Atari Drops F2P and Mobile for Premium and Blockchain Games – Play to Earn

Atari Gaming is restructuring its business to focus on premium and blockchain gaming. It will wind down or sell off existing mobile free-to-play games. The new focus is to create meaningful gaming moments, which they believe is more achievable by focusing on premium games. Earlier this year, Atari announced a new blockchain division, which remains a primary focus for the company.

Atari recently announced a renewed focus on premium games for PCs and consoles, including their new blockchain division. Gamesindustry.biz reported this earlier this week. It’s unclear how the blockchain division will be integrated with the new premium titles. We can only hope that there will be some crossover projects.

“Our intent with any gaming experience is to provide accessible and joyful moments of meaningful play,” said Wade J. Rosen, Atari’s recently appointed CEO. “That’s the core of Atari and what binds our history with our future. To that end, we feel that premium gaming is better representative of this type of gaming experience and the Atari DNA.”

Most of Atari’s free-to-play efforts will close. However, successful free-to-play projects that already have an existing user base might survive the cut. It’s clear the company believes that free-to-play mobile games are not providing gamers meaningful play. The company also cites increased competition and marketing costs as a reason to step away from F2P mobile games.

Atari’s new mission is to deliver premium games to all platforms. The first game from this new effort is set to arrive within the current fiscal year, which will end on March 31, 2022. However, there are no details yet available for the upcoming game. When Rosen took over as CEO in April, Atari was restructured into Atari Gaming and Atari Blockchain.

What is Atari Blockchain?

The Atari Blockchain division focuses on developing the Atari token, which serves as digital payment for content with its blockchain-enabled Atari VCS gaming console. They also want third-party platforms to embrace the ATRI token as well.

“Atari will continue to evaluate opportunities in blockchain gaming, NFTs, and blockchain-based online worlds,” they continue citing “the immense possibilities of crypto and blockchain-enabled games.”

Atari announced the Atari Blockchain division in April 2021, but we haven’t heard much from them since then. However, we expect to hear plenty of exciting news coming out of Atari Blockchain. The former CEO Frederic Chesnais will lead the new blockchain division, sending a clear signal that this is an important new aspect of their business. Chesnais is the one who introduced Atari into the crypto and blockchain world.

Will Atari make history again by creating premium blockchain-enabled games? We certainly hope so, but only time will tell.