Atari-branded hotels are headed to 8 US cities, company says. Here’s the list
Retro, video game-centric hotels are coming to a handful of cities across the United States.
The first Atari Hotel is slated to start construction in Phoenix, Arizona, later this year — and seven others are planned in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose, the video gaming company announced this week.
Atari is creating the hotels in partnership with Napoleon Smith III, producer of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film reboot, and Shelly Murphy’s GSD Group, the company said. Phoenix-based developer True North Studio is set to develop the first location in Arizona.
“Together we’ll build a space that will be much more than just a place to stay,” Atari CEO Fred Chesnais said in a statement Monday. “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.”
The Atari branding will apparently be obvious from the outside: A mock-up of the design that the company released reveals that the side of the structure will feature the company’s iconic, vaguely A-shaped logo.
“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,” Smith said. “Let’s face it, how cool will it be to stay inside an Atari?!”
Atari said in a news release that its new hotels will “level up hotel entertainment with fully immersive experiences for every age and gaming ability, including the latest in VR and AR (Virtual and Augmented Reality). Select hotels will also feature state-of-the-art venues and studios to accommodate esports events.”
“Atari Hotels will be the first of their kind in the U.S., offering gamers of all ages the ultimate in immersive entertainment and in every aspect of gaming,” Murphy said.
Atari’s hotel venture hopes to take advantage of the growing global gaming industry, driven by what the company estimates are 2.5 billion gamers around the world, who spent more than 152 billion on games last year. (There are roughly 7.6 billion people in the world, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.)
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Chesnais said, according to Fortune. “I always wanted to make an amusement park, and hotels could be the first step.”
Fortune reports that “deals like Atari’s hotel arrangement demonstrate how successful licensing out its nostalgic brand has been. As part of the deal, the company will receive an up-front payment of $600,000 as well as 5% of the revenue from the hotels.”
The hotels will aim to attract families and business travelers alike, according to Fortune.
This story was originally published January 27, 2020 at 10:21 PM with the headline "Atari-branded hotels are headed to 8 US cities, company says. Here’s the list."
