"Life After the Video Game Crash"

**StriderKyo** · 12 Mar 2004, 05:25 PM

A crash!? Rubbish. The industry has seen ridiculous growth over the last few years which obviously has to slow at some point, so there will be a correction. But you're still talking about a multi-billion dollar industry - those don't go away overnight. Hell, people still buy coal.

This guy doesn't know what he's talking about - a post NES crash? The NES only dissappeared because succesful competition forced it to, not because people were turned off by gaming. The market overall grew significantly in the 16-bit era.

But the one thing that slam-dunks the notion of a crash into oblivion is the fact that there are entire continents so far behind the curve that the PS1 is the hot new thing there - ever wonder where all those old traded-in playstations went? If the industry can move those markets from resale goods to brand new stuff, they can increase worldwide sales dramatically. Aside from that, as the current generation ages, they'll continue to buy games that appeal - something the older generation has never done before. New demographics will open up, if publishers let them.

The key is content. As long as devlopers can keep coming up with new products that get people excited, it's been proven that the audience and sales will be there. I think the biggest thing is moving out of the adolescent ghetto of current gaming concepts and into something with a wider appeal.

**sleeve** · 12 Mar 2004, 05:31 PM

There never was a "crash" in the '80s. There was never a point when the developers simply stopped making games. Gaming continued on PC and 8-bit family computer platforms, and in the arcades. And of course, the Famicom saw release in 1983, so just how long did this putative "crash" last?

Just as there never was a crash in the '80s, there won't be one anytime soon.

**Videodrone** · 12 Mar 2004, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by Roufuss

Isn't this what happened the first time? The market got over-saturated on games, prices dropped super fast, nobody made any money and then BAM!, the crash.

What lead to the crash was complete saturation. Many companys were honestly pushing out new products weekly, and producing them in the millions. The real problem was none of these games were any good, most being garbage.

Yes too many games is causing more and more games to see price drops sooner and sooner, but there are still marquee titles that hold stong, for long periods of time.

**Roufuss** · 12 Mar 2004, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by Videodrone

What lead to the crash was complete saturation. Many companys were honestly pushing out new products weekly, and producing them in the millions. The real problem was non of these games were any good, most being garbage.

Yes too many games is cause more and more games to see price drops sooner and sooner, but there are still marquee titles that hold stong, for long periods of time.

Thanks then, I was a bit unsure of it.

The Atari crash was just a little bit before my time, I grew up with the NES

**mollipen** · 12 Mar 2004, 07:31 PM

I like how he seems to think that new systems coming out every few years is some sort of secret anti-crash plan or something. The reason new systems come out every few years is because we are at a point where technology is growing in leaps and bounds on an almost daily basis. It isn't that a system like the PSOne couldn't keep us entertained for years and years, it is the fact that we look around and see lots of other neat technology, and want to see our game machines progress as well. There's going to be a point where game system can only get so much better before becoming true VR - at that point, you'll see upgrades far less often, I'm sure.

Look at CD players - how long has the CD player been around? How saturated is the market for CDs? We didn't quickly get new types of players just to keep interest in purchasing CDs. Yes, the argument can be made that CDs are "good enough" (which can indeed be argued) that people don't need better - but that's what I'm saying about a certain point in video gaming.

**Diff-chan** · 12 Mar 2004, 07:40 PM

Agent X has been telling me there's gonna be a crash for a good five or six years.

Hasn't happened yet. Isn't gonna happen.

Just like sleeveboy said, there was no crash in the 1980s.

I actually think a lot of the talk today about the amazing bone-chilling crash comes from... Nintendo.

Now now, I know what youre gonna say, but hear me out.

I think I read all this in Game Over, by the way. One of those stupid books.

Anyway, when the NES was coming out here, Nintendo made a lot of press releases, speeches, public demonstrations, whatever, to try to tell people why their system was gonna be so rad compared to Intellivision and 2600. it was there they formulated lists about how shitty the games were, how there was a flood of crap games, how ET was the work of Satan, etc. Of course they didnt mention that probably the greatest gaming platform of all time, the Commodore 64, was still alive and well at that point.

Of course, because the NES was so wildly successful, people bought Nintendo's story, and now it is supposedly common knowledge that the industry "crashed" because of Atari "flooding the market with bad games".

Bah.

**fraggler** · 12 Mar 2004, 09:34 PM

The Great Giana Sisters for the C64 was/is my fav platformer ever.
Nintendo stopped its release so the legend is, due to the obvious rip off of Super Mario series, but you could find it on everyones C64.

The C64 was released somewhere in the midst of 1982. It had tons of excellent ports of arcade games. A huge gaming scene. It had some of the most inventive original games for it as well. It even had really good 16 color porn!

P.S. If you want some porn on the GBA, I made a scrolling goatse.cx picture GBA ROM. Available upon request! Great for shutting up ROM whores!