What happens if the Great 1983 Video Game Crash never happens? Let's say as our POD that Atari has a better business strategy including giving Third Party Developers authorial credit and royalties for their work, making the console more expensive, not rushing the development of ET or Pac-Man and thus them being good and if you want a singular POD, Atari projecting a 50% increase in profits instead of 10-15% on December, 2, 1982. What happens, now? What are the effects of Atari staying around and Japan never entering the videogame industry? Your thoughts?
WI: 1983 Video Game Crash never happens?
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GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
Shopping malls used to have video arcades. I think in the United States, maybe as early as 1978 most malls had arcades.
One question I would have, when did companies and entrepreneurs stop opening new arcades?
One question I would have, when did companies and entrepreneurs stop opening new arcades?
When Consoles become powerful enough to play most arcades hit, so since mid 90's(the rest were chuck e chesse and that arcade restaurant franchise), seems that was the issue, as arcade were cheap but unproftiable in long term(unlike japan when arcades have varied price range and population density make them good leisure places)
Just a tiny gripe, Japan's native videogame market was already booming. Pac-Man was guzzling coins from the pockets of the worlds youth since 1980, same could be said of Donkey Kong after 1981. The Famicom was also doing well in Japan.
In this TL, where the market in North America doesn't implode, there are still quite a few inherent problems with the industry. Most generations had three systems to choose from, some two or four. The early '80s had about nine or so, far too many for its own good. Literally anybody could make a game, but without the Internet and widespread gaming journalism we have today, customers had no clue what they were buying, and whether it was good or not.
With the Famicom dominating Japan, Nintendo is bound to try and take on Atari's hegemony. Given the OTL quality of the 5200, then they might find themselves successful, Crash or no Crash. It'd be interesting to see how Nintendo would differ. IOTL, they brought gaming in America back to life by basically whipping the corpse hard enough. That means keeping third-parties on a tight leash, to focus on making good games and not just shovelware. ITTL, however, they'll be acting like Sega or Sony, trying to charm third-parties onto their side. How they do that, I haven't a clue.
This is hard not to make the industry suffer a giant setback. There were several big factors that led to the fall beyond just business decisions. The biggest factor, as the article says, was that the hardware wasn't good enough to do much once the novelty wore off. The second, mentioned in an earlier post, was that the market was saturated already. So while the journey might be harder, Nintendo is likely to still win if it can stand out from the pack.
GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
So, the kid places, as well as the super big places like Dave & Buster's* for adults, at least in the United States.
*It's a high-scale singles place or couple's night out place. It's not a drop-in place when I'm dressed less than my best. And even if I was dressed my best, I'd still preferable need a wingman, the right energy to be open to meeting someone without overtrying, all that. Not a drop-in venue for casual gaming.
marathag
Banned
Some Early Malls had them, way back when games were 10 cents for Pinball, Bowling Games, and even shooting games
and my favorites, the Submarine games
These were electro-mechanical, no computers yet.
By the late '60s, Arcade games had started to lose the '50s 'delinquent' rap, with real hippies and all roaming about.
From what I recall, most Malls had them in the early '70s, just in time for Pong.
The new games like that cost a quarter to play, so some of the games were repriced, so I recall few 10 cent games left by 1975
Hmmm...well, given that many have credited Nintendo's success in North America with kick-starting the animé boom...could this lead to animé not becoming a thing in the United States? And by extension, the West in general.
birdboy2000
Banned
It wasn't so much the success of Nintendo as the success of pokemon - there aren't that many anime based on video games that were actually successful in Japan, let alone the West. (A 13-26 episode tie-in that fans of the game watch and get disappointed at is sadly far more typical.) And virtually all the anime other than pokemon important in the US anime boom were either original or based on manga.
Pokemon, of course, is undeniably huge and a game-changer, but I don't think Nintendo's dominant position is necessary there. Even in a more crowded handheld market the Gameboy would probably still be available, and Pokemon sold (and still sells - those "3DS is a failure" articles died once XY came out) the system it was made for.
(I'd put Digimon Adventure as the only exception, and even there only the virtual pet preceded the anime, although I'm sure Digimon World helped. Monster Farm and .hack//SIGN got US TV releases, but the former was canceled - a shame, it was awesome - and the latter was never gamechanging. Also of note is that all three had *playstation* games - the Japanese dominance of the console market was not solely Nintendo.)
Pokemon, of course, is undeniably huge and a game-changer, but I don't think Nintendo's dominant position is necessary there. Even in a more crowded handheld market the Gameboy would probably still be available, and Pokemon sold (and still sells - those "3DS is a failure" articles died once XY came out) the system it was made for.
(I'd put Digimon Adventure as the only exception, and even there only the virtual pet preceded the anime, although I'm sure Digimon World helped. Monster Farm and .hack//SIGN got US TV releases, but the former was canceled - a shame, it was awesome - and the latter was never gamechanging. Also of note is that all three had *playstation* games - the Japanese dominance of the console market was not solely Nintendo.)
If you'll forgive the plug, the Video Game Crash of 1983 is averted -- well, given more of a soft landing, really -- in my TL, Dirty Laundry, because of a series of decisions that affects The Worst Video Game Ever Made.
Remember, too, that Atari had a deal to distribute the Nintendo Famicom in the U.S.; that deal was blown up in '85 when Jack Tramiel bought a distressed Atari in a fire sale (and had no idea what he was buying). Remove the distress, and you remove that sale, at least....
Remember, too, that Atari had a deal to distribute the Nintendo Famicom in the U.S.; that deal was blown up in '85 when Jack Tramiel bought a distressed Atari in a fire sale (and had no idea what he was buying). Remove the distress, and you remove that sale, at least....