Atari accused the media of lying, but the journalists proved the opposite
Atari has quarreled with the technology publication The Register after the material about its future product — the Atari VCS console. According to Atari, The Register journalist distorted the words of the company’s representatives and outlined personal speculation instead of objective first-hand data. In response, The Register published an audio recording of the conversation confirming the initial allegations.
What happened
The reason for the conflict was an article by Kieren McCarthy, published on The Register back in March 2018. In it, an employee of The Register shared his disappointment with the presentation of the Atari VCS, which was held for him by Atari Chief Executive Officer Michael Arzt at the annual GDC exhibition.
According to Kiren, the console and its accessories turned out to be non-functional layouts, and the Arts itself could not or did not want to answer most of the correspondent’s questions. They dealt with the exact technical specifications, launch date, functionality, partnership with game developers and other topics.
McCarthy was also alerted by the fact that Michael vaguely answered the question about the reasons for postponing the start date of Atari VCS pre—orders for an indefinite period (the console became available for pre-order from May 30 – approx. App2Top). According to the journalist, he compared the situation with the launch of a NASA rocket, which can fail a second before launch due to a small problem. What was the problem with the Atari VCS, Arts did not specify.
Atari Reaction
Atari initially ignored the article, but in the comments on its Facebook page, company representatives expressed regret about the nature of the publication. According to Atari, Kiran’s text in The Register had little in common with the real conversation between the journalist and the company’s executive director, which lasted about half an hour.
They called Kieran McCarthy an “incompetent troll” and clarified that even before the GDC they had warned everyone about their intention to show at the exhibition not a finished product, namely a mock-up of the future console as an example of design.
The Register’s Response
After claims from Atari, The Register published a dictaphone recording of a conversation between McCarthy and Artz. The publication stated that it would not tolerate accusations of unprofessionalism and lies.
“We would like to apologize to Atari and Michael Arz personally for finding the audio recording of this interview, because below we state that Atari is overflowing with trash, and it should be marked as a hazardous waste dump,” wrote Kieran McCarthy.
The dialogue in the above audio file confirms the position of the journalist. McCarthy’s interlocutor evasively answers questions or jokes in the spirit of “I would tell, but then I would have to kill you!”.
The Register also criticized Atari’s marketing campaign to finance Atari VSC as “based on one hype” and recommended pre-ordering the console only if they are willing to take a risk and give money for a product with unknown characteristics.
Atari VSC is funded through crowdfunding on the IndieGoGo platform. The project raised almost $3 million. The price of the console varies between $220 and $380 depending on the configuration. IndieGoGo campaigners should receive their orders by July 2019.
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