1993 was an interesting year for the world. Bill Clinton began his presidency, Czechoslovakia split into two countries and Atari released their last console, the Atari Jaguar. Since then, Atari’s hold on the videogame market has continued to dwindle, culminating in a bankruptcy filing back in 2013. Atari bounced back recently with a renewed focus on social casino games, but the company now looks to achieve the nearly impossible: They want to create a new console.
The company first released a teaser that showed off some sleek hardware—inexplicably sporting woodgrain, of all things—powered by a big, fat Atari logo. And now, in an exclusive interview with Venturebeat, Atari’s CEO Fred Chesnais has officially confirmed the new console: “We’re back in the hardware business,” he said.
There aren’t any details yet on how powerful the new console will be or what kind of games it’ll come with, but we do know that it’s PC-based. It’s also quite likely to fail, given the domination of Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, especially when one considers those companies renewed commitment to back-catalogue compatibility, it’s hard to imagine a Atari making any real headway. They just won’t have much to offer that other, more-established consoles don’t currently.
But who knows? Maybe there’s an untapped section of the market that’s been holding off on buying a console until they made one that matched the wood paneling on their walls.
Watch Atari’s announcement teaser below.