Tesla recently started rolling out update 2024.20.1. While the update isn’t as massive as the 2024.14 ‘Spring Update,’ which included an updated media player and a UI refresh, it does add features that owners have been looking forward to. These features include headlights that adapt to curves in the road, illuminate further down the road, an updated Autopilot suspension system and even activates the self-presenting front doors in newer Model X vehicles.
However, another change went unmentioned in the release notes, and that’s the removal of Tesla Atari games for some vehicles. The change was spotted by Tesla hacker, Greentheonly, and was later confirmed by several owners.
Atari Games
Tesla Atari games, which are powered by a MAME arcade emulator and are a part of Tesla Arcade, have been removed from vehicles with the AMD Ryzen processor. Interestingly, Intel-based infotainment units still have access to the Atari games, but with them being removed from AMD vehicles, it may only be a matter of time before these games are removed from other MCU 2 cars as well.
This includes games such as Gravitar, Tempest, Millipede, Missile Command, Lunar Lander, Super Breakout, and Asteroids.
Tesla Atari games were the first games Tesla introduced with Tesla Arcade, which was initially called TeslAtari.
While some of these games can still be fun to play today, they likely didn't get much use given Tesla's more modern games such as Cuphead and Sky Force Reloaded.
Tesla recently removed Steam support from the new Model S and Model X in what could be related to supply or cost-cutting reasons.
On a positive note, Teslas now have access to more than 75 games thanks to YouTube Playables. Playables allows you to play classic mobile games such as Cut the Rope directly in your Tesla browser.
Since you can use the YouTube app or leverage the new full-screen button in the browser, these games are playable full-screen just like the rest of the games in Tesla Arcade.
At one point, it looked like Steam was the future of gaming in Teslas. Steam allowed users to play hundreds of different games without Tesla having to port each individual title. However, now with the removal of Steam and Tesla Atari, it seems like YouTube is picking up the slack. Tesla may be perfectly content with YouTube and others developing games that are playable in your Tesla. While Tesla may miss out on a competitive advantage, it will help free up some resources to focus on other Tesla initiatives.
