1. Rollercoaster Tycoon Games
2. Roller Coaster Tycoon Shirt

Roller Coaster T-Shirts from Spreadshirt Unique designs Easy 30 day return policy Shop Roller Coaster T-Shirts now! Men's Organic V-Neck T-Shirt. RollerCoaster Tycoon is a series of simulation video games about building and managing an amusement park.Each game in the series challenges players with open-ended amusement park management and development, and allowing players to construct and customize their own unique roller coasters and other thrill rides.

RollerCoaster Tycoon World™ Global Park Creation Contest

Official Rules

The following promotion is intended for participants in the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (excluding Quebec province), Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom only and shall be governed by U.S. laws. Do not proceed if you are not a legal resident of one of the foregoing jurisdictions currently located and residing in such jurisdiction. Further eligibility restrictions are contained in the Official Rules below. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.

Description: The “Rollercoaster Tycoon World™ Global Park Creation Contest” (“Contest”) begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time (“ET”) on May 27, 2016 and ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on June 26th, 2016 (“Contest Period”). Sponsor’s computer is the official time keeping device for this Contest. Entries will be judged on or about June 26, 2016 to identify four (4) winners from each of the five (5) categories as listed below:

1. Open – Build the park of your dreams! This category is for open-ended park creations, without references to real-world parks.
2. New York’s Central Park – Build a park inspired by New York City’s famous Central Park using in-game and UGC elements! Read the judging criteria below for additional details.
3. London’s Hyde Park – Build a park inspired by London’s historic Hyde Park using in-game and UGC elements! Read the judging criteria below for additional details.
4. Amsterdam’s Vondelpark – Build a park inspired by Amsterdam’s relaxing Vondelpark using in-game and UGC elements! Read the judging criteria below for additional details.
5. Munich’s English Gardens – Build a park inspired by Munich’s calming English Gardens using in-game and UGC elements! Read the judging criteria below for additional details.

This is a total of five (5) Grand Prize winners and fifteen (15) runner-ups, as further described below in the Prizes section. By participating in the Contest, each entrant unconditionally accepts and agrees to comply with and abide by these Official Rules and the decisions of RCTO Productions, LLC, 475 Park Avenue South, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016 (the “Sponsor”) whose decision shall be final and legally binding in all respects.

Eligibility: This Contest is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada (excluding Quebec province), Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and United Kingdom who are physically located and residing therein and who are at least eighteen (18) years of age at the time of entry (each an “Entrant” or, collectively, “Entrants”). Sponsor, and its employees, shareholders, officers, directors, agents, parent companies, affiliates (including without limitation Atari, Inc.), divisions, subsidiaries, agents, representatives and advertising agencies (collectively, “Contest Entities”) are not eligible to participate in the Contest. Immediate Family Members and Household Members of such individuals are also not eligible to enter or win. For purposes of the Contest, “Household Members” shall mean those people who share the same residence at least three months a year and “Immediate Family Members” shall mean parents, step-parents, legal guardians, children, stepchildren, siblings, step-siblings, or spouses.

How to Enter:All you need to do is create your best park ever based on the categories you would like to enter. Add all of your coolest coasters, rides and attractions and upload a video showing it off (the “Video”), and send a link of the Video as directed below on or before 6/26/2016 with the subject line for the specific category you wish to enter as noted below:

1. Open – “RCTW Park Creation Contest – Open”
2. United States – “RCTW Park Creation Contest – US”
3. United Kingdom – “RCTW Park Creation Contest – UK”
4. Netherlands – “RCTW Park Creation Contest – NL”
5. Germany – “RCTW Park Creation Contest – DE”

Note that there is no limit on the number of entries. Feel free to enter ALL the categories as many times as you want! The winners will be announced on or about July 5th, and your parks will be shared and promoted throughout the RCTW and Atari social channels. So get out there and get building! Read on for details:

All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. ET on June 26, 2016 to be considered. We will be honoring multiple entries however you may only use one (1) email address to participate in this Contest. Must use the video recording software of your choice and share it to (YouTube/Hitbox/Twitch) and email the link to [email protected] with the subject line “RCTW Park Creation Contest”. Entrants using the foregoing platforms to share a Video agree to abide by the terms of service of YouTube (www.youtube.com/static?gl=GB&template=terms), Hitbox (http://www.hitbox.tv/legal/terms-of-use), and/or Twitch (www.twitch.tv/user/legal), as applicable. The Video must be publicly visible to all audiences. Any individuals appearing in the Video must give consent to include them in the Video. No automated entry devices and/or programs permitted; all such entries will be void. Video duration should be between 1 to 3 minutes; Video should be no longer than 3 minutes in length. Entry may not contain as determined by the Sponsor, in its sole discretion, any content that is:

• sexually explicit or suggestive
• violent or derogatory of any ethnic, racial, gender, religious, professional or age group
• profane or pornographic
• contains nudity
• promotes alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, firearms/weapons (or the use of any of the foregoing)
• promotes any activities that may appear unsafe or dangerous; promotes any particular political agenda or message
• is obscene or offensive; endorses any form of hate or hate group
• defames, misrepresents or contains disparaging remarks about other people or companies
• contains trademarks, logos, or trade dress (such as distinctive packaging or building exteriors/interiors) owned by others (excluding those of Sponsor which will be permitted)
• contains any personal identification such as personal names or e-mail addresses
• contains materials owned or controlled by others (including photographs, sculptures, paintings, and other works of art or images published on or in websites, television, movies or other media)
• contains materials embodying the names, likenesses, voices, or other indicia identifying any person, including, without limitation, celebrities and/or other public or private figures, living or dead
• contains look-alikes of celebrities or other public or private figures, living or deceased; or violates any applicable law.

The Sponsor reserves the right to reject any entry which Sponsor determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, does not meet the above criteria or is otherwise offensive or is not in keeping with the Sponsor’s image and reputation. Sponsor reserves the right to remove any entry without prior notice. By submitting an entry Entrant warrants and represents that he/she and any person or third-party who appears in or who is identifiable in the Video consents to the submission and use of the entry in the Contest and to its use as otherwise set forth herein. By submitting an entry, Entrant hereby grants permission for the entry to be posted on RollerCoaster Tycoon’s website or other websites and used in press materials. Entrant agrees that Released Parties (as defined below) are not responsible for any unauthorized use of entries by third parties. Released Parties do not guarantee the posting of any entry and may remove a posted entry at any time. Entrants agree that they will not use the entry for any other purpose, including, without limitation, posting the entry to any online social networks, without the express written consent of Sponsor in each instance.

Intellectual property: Video must be the original work of the Entrant, may not have been previously published, may not have won previous awards, and must not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy, publicity or other intellectual property or other rights of any person or entity. If the Video contains any material or elements that are not owned by the Entrant (with the exception of RCTW assets that have generally been made available pursuant to, and subject to, Sponsor’s Terms of Use located at https://atari.com/terms-of-service), and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, the Entrant is responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the Video, any and all releases and consents necessary to permit the use and exhibition of the Video by Sponsor in the manner set forth in these Official Rules, including, without limitation, name and likeness permissions from any person who appears in or is identifiable in the Video. Sponsor reserves the right to request proof of these permissions in a form acceptable to Sponsor from any Entrant at any time. Failure to provide such proof upon request may render Video null and void. By submitting a Video, Entrant warrants and represents that he/she and any persons appearing or who are identifiable in the Video consent to the submission and use of the Video in the Contest and to their use as otherwise set forth herein. By submitting a Video, Entrant hereby grants permission for the Video to be posted on Sponsor’s social channels and to otherwise be used as set forth below. Entrant agrees that Released Parties (as defined below) are not responsible for any unauthorized use of Videos by third parties. Released Parties do not guarantee the posting of any Video. Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may disqualify, take down and/or not post a Video if it determines, in its sole discretion, that the Video fails to conform to these Official Rules in any way or otherwise contains unacceptable content, as determined by Sponsor, in its sole discretion. Released Parties (as defined below) are not responsible for late, illegible, incomplete, inaccurate, damaged, irregular, mutilated, forged, falsified, altered, garbled, mechanically or electronically reproduced entries, Videos, links or emails, or for Videos that are tampered with in any way or submitted in any manner which subverts the entry process; all of which will be void.

Grant of Rights to Use Video: Each Entrant agrees and hereby grants to Sponsor and its successors, licensees and assigns an unlimited, perpetual, irrevocable, assignable, royalty-free, fully paid-up license to reproduce, distribute, perform, create derivative works of, edit, alter, display, exhibit, combine with other materials, exploit and otherwise use the Videos, and all elements embodied therein, in any manner and in any and all media now known or hereafter devised throughout the universe for any purpose whatsoever, including, without limitation, for commercial purposes, without compensation or notification to, or permission from, Entrant or any third party and hereby waives any moral rights in the Videos. Without limiting the foregoing, Entrant understands and agrees that if Video is used by Sponsor that Entrant shall not receive any compensation from such use. Sponsor has no obligation to make use of the rights granted herein. ENTRANT REPRESENTS AND WARRANTS THAT HE/SHE HAS ALL RIGHT, TITLE AND INTEREST NECESSARY TO GRANT THE RIGHTS TO SPONSOR SET FORTH HEREIN.

Judging and Winner Selection:Judging will take place after June 26, 2016 in order to select one (5) grand prize winners, five (5) first prize winners, five (5) second prize winner, and five (5) third prize winners from each of the five (5) entry categories. A panel of judges will review and score the entries based on the following category criteria:

Open Category:

• creativity and style
• originality and presentation
• attention to detail

United States Category:

• New York City – Central Park References
• creativity and style
• originality and presentation
• attention to detail

United Kingdom Category:

• London – Hyde Park References
• creativity and style
• originality and presentation
• attention to detail

Netherlands Category:

• Netherlands – Vondelpark References
• creativity and style
• originality and presentation
• attention to detail

German Category:

• Germany – English Gardens References
• creativity and style
• originality and presentation
• attention to detail

The entries with the highest score within each category, as determined by Sponsor in its sole and absolute discretion, will be deemed the potential “Grand Prize Winner” of relevant category, subject to verification of eligibility and compliance with these Official Rules. In the event of a tie, a “tie-breaking” judge will determine the potential Grand Prize winner in his/her sole and absolute discretion based on the judging criteria specified above within the relevant category.

Potential Winner Notification and Verification: Potential winners will be notified by email or by a message to their (YouTube / Hitbox/ Twitch) account and required to sign and return, where legal, an Affidavit (or Declaration) of Eligibility and Liability/Publicity Release (“Affidavit/Release”) within five (5) days of date of prize notification. If any potential winner is considered a minor in his/her jurisdiction of residence, Affidavit/Release must be signed by his/her parent or legal guardian. If any potential winner cannot be contacted within five (5) calendar days of first notification attempt, if any prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, if any potential winner rejects his/her prize or in the event of noncompliance with these rules and requirements, such prize will be forfeited and, at Sponsor’s sole discretion, a runner-up will be notified. Upon prize forfeiture, no compensation will be given.

Prizes: Five (5) Grand Prizes: Each receiving a $200.00 Amazon Gift Card and RollerCoaster Tycoon World T-Shirt. Five (5) First Runner-Ups: $100.00 Amazon Gift Card and RollerCoaster Tycoon World T-shirt. Five (5) Second Runner-Ups: $50.00 Amazon Gift Card and RollerCoaster Tycoon World Shirt. Five (5) Third Runner-Ups: $25.00 Amazon Gift Card and RollerCoaster Tycoon World T-Shirt. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) of Prizes: $2,075.00. Prizes are awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. Prizes are non-transferable. No substitutions or cash redemptions. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of comparable or greater value, in its sole discretion. All costs and expenses associated with prize acceptance and use not specified herein as being provided are the responsibility of winners. Federal, state and local taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the winners. All prize details are at Sponsor’s sole discretion.

Publicity: Except where prohibited by law, participation in the Contest constitutes Entrant’s consent to Sponsor’s and its agents’ or designees’ use of Entrant’s name, likeness, photograph, voice, opinions and/or hometown and state/province for advertising, promotional and other purposes in any and all media, now or hereafter devised, in any manner, worldwide in perpetuity, without further payment or consideration, notification or permission.

Release: By entering, each Entrant agrees to:

(a) comply with and be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are binding and final in all matters relating to this Contest;

(b) release, indemnify and hold harmless the Sponsor, and its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, representatives, advertising, promotion and publicity agencies, and any other organizations responsible for sponsoring, fulfilling, administering, advertising or promoting the Contest, and all of their respective past and present officers, directors, employees, agents, successors, assigns, and representatives (collectively, the “Released Parties”) from and against any and all claims, expenses, and liability, including but not limited to negligence and damages of any kind to persons and property, including but not limited to participation in the Contest, acceptance or use or misuse of any prize.

General Conditions: Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend and/or modify the Contest, if any fraud, technical failures or any other factor impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Contest, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. If terminated, Sponsor may, at its discretion, award the prizes from among all non-suspect, eligible Videos received up to the time of such action using the judging procedure outlined above or as otherwise deemed fair and appropriate by Sponsor. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual it finds to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Contest or to be acting in violation of these Official Rules or any other promotion or in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner and void all associated entries. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Contest may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages (including, without limitation attorneys’ fees) and other remedies from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor’s failure to enforce any term of these Official Rules shall not constitute a waiver of that provision. In the event of a dispute as to any entry, the authorized account holder of the email address used to enter will be deemed to be the Entrant and he/she must comply with these rules. The “authorized account holder” is the natural person assigned an email address by an Internet access provider, online service provider or other organization responsible for assigning email addresses for the domain associated with the submitted address. Potential winners may be required to show proof of being the authorized account holder.

Limitations of Liability: Released Parties are not responsible for:

(a) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by Entrants, printing, typographical errors or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Contest;

(b) lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server, Internet Service Provider (ISP), website, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications or failed computer, satellite, telephone or cable transmissions, lines, or technical failure or jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties;

(c) unauthorized human intervention in any part of the entry process or the Contest;

(d) other errors or difficulties of any kind whether human, mechanical, electronic, computer, network, typographical, printing or otherwise relating to or in connection with the Contest, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with the administration of the Contest, the processing of entries, the judging of Videos, the announcement of the prizes, or in any Contest-related materials;

(e) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from Entrant’s participation in the Contest or receipt or use or misuse of any prize.

Disputes: Entrant agrees that:

(a) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest, or any prizes awarded, other than those concerning the administration of the Contest or the determination of winners, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action;

(b) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Contest, or any prizes awarded, shall be resolved exclusively by the United States District Court located in New York County, New York, or the appropriate New York State Court located in such county (the “Jurisdiction”);

(c) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering this Contest, and in no event will Entrant be permitted to obtain attorneys’ fees or other legal costs;

Rollercoaster Tycoon Games

(d) under no circumstances will Entrant be permitted to obtain awards for, and Entrant hereby waives all rights to claim punitive, incidental and consequential damages and any other damages, other than for actual out-of-pocket expenses, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Jurisdiction: All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, or the rights and obligations of the Entrant and Sponsor in connection with the Contest, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with local laws and regulations of the Jurisdiction, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules, which would cause the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction.

Entrant’s Personal Information: Information collected from Entrants is subject to the Sponsor’s Privacy Policy which is available at https://www.atari.com/privacy-policy

Winners List: The winners of this Contest will be posted on www.rollercoastertycoon.com on or around July 5, 2016.

Sponsor Address: Atari Inc, 475 Park Ave South, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016

When Frederic Chesnais took over the legendary Atari company in 2013, the new owners had about $34 million (€30 million) in debt and about $1 million in revenue. The Atari brand wasn’t much more than a T-shirt and nostalgia licensing entity.

Now, Atari has no debt and $20 million in revenue — and it is profitable, Chesnais said. It is also planning to go back into the hardware business with the 2019 launch of the Atari VCS home console. And Atari is making games again — from original titles like Days of Doom to classic remakes, such as Tempest 4000.

Atari is in better shape than it has been in the past because of the success of its Rollercoaster Tycoon simulation games, including Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic, launched in 2017. It had some good exposure for the Atari brand in the films Ready Player One and Blade Runner 2049.

The company still faces some challenges, including the reboot of the Atari VCS project during the past year. I talked to Chesnais about Atari’s plans, including a recent reorganization, in a recent interview.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: Tell me how you are doing.

Roller Coaster Tycoon Shirt

Above: Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais.

Frederic Chesnais: We’ve been growing like crazy, but we’ve been growing at a very solid pace. A few weeks ago, we announced that we’ll have four business units. Management is not just going to be a one-man show.

The first unit is what we call Atari Games. It’s a bit broader than games. It’s really the software side of Atari, on mobile devices, the Internet, and consoles. It’s also exploiting each and every game in a multimedia environment. We’ll have the merchandising, the licensing, movies, and TV shows. It’s Atari Games in the broad sense, the exploitation of each and every piece of software we own. That’s run by the former head of world studios at Disney. That’s still the bulk of our revenue, 15 percent.

The best-selling game we have is Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch, nearing 200,000 daily active users. We have announced this morning that the game is on pre-order in China. We have a local publisher in Shanghai. They’re waiting for the final green light from the Chinese authorities.

We have two other games worth mentioning. The first is Days of Doom, a zombie survival game on mobile platforms. We’ve initiated social media coverage for that game, but it’s just started. It’s an interesting game, a survival game with some simulation elements. The second game we’re working on with Jonathan Cheban, who has more than three million followers on social media. It’s a very casual game, a match-three. You play against other players, and the winner gets more clients at his food truck. Jonathan has a great reach in the media.

A third game, which is in soft launch right now on the other side of the planet, is Citytopia, a city simulation game. We have good retention numbers already. We’re making some tweaks, but so far, the numbers are pretty good. Once we fix up the tutorial, we should be good to go with that one. That’s where we are on the game side. We’ve had great success with Rollercoaster Tycoon, and we have some interesting games coming up in the next few weeks.

The second business unit is close to games, but it’s a different type of games. That’s Atari Casino. It’s about real money gaming, so it’s not for the U.S. We’re developing in Europe and Africa. We have licensing arrangements, and we’ve generated revenue. The plan for us is to be direct in Europe and Africa next year. Everyone knows the brand. We’ve made multiple contacts in many countries in Europe. People say, “Oh, Atari, they’re still alive?” And if the game is good, they stay. So far, we’ve been pleased with the initial contacts.

I’m in charge of the Atari Casino division. That’s roughly 10 percent of our revenue last year, and we need to grow that more. It’s going to be more than 10 percent in the future. We’re thinking about slot machines, lottery games, scratch games for real money. Everything about social casino, virtual currency, we’ll license that out. Likewise esports, we’ll license that out. We don’t want to do that directly. What we want to do directly is real money games on mobile and Web platforms. I see that as a big division down the road because of the opportunity and the awareness of the brand. Africa is an amazing opportunity, with the number of people playing these types of games, and they all know the brand.

The third division is Atari VCS, which you know well already. We’ll keep pushing. We’ve sold 10,000 pre-order units and raised more than $3 million. We sold most of them at $295. We can get you exact numbers, with accessories and all. Our priority now is to set up distribution, finalize the production, and deliver the units, as well as of course create more content.

Above: Atari VCS home console is coming in 2019.

GamesBeat: Do you have a rough timeline for when you’re going to ship?

Chesnais: 2019. Then, we’ve announced a fourth division, which we call Atari Partners. That’s basically everything else [laughs]. The focus is simple, though. How can we best use the brand to take percentages of other companies and make limited investment in cash? This is a brand license agreement, just a few thousand dollars, give us some shares, and we’ll help you develop your company. For example, we’re developing our blockchain platform with Infinity Networks.

These are long-term projects. They’re more like a venture initiative, so to speak. But when you say the word “venture,” people tend to think you’re going to spend a lot of money, burn through cash, so we called it Atari Partners instead. We want to develop new businesses, new products.

GamesBeat: Would the speaker hats be another good example?

Chesnais: Yeah, that’s a good example. The blockchain is another one. We’re working on a couple of other initiatives. Anything involving games — for example, we announced that Scott Sternberg, a TV producer, was working on a game show using Pong. That’s part of Atari Games. Atari Partners is everything about the brand. To give you an idea, somebody came to me and talked about making a phone for gamers, and they’d like to use the Atari name. That’s the type of project we’re looking at — very long term, with no significant cash investment on our end.

We’ve announced our books at the end of March. We’ve incurred some growth in terms of revenue. We’re profitable. For the first time, we had no debt on the balance sheet. We raised some money in April, 7.5 million euro, about 7 million euro after fees. But we have no more debt, some cash, and we’re profitable. Our next announcement will be on December 15 or 16. We’re technically listed on the OTC as part of the NASDAQ’s international program. I still have a few forms to fill out to have the shares be fully tradable on the OTC, but we’ll finalize this soon. It’ll be easier for U.S. investors to buy shares.

The holding company around these four divisions is still based in Paris. We’re not changing our business model. It’s still the same. We have the best team of executive producers capitalizing on the brand. We’re being careful when we do investment. Our priority isn’t to release the next Pong or even necessarily the next Missile Command. We’re more interested in a multimedia play on Atari as a brand. We’re known to people over 25. People younger come to us because they’re interested in the history of video games. They like what the brand [has] done. We’ll keep growing, and we’re going in the right direction.

Above: Atari is going back into home consoles.

GamesBeat: What part of the business or what game category do you think can really propel the brand back to a more historic level — or another level up?

Chesnais: We’re clearly doing well with simulation games like Rollercoaster Tycoon. We decided to capitalize on that engine, which is why we’re doing Citytopia. Days of Doom is a survival game, but it has a lot of simulation elements. We’re definitely focusing on simulation games. The interest from the board is not for me to burn money making a shooter or a fantasy game at the moment. We have something in our hands that’s working, and we want to keep capitalizing on that.

The second category is more the match-three games, the very casual games, like the Jonathan Cheban game. That’s our emphasis for the moment, simulation and casual games. After that, we’re making money with licensing. We’re making money in TV shows. What could be the third category — if we have success with a particular game or a TV show where we adapt a game, that’s a possibility. But we have a lot on our plates already. We have three more simulation games we’re looking at as far as allocating resources. These are games that require some investment for players, so players are tougher to get, but when you have them, they’re less likely to fall out of the game.

GamesBeat: As far as the most recent successes, how would you describe your biggest hits for the new Atari so far?

Chesnais: The biggest hit has been Rollercoaster Tycoon on mobile. We keep pushing that one, and we look forward to success in China. We’re about to launch in Korea, and we’re in soft launch in Japan. That’s been a big success for Atari in the last 18 months.

GamesBeat: I noticed that you have a lawsuit with Feargal Mac. Is that going to impact the VCS in any way?

Chesnais: If you’ve looked into the lawsuit, to use his own words, he withdrew from the project on December 14, 2017. We’re sad about that, but we’ll be able to deliver on the Indiegogo campaign. It should have no impact.

GamesBeat: You’ve reset the project, and you’re still going forward, then?

Chesnais: We did reset in December, after Feargal withdrew. We launched the Indiegogo campaign in May. We’ve been operating without Feargal since December of 2017.

Above: Tempest 4000 is part of the Atari comeback plan.

GamesBeat: The approach for the hardware — I see there are different kinds of solutions out there. The Intellivision is a new one. They seem to be focused on reproducing the old games, mostly. But I wonder, do you still feel like the best strategy is to go for both modern games and old games?

Chesnais: Our strategy and criteria are a little different from that. We want to go with an open platform. Everything you find on the Internet that meets our criteria, meets our specs, you can play on our platform. It’s not really about content. It’s about making sure we provide an open platform. We don’t want to dictate content. We want to be as open as possible. It’s a streaming box, at the end of the day. It’s not a prop console. If it’s on the Internet, you can access it, whether it’s modern, old, antique, or futuristic.

GamesBeat: The Ready Player One deal, did you wind up making much money from something like that?

Chesnais: We don’t disclose the details of negotiations or deals like that. But it’s great for the image. It brought us a lot of awareness. It’s indirect. Blade Runner was the same way. We’re very proud to be the only games available in Teslas. How much it’s worth, well, who knows? Dwayne Johnson is apparently charging a million bucks for a tweet these days. Most of these deals are deals whereby we benefit indirectly from the interaction. We don’t necessarily just do it for a check. We do it because it will put the brand on a different level. I think that’s what happened with Tesla.

GamesBeat: It looks like you still have a pretty good mix of branded Atari games and original games.

Chesnais: That’s true. Sometimes, it’s difficult to create a new Atari game, to take one of those classic IPs and turn it into a new game. We’re very cautious, and we’re flexible. We think that this three-part vision — Atari Games is the multimedia approach. We have the casino games. You could say that a slot machine is a new game, but at the same time, it’s branded Atari. We have a Star Raiders slot machine that’s doing quite well.

We prefer to think broadly, by business unit, and decide what’s the best use of a product or a property. For instance, in building the Atari brand, we decided to start with a movie, a feature film, which is why we granted the license to George Furla. We thought it was a good idea, and George wanted to do it, so let’s do it. At the same time, with other games or other properties, it might be better to start with a game show — like with Pong. It’s a very flexible approach. At the end of the day, it’s all under the Atari umbrella, which is what matters.

GamesBeat: The question still seems to be, just how powerful is the Atari brand?

Above: Atari logo in Blade Runner 2049.

Chesnais: You might look at it the other way around, which is — without the brand, would we have been able to make it back out of bankruptcy? I don’t think so. Remember where we’re coming from. You’ve seen the deck, the table that shows we started in 2013 with €1 million in revenue and more than €30 million in debt. Today, we have €18 million in revenue and no debt. We’re profitable. Without the brand, that would have been very difficult.

The brand helps us in two different ways. One, it helps to be able to contact someone by saying, “We’re Atari. We’d like to do this. Would you like to have a meeting?” Most people will say, “Wow, you guys are still alive? Sure, just stop by.” It opens doors. Second, it still has a lot of awareness, a lot of following. We’ve been able to make licensing arrangements with advances and minimum guarantees. It helps a lot there. When you have a product like Atari Flashback, it’s good to have the brand going with it. It’s helped us make licensing agreements and get cash when we needed it. Let’s get this license signed and get $600,000. Maybe it’s not the best deal ever, but we need $600,000. Let’s swallow that and move on. I’m grateful for that.

The third advantage of the brand — we want to create some great projects and pull together a lot of partners. We’ve been able to gather a lot of resources and expertise for our new projects like the Atari VCS. If you look at the VCS, you can ask yourself: Without the Atari brand, would that have been possible? I’m not sure. The brand provided the design, some cool elements there. The brand has a lot of strength in that area.

Above: Atari Centipede will come back on the Atari VCS home console.

GamesBeat: What do you think of the game industry in general right now? Why not, say, go into a new field and start a blockchain or crypto company instead?

Chesnais: We have, to some extent. We started the Atari blockchain company. We think we still have a lot of growth ahead of us. At the same time, the game industry is very competitive. Someone can show up and create a great game without too much money, necessarily. It’s unique that way. The barrier to entry is sometimes very low.

We all love it here. But at the same time, the game industry is becoming more and more of an unfamiliar industry. We’re seeing more and more interaction between games, esports, TV shows. We’re all coming after the same thing, which is the interaction with the users. People are connected 24/7 now. With kids, it might even be more than 24/7 because they’re multi-tasking all the time. But we all covet the same thing, the time and attention that users can give us.

When they’re on Facebook, they’re not playing games. When they’re on YouTube, they’re not playing games. When they’re on Snapchat or Instagram, they’re not playing games. The time that’s spent on entertainment is very broadly defined. That’s why I always say that something like Facebook is a competitor to the gaming industry at large. It takes minutes away from our players. It’s a much broader competition now. Something like TV is less of an issue today, as millennials watch less and less TV. We have competition within the industry like we always have, and we have new forms of competition outside the industry.