Beloved video game company Atari plans to open eight hotels in the US, complete with game-themed venues and studios.
This week Atari announced that it will put its name to eight hotels across the US – in Phoenix, Chicago, Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose. Construction is slated to begin later this year on the Phoenix hotel, the first destination. According to a press release, the "one-of-a-kind video game-themed destination" will offer fully-immersive experiences with VR and AR games, and select locations will feature state-of-the-art venues and studios to host e-sports events.
Additional amenities include the usual suspects like co-working spaces, fine-dining restaurants, bars, movie theatres, bakeries, meeting rooms and gyms. Atari says it will position itself as a destination not just for gamers, but for families and business travellers too.
Producer of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film franchise reboot, Napoleon Smith III, is heading the design, alongside Shelly Murphy's GSD Group. "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," said Smith. "Let’s face it, how cool will it be to stay inside an Atari?!”
Atari launched in the 1970s and became a household name after developing the wildly popular electronic tennis game Pong (the first-ever commercially successful video game). In the 1980s it reigned supreme over the video game market with its Atari 2600, beloved of Gen Xers everywhere. Today, the US-born and French-based company manages classic video games such as Asteroids and Centipede.
"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," said Atari's CEO, Fred Chesnais.
