Legacy gaming brand Atari has confirmed plans to build several Atari gaming hotels in the United States. The company's last major gaming release was the Atari VCS console which isn't trying to take on the PS4 and Xbox One and is more of a PC that lets players stream music and videos and play games such as Asteroids.
In a press release, Atari said that it had signed a licensing deal with US real estate developer True North Studio and GSD Group, to lend its name to eight gaming hotels. Atari has been paid $600,000 for the deal and will also get 5% of the revenue made by the hotels. The hotels will be built in eight cities: Phoenix, AZ, Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Denver, CO, Las Vegas, NV, San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA, and Seattle, WA and ground will be broken on the Phoenix hotel in 2020. It's unclear when the first hotel will be finished.
The hotels will have areas that take ideas from video games and Atari, such as an Atari gaming "playground," meeting and events spaces, a bakery, a restaurant, bars, a movie theater, a gym, co-working spaces, and an esports studio. Some of the cities chosen for the hotels are popular esports locations such as San Francisco, which is the official home of Overwatch League team the San Francisco Shock. Gamers and fans traveling for esports events may well choose to stay in an Atari hotel so that all of their holiday can be about gaming and not just the attractions they visit.
The Atari hotels could also be popular with gamers who want to play and learn more about some popular classic games. There are a huge number of fans who enjoy Atari's older games and one Atari game has gone for $90,000 at auction, suggesting that some may also pay expensive prices to stay in an Atari hotel. The use of Atari games as Easter eggs in Tesla cars has also reminded people of its releases and could potentially get them to go to the hotel.
If the hotels are a success, then this could be great for Atari which isn't as famous as it once was. The poor releases of games like RollerCoaster Tycoon World have only damaged the brand but the hotel line may be able to make the company a success again.
Source: Atari