Atari has revealed that it's still very much on board the NFT bandwagon by announcing a new set. The Atari 50th anniversary NFT collection will be a collaboration with artist Butcher Billy and will include 2600 NFTs, as well as a "free metaverse experience" and even a phone hotline you can call.
What is this new 50th anniversary Atari NFT collection all about?
This year marks legendary gaming studio Atari's 50th anniversary, and the studio has already announced an interactive museum-style game to commemorate the occasion. However, it looks like the celebrations don't stop there, as an Atari 50th anniversary NFT collection has been announced. The collection is a collaboration with Brazilian graphic artist Butcher Billy, whose name you might recognize from some of the social media promos for the fourth season of Stranger Things.
Said Atari NFT collection will feature 2600 unique NFTs (see what they did there?) based on 15 different works by Billy. Of course, this won't be the first Atari NFT rodeo. The company also released a collection back in 2021 consisting of 3D models for the Centipede cartridge, and as if that wasn't bad enough, somehow found a way to combine loot boxes and NFTs for a giftable initiative earlier this year. This time around, however, it's not just NFTs; there's also a "free metaverse experience" that you can check out.
As well as the NFT collection, Atari is also offering the chance to explore a "free metaverse experience" called Room 133, which is meant to replicate an old-school Atari dev room. It's a fully-explorable virtual environment that apparently contains clues regarding the 50th anniversary Atari NFT collection, as well as info about other Atari collabs and "perks and access to special experiences".
If you're so inclined, you can also call up an interactive hotline (as in a real interactive phone hotline) by calling 1-888-ATARI50. Supposedly, that hotline will give you hints about how to navigate Room 133 and what you're looking for there. You also don't need to have any kind of NFT or cryptocurrency investment to access Room 133, which is good, because the NFT market isn't doing so hot right now (and for good reason).
So NFTs aren't going away in gaming, then?
Not really, no. The battle lines are arguably being drawn more and more obviously with each new announcement of a developer jumping ship and sailing with the NFT crew. Recently, we've had Monsoon announcing Zombicide NFTs on the tabletop side of things, as well as legendary gaming figures like Richard Garriott and Tomonobu Itagaki crossing over to the dark side.
At the same time, indie developers have used public conference appearances to rail against NFTs and the blockchain, and Valve has issued a blanket ban on cryptocurrency games (although certain enterprising developers appear to be finding ways to circumvent that ban). Although the NFT market is definitely not in a very good place right now, that's not stopping the fiercest advocates of the blockchain continuing to fight in its corner, nor is it preventing the blockchain's most vocal opponents from coming out against it. We'll bring you more on Atari and NFTs as soon as we get it.
