Video game crash of 1983

[missioncontrol]

I came across this and thought some of you would be interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983

happy reading

[Hoagie_one]

[RayB]

I don't know why the media insists on seperating "video games" from "computer games". Cuz when this "crash" happened, people didn't stop playing games... they just moved on to computers (Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari...). They should be more specific. "Home Console Game Crash".

[DaveMMR]

The crash had nothing to do with the gamers (for the most part) -- it was strictly the industry that felt the pain.  From our viewpoint, it was 'business as usual'.  We just switched gears.  However, the casual customers (those who had a game system but never held videogames in that high a regard) thought of it as nothing more than a fad and simply stopped wasting money on the barrage of crap that was unleashed as the 'fad's' peak.  They moved on.  And when an industry goes from mainstream to limited market - the monetary losses are disasterous.   

I personally didn't even know there was a crash until well into the 90's (when I started reading up on the history of the biz).  I was already gaming on the C-64 and soon thereafter, the NES was starting to make waves. 

Thankfully, Atari botched the deal to distribute the NES in the states and Nintendo decided to go at it alone.  Based on Atari's track record, the industry may have never recovered had the deal gone through.  The rest is history.

But many game companies (EA and Sierra for example) wouldn't touch cartridges for years because of it.  Many game companies never recovered and many jobs were lost.  Coleco, despite the Cabbage Patch Dolls, never fully recovered.  Mattel abandoned their electronic game division.  Imagic - gone!  Even the company that started the concept of 3rd party publishers, Activision, took a substatial hit.

In a somewhat related story (considering the cheap, rushed licensed titles that led to the crash in part) - Warner Bros. is charging higher royalties for games that score less that 70% in reviews.  I applaude that since I shudder to think that people made money off of Enter The Matrix.

http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=6606

[Trenchbroom]

RayB is right.  No crash, just new avenues of play.

People forget that at the time, the videogame "backlash" had begun.  The fad portion of gaming was over, arcades were stereotyped by the media as inherently evil, etc.  At the same time, the computer as a household tool (and at household prices) finally came acceptable.

Mom and dad had a choice.  Either buy Timmy a time wasting menace like a 2600 or Colecovision, or for a few more dollars buy a computer for him and secure his future.   He can learn to program!  It will help him with his homework!  He will be the President of IBM someday!

This goes right back to another theory of mine---the "sweet spot" system.  My theory is that no matter what came before or what came after, the video game system that was yours between the ages of 10-15 will always be your favorite.  10-15 is the "sweet spot" in life when kids understand how to play games, have the dexterity to master games, and have the unbridled time necessary to overdose on games.

The Commodore 64 was my sweet spot system.  Had it from when I was 12-16.  Sold it when I was 16 to help pay for my first car.  It will always rank #1 on my videogame machine list, even though I find most of the games I O.D.'d on back then to be boring and trite.