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Atari

United States Founded 1972

The original Atari, Inc., founded in Sunnyvale, California, in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was a pioneer in arcade games, home video game consoles, and home computers. The company's products, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, helped define the electronic entertainment industry from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. Negotiating until close to midnight on July 1, 1984, Jack Tramiel purchased the home computing and game console divisions of Atari for $240 million in promissory notes and stocks. Warner gained a 20% stake in Tramel Technologies, which was renamed Atari Corporation. Warner retained the arcade division, continuing it under the name Atari Games, but sold it to Namco in 1985. Warner also sold the Ataritel division to Mitsubishi.

Atari at a Glance

Atari stands as one of the most significant names in gaming history, having operated continuously from 1971 through at least 2026. Founded in Sunnyvale, California, by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, the company helped define the electronic entertainment industry during the 1970s and mid-1980s with products like Pong and the Atari 2600. The organization has a massive catalog on PlayPile containing 214 titles, split between 175 as a publisher and 161 as a developer. Their work spans over five decades, though their output volume fluctuated wildly. They released 92 games in the 1970s and 72 more in the 1980s. Activity dropped sharply in the 1990s with only three titles. The company saw a slight resurgence in the 2000s with 20 games, followed by a quiet period in the 2010s with just seven releases. Recent years show a small increase, with ten games released so far in the 2020s. Their genre focus is heavily rooted in Arcade work, which accounts for 125 of their total entries. Shooter games make up 53 titles, while Sport and Racing genres follow with 41 and 28 games respectively. They also have a presence in Simulator, Puzzle, Adventure, Strategy, Platform, and Indie categories. Platform support is dominated by legacy systems. Atari has 92 arcade releases and 83 for the Atari 2600. Modern platforms like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch each host nine titles, while PC and other older consoles hold fewer entries. Quality across their catalog is mixed to poor. Out of 69 rated titles on PlayPile, the average IGDB score sits at 56 out of 100. Only two games achieved a great rating above 80. The majority fall into the mixed category with 32 titles scoring between 40 and 59, and 11 titles are considered poor with scores below 40. High points include Adventure of Samsara from 2025, which holds a 90/100 rating. Classic hits like Asteroids from 1979 (81.6), Pong from 1972 (78.9), and Battlezone from 1980 (78.3) also maintain strong scores. Recent releases include Breakout Beyond in March 2025, which scored 76.5, and Golden Tee Arcade Classics in July 2025 with a 75 score. Upcoming projects scheduled for 2025 and 2026 include Bubsy 3D: ReFurBished and Bubsy 4D.

215
Total Games
56.4
Avg Rating
1971
First Release
2026
Latest Release

Genre Breakdown

Arcade
37%
Shooter
15%
Sport
12%
Racing
8%
Simulator
6%

Platform Spread

Arcade
92
Atari 2600
83
PC (Microsoft Windows)
21
Atari 8-bit
13
Atari 5200
12

Release Timeline

1970s
92
1980s
72
1990s
3
2000s
20
2010s
7
2020s
11

Rating Distribution

3
80-100
24
60-79
32
40-59
11
0-39