The video games crash of 1983, or know in Japan as the Atari shock did not make the future of the video games industry look promising. I’m sure the majority of us know about this of some sort. The industry was rising at a rapid rate and it was easy for anybody and everybody with some knowledge and know how to make video games for many consoles that where on the market at the time. At the top was the Atari 2600. The revenues for the industry peaked at $3.2 billion in 1983 only for it to crash a few years later to crash to a shocking $100 million.
The cause was down to complete market saturation, with poor quality games being released in the masses which resulted in many people getting bored and giving up on the growing hobby all together. The big blow most of us should know about is the infamous ET The Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600. The game was such a disaster the remaining millions of unsold copies and the mass of returned copies that where purchased where dumped into landfills only to be discovered recently.
After all of this though the long road to where we are now started and people started to create legitimate publishing companies to stop the saturation happening again. The industry has slowly grown through the generations and now we are at the point where the gaming industry is bigger than the music, movie and book industries which is great right…..
My worry right now is we are heading for the same fate as before. You may question me as the kind of things developers put out today are a big leap from those days but with indie games being a huge part of today’s industry more and more are being churned out and I can’t help but start to see the masterpieces being outnumbered and lost. Along with the huge budget games millions on millions being spent on single titles for the game to release and simply not work either online or single player game breaking bugs. The list is endless, it would actually be easier to count the games that have had no issues. I can only think of one in the past generation that’s not had an update to fix bugs and that’s MGS 4. If we had gone out and bought a game for the PS2 and it didn't work there would be no firmware update the devs could tell us to be patient for, the game would be broken and it would be returned.
It’s clear to see people are being more cautious on buying games as the prices also creep higher for more issues to be happening. The constant sales of games like call of duty and FIFA show people would rather play it safe with what they already know rather than risk wasting money on a broken new IP such as DriveClub as the most recent example. I can see through sites and the fan base comments people getting tired of this shovel ware. If it’s not masses being produced its broken games if it’s not that then its platform favoritism. Review embargo's being lifted on release days, I thought reviews where there for people to make an informed decision on their purchase. And this isn't just including the product and publisher scandals, it’s the journalism in general, there are obviously click bait sites out there posting ridiculous review scores to get attention or sites again choosing there platform to support. They are supposed to be a neutral entity describing the products as they are and not their own opinion on the products.
This may be going over the top and nothing will happen, but from where I am sat I can see the fans getting tired of being promised things and never seeing them come to light. How long till we finally boycott a company to stop releasing yearly rehashed or broken games. I can’t help but think it will be too late before they get the message and 1983 will happen all over again before we know it.
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I agree with most of what you're saying. I'm not buying into x1 or ps4 simply for their reliance on the internet. The game we buy off the shelf is not complete and will be worthless if servers for that game get shut down. Look at Destiny, COD, Titan fall, and others are garbage without internet. How about Skyrim? Without the download patches it's a broken game.
So the big battle against DRM was a waste of time because they got you logged in anyway. Some games like Gears 2 and 3 did things right. Putting bots into the game allows you to enjoy the multiplayer modes without the internet. If more games did this I'd feel more compelled to buy but they don't. Once the servers are gone it's done. Sad.
I think there will be a crash, it will probably be sooner rather than later. Poor DRM Practices, excessive microtransactions, dlc, broken games at launch are all signs that we are headed in that direction. Having said that, indie games will survive through the crash.
Maybe it will be a cycle? If there is another crash, I'm sure the industry will pick up somehow. Maybe nintendo saves it or something like the oculus rift. I don't believe there will be a massive crash like back in the day, simply because videogames were as popular as they are today. Back then, all the games kinda looked the same too, so variety was pretty low.
If there is a crash, I think the big companies like M$ and EA would be hurt a lot more than the smaller companies. With Nintendo doing its own thing too, they might survive simply on that. I'm sure a lot of Nintendo's games don't cost too much to make when compared to COD. Maybe Smash bros Wiiu/3d were their big budget games, but does it match or exceed CODs? Kinda doubt it (would like to know though).
Well, first i assume that this article is about video game consoles. Because growing up in 70's and 80's , the arcades in the years 83, 84 , and 85 was still doing pretty good and the PC market was getting pretty popular here in the USA.
As far as yearly releases of games, like CALL OF DUTY , ASSASSINS CREED and SPORTS GAME's. The money those games generate help get new IP'S green lighted.
I really do not see a crash happening today because there are way more people playing console games today, compared to the amount of console gamers back in the early 80's.
I do agree there are lot problems, today with games. but i think that is due to developers trying to put so much into to video games and publishers rushing the developers to get these games out for holiday.
Hopefully the publishers will learn from all the mistakes they have put out in the last couple months.
Best advice i can give is, do not buy games on day 1 , and wait a little bit, so they can patch up all the problems before buying a video game.
There were more dynamics to the videogame crash of 1983 then just the bad ports.
You see our fed chief massively raised interest rates, to the tune of about 21.5 percent. Consider that versus the free money for fraud and derivatives, not to mention Dodd-Frank'ing your deposits (steal them) situation we're in now.
It's easier for people to put all the crap on their credit card when the rates are lower.
If interest rates spike, if the stock market tanks again (and it will, and it will be bigger, much bigger fail the 2008...the only question is...when), who will buy the videogames?
You see it wasn't just regular people who had their interest rate jacked up high, it was also all the retailers who bought their inventory on margin. (i.e. borrowed money that was all of a sudden massively expensive).
The videogame crash was a perfect storm of flooded landscape of crappy games AND the money aspect of the Paul Volcker interest rate rise to 20 percent (prime hit 21.5%).
People stopped buying the flood of low quality games, and people that still wanted to buy some stopped being able to put them on the credit cards, meanwhile the retailers had all these crappy games inventory they bought on margin.
But things rebounded and we got Nintendo shortly thereafter.
So while a videogame crash is coming, it's not until the economic depression turns worse that it will happen, and once again it will be different as you'll still have services like Steam that can stay afloat because it's not the same as a mom and pop store holding 100 E.T. cartridges and a bunch of other stuff on their small business credit card.
Lots of retailers went under during that era, more and more small shops closed and the reign of big nationwide/multi-national chain stores becoming predominant began.
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