That may not be happening anytime soon, but you may well see the Atari brand on a range of products in the coming years with the legendary console maker announcing that it was returning to the hardware business through a new partnership.
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However, after some failures and the first big games industry crash of the 1980s, and the high-profile implosion that was the Atari Jaguar, the company exited the hardware market.
According to Sigfox, the company will licence the Atari branding and slap it in on a range of connected home, pet, lifestyle, and safety products, all of which will connect directly to Sigfox’s wireless network, rather than to the Internet directly. The press release mentioned the partnership would cover many new Atari products, be it of the simple or highly sophisticated variety.
With Sigfox’s global cloud network, Atari’s IoT objects would not require local internet. ‘Our network bridges the virtual and physical worlds simply, reliably and inexpensively and this collaboration will launch a new dimension to gaming, while supporting features that are limited only by the imagination.
None of the announcement really tells us why the company wants Atari’s name for their new line.
There are a wide variety of uses that they might be used for when they come out, judging by the categories that they’re going to be in. Each hardware product will connect itself to the network as soon as the batteries go in, the companies said. “By partnering together and using SIGFOX’s dedicated IoT connectivity, we are going to create fantastic products with our brand”, said Fred Chesnais, CEO, Atari. “We look forward to collaboration with SigFox and releasing new products to the mass market on a global scale”.
Development of the new product line will begin this year. Its technology is created to carry tiny amounts of data in two directions with low-power consumption so small, battery-operated devices can run for years without recharging.
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Sigfox’s network, which now operates or is being deployed in 18 countries and has over 7 million registered devices, infrequently sends out two-way transmissions of small quantities of data, making it suitable for low-power IoT devices.
