Atari announces an expansion with 39 new games for Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection, coming later this year
Atari and Digital Eclipse have announced a brand new expansion for the Atari 50: the anniversary collection.
Entitled Atari 50: The Extended Anniversary Editionthis new version of the game adds two timelines, along with 39 games, to the playable Atari retrospective.
The expanded edition will be released on October 25 for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series
The Nintendo Switch and PS5 versions will also receive physical editions. More specifically, it will include a steelbook for the Nintendo Switch, which comes with quite a few extra goodies, including Atari 2600 art cards, miniature arcade marquee boards, and an Al Alcorn Replica Syzygy Co. business card.
The standard version costs $39.99 / £31.50, while the steelbook costs $49.99 / £39.40.
However, the two new timelines and games will be offered to owners of the original Atari 50 release as downloadable content (DLC) later this year.
As for the two timelines in the Expanded edition“The Wider World of Atari” timeline will feature 19 playable games and eight video segments and delves deep into stories from Atari’s history, revealing how Atari continued to influence its creators and fans over the decades.
It will also feature new interviews, vintage advertisements, historical artifacts and more all researched and presented in Digital Eclipse’s signature style, along with highlights such as a deep dive into Stern Electronics’ robot explosion. Ferocious; unusual and underrated innovations and hidden gems from the late 1980s; a spotlight on artist Evelyn Seto – who helped create the “Fuji” Atari logo – Pong creator Al Alcorn explains the birth of Break out; and more.
Meanwhile, ‘The First Console War’ timeline will feature twenty playable games and six video segments, telling the story of the gaming industry’s first major console war between the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision.
In addition to a series of highlights from M Network games, this timeline will also include interview features from numerous industry veterans.
Atari 50: the anniversary collection was released in 2022 by developer Digital Eclipse and chronicles Atari’s storied history with playable games and extras including galleries, arcade flyers and documentaries.
It launched with 103 games from Atari’s history and received another 12 in December 2023. With the Expanded edition 39 more games will be added, bringing the total number of games to 154.