game called Room133 hosted by Portals.to
Inside of the room players can solve a puzzle to unlock access to clues and information regarding future projects and collaborations Atari will have in store for their NFT campaign, and it’s clear from the experience that there’s going to be a lot coming soon.
Existing Web3 Partnerships
Virtually Human Studios - Virtually Human Studios are pushing the boundaries of emerging technologies in gaming, sports and mixed reality to bridge the gap between the physical world and the virtual world, with their flagship game ZED RUN being one of Atari X’s premier partnerships. are pushing the boundaries of emerging technologies in gaming, sports and mixed reality to bridge the gap between the physical world and the virtual world, with their flagship game ZED RUN being one of Atari X’s premier partnerships.
Arcade O.G. - Includes Atari’s founder, Nolan Bushnell, and we are working together as Nolan brings his creative talent to a new generation and a new landscape.
Nifty Labs - Atari X’s primary development partner on everything related to their new token and the token exchange, and an active participant in their blockchain strategy.
The Sandbox - Atari is in active development of our large footprint of land in the open world, in partnership with the incredibly strong and talented team at The Sandbox.
Everyrealm - A partner completely aligned with our focus on utility and community, Atari and Everyrealm continue to actively collaborate on bringing utility to Web3 projects.
Oxya Origin - This partnership is very fresh, and it is unclear what the long term goal will be other than to provide Atari-branded assets to their realism metaverse game.
TBD - As indicated by the image above, Atari X has some tricks (and partnerships) still up its sleeve as it rolls out the long game for its NFT campaign.
POS System
Atari utilizes NFTs minting site system provided to their clients to allow users to mint NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain via their ETH contract. However, they do not provide a hosted marketplace on their Atari X site, nor do they accept cryptocurrency as payment in their Atari-parent stores.
Accepted payment methods for the Atari.com storefront:
Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/Discover
Shop Pay
Affirm
Tech Stack
Nifty Labs minting services
Atari maintains a secondary market presence at Opensea.io
Regular eCommerce payment portals
Metaverse portal implementations within Portal.to
Metaverse shared space land integrations within Decentraland and The Sandbox
Heavy social media presence (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, YouTube)
Dynamic websites, utilizing CSS, JSON, and React JS
Discord Info
Atari X’s Discord is very popular and active. Atari X also actively maintains updates and announcements via its Discord server, and provides NFT holders exclusive access to hidden channels. Atari also uses its Discord server to provide clues and updates to its ongoing easter egg hunt campaign tied to the overall roadmap of Atari X’s campaign.
Discord Members
Currently, Atari X has approximately 37.4k members in its Discord server.
Discord Bots
EthereumPriceBot - Shows Ethereum price as a status
GasTracker - Get gas stats into your discord server.
Atari#2819 - In-house multi-purpose bot linking server to blockchain network
Bounty Bob - Moderation bot
GiveawayBot (https://giveawaybot.party/) - A bot for hosting giveaways
MEE6 (https://mee6.xyz/) - bot to make server management and moderation easy. Follow your favorite streamers, run giveaways, and more.
OpenSea Sales Bot (https://2.5.dev/) - Get real-time OpenSea Sales & listings for any collection. Created by 2.5 Intelligence.
PREMINT Bot - Connects PREMINT services to your Discord server
Rumble Royale - Battle Royale simulator on Discord to fight against other players
Ticket Tool (https://tickettool.xyz/docs) - a highly versatile support bot
Trivia Bot (https://triviabot.co.uk/)
VulcanAuthentication (https://vulcanbot.io/)
50 Years of Atari NFT Stats & Metrics
Dune Analytics is utilized to view and create dashboards for brands that are on-chain. The following metrics were derived from freely accessible data generated via SQL queries. Each query is viewable online to see how the metrics were derived.
ETH Contract: 0x28472a58A490c5e09A238847F66A68a47cC76f0f
Blockchain: Ethereum
Token Standard: ETH-721
Creator Royalties: 7.2%
For this report I compiled a Dune Analytics dashboard aggregating queries over Atari’s behavior in web3 which you can find here (shoutout to @SSC0x for the majority of the queries performed):
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Animoca Brands and The Sandbox - Atari’s early and heavy investment in Animoca guarantees them high visibility in the VR metaverse game, along with unparalleled access to some of the best companies under the Animoca umbrella
The Atari VCS - The nostalgic machine offers an array of cloud gaming services and has clearly been set up as a central access point for new Atari gamers to enjoy what they already play alongside Atari classics and reboots. The console is also an upgradeable PC, allowing users to improve the machine with updated internal components should they choose to do so.
Age and Wisdom - Atari is one of the oldest video game brands out there (like I said since 1972 holy cow!). They’ve weathered the toughest droughts and storms in video game history and have lived to tell the tale. While some might view their now defunct partnership with ICICB a failure, Atari X’s implementation and patient development clearly indicates that Atari has learned its lesson, and will carry it gracefully into their future.
An Ignorant Financial Sector - Atari’s web3 assets and property is considered a financial liability under traditional financial reporting, as most financial reports I’ve researched focused on the brand’s sales of physical product and branding and wholly ignored their web3 development. While it may be considered true by traditional speculators that Atari’s virtual assets are considered liabilities, it should be clear from the development of Atari X and its ongoing success (through implementation of these assets) that Atari’s web3 investment is far from being a liability.
Nostalgia - Atari is ubiquitously known as a legendary gaming company. The brand has appeared anywhere from major blockbuster films to cult classic animes and video games from exterior publishers. As I stated before in my own previous writing, that is a potent power to have in your arsenal.
Weaknesses
The Atari VCS - while the machine is basically a modified PC, the existing implementation of the device leaves players lacking a lot of Atari-centric content, most of which feels outdated or irrelevant comparatively to most of the successful video game titles of the 2020s.
Age & Bits - While video gamers respect their elders, Atari is of the pre-polygon age of video games which limits its exposure to younger demographics in the common video game industry.
Past Partnerships - While their split with ICICB has ultimately freed Atari to have creative domain over its new token architecture, the development of Atari Chain and ATRI has left investors who have already looked forward to Atari’s blockchain development disheartened and confused. Atari has addressed this by offering a 1-1 compensation for existing ATRI holders, but with a failed tokenomic architecture comes inherent distrust.
Lack of Community Engagement or Support (or DAO) - Atari has had excellent experiences provided to its customers and audience, but it hasn’t attempted to address the accessibility concerns that the company and founder have expressed as being the motivation for this project. Atari has claimed that it wishes to helm the ship of blockchain gaming to provide greater accessibility and connection between players, but has not necessarily been very public in probing for information directly from its audience as to what they want or are looking for in a blockchain-building Atari.
Opportunities
The Atari VCS - As stated above, the machine is basically a modified PC. With Atari having already announced incorporations of blockchain tokens and Animoca’s exclusive blockchain gaming contract on the device, the potential to make the VCS a true future gaming machine is unprecedented in the current console kingdom.
Metaverse Real Estate - Having procured more land than almost any other company in The Sandbox and actively invested more in various virtual metaverse portal platforms, Atari has an astounding advantage to provide virtual goods and branded product experiences to metaverse players/patrons.
Atari’s OTC Stock ($PONGF) - Atari’s OTC stock, ticking at $PONGF, is (and I truly cannot stress this enough) immensely undervalued. Ticking at the time of this writing at $0.18 per share, the stock is 1000% cheaper than GameStop was at the time of its investment mobilization on the WallStreetBets subreddit. And, while (unlike GameStop) there is not a strong incentive to short the stock past the fact that it looks like it’s dead or dying, it represents a tremendous opportunity for Atari to mobilize its community around growth through investment.
Phygitalism - Atari’s legendary cultural crossovers with major fashion labels and its perpetuity in relevant pop culture gives Atari a considerable edge over many video game brands lacking that audience, and has clearly demonstrated through its collaboration with RTFKT that it can potentially pioneer some incredible phygital products that could be incorporated across multiple metaversal portal experiences.
Threats
Realism Gaming - Atari has not invested in IP pertaining to realistic design or modeling of assets within its games, which is dangerous considering the vast majority of gamers have an opinion over graphics and performance in video games. Passively, Atari could be alienating its audience by not investing more in realistically-modeled IPs.
Epic Games - With the greater development of Fortnite and Epic’s interest in web3 products, Atari’s footprint in the metaverse could shrink drastically should Epic draw away a significant portion of users from Decentraland or The Sandbox.
Time - While Atari is a storied player in video games, they have reset their ticking clock already before, forcing them now to play catchup in revamping their token infrastructure and contracting around a new implementation strategy. While patience in developing what Atari claims to be making is crucial, Atari must make continued delivery on its promises from here on out in order to continue to build value for itself and its investors in web3.
Summary
Atari’s made significant headway in both developing a tenured network of web3 companies and partners. Their absolutely massive buy up strategy with metaverse portal sites like Decentraland and The Sandbox have shown Atari is all in on web3, and justifiably so. Since its inception, Atari has wanted to bring people together to experience interactive games and enjoyment unlike ever before, and now with the advent of blockchain gaming and web3, they might just have found their perfect moment to resurrect themselves.
They’ve also had a few hiccups in their ability to control their partnerships in the past, but from the honesty they’ve provided their stakeholders and the behavior of their new Atari X campaign and partnerships, it appears they’re righting the ship in a massive way. If they leverage their VCS console (or future hardware) to match their ambitions in metaverse spaces they could sincerely revitalize their brand unlike ever before, and quite possibly accomplish their goal of bringing easier access and enjoyment from video games through the blockchain.
TL;DR
Atari has had active interest in metaverse tech and blockchain gaming for some time, but has truly picked up the development of this work within the last 2-3 years.
Atari’s storied pop-cultural impact and foothold in fashion has landed it collaborations with major web3 companies, including Animoca Brands and RTFKT.
Atari has active interest in developing its own internal token economy, but through a failed partnership with ICICB Atari now must develop its own strategy and implementation of its own tokenomics.
Atari has since developed Atari X, which through all marketing and documentation has clear indications of being an excellent and valuable experience for its holders and participants.
Atari will continue to support its loyal fanbase with what is promised to be merchandise and experiences unlike any other, and will hopefully continue this new path of consistency and patient partnership to build a gaming culture empire in the metaverse.
Company Portals
https://www.atari.com/
https://www.888atari50.com/
Social Media
https://discord.com/invite/atarix/