Have you ever found yourself staring at the mini-fridge in your hotel and not feeling that spark of joy? Listlessly floating in the pool, sighing heavily as you check-in at yet another boring regular hotel for regular people? It’s hard. It’s a problem I’m sure we’ve all faced at some point or another as we ask ourselves, ‘why can’t hotels be about video games too?’
Atari has decided to answer this question with, ‘but they can be!’ with their latest announcement of a series of gaming hotels across America. Atari has partnered with GSD Group, an innovation and strategy group, and True North Studio, a group that seeks to create unique experiences with backgrounds in real estate development.
So, what exactly makes it a gaming hotel?
Atari hasn’t released all the details just yet, but from what they’re telling us, it looks as though the hotels will offer VR and AR (augmented reality), as well as fully immersive gaming experiences for all ages and abilities. They’re also promising that certain hotels will have spaces capable of hosting esports events. Other than that, there’s no real word on what the rooms themselves will look like or contain, whether they’ll have themed rooms, consoles in rooms, anything like that.
Fred Chesnais, CEO of Atari, is excited about the project:
“We are thrilled to partner with GSD Group and True North Studio to build the first-ever Atari branded hotels across the United States. Together we’ll build a space that will be much more than just a place to stay. Atari is an iconic global brand that resonates with people of all ages, countries, cultures and ethnic backgrounds and we cannot wait for our fans and their families to enjoy this new hotel concept.”
This is a first of its kind project and honestly pretty darn interesting. Construction is set to begin mid-2020 in Phoenix, Arizona, with other hotels set to pop up in places like Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose. So, America only at this stage, but who knows! If it works out, maybe we’ll start to see the concept of gaming hotels broaden up a little bit and cross the ocean.
I, for one, would love to be greeted by Mario the concierge who will give my bags to Donkey Kong who will then roll them at me as I am forced to jump over them. Or, being Atari, I guess it’ll be more like Frogger where you have to cross a road to get to the hotel and inevitably die before you reach your destination (this is probably not true).
For more real and accurate information, check out the Atari Hotels website, and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date when more news hits.
