Inside Atari’s plan to reinvent itself, again

polygon.com:

In 2022, Atari will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In so doing, the company’s new boss, Wade Rosen, tells Polygon he is determined to turn a badly tarnished gaming icon into something relevant to the present, and to the future.

Rosen took the top position at the company in March, and soon announced a new focus for the business: modern versions of the classics that made Atari famous. In recent months, the company has released “Recharged” versions of Centipede, Black Widow, and Asteroids, all of which are lively and fast, with jaunty electronic soundtracks. Rosen says more revamped classics are planned for 2022.

His ambitions mark a shift away from Atari’s previous model of brand licensing, including a bizarre motley of partnerships and offshoots for hotel chains, casinos, movie productions, and cryptocurrency — though the company remains involved with many of those, leaving it with ill-fitting legacy deals and fans skeptical of the new direction.

Rosen’s immediate plan centers around upgraded retro games, and in the longer term, he says he wants to turn Atari back into a game publishing powerhouse. He’s frank about the limitations of a company that currently employs around 25 people, though: “It’s much easier for us to make [retro updates] than to make a massive open-world 100-hour gameplay experience.”

At 35 years of age, Rosen is too young to have experienced many of Atari’s original games when they were fresh and new. But he talks a good game. During our 90-minute interview, he spends at least half an hour reminiscing about his favorite games.

Raised in a small town in Minnesota, Rosen grew up with parents who believed that video games were a waste of time. Finally, and after much badgering, he says, “they