Atari makes good on its LGBT promises with Pridefest

Some companies have made a lot of money targeting gay consumers: Absolut Vodka pioneered the practice, but it's hardly the only one. A struggling Atari has made that strategy part of its comeback plan. Today, it announced Pridefest, a mobile game that lets players design and run their own pride parade, promising social interaction and plenty of customization. Pridefest is the company's first game targeted at the LGBT market. It has also teamed up with restaurant chain Denny's to re-brand classic arcade games ("Hashteroids") and made moves toward the social casino space in a bid for relevance. The company was also a sponsor of this past weekend's LGBT GaymerX2 conference (for more on that event, read one developer's reflections on the San Francisco gathering.) "We will continue offering a variety of games that are inclusive for all Atari fans and Pridefest is another example of how we are doing that," COO Todd Shallbetter said in a statement. While the company that today wears the Atari brand bears little relationship to the original 1970s-era company founded by Nolan Bushnell, it does own the rights to many of its classic games in addition to developing new ones.