Back in January 2020, just before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Atari announced it would be building several hotels across the country. Six years later, none have been built. And the Las Vegas Sun reports that the video game themed hotel for Sin City was officially dead.
A spokesperson for Atari told the Sun that the company “explored developing a location in Las Vegas” in 2020 and 2021 but “the deal didn’t come to fruition.” The last update for an Atari hotel in Las Vegas came in early 2024 when the Las Vegas Review-Journal declared the idea wasn’t dead yet. At the time, the company said more information about the plan was coming in late 2024. But that never happened.
The Las Vegas hotel was supposed to be “inspired by, and built with, classic and modern video game culture in mind,” the developer insisted. It was going to have about 400 rooms and feature the Atari log on the front, according to the Review-Journal. They were looking to develop at least 5 acres of land on the strip, but it just never came to fruition.
But the idea for an Atari hotel apparently isn’t completely dead. There were other planned locations including Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona; San Francisco, California; San Jose, California; and Seattle, Washington. And the Phoenix idea seems to be the one still on life support.
In Dec. 2025, Atari released renderings of what the hotel in Phoenix is supposed to look like, with an announcement that a 90,000 square-foot hotel near Central Avenue and Roosevelt Street would be happening in the city by late 2026, according to local NBC TV affiliate station 12 News. The hotel is supposed to have 72 rooms, according to 12 News, a reference to the year Atari was founded: 1972.
The company also released a teaser trailer on YouTube, explaining that the goal is to make the first of its kind playable hotel for gamers, though the video is also an appeal for investors.
The Phoenix renderings are currently center stage at AtariHotels.com. But maybe don’t get your hopes up too much if you’re banking on visiting an Atari hotel soon. The website’s timeline says that final construction and the grand opening wouldn’t be happening until Q4 of 2028. Even if this project does happen as planned, you’ve got some years until you can stay in the retro video game hotel of your dreams.
