Atari Tried Crypto Tokens and Casino-Style Hotels. Then It Went Back to Pong

For a few years at the start of the 2020s, the company whose logo once sat on millions of home consoles was trying to become a crypto business. Atari, the name behind Pong, Asteroids and the Atari 2600, launched its own cryptocurrency, signed up for branded hotels in Dubai, Gibraltar and Spain, and split itself in two: Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain.

By April 2022 almost all of that was gone. Atari cancelled the licences behind the token and the hotels, dissolved its blockchain joint venture, cut its ties with its former boss's crypto firm, and said it would focus on something it was much better known for: its past.

The Atari Token

The story starts in 2020, when Atari launched the Atari Token in an equal partnership with the ICICB Group. ICICB held a licence to run an online gaming platform that used cryptocurrencies, including the new token. The idea was to turn one of the most recognisable brands in gaming into a currency that could be used across games and online services.

At the time, Atari was led by Fred Chesnais, a long-time executive who had steered the company through years of financial trouble. Blockchain looked like a way to get value from the brand without the cost of making big new games.

Hotels, a split and a new boss

In March 2021, the partnership grew in an unexpected direction. Atari extended its deal with ICICB to develop Atari-branded hotels, with the first sites planned in Dubai, Gibraltar and Spain. It was part of a wider push to license the Atari name for experiences far beyond games.

The company was changing at the top, too. In March 2020, Wade Rosen, founder of the publisher Ziggurat Interactive, had become chairman after buying a large stake from Chesnais. In April 2021, Rosen replaced Chesnais as chief executive and reorganised Atari into two divisions: Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain. Chesnais stepped down later in 2021 but stayed on as a consultant through his own company, Crypto Blockchain Industries.

The clean break

The unwinding was quick. In March 2022, Atari ended all its ties with Chesnais and Crypto Blockchain Industries. In April 2022, it terminated every licence agreement with ICICB, including the hotel licences, and dissolved the blockchain joint venture. The company described the existing Atari Token as "unlicensed" and said a replacement would be developed.

Later that year, Rosen said Atari had dropped its cryptocurrency efforts as part of a shift toward retro gaming. Instead of tokens, Atari began buying studios that specialise in bringing old games back to life, and releasing collections and remasters of its own classics.

By the numbers

• 2020: Atari Token launched with ICICB Group.
• 3: planned Atari hotel locations under the ICICB deal (Dubai, Gibraltar, Spain).
• April 2021: Atari split into Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain.
• April 2022: all ICICB licences terminated and the blockchain venture dissolved.

Why it matters

Atari's crypto years are a small story compared with Wemade or Square Enix: no hit game was built on the token, and no big studio was sold to fund it. But they are a clean example of a pattern that ran through the industry in 2021: a famous brand looking for new money, a crypto partner offering a shortcut, and a quick retreat once the market turned and the deals looked risky.

What makes Atari's case unusual is how complete the retreat was. Many companies kept a blockchain project alive on life support. Atari cut its ties, cancelled the licences and went back to what made people love the brand in the first place: games, many of them older than most of the people playing them.

This article is not investment advice.