At the start of the year, the holding company that currently owns the rights to license out the Atari name and logo announced a line of Atari-themed gaming hotels with some help from the producer of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film reboots. Now we get to see renders, courtesy of architecture and design firm Gensler, of what the "mothership" Atari Hotel in Las Vegas will look like: Cyberpunk concept art of a dystopian mall tower.
This seems normal for Las Vegas, but a second Atari Hotel has also been announced for Phoenix, and management agency GSD Group has plans for more in Austin, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.
The hotels will apparently feature "state of the art amenities for esports fans and content creators." There will be retro arcades, virtual and augmented reality games, a merch store, themed restaurants and bars—including a nightclub and a speakeasy, for that authentic prohibition-era Atari experience. I imagine it decorated with the fake wood paneling that lined the original Atari 2600 console.
"Like Atari's legacy in innovation, Atari Hotels is infusing synthetic reality into every aspect of the hotel, creating an immersive hospitality and gaming experience for our guests," said Shelly Murphy, managing partner of GSD Group. "From our virtual interactive world to the physical locations, every element of Atari Hotels will offer a unique and authentic experience for everyone."
In other Atari news, earlier this month it was announced the modernized Atari VCS consoles first available for preorder in 2018 would finally be sent out to backers of the project. Over on the subreddit, it seems like nobody has received one yet.
