Credit: Atari
You’ve probably called someone an asshat before. But do you know what an asshat literally is?
It’s this. This Speakerhat is an asshat. It is a hat with two embedded speakers and a microphone that connects to your phone via Bluetooth. It’s for the casual hat-wearer who wants to bathe their face in music, but also doesn’t care if they’re annoying the shit out of everyone in their general vicinity.
The Speakerhat is a collaboration between Audiowear and Atari. But why would a 45-year-old gaming company want to pivot to asshats?
Atari executives told VentureBeat last month at E3 that the Speakerhat is part of a strategy shift for the company. COO Michael Arzt said Speakerhat is the first of a “full range of connected personal devices that live at society’s intersection of entertainment, technology, and social connectivity.”
But at the same event, CEO Fred Chesnai also announced to VentureBeat that Atari is finally making a new gaming console, something gamers have actually been wanting for years. Initial reports were skeptical, but suffice to say there is more excitement for the Ataribox, than there will ever be for a boombox you can put on your head.
This fall, Atari will also release a limited-edition Blade Runner 2049 Speakerhat, for asshats who like sci-fi.
The target demographic for the Speakerhat could be the asshats who plays music too loud on public transportation. But Atari says it is marketing this asshat to musicians, skaters, sports fans, and “fitness enthusiasts,” which presumably means asshats who work out. A good way to make people hate you at the gym would be to work out while wearing a hat with speakers.
The Speakerhat was also made with gamers in mind, as it comes with “multiplayer mode,” which allows several asshats to connect their asshats and listen to the same audio stream. Atari calls this a “fundamentally new social audio experience.” We call it assynchronicity.
[VentureBeat]