Opinion
Bushnell believes Atari paved the way for young founders like Jobs
“And I actually feel like I paved the way for Gates and Jobs and some of the idea that you can be young and still a serious businessman.”
Opinion
Bushnell: Young Steve Jobs was opinionated but never wrong
“He was opinionated, but he was never wrong in his opinions. You didn't have to worry if you empowered Steve to do something. It happened. I mean, Steve had one speed. It was full on.”
Opinion
Bushnell claims Atari paved the way for young tech CEOs
“I was the youngest CEO, and people didn't know what to think about a CEO in their twenties. I mean, that was just off the radar. And I actually feel like I paved the way for Gates and Jobs and some of the idea that you can be young and still a serious business…”
Assertion Partly supported
Bushnell: Atari produced only 35,000 of the 150,000 Pong machines deployed
“About a 150,000. Only of which, Atari only did about 35,000 of them. We got massively copied.”
Disclosure
Steve Jobs offered Bushnell a third of Apple for $50,000
“And so he got the apple going and he came to me and says, I want to start this company and I'm going to be leaving. Do you want to be my first investor? And I'll give you a third of the company for 50,000 dollars.”
Insight
Bushnell: Executive perks and traditional hours create toxic corporate divides
“I don't think you need to arbitrarily create an us versus them mentality in your company, you know, and one of the things that happens when you're owned by a New York company, they think that your laid back style is that you're not working as hard, and they th…”
Disclosure
Bushnell promised Sears 75,000 units despite 25,000 capacity
“And so, not wanting to be soul sourced, I said, we can do about 75,000.”
Opinion
Bushnell: Steve Jobs was opinionated but never wrong at Atari
“He was opinionated, but he was never wrong in his opinions. You didn't have to worry if you empowered Steve to do something. It happened. I mean, Steve had one speed. It was full on.”
Disclosure
Steve Jobs offered Bushnell a third of Apple for $50,000
“And so he got the apple going and he came to me and says, I want to start this company and I'm going to be leaving. Do you want to be my first investor? And I'll give you a third of the company for 50,000 dollars.”
Assertion Supported
Warner Communications fired Bushnell after ugly culture clashes at Atari
“There was this clash of cultures that got to be really ugly, and ultimately they got tired of me, and I got tired of them, and I was fired.”
Insight
Entertainment retail businesses risk overbuilding due to early novelty-driven demand spikes
“Entertainment is very fragile. It's driven on novelty. And so when we would first open A unit. People would come from all around because it was novel. So there was sort of a half-life of a shine in which you say, gee, you know, this is St. Louis. Looks to me l…”
Assertion Supported
Bushnell: Initial Pong machines earned nearly $300 weekly on $300 cost
“I mean, the game was earning almost 300 dollars a week. And the total cost that we had was about 300 dollars.”
Opinion
Bushnell: Pong's success was driven by empowering women in bars
“And one of the reasons that I think Pong was such a massive success is that it fed into the narrative of what was going on at the time. You know, just after the Summer of Love, the hippie movement women's liberation was starting to rear its head, and Pong, by …”
Assertion Supported
Bushnell: Atari sold zero Home Pong units at the 1975 Toy Fair
“We sold zero.”
Assertion Contradicted
The 1975 toy industry refused to sell products priced above $35
“What we didn't know
Is that the toy business at that point in time did not sell anything that was more than 35 dollars.”
Disclosure
Bushnell bluffed to Sears that Atari could build 75,000 Home Pong units
“And I had my manufacturing guy there, and I, and he says, we could probably do 25,000. And so, not wanting to be soul sourced, I said, we can do about 75,000.”
Assertion Supported
Bushnell: Sears ordered 150,000 Atari Home Pong units for Christmas delivery
“He give us an order for 150,000. And He wants them delivered by Christmas, by, you know, October, November.”
Insight
Bushnell: Treating business like chess eliminates angst over failure
“I kind of view business a little bit like a game Chess. You play the game, you play hard, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And then you set up the pieces, and you do it again. And you don't have angst that the fact, oh my god, I lost that game of chess, …”
Assertion Partly supported
Atari arcades sold for $1,500 but earned up to $50,000 in lifetime revenue
“Before I sold Warner, we were selling games. These were coin-operated games, remember. We were selling them for about 1500 dollars. During their lifetime, in CoinDrop, they'd earned 30 to 50,000 dollars.”
Assertion Partly supported
Bushnell bought Chuck E. Cheese from Warner for $500,000 over five years
“And that was all the technology and the one open store. The one open store was cash flowing half a million dollars a year. And they let me pay it a 100,000 a year for five years.”
Insight
Bushnell: Entertainment is fragile because it is driven by novelty
“Entertainment is very fragile. It's driven on novelty.”
Insight
Bushnell: People who rely on who they are rather than what they do become banal
“Being entitled is probably the ugliest thing that a person can be. Because all of a sudden, it's not what you do, it's who you are. And people who rely on who they are, as opposed to what they do, become very banal.”
Disclosure
Bushnell: Atari was founded on just $500 of initial capital
“Ted put in 250 dollars, I put in 250 dollars, and that's all the money that went into Atari.”
Assertion Supported
Bushnell: Pong arcade units earned $300 weekly on a $300 manufacturing cost
“The game was earning almost 300 dollars a week. And the total cost that we had was about 300 dollars.”
