Hopes for an announced Atari Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip have been dashed, it appears.

While the story wasn’t reported in Las Vegas, Atari unceremoniously terminated its relationship with the company set to develop a string of Atari hotels, ICICB Group, in April 2022. The relationship implosion included the termination of “related licenses including hotel and casino licenses,” effective April 18, 2022.

It all has a whiff of some behind-the-scenes drama.

Yes, this happened a few months ago. But it’s not really news until we write about it, you know that.

The announced Atari Hotel was a smidge on the whimsical side.

Atari, of course, is the iconic videogame company behind Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Centipede, Pong, and other games.

According to Atari’s deal with ICICB Group, the videogame company would’ve gotten five percent of the revenue generated by the hotel.

Plans for eight Atari hotels were announced in mid-2020. Accompanied by some sweet renderings that caused video game fans to become engorged with anticipation.

Fear not, nerds, there’s always the Pinball Hall of Fame.

Atari Hotels were also scheduled for Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose.

Las Vegas was, presumably, set to be the first Atari Hotel location. Now, not so much.

No details were ever given about the financing or location of the Atari Las Vegas project. Which is usually a red flag.

Speaking of red flags, the rendering of Atari Las Vegas featured the Transamerica Pyramid.

The Atari Hotels Web site is still live, but e-mails and calls to an 800 number go unanswered.

The Web site for Atari’s development partner, GSD Group, appears defunct.

The Atari Hotels Twitter account went silent in March 2022.

We reached out to Gensler, the project designer, but haven’t gotten a response.

To be honest, nobody really thought the Atari Hotel in Las Vegas would actually come to pass. But there was a fleeting moment where we thought we might see a hotel with synthetic reality infused into it, despite the fact we have no idea what that means.

Ditto “retro-futurism.”

Add Atari Hotel to the long list of announced Las Vegas projects that never actually happen.

Some say the distance between a dream and reality is called action. In Vegas, the distance between a dream and reality is money.

Atari might have brand recognition. But don’t hold your breath for an Atari Hotel in Las Vegas.