Sunday 8 March 2015

Gaming : The Video Game Crash

 The Video Game Crash




In 1977 companies that produced game consoles had left the market, even those who managed to survive this crash lost countless millions in money. Some did manage to survive , Atari, Coleco, Magnavox and APF. All of these companies made their way to the top with the "Pong" consoles that only played dedicated video games.  During 1972 and 1977 dedicated consoles where advancing in specs, from having discretionary circuits that only displayed lines and dots to using microprocessors and ROM's so games could display sprites.

What caused the crash of 1977?


Consumers where looking for the next big thing in technology yet the companies failed to provide.  The gaming industry was invested in out of date technologies that pushed this sector forward like the Atari 2600 ( 6 years old ). When people looked for the next gen of consoles none where to be found so people gradually lost interest and looked to other areas for entertainment.

Companies had countless models of the practically the same thing and since the beginning of the generation no massive improvements where ever made, The hardware was expensive to make and the price was too high for the consumer to afford. This led to the decline in purchases, to compensate companies started to reduce the prices which gradually fell below the production costs.

This led to the Bankruptcy of many companies. It knocked the first game console out of the marking, the Magnavox. Even some of the newer consoles to the generation didn't stand a chance, and the launching of several game consoles where cancelled, also the introduction of the Micro processor helped push the consoles of the market.

In the end the overpopulation of consoled in the market had happened and none of the companies had anything new to offer.



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