Barbie: Rewind launched close to GTA 6 by design. In a recent interview, Atari CEO Wade Rosen explains why the timing gave different audiences an opportunity.
Sure, Grand Theft Auto 6 is the most anticipated game of its generation, and players have been waiting 13 years since GTA 5’s release, but Barbie is iconic. Barbie Rewind is a new collection of re-releases starring Mattel’s legendary doll. Atari published the collection, which was released on November 12.
Barbie Rewind features 16 classic games, including the previously unreleased Barbie Vacation Adventure. Vacation Adventure is a side-scrolling game that was set for release on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis in 1994. A ROM of the game was previously shared online, but players can now experience it officially. So, the 13 years between GTA games might not be looking so bad now, huh?
Atari CEO Says Barbie Deserves a Bigger Place in Gaming
Speaking to Stephen Totilo of Game File, Atari CEO Wade Rosen said they chose to put the Barbie collection in this release window because there wouldn’t be a lot of other games dropping around Grand Theft Auto’s release, and the target audience for Barbie is much different than those looking to pick up the latest GTA.
That one was much more intentional, because we were pretty confident there just weren’t going to be a lot of games releasing in that window. Grand Theft Auto was going to suck up most of the air in the room for quite a while, leading up to release.
Furthermore, Rosen says that Barbie deserves a bigger place in the gaming industry, believing that the market these releases could target is underrepresented.
Barbie, just by being this wildly popular franchise, is relatively underrepresented in gaming, which just feels kind of strange,” he said. “It feels like a market that has not gotten its fair shake.
Barbie Rewind is now available on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC via Steam, XBOX One, and XBOX Series consoles. What are your thoughts on this recently released collection? Share your thoughts on this story and others like it in our official Discord server.
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I'm Robert DeFelice. I spent years covering pro-wrestling industry for outlets such as Fightful. After years in wrestling journalism, I’ve transitioned to video games, another passion of mine.
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