Thoughts on the NEW Atari VCS
By now, those in the retrogaming community are aware that Atari will be releasing a new console which would allow the user to play Atari 2600 games, hence the "VCS" designation. As you may recall, the Atari 2600 was orginally branded as the Atari VCS (Video Computer System) when it was first released in the late 1970s.
We do not know much about the console except that it will use a customized AMD central processor and Radeon hardware for video. It has modern ports like HDMI, USB, Ethernet and a SD card slot. Whoever designed the look of the box should get an award for making something that harks back to the 2600 days and yet looks modern. Interestingly, the console will come with both an old school 2600 controller and a modern controller which looks like a clone of the Xbox controller. This suggests you'll be playing retro and modern games on this.
I have to ask, is there room for another modern video game console? Xbox & PlayStation are dominating that space. Nintendo created a niche space for themselves with their portable console the Switch. The Switch can play games with the look & feel of last generation's consoles, but with the ability to play on the go, people don't mind if it doesn't look quite as good as the latest games from the two titans. So how does Atari make a space for itself? The video game community is not a big one as it is and itself can be broken down into smaller groups. Will the retrogaming folks be a large number that it can turn a profit for Atari with the new VCS? The talks of a $200 to $300 price point makes this a tough sell for me. Unless this thing does something really special besides playing retro video games and/or modern games, this is going to go nowhere fast. Is it possible that this console will get modern games you can't find on either Sony or Microsoft's consoles? Only time will tell.
What do you think this console needs to make it sell?
The problem for the new Atari developers is that they have to literally compete with a $35 piece of hardware that can play pretty much anything that they have announced or even hinted at, in the form of the Raspberry Pi 3. For well under $100, you can have a retro gaming platform that covers everything up to Nintendo 64 with pretty much no problem.
That includes controllers.
Unless they can come up with something that can compete with that and encourage people to go with their ready-made solution over something that requires a little tinkering, they aren't going to do very well.
Coming out with a $70-$100 piece of kit that includes the core console and a couple of controllers with a raft of included games and networking support? They probably couldn't make enough to supply the demand. Unfortunately, that's not what I expect them to do.
There's no way I would ever pay $300 to play Atari 2600 games.
Those games were pretty much all terrible.
There's a few goodies. The theory is that it will play ALL the old Atari console and computer games. Even so, there has to be more to it to justify that price point. The makers are being a tad too secretive.
Based on what I've heard, I would be interested. Not sure I would be interested in crowd funding it though which is what they seem to be going for.
I'm with you, I just can't pony up that kind of money unless this thing is really special. Someone mentioned the possibility of recreating the old games in a modern world, basically modernizing them. Not sure that would be enough for me.