When Atari Edge was launched in December of 2017, our first article posted was the "Top Atari Products For Your Christmas List" article which featured the Atari Speakerhat at the top of our list. The Speakerhat was essentially the launch of Atari Life, bringing Atari as a lifestyle brand to the forefront of the companies future plans.
Over the past two years, Atari has continued releasing great console, PC, and mobile games on all major platforms, and the company plans to release additional games in 2020. During this time, Atari has also been developing and bringing to production their first console since the Atari Jaguar. The Atari VCS brings more to the living room than video games, expanding the system to other forms of entertainment, including an open platform for adding additional operating systems, as well as the ability to be creative in the use of the system beyond the gaming console.
Pushing the company beyond gaming, and pushing the Atari name further into a global lifestyle brand was a plan expressed by Atari when they launched Atari Life, and their latest move, which we covered on 1/25/2020 here, is another example of the future that Atari wants to build for itself.
Atari's latest project has gained much media attention, and for good reason, as they venture into launching the first ever video game themed hotel, a deal with GSD Group, a leading innovation and strategy agency, led by founder Shelly Murphy and partner Napoleon Smith III. GSD has acquire the rights to build the video game-themed Atari Hotels in the United States, with the first location breaking ground in Phoenix, AZ later this year.
Napoleon Smith III is the producer of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise reboot, that has found great success with his vision. Smith and Shelly Murphy’s GSD Group along with True North Studio, a leading Phoenix, AZ-based real estate developer will develop the first Atari- branded hotel. True North Studio is also currently working alongside GSD Group with Steve Wozniak’s Woz Innovation Foundation, bringing to the forefront the amount of creativity and innovation that is coming together to launch Atari Hotels.
“ "We are thrilled to partner with GSD Group and True North Studio to build the first-ever Atari branded hotels across the United States. Together we’ll build a space that will be much more than just a place to stay,” said Fred Chesnais, CEO of Atari. “Atari is an iconic global brand that resonates with people of all ages, countries, cultures and ethnic backgrounds and we cannot wait for our fans and their families to enjoy this new hotel concept.”
Napoleon Smith III and Shelly Murphy also share the same excitement about the project as Atari CEO Fred Chesnais and his team, expressing their anticipation for bringing the first hotel of it's kind to the market, not only in Phoenix, AZ, but the other cities planned for future development.
“ “When creating this brand-new hotel concept, we knew that Atari would be the perfect way to give guests the ‘nostalgic and retro meets modern’ look and feel we were going for. Let’s face it, how cool will it be to stay inside an Atari?!” said Napoleon Smith III.
“ “Atari Hotels will be the first of their kind in the U.S., offering gamers of all ages the ultimate in immersive entertainment and in every aspect of gaming. We’re excited to be working on this project with such great partners and to bring a big win to Arizona,” added Shelly Murphy.
The first of the Atari Hotels is planned to break ground in 2020 in Phoenix, AZ with initial additional hotels planned in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose. For more information about Atari Hotels, visit www.atarihotels.com.
As Atari's latest venture moves forward, it will be interesting to see what other cities throughout the country and around the world could get an Atari Hotel, as well as what other projects the video game themed hotel could lead to. We might be thinking big on this one, but an Atari theme park would be a great way to merge nostalgia and modern gaming for all ages.
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