A millennial, Rosen grew up with consoles like the Super Nintendo more than the Atari 2600, but remembers playing the console’s games in a PC bundle. Rosen took the CEO helm at Atari in April 2021. Making old games playable is important, but it’s only half the battle.
It’s been a hot topic in recent years for a variety of reasons, from Nintendo shuttering its old eShops to Sony struggling to bring native ports of PS3 games to PS5. When players talk about game preservation, the conversation question largely revolves around porting games to other systems. In speaking with current Atari leadership, the company is trying to tackle a complicated preservation question that few game companies seem to be concerned about: How do you preserve the legacy of video games? Physical history The strategy isn’t a Hail Mary nostalgia play. Classics like Asteroids and Breakout are receiving modern makeovers, lost games are making a comeback, and Atari is even producing new cartridges that actually work on a 2600 console. With that pivot, Atari is returning to its roots by putting an emphasis on its history. The iconic game maker is in the midst of a transformation led by CEO Wade Rosen.
It’s easy to port a game it’s much harder to preserve what it felt like to play it when it first came out.įor Atari, that challenge is paramount. It lacks the physicality of holding an old joystick or the mystique of carefully studying the key art of the cartridge before I slot it in. I can head to any emulation site and play Pitfall!, but it isn’t the same. That experience isn’t easily replicated decades later.
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