Nolan Bushnell’s Opinion of Atari

While not running uWink restaurants or heading up an in-game ad firm, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell (pictured) likes to talk up the state of the game industry. Bushnell’s been around, so his insights are often insightful! In an interview with game site Gamasutra, Bushnell talks about how the hardware wars are “probably over”, saying that “it’s ridiculous to talk about how my photorealism is better than your photorealism”. He also offers on the modern incarnation of Atari:

Well, you know, I’ve always had a dream of architecting the reversal of fortune. The real problem that Atari has really had for the last 15 years is that it hasn’t stood for anything. I think a name and a brand has to stand for something, otherwise it’s not a brand. It’s a logo. I think that the people who have been running it have never had a core vision.

I always had a core vision of what Atari was going to mean, and I believe that without that, you’re just flopping around, and you will end up having a hit and then a miss, and you’re not creating any value. So I strongly urge them to have some core values, hopefully, that are going to be important in the future.

Words of wisdom!

Nolan Bushnell: What The Game Industry Misses [Gamasutra]