DBWI: Atari falters

As of 2019, Atari Inc. is one of the most prominent electronics companies of the modern era, specializing in computers, game consoles, cellphones and more, despite having numerous rivals in all fields. But what if this was not the case? How could Atari become a broken, or even bankrupt, company instead of a successful one?
 
As of 2019, Atari Inc. is one of the most prominent electronics companies of the modern era, specializing in computers, game consoles, cellphones and more, despite having numerous rivals in all fields. But what if this was not the case? How could Atari become a broken, or even bankrupt, company instead of a successful one?
Don't keep a carful watch on the releases for the Atari 2600 and just allow any one to release any thing for the system.
Don't Credit your designers.
Pick a popular movie like ET. Spend a lot for the Game rights. Just give your designer 5 weeks to turn out the game and then overproduce the game.
 
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Don't keep a carful watch on the releases for the Atari 2600 and just allow any one to release any thing for the system.
Don't Credit your designers.
Pick a popular movie like ET. Spend a lot for the Game rights. Just give your designer 5 weeks to turn out the game and then overproduce the game.
Not sure why Atari would've picked the game rights for a movie like ET unless it would be some sort of deal with Universal, but I digress. I also never thought I'd ever hear one of the Atari VCS' name change consideration again.
 
OOC: When was the point of divergence? Was it not alienating Ted Dabney and Al Alcorn, not selling Atari Japan independent to become Namco, thus having Galaxian, Galaga, and Pac Man in your stable, managing to snag Jay Miner and Steve Wozniak on permanent payroll, getting in on the ground floor with Micron (so that RAM, including flash, can be had for production cost rather than paying cartel prices), Tandem Computing (so that the business sector takes you seriously) , and Western Design Center (so that you can insure an upgrade path for the 6502 series), or simply Nolan Bushnell not using the company as his personal piggy bank for stupid stuff like robot buddies and have to be bailed out by Warner Brothers? Because after that last one, Atari's fate is no longer in its own hands.
 
OOC: When was the point of divergence? Was it not alienating Ted Dabney and Al Alcorn, not selling Atari Japan independent to become Namco, thus having Galaxian, Galaga, and Pac Man in your stable, managing to snag Jay Miner and Steve Wozniak on permanent payroll, getting in on the ground floor with Micron (so that RAM, including flash, can be had for production cost rather than paying cartel prices), Tandem Computing (so that the business sector takes you seriously) , and Western Design Center (so that you can insure an upgrade path for the 6502 series), or simply Nolan Bushnell not using the company as his personal piggy bank for stupid stuff like robot buddies and have to be bailed out by Warner Brothers? Because after that last one, Atari's fate is no longer in its own hands.
(OOC: Its basically a couple of them. Dabney and Alcorn staying along with Miner and Wozniak, keeping certain collaborations with companies, Atari having a sort of seal of approval for games released on their systems, and the company itself remaining independent. They still ended up selling Atari Japan to Namco)
 
Well Atari enjoyed a virtual monopoly in both the US and Japanese industries during the 80s, and in those early decades, those two countries were basically the enterity of the electronics industry. That sort of accumulated power is hard to break through. Perhaps an earlier anti-trust lawsuit, like it happened in the EU in 1995? Certainly it helped Siemens and Amstrad to breathe.

To me, the buyout of Commodore was the big one. Without Atari and its stacked power enforcing industry standards, maybe smaller companies such as Apple or Nintendo could have competed against Comatari* systems and defeated it in those years. Who knows, maybe even IBM would be around, though I doubt it.

*Commodore software with Atari hardware. The equivalent of Wintel (Windows/Intel) computers IOTL.
 
Well Atari enjoyed a virtual monopoly in both the US and Japanese industries during the 80s, and in those early decades, those two countries were basically the enterity of the electronics industry. That sort of accumulated power is hard to break through. Perhaps an earlier anti-trust lawsuit, like it happened in the EU in 1995? Certainly it helped Siemens and Amstrad to breathe.

To me, the buyout of Commodore was the big one. Without Atari and its stacked power enforcing industry standards, maybe smaller companies such as Apple or Nintendo could have competed against Comatari* systems and defeated it in those years. Who knows, maybe even IBM would be around, though I doubt it.

*Commodore software with Atari hardware. The equivalent of Wintel (Windows/Intel) computers IOTL.
Yeah, the buyout of Commodore was the closest Atari ever got to getting broken up by the government, but on the other hand, Commodore was struggling after the C64 so I guess it was to be expected they would get bought out by someone. Preventing that would make Atari less powerful, though it also might make Commodore get bought out by someone else or even go bankrupt. IBM surviving is also a good POD. I could see Apple standing up against them instead of going bankrupt back in the 90s if Steve Jobs got more help when he founded and managed the company.
 
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