For years now, many fans have asked Atari to produce a new console of some sort. It now appears that they are finally preparing to respond by killing two birds with one stone. They released a teaser video on June 8, 2017 which immediately sparked up the interest of many gamers and developers. A week later, the Atari CEO Fred Chesnais explained that the new product in their video, called Ataribox is a game console. He described it as under development and based on personal computer configurations.
In July 2017, Atari published pictures of the early Ataribox development model. The visual aspect of the design is said to take influence from the Atari VCS, which was released in 1977. The case even features real wood. On September 26, 2017, they published pictures of their current prototype. They also gave a preview of the hardware that will be included in the design.
The Ataribox will include "an AMD customized processor, with Radeon Graphics technology." Atari also claimed that the console will ship with a Linux based operating system. They suggested that this console will be an open development platform for all third parties unlike "most TV devices." The console will ship with "Atari retro games pre-loaded, and current titles from a range of studios."
There will probably still be some time before the Ataribox is available. Details about their funding and expected shipping date were included in their latest preview, but they weren't too specific. They will start a crowdfunding campaign "this fall" on Indiegogo. Their suggested plan is to ship "late Spring 2018." The price is predicted to be between $249 to $299. Pricing will depend on "specific editions and memory configurations."
