I agree with you on Atari doing things others are not. It remains to be seen if this is a viable method of attracting fans again or not.

Sadly, so far, across the many social media platforms I am active with this niche on, it seems to be quite a dividing action. Many prolific creators are walking away from AtariAge due to Atari's official involvment.

Honestly, this is no surprise. I have been working with ColecoVision for a few years now and have personally seen independent homebrew developers turn their backs on any chance of corporate support for their craft.

It boggles my mind. It also reeks of "me, me, me" mentality - or maybe "my rules or nothing" with many of these creators. I have nothing but respect for them for being able to eek out such amazing games that they do, I just question their intent as far as getting their games to as many fans as possible ($100 per copy, only 100 copies made available, with no ROM release does not lend credence to wanting tons of fans to play your game).

This could be a boom for Atari, gaining access to those developers that see this as a good thing and seek out working in a more traditional, professional, manner.

There are a few games, from the AA forums, already that have been rumored to have been picked up by Atari for them to create cartridge versions, with manual and boxes, for sale on their store. I fail to see how this is a bad thing for the community.