The story of the new game console carrying the classic Atari brand is evolving like many other crowd-funded projects. It has now been delayed further to late 2019 following the decision to use more powerful hardware.
Atari game console delays
Announced as ‘Ataribox’ back in 2017, the upcoming game console has since been renamed to Atari VCS. The company launched the project on Indiegogo in 2017 but backers are still waiting for it to emerge.
In a blog post, the company says that Atari VCS has been delayed to late 2019 – one and a half year later than the initial launch date – following the decision to use different hardware from AMD.
- “ The North American schedule is now targeting end of 2019 for delivery. With this decision to upgrade, and the resulting modifications to the system architecture and software that are needed, the VCS team now projects a new delivery window for the Atari VCS at the end of 2019 for Indiegogo backers,” the company wrote in the blog post.
Instead of the AMD ‘Bristol Ridge’ hardware that was originally selected for the game console, Atari VCS will now be “powered by a 14nm AMD processor featuring high-performance Radeon Vega graphics architecture and two “Zen” CPU cores”.
AMD’s Ryzen chip is said to be faster, cooler and more efficient. The new hardware will also natively support DRM-protected 4K video content from the likes of Netflix and HBO, the company said.
- “While additional specifications about the new AMD processor will be announced closer to launch, be assured that the new AMD Ryzen processor is a much better fit for this project in multiple ways and will further enable the Atari VCS to deliver on its promise to be a unique and highly flexible platform for creators,” the company said.
So, we are now looking at a late 2019 launch window in the US for the Atari VCS game console. The company did not provide an update on the European schedule. Sony and Microsoft are rumored to launch new Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2020 or 2021.
- Source: Atari
