Videogames First Entered The Market Place

Video games are a fast growing form of technology. This issue has to be discussed because of the two confronting sides that embark it. Because of the issue video games have to either continue growing as they are or they have to be stopped completely or a settlement between the two parties has to be

Video games are an ever-growing franchise that is constantly undergoing change. Ever since the dawn of video games, new consoles, games, developers, and teams have come together, fallen apart, triumphed, and failed. What is it that has allowed some to thrive where others failed? Several different factors have changed and influenced the world of gaming, including the history that is continuously being written, the people who have built the games behind the scenes, and, of course, the actual video games themselves. Numerous video games have been more successful than others, but identifying what components set the successful apart from the unsuccessful is something definitely worth observing.

When video games were first being introduced to the general public, they weren’t all that exciting. Most gaming took place in arcades and most arcades didn’t have many game cabinets due to their being very few games to begin with. However, all of this changed when the Atari 2600 was released. At the time, Atari was known for their home computers and their hit arcade game “Pong”. Though the Atari 2600 might not have been the first video game system, it was definitely the most successful at that time and a great success for Atari’s first attempt at a home video game console. Thanks to the success of the 2600, video games began to take off and arcades started popping up all over the world with hits like “Pac-Man” and “Donkey Kong”. These would be the

So, I’m going to change things a bit. Instead of just talking about dates and numbers, which can be boring; I’m going to give this a little casual twist. So, in order to start the history let’s get a few facts out of the way. Let’s talk about gamers, mainly because I’ll be using the term a lot; gamers are people who spent a lot of time playing videogames. The Average gamer playing video games has spent twelve years playing them. Adult gamers have an average of fourteen years of playing videogames, guys have an average of sixteen years, and girls have an average twelve years. Speaking of girls did you know that 47% of gamers are girls? I would have never guessed that, but it’s a fact. So, as of 2013 49% of all people who live in The United States owns a console. All of them that own a console have at least two of them. Me, I own eleven… I think I may have a problem. Anyway, now that some of the facts are out of the way let’s start, THE HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES! Now before I start I want to talk about all the most important events in the history of videogames, as I call them eras. Each era is very important because they shaped the videogames we know and love today.

To start off, we go 1981, the beginning of the first video game magazine, Electronic games, made by Arnie Katz and Bill Kunkle. 1982 introduces the Atari 5200. The next year is much more eventful. It starts off with a video game market crash, and several companies go bankrupt. However, there is good news--- and its name is Nintendo. The Japanese company is not willing to release the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in America because Atari rules a large part of the market. Instead, they decide to offer Atari the rights to release the product in the U.S. The plans fall through and we do not see Nintendo until 1985.

The video game industry has undergone significant changes from the early days of Atari. It now covers multiple sectors and generates more revenue than the movie and music industry. Last year total revenue in the U.S. eclipsed $23.5 billion, jumping 5% from a year earlier. A big part of that increase is due to a shift away from physical games towards digital software. In the past 5 years’ video game publishers have focused on expanding their direct to consumer channels through robust digital offerings. Meanwhile, the emergence of mobile gaming, eSports and virtual reality are poised to take the industry by storm in the next few years. With the industry growing at a rapid clip, it should be near the top of any investor’s list.

The video game industry has become a huge influence on society and the economy today. It is an industry that is so huge that it is estimated that 70% of U.S homes will own a Video game system by the year 2005, (Cassandra, 2002) Just one year away. But what made it the way it is? Since it is still an industry it has to follow the natural laws of economics. In this paper we will dive into the industry that now has gone beyond movies and recordings in profit.

In 1972 Pong, one of the first successful video game, was released (“A Brief” para. 4). Another success for the gaming industry in 1972, was the Atari 2600 which became the role model for other consoles (“A Brief” para. 4). little did Atari know, they would turn to practices that would lead to one the most infamous times in video game history: The Video Game Crash of 1983 (“A Brief” para. 4). On September 23, 1889, a company known as Nintendo was founded as playing card makers (“A Brief para. 9). Nintendo stayed that way until 1963, but in 1977 Nintendo hired a student, Shigeru Miyamoto (“A Brief” para. 10). Little did he

The video game industry has changed a lot since its inception, and a large part of that is due to the video game crash of 1983. Despite this, the market itself has remained roughly the same except for the actual devices in it. The quality of the video games has drastically improved over the years. Unfortunately, something that will never change are the greedy companies looking for a quick buck. While the video game industry has grown and improved since the crash, some similarities are starting to arise.

Video games have been around since the late 1950’s with the first game being a simple tennis match. Fast forward fifty years and we reach the creation of the PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and the Xbox. It is now 2016 and the future of gaming is here. Video games have created a huge market for technology and business. Since the first video game being invented in 1958, there have been eight generations of new consoles created. Video gaming is a fanatic for people and it still is continuing to grow.

In 1971 the video game industry was born. For over forty years, video games have been on the rise, now more so then in the early years when it was first introduced. Over the years as gaming corporation were continuously innovating new video game consoles and devices, consumers became more aware of what this technology has to offer. But in order for technology giants to wheel in consumers to buy their product, they had to present it to the general public, and give reasons why they should buy it. In order for video game corporations to stay in the game they will need to keep innovating and that is exactly what they will continue to do.

It was also in the period of the 80s that Nintendo released its first game in the United States called “Radarscope,” which did not sell well despite its positive standing in Japan. Three thousand copies of “Radarscope” were shipped to the U.S. and because it did not appeal to American audiences, Nintendo only sold one thousand units (Kent 156). Although Nintendo was able to get in the American market, their games were not able to attract business. Nintendo’s “Space Fever” and “Sheriff” did not appeal to American gamers and arcade owners (Kent

Video games have now been in existence for a few decades, and in such a short time have evolved greatly. The first video game was created to be a military artillery calculator, then others played with the idea and pong was created, packman would become one of the most wildly known game in arcades, and now we have games such as call of duty or battlefield that can be played on a device that would use to require an entire room just for the computing power. Games have made a large leap in technology from two white rectangles rebounding a ball between one another, to the ability of virtual reality that visually has few faults that can be noticed by the human eye thanks to the high frames per second displayed to the user’s eyes. Along with the

Herman et all (2002) points out that history of video games begins from 1971 year, when Nutting association released 1500 machines with Spacewar video game. At the beginning it was too difficult to control the game process and playing machines had huge dimensions. But by the time with new technologies they become more compact and easier to play. According to the information given by Herman et all (2002), the period between the years of 1978-1981 is called ‘golden age’ of video game industry. In this period the arcade games ‘Football’ and ‘Space Invaders’ were released. All previously known sale records were broken by these two games with nearly equal wages. In this time interval great breakthroughs in the field of graphics were achieved,

In March 1980, the video game industry had made an attempt to adapt to the everyday lives of people. Atari created the first successful in-home video game console called the Atari 26001. This 8-bit game console had the ability to bring the fun of the arcade to the comfort of home. The Atari 2600 used game cartridges as seen to the left. These cartridges were compact and almost unbreakable. Each cartridge’s outside had a scene from the game with a short description of what the game was about. By the mid 80’s there was a great array of games for the Atari 2600 but there was also competition. In 1985 Nintendo created its own 8-bit video game console called the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES had games like The Mario Brothers and Donkey King. NES had blown up in Singapore but in America it was another story. The NES was too