Las Vegas Looking Like Site of First Atari Hotel

By Scott Roeben, on July 01 2020
2 min read 13 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Hotels

According to our well-placed sources, it seems Las Vegas is now set to be the first home of an Atari Hotel.

Back in January 2020, plans were announced for eight Atari Hotels across the U.S., with the first slated for Phoenix. You know, the one in Arizona. Please try and keep up.

Now, we hear Las Vegas will leapfrog over Phoenix to get the first Atari Hotel. As it should be. Because Las Vegas.

Atari Hotel Las Vegas
We just leveled up in our pants.

Additional, less relevant, Atari Hotels are scheduled for Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco and San Jose.

When the chain of hotels was originally announced, it didn’t get a lot of buzz because there were relatively few details about financing and location. That’s still the case.

What we do know is Atari has partnered with GSD Group, touted as “a leading innovation and strategy agency, led by founder Shelly Murphy and partner Napoleon Smith III.”

Smith was a producer of the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” reboot, so he may have his finger on the demographic drawn to a video game-themed hotel.

Atari Las Vegas
Fun fact: Atari was named after a word used in a game called Go, popular in Japan.

Smith said in a news release, “When creating this brand new hotel concept, we knew Atari would be the perfect way to give guests the ‘nostalgic and retro meets modern’ look and feel we were going for. Let’s face it, how cool will it be to stay inside an Atari?”

He’s not wrong. Imagine grabbing a bite in the Space Invaders Cafe, dancing the night away at Pong Nightclub, catching some rays at the Q*bert Dayclub, shopping at Pac-Man Promenade or getting a facial at Frogger Baths & Spa.

Timing and execution, of course, are everything.

In contention for understatement of the year: It’s a very weird time to be developing a Las Vegas hotel right now.

Atari is a well-known and beloved brand, so it could have an edge others wouldn’t.

Still, while gaming (eSports gaming, not gambling gaming) is wildly popular, it’s unclear if that would translate into hotel business.

Example: The 2019 revenue from the snack bar at Luxor’s eSports arena was approximately what a typical gambler places on red in any given roulette spin.

That said, we like new and shiny things in Las Vegas, and an Atari Hotel would certainly qualify.

Also, a retro brand could draw older guests with more disposable income. That mixture of middle-aged Asteroids fans and their “Call of Duty” offspring could end up being a magical and profitable combination for Atari.

We actually took 15 seconds to try and confirm our rumor Las Vegas is now the location for the first Atari Hotel, but we haven’t heard back.

While we won’t bet money on this project coming to fruition, we’re now actively rooting for it given Las Vegas could be the first Atari Hotel outpost.