In their 30th update on Indiegogo, Atari has announced that the Atari VCS--their latest console--would be releasing this fall.
The latest update for the Atari VCS showed that their first pallet of 96 Atari VCS consoles and 800 Onyx production consoles have just been delivered to Atari's US team. They now have a full batch of 500, with a full production run of 10,000 units expected by the end of the summer. Apparently, everything is on track for those who ordered the console, controller, and joystick for a fall release.
It's also important to note that this wasn't the original release date, and has been delayed more than once. This year Atari has been facing delays because of COVID-19 earlier this year, and last year production issues caused it to be delayed. They're seemingly back on track now, but who knows if the factories are going to stay open at this point.
But just what is the Atari VCS anyways? According to the Indiegogo page, the Atari VCS is a modern console that combines "the best of consoles, PCs, and streaming, to delight a whole generation of gamers and creators." Basically, it's box that mixes a console and PC while also using a Ryzen processor and 8 GB of ram, so at least there is some computing power behind it.
It's not too much to go on, but hey, at least it's apparently upgradeable. I guess we'll see what this thing can do when it's out in the wild this fall.
Quick Take
The Atari VCS has always baffled me. Not that it exists, because Atari is willing to do pretty much anything (like building luxury hotels) in order to stay afloat, but that it got funded to begin with, to the tune of millions of dollars. There's an old saying that there's a sucker born every minute, and I cannot help but feel that there are 11,597 suckers who got taken for a ride by Atari by desecrating their nostalgia.
Ah well, I'm still curious to see if this thing actually does anything. It's an interesting middle of the road platform, but at $400 it's going to have to be very good at what it does to get anything other than Gen X'ers who want to relive their youth.
What do you think of this announcement? Are you a backer of the Atari VCS? Did you want to be? If you are/did, let us know in the comments!
