• Atari is taking a major step back from video games. The company is creating a new cryptocurrency named "Atari Token."
• The  Atari Token is being created specifically for use on a new digital  platform that Atari is working with an outside party to build.
• The new platform is being built on blockchain technology.

In its latest bid for relevance, Atari is glomming onto the cryptocurrency craze. The company is hoping to bolster its gambling business in Europe with Atari Token, according to Bloomberg.  "Our aim is to take strategic positions with a limited cash risk, in  order to best create value with the assets and Atari brand," CEO  Frederic Chesnais noted in a release. Like Kodak  and, err, Long Island Iced Tea before it, the stock market has  responded favorably to the news, pushing Atari share prices up by over  60 percent after the company announced its intent to jump into  cryptocurrency. Maybe now the company can afford to tell people what  it's going to include in the Ataribox.

Forget about "Pong" — Atari's next big move is into an entirely new industry: cryptocurrency.   Atari SA, the French holding company that now oversees all "Atari"  properties, announced earlier this month that it's working on a  cryptocurrency named "Atari Token." Moreover, that cryptocurrency is  intended for use on a new digital entertainment platform.  Atari  itself isn't creating either. Instead, a company named Infinity Networks  is collaborating with Atari on the project. In exchange for a  "long-term license" to use Atari's name, Infinity Networks is creating a  blockchain-based platform — a storefront, essentially — for various  forms of digital entertainment, "ranging from video games to movies and  music." 

The current incarnation of "Atari" is a re-branding of a  French company previously named Infogrames. There are actually several  different business entities named some derivation of "Atari" at this  point — Atari SA is the parent company that's responsible for the Atari  Token and this upcoming blockchain-based digital storefront.   That parent company is currently attempting a big turnaround for Atari,  and it looks like the latest efforts are working. The announcement alone  was enough to bolster Atari SA's stock —  Bloomberg reports  that it leapt by more than 60% on the news. It's unclear when the new  platform will launch, or when Atari Token will become available for  purchase. 

First Kodak Now Atari?

I feel like more and more companies are associating themselves with blockchain technology in order to make their stock jump a couple bucks. First, governments announced they were making Petro Coin in Venezuela backed by crude oil and then Kodak made an annoucement about a new token they were creating. Now, we have Atari involved in this space...whats next starbucks coin?