----Introduction---
In 1983, commercial videogames have been around for 12 years. That's roughly the length of 2 console generations. That is an industry that came from nothing to $3.2 Billion annually. Now if you think the rise was quick, its complete downfall took around 6 months. The industry called it "The Great Video Game Crash of 1983."
Now you're maybe asking, how can something like this happen today? Well, I'm no Michael Patcher, but I do see similarities of events. The first thing to take note is that the 1980's was a different time compared to today. However, supply and demand always governs any growing economy at any time. So what caused the crash in 1983 and how it can happen now? This can be answered using one word: OVERSATURATION
-----What Happen Then-----
In the 80's, Atari was leading the pack with memorable games like Pack Man and Space Invaders. Eventually, they've grown popular and third party game publishers wanted a piece of that money-making pie. Third-party publishers, like Activision, were pumping out so many games that Atari started to loose their grip on quality control of these titles. It was so bad that they went to court. Atari lost the legal battle and that opened the floodgates for game makers. Soon, everybody and their dogs were making games. Alright, dogs was a bit much but how about Coca-Cola, Quaker Oats, and even the porn industry.
Games started to be sold for $1 at stores because the supply got higher and the demand got lower. This resulted in oversaturation. Soon, the general public saw video games as disposable forms of entertainment. Games became easily replaced by other forms of entertainment.
-----How it Can Happen Again-----
Look, I may be overreacting but I see the same thing happening now. Sadly, the company that revived the industry from the crash 2 years later is one of the biggest offenders of today. I'm also not alone.
A recent study by IHS Screen Digest Media Research found that from the end of 2010 through 2011, gaming on Facebook declined 50 percent. IHS also believes that the overall popularity of casual games is on the wane, and gamers in that space are now looking for tougher, more skill-based challenges.
Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack quoted "What it seems to be doing is eroding the handheld market where you're actually getting really high quality games instead of fart apps. And I'm not saying there aren't quality games on the iOS, because there are; there are some good games there, but there's so much performance oversupply and commoditisation that it is actually affecting the industry in a very negative way."
Jim Sterling at Destructoid discusses his view on the casual gaming market: “It’s just a shame that most of what they’re playing can barely qualify as videogames.”
----Conclusion----
I would love to read any feedback. I'm hoping I'm wrong on this but the evidence is looking eerily similar. I'm proud to be called a gamer but I'm scared of what the industry is becoming.
Reference links:
http://bitmob.com/articles/...
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...
http://cyber-sports.net/nod...
http://www.gamejudgment.com...
http://www.nowgamer.com/fea...
http://www.ingame.msnbc.msn...
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Not really saturation, more a case of blatant laziness back then. Games equal and less in quality then ET were literally being crapped, the general public finally caught on, and the industry didn't recover until Mario came to arcades and then a home system.
Another crash is probably in the process of happening again, but because $1 iPad games are considered to be equal to $60 console titles, while said console titles are having content removed from them for $10 reissued DLC.
im glad we see some other people in the industry with sense i agree and totally hope it will happen so that the developers see that the gamers have had enough of their crap!
Not to mention you literately had numerous incompatible consoles battling each other. Atari 2600, Atari 5200 (I cant remember if it was backwards compatible), All the Atari knockoffs (I had a Coleco Gemini), Vectrex, Intellivision, ColecoVision, Odyssey, and also the introduction of the Commodore 64 and the Coleco Adam. A completely flooded marketplace with some pretty awful games per system being made by everyone and his brother. People just couldn't keep up. Heck, sometimes a console would come out and 6 months later the same company would put another one out. It would be like Sony putting out a PS3 and six months later launching a PS4.
Thanks for the article. Now I feel old lol.
I can easily see this point, but the industy seems to have a more definative line today. Any 14 year old could point out what the shovelware is. As we already know, that doesn't sell. Not to mention that the information on which titles are quality is much more readily avalible today.
I see more problems with the casual market having too much of am impact then fading away, and companies not having the expected level of sales due to that.
I know many people love to hate on COD and Nintendo for their repetitive nature, but their popularity brings people that might have never gamed before into the market. It gives the market a new audience to appeal to.
'It's 1983 all over again'
no it's not, it's 2012 :)