The old is gone and the new is not coming. Where does Atari Web3 go without tokens?

By Zen, PANews

A few days ago, the old arcade game company Atari (Atari) released its performance report as of March 31, 2023. The company had a net loss of 9.5 million euros in the 2023 fiscal year, terminated the license related to the ATRI token, and launched a new Web3 Ecological plan "Atari X" and integrate Atari Web3 into unified operation. Atari noted that despite unfavorable blockchain market conditions, the company's Web3 revenue was only €900,000 lower than in the previous fiscal year, which was better than expected. Atari said that it will continue to implement its Web3 strategic roadmap and plans to launch the Web3 technology center "Atari Club", and will also expand more blockchain and Web3 partnerships.

Atari now positions games, licensing, hardware, and Web3 activities as the company's four major business lines, but its Web3 revenue composition is still relatively single, mainly from the sale of digital assets such as NFT.

ATRI Token Fell Through Twists and Twists

In fact, Atari is the first batch of traditional game companies to set foot in the encryption industry and adopt blockchain technology. Back in 2018, the Atari Group licensed the brand to Infinity Networks, Ltd (“INL”), hoping to create the Atari Token and a decentralized platform to provide all forms of entertainment from video games to movies and music. digital entertainment. However, due to the slow progress of the project, Atari finally terminated the agreement with INL and turned to cooperate with ICICB Group in Gibraltar. At the beginning of 2020, it stated that it would launch ATRI tokens and Pong tokens with the same name as its classic game Pong.

The public offering of ATRI on the Bitcoin.com exchange in early November 2020 saw issues including order processing issues, funds not being credited, and withdrawal delays of up to 16 hours. By the time public sale participants get their tokens, the price of ATRI has been halved. At the time, Atari stated that the mission of the Atari Token is to "bring decentralization and versatility to the video game and interactive entertainment industry," that ATRI would be used across multiple video games and other aspects of interactive entertainment, and announced that the online multiplayer The game Karma the Game of Destiny will use ATRI as the in-game currency for purchases and transactions.

The initial coin offering is full of conditions, causing strong dissatisfaction among investors. Due to its lack of sufficient control and say in the management of ATRI tokens, in April 2022, Atari announced the termination of all agreements with ICICB Group and its subsidiaries. The Atari Chian and ATRI tokens and their associated websites previously created in cooperation with ICICB Group are no longer licensed, and ICICB no longer has the right to represent Atari or its sub-brands in any way. Atari has taken a snapshot of the holdings of ATRI tokens, and token holders can participate in the exchange of "coming tokens" after presenting their ATRI tokens in the future.

Difficult production of new token projects

The termination of the partnership spelled the defeat of the ATRI token, but at this time Atari remains enthusiastic about the future of blockchain-related initiatives. It announced after parting ways with its predecessor that it will create, distribute and separately manage a new proprietary token with a focus on games, communities and utilities. In May 2022, Atari launched Atari X, a plan to integrate Atari's blockchain interests into a unified operation entirely under the responsibility of Atari Corporation. Based on the development needs of We3, Atari has continued to establish strategic partnerships with companies in the encryption field, including The Sandbox, Nifty Labs, Co:Create, etc., and these companies also play a certain role in the processing of their related tokens.

But the plan couldn't keep up with the changes, and the new tokens eventually died.

A few days ago, Atari issued a token update announcement, saying that due to changes and developments in the regulatory and legal environment related to cryptocurrencies, its original plan to launch a new proprietary utility token was forced to be revised, saying that it would not launch a new Atari Token. As Atari's main development partner, Nifty Labs has promoted the snapshot and claim of ATRI tokens, actively participated in the development of Atari's 50th anniversary NFT series, and was once the main developer of Atari's new token project. Its utility, governance, and token economics are explored together. Now that the new token project is stillborn, Nifty Labs has also been forced to stop its cooperation on the new token project.

As for compensation, Atari stated that it will provide each eligible ATRI holder identified in the snapshot on April 18, 2022 with the claim of a fixed number of third-party SAND tokens. However, due to the limited number of SAND tokens, this claim will not be one-to-one, and the ratio of SAND tokens to ATRI tokens will be determined according to the total number of claims. The claims program begins on September 1, 2023 and runs for two weeks. Atari stated that ATRI holders can continue to trade their ATRI tokens freely, and said that it does not plan to sell the 259 million ATRI tokens owned by the team (approximately $180,000 as of press time) before December 16 this year. According to the data, the circulating market value of ATRI exceeded the 200 million US dollar mark in April 2021, but as of press time, its circulating market value was only about 980,000 US dollars, and the token price hit a record low, with a drop of about 20% in the past week.

Stick to Atari X and will reopen Atari Club

After repeated battles and defeats, Atari is still unwilling to give up the Web3 strategy. After giving up its obsession with tokens, it still firmly believes that blockchain will continue to develop into an important part of their business, and regards it as an important part of their business. Create new ways to engage and collaborate with brand partners, players and fans. Among them, Atari X, which was launched in May last year, is its core project betting on the Web3 business. They seem to realize that Web3 games are the most effective way to participate and build communities around their brands.

Atari will be the first company to use the Co:Create platform to create tokens for Web3 games, and with the launch of the Co:Create platform, Atari can use Web3 to expand its ecosystem and foster deeper community connections. Co:Create completed a $25 million seed round last May, backed by A16z crypto, VaynerFund, Packy McCormick's Not Boring Capital, Amy Wu, and the team behind RTFKT and Tessera (formerly fractional.art).

Co:Create's technology provides the building blocks of token rewards and utility, as well as ongoing support to help projects create token schemes that meet community expectations. With Co:Create, anyone can deploy EVM-compatible smart contracts via a no-code dashboard, launching tokens on testnets using just a web browser and a connected wallet. The contract is completely owned by the project party, and the platform is free to use. Additionally, Co:Create will add new features to its platform, including token rewards and utility contract extensions, role-based contract licensing, and other developer tools.

The next big thing that Atari X currently knows is that Atari "recalls" the Atari Club, which the company first launched in the 1980s, and the new Club will become the center of the Atari X community. It fuses nostalgia, gaming and underlying Web3 technology to unite passionate gamers of all generations in a common ecosystem, with exclusive prizes, merchandise and experiences.

According to the annual report, Atari has conducted a review and forecast of liquidity risks for all its activities in terms of games, hardware, licensing and Web3. Without any external financing, its liquidity can support Atari in the coming year Activities are planned to continue. Atari's outlook on Web3 strategy currently only continues to develop Atari's Web3 ecosystem under Atari X, and establish partnerships and collaborations with leading blockchain and Web3 partners, and does not disclose the development of Web3 game projects.

As the first batch of traditional game companies participating in the Web3 industry, Atari, which seeks change and development, should come up with something real.