Atari is Ditching Atari Crypto Token

over 2 years ago

If you weren't aware - Atari ventured into the crypto world in 2020 and it was a complete shit show.

How NOT to revolutionize the gaming industry

Atari, one of the most well known gaming companies in the world and a true OG in the gaming space... Tried to "revolutionize gaming" back in 2020 by creating a crypto token called AtariToken ATRI and launching its own DeFi platform. They thought that they could create a unique use-case for DeFi by marrying it with gaming and creating an investment launchpad. This would allow users to invest in new games launched via the platform and get a share of future revenue. Sounds pretty cool honestly.

The public AtariToken sale was an absolute disaster resulting in investors losing 85% before they were even able to get their tokens. There were numerous issues that contributed to the failed launch such as ordering issues, people not receiving tokens, and insanely long withdrawal times. By the time investors got access to their tokens they purchased for 25 cents each, they were only worth 4 cents. OUCH!!

After a rocky road where we saw the token hit all time highs around 60 cents, the price is sitting just above 1 cent at the time of writing this post. Talk about a loss for anyone who bought even at pre-sale prices of 8 cents. This "utility token" was met with a lot of positivity at frist, but after the shit launch situation and lack of development, the sentiment changed.

Hell, even Soulja Boy was hyped over this thing and announced that he was the company's new CEO. Obviously this came out to be fake news, and just a way for him to catch some buzz on the internet. He even went as far as to say that as the new owner of the company he was looking to sell it for $140 million. How fuckin delusional is this guy? lol

He even got mad when Atari made a statement that the CEO was still Wade Rosen. He went on Instagram live flashing this supposed contract to own the company. It turns out that the contract was a promotional contract where he was going to be paid in ATRI tokens for promoting the project. This obviously generated a lot of buzz not only for the has-been rapper but for the Atari Token itself. Nothing like some internet beef to pump up numbers.

News broke a few days ago that Atari is ditching the Atari Token and partnership to create a new token. After all, there's nothing that they could have done to save this dead token and project. So they cut ties and have decided to move forward with their blockchain gaming dreams by creating their own proprietary token. They took a snapshot of all ATRI token balances on the 18th and plan to implement a swap where users can exchange the old Atari Tokens for the new ones (if and when they launch).

So what will happen with the existing Atari Token project? Clearly they can't continue using the Atari name or branding... So it's either kill the project as a whole or do a major re-brand that will probably not do too much for them, realistically. Apparently they had hotel and casino licenses, but I don't think they will be able to do much with that.

I love that when crypto projects lose their hype, these major corporations think the best thing to do is launch a new one. If it didn't work the first time, why would it work the second time? The truth is that it doesn't have to actually work. All they are worried about is getting as much money from investors as possible. Will they do a token sale along side the swapping? Probably. We shall see. Either way - RIP Atari Token.