Atari Company Michael Arzt, COO of Atari VCS and Connected Devices has left Atari

[The Helper]

It’s been Real. It’s been Fun. It’s been Real Fun. It’s time to Recharge!

Dear Friends, Colleagues and an Amazing Community: After 5 years of nonstop hustle at Atari, it is time for a change! Thursday, March 31st was my last day with the company. What an amazing opportunity it’s been to work for the pioneering game brand that first got me excited about interactive enterta

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Dear Friends, Colleagues and an Amazing Community:

After 5 years of nonstop hustle at Atari, it is time for a change! Thursday, March 31st was my last day with the company.

What an amazing opportunity it’s been to work for the pioneering game brand that first got me excited about interactive entertainment as a kid, and in 2017 gave me the unparalleled opportunity to reimagine its iconic hardware and create the all-new Atari VCS! In a career where I’ve “pulled off the impossible” several times, this is at the top so far…

Trolls called it a hoax, a scam, vaporware, underpowered android garbage, and many other terrible (and completely incorrect) things. They did their absolute best to convince the industry that it would never happen; that Atari was a band of crooks and everyone that contributed to the original Indiegogo campaign all would lose their money. I always knew they were wrong. I built an amazing team that was willing to follow, held the course, and delivered something authentic and real to the community.

In December 2020, in the thick of a pandemic-fueled parts shortage, the Atari VCS started landing on backers’ doorsteps. The hardware was beautiful and well-built, and the early adopters were finally admiring the “real wood” we’d promised. We delivered the basics at the beginning, with the Atari VCS Vaults, Antstream Arcade and a few great indie games to play, and the backers were thrilled for the most part. They gave us their sincere thanks and their precious feedback. YouTubers started loading them up with Windows and Steam and emulators and doing what YouTubers do. The bottom line is that despite enormous headwinds, Atari delivered what it promised, and it was legit.

Since then, there have been many more great games and apps added to the Atari VCS, several OS updates that improved the user experience, including the ability to play literally ANY cloud gaming service (Xbox games on an Atari!) and slowly but steadily improving reviews from both press and the community. While the VCS following may still be modest, it is deeply engaged and continues to inform and impress the teams’ work every day.

Now, I will move on to new and different adventures, and can’t thank my team, partners, and colleagues enough for all their unwavering support and friendship over the past 5 years. I happily leave the Atari VCS in a good place and ready for what’s next. I have deep gratitude for everyone I have had the pleasure to work with, learn from and guide along the way since 2017. There’s too many of you to mention by name, just know I’m proud of all we accomplished together! I wish you all continued success and much happiness. I also give humble and sincere thanks to the members of the Atari community who supported the VCS project and still do so to this day.

First up for me is a bit of time off to enjoy with my wonderful wife (and maybe the kids, if they opt to come around). I'm looking forward to recharging! After that, I hope to get neck-deep again into something new and exciting. I am firing up the networking and talking with folks already about so many thrilling things happening in games, entertainment, and emerging tech and thinking hard about what might be next.

Please reach out and say hello! It’s already been great fun playing catch up with so many of you after two years without in-person events, conferences, and meetings. Of course, please also let me know if you hear of a team looking for an entrepreneurial leader with global brand and product marketing experience in entertainment and/or enthusiast lifestyle sectors, including video games, sports, music and more.

Excelsior!