The Day Video Games Almost Died

It’s time to get Halloweeny and tell you about a really scary time…

So, a long, long time ago (in a galaxy far away), back in the year 1983, there was a time when the video game industry almost went away. Back then, there were few game systems and too many games. Many blame the infamous E.T. game for the Atari home console (this is why people say it was buried in the desert, but that wasn’t why). It was mainly because of people’s expectations for the next big console and then no sales to back up the cost of creation. (If you guys want to know more about this, there’s a great documentary on Netflix called Atari: Game Over.)

But, what if I told you there have been other crashes in the video game market? Well, it’s true. In 2013, there were whispers of a video game crash about to happen, and no one is exactly sure if it’s happened yet. But, one we do know happened, the one that happened before the infamous Crash of ’83, was the often ignored Crash of ’77.

1977 was an even simpler time than 1988; with even less consoles and surprisingly even more expectations than in ’83. After the introduction of the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, people knew that this new-fangled technology was getting better and better, and the games people wanted were expected to be just as advanced. But, the newer systems weren’t selling as expected. Only the biggest companies, like Magnavox and Atari, managed to stay in the market because of the popularity of their systems. But these systems were quickly becoming outdated and so the games were expected to 

be better, but the systems couldn’t keep up, and the market spiraled.     

Long story short, don’t expect too much too fast, or it’s all getting messed up. 


Be sure to leave comments down below!