Atari VCS Architect Quits Project, Claims Six Months Unpaid

Rob Wyatt, the architect of the Atari VCS game console, has retired from his job for Atari. The man claims that the company has not paid him in six months. With Wyatt’s departure, the future of the game console, which should be released in March, is highly uncertain.

Rob Wyatt has personally confirmed his departure from Atari to The Register. The system architect of the Atari VCS, who was also on the team behind the original Xbox, has been out of work with the company since October 4. According to Wyatt, Atari has not paid a single invoice from his design and consultancy firm Tin Giant in the past six months. “We are a small company and we are lucky that we have survived all this time,” says the architect.

The introduction of the Atari VCS has been postponed several times. The manufacturer said a few months ago that the game console will be delivered in March 2020, but due to Wyatt’s departure it is highly uncertain whether that deadline will be met. According to The Register, Atari only had a prototype motherboard as of last month, and Wyatt and his team were in the midst of the debugging process. Perhaps Wyatt’s responsibilities will be transferred to SurfaceInk, another company working on the console for Atari.

It is not clear why Atari has not paid Tin Giant’s invoices. The Register asked the company for comment, but only received an email back from Atari informing The Register that the website “clearly has at its disposal details of the Atari VCS project that have been leaked in violation of existing confidentiality agreements.” The Register also sent an email to SurfaceInk asking whether it also has unpaid invoices, but the company has not yet responded.