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The Gaming Crash of 1983, Could It Happen Again?

June 27, 2009 in Blog comments 5

In this article, by Jared of TBMAG, a look is taken at the circumstances of the now infamous crash of 83, as well as some disturbing similarities to the modern industry.

If there is something this recession has taught me, it is that life is cyclical. What goes up must come down. You reap what you sow. What goes around comes around. Insert any other clichés you can think of, but the point is, this isn’t the first financial crash we’ve seen, and it probably won’t be the last.

In 1983, the video game industry crashed. Warehouses were full. Stores had shelves and shelves of games they could not sell. Boys and girls did the unthinkable; they went outside to play. The industry had hit rock bottom due to a mixture of haphazard business decisions, poor game development and over saturation of the market.
TheBigManAndGarrett via thebigmanandgarrett.wordpress.com »
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  • 2
    Play ISDF Jun 28, 09
    I doubt it would happen to such a great extent. I wouldn't doubt a recession of sorts in gaming in the near future, but a complete crash? I highly doubt that. Gaming is a lot bigger then it was back then.

    Lets say though there was a complete crash. So? We wouldn't have new games for awhile. Awwwww poor people! Go play your old ones, they've been gathering dust for years. I know I do. Eventually interest would rebuild and people would want something new to play. At that point somebody would step up and make something epic. From there it would be a snowball effect to bring gaming back to a golden age of sorts. It's like the economy. It crashes, but it recovers eventually.
  • 0
    phowell23 Jun 28, 09
    I think that it could happen down the road in 20 or something years or so but deffenetly not in the next 5. The biggest reason for the crash were terrible games. Now a days theres at least one BIG game a month that lives up to expectation. If in 20 years every console is more like the wii instead of the route the ps3/360 are going and there are huge numbers of games that are the same crap/shovelware I could see people quit playing games til better games come out or just quit all together.
  • 0
    McClubbin Jun 28, 09
    I agree with phowell. If it does happen, I highly doubt it will occur any time soon. So far the video game market's been an industry that's continuously managed to grow and analysts are only expecting it to increase by 2015.
  • 3
    Big A2 Jun 28, 09
    Never. Gaming's far too mainstream now. You might as well try and predict the music industry crashing.
  • 1
    Daweii Jun 28, 09
    Not gonna happen unless they try to remake ET and then we may have to be worried. That game pretty much single handedly killed an entire generations faith in video games.

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