Then Atari announced that they would be merging with hardware manufacturer JTS and discontinuing all support of the Jaguar. Although Atari stated it would continue to support the Jaguar, they began laying off staff and moved to smaller accommodations. Sony's Playstation was the clear winner, and Atari admitted it had sold only $3 million worth of Jaguar merchandise in the last quarter of 1995. Things were looking better, but the damage may have been done.Īfter the Christmas 1995 shopping season, it was apparent that Atari would not be able to compete. Then Atari won several out-of-court settlements with Nintendo and Sega over patent infringements, totaling around $70 million dollars. Predator, the latter being one of the best selling Jaguar games ever. This was followed by Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Alien vs. Atari's first hit came in the form of Jeff Minter's Tempest 2000, an update to the classic game that was almost universally applauded and won several awards. This was followed by Raiden and Dino Dudes, which were also poorly received and gamers remarked that they looked like 16-bit games. The second title, Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy, was criticized by the media and even accused of being a glorified demo. Although an impressive polygonal game for its time, Cybermorph still received its share of criticism for design flaws and a weak color palette. The Atari Jaguar's first game was the system pack-in, Cybermorph. This claim is questioned by some, because the Motorola 68000 CPU and the Tom and Jerry coprocessors execute 32-bit instruction sets. However, retailers and the media were still skeptical that Atari could deliver quality software and keep all of its promises.Ītari tried to downplay competing consoles by proclaiming the Jaguar was the only "64-bit" system. Atari was set to market the Jaguar with a $3 million advertising budget, a telephone support line, and promised support from over 20 third party developers. IBM was manufacturing the system for Atari, and things were looking up. Even with a higher price tag, sales were brisk. However, when it actually hit store shelves the price had climbed to $250. When Atari finally announced the official launch of the Jaguar in November 1993, the price tag was $200 and was bundled with a Cybermorph cartridge and one controller.
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