Today, there are many video games available, such as Mario Kart 8, Smash Brothers, and Call of Duty. But one company that was “swept under the rug” was Nintendo. Back then, Nintendo was the all-star of the video game market. It all started out with an event that was tragic for the American economy: The Video Game Crash of 1983.

Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, Atari was the king of the video game market. According to Inside Daily Gaming, Atari made 3.2 billion dollars with their hit console, the Atari 2600. Then, the American economy was rough with crashes. But, one of the most substantial was the Video Game Crash of 1983. During the crash, the economy was falling fast. Atari’s profits were down by 97%. The crash occurred due to cheap, worthless consoles on the market, as well as many games that didn’t sell. Atari had started a bandwagon, and everyone jumped on the opportunity of making money with the new technology, so they made games that no one bought. One of the unsuccessful games was E.T. Well, Atari paid the company producing it $25 upfront. They were so assured that it would be a success that they ordered 5 million copies to be produced. Clearly, this was wrong, because the game was a failure. They had loads of cartridges that were waiting to be put in landfills. The supply was way over demand, as Americans were getting sick with video games. That resulted in consoles and games in junkyards, and the gaming market crashed for good. Then, the company Nintendo debuted the Nintendo Entertainment System, NES for short. This console attracted a lot of attention, and Americans rushed to buy the console. It introduced a new iconic character to the market known as Mario Jumpman Mario, Mario for short. His game “Super Mario Bros” which was bundled with the NES, was a huge hit around the world. But, why was it a huge hit? Nintendo approved what games came and could not appear on the console, unlike Atari, which had loads of games on it. Nintendo also made a special chip that went in their cartridges which prevented third party publishers from making games without Nintendo’s approval. By the end of 1989, the market reached $5 billion in sales, running smooth and steady once again.

Today, Microsoft and Sony rule the market with the Xbox One and the PS4, but Nintendo is still going strong with the 3DS and the Wii U. But the question still remains, could a similar crash happen again? Another crash probably won’t occur because of the huge demand we have for video games. Families are now glued to the TV and kids are buying video games like crazy! There are so many popular IP’s (franchises) on the market, so it’s highly improbable for it to crash anytime soon. So next time you play a video game, think about the true history, of how all of this all started with the Video Game Crash of 1983.