Publisher Atari and developer Digital Eclipse have announced Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC (Steam). It will launch on October 25. Users who own Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection will be able to access the new content as downloadable content later in 2024.
A physical standard edition will be available for PlayStation 5 and Switch for $39.99, and a physical SteelBook edition will be available for Switch for $49.99. The latter will include Atari 2600 art cards, miniature arcade marquee signs, an Al Alcorn Replica Syzygy Co. business card, and a SteelBook case.
Here is an overview of the collection, via Atari:
Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration Expanded Edition adds two new timelines and 39 games to the playable Atari retrospective that is Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection.
The Wider World of Atari timeline, which includes 19 playable games and eight video segments, takes a series of deep dives into stories from Atari history, showing how Atari continued to influence creators and fans over the decades. New interviews, vintage ads, historical artifacts, and more have all been researched and presented with Digital Eclipse’s signature style. Highlights from the new timeline include a deep dive into Stern Electronics’ robot-blasting Berzerk; unusual and underappreciated innovations and hidden gems from the late 1980s; a spotlight on the artist Evelyn Seto, who helped create the iconic “Fuji” Atari logo; Pong creator Al Alcorn explaining the birth of Breakout; and an exploration of the fan base’s role in discovering unreleased prototypes, creating “homebrew” games, and preserving Atari history.
The First Console War timeline, which includes 20 playable games and half-dozen video segments, tells the story of the first major console war in the gaming industry between the Atari 2600 and Mattel’s Intellivision. The team at Digital Eclipse curates an exploration of the rivalry, including Mattel’s quixotic decision to create games for the competing Atari 2600. Highlights include a selection of M Network games, including some fan-favorites; a mix of Atari and M Network sports games, and some rare Atari 2600 and 5200 prototypes. New interview features include former Intellivision game director Don Daglow, M Network programmer Jane Terjung, Activision‘s David Crane and Garry Kitchen, homebrew programmer Dennis Debro, and historians Leonard Herman and Mike Mika.
The new timelines and games will be offered to owners of the original Atari 50: The Anniversary Collection release as downloadable content later this year.