The Home Video Game Industry: Atari Pong to the Nintendo Wii; Rotting youthful minds since 1974
The Home Video Game Industry: Atari Pong to the Nintendo Wii; Rotting youthful minds since 1974
Many people of today remember how video games began the decay of the physical and mental well-being of the world’s youth since the inception of the Atari game Pong in 1974. What Atari creator Nolan Bushnell did not realize back then was that when he invented this wildly successful creation it would leave such a large imprint on society; physically, mentally and emotionally. Many youths of today are more apt to spend a whole weekend hosting a video game marathon of the more popular First Person games like Halo or Call of Duty than they would being outside playing real games like tag football, baseball or basketball with their friends. Video games was the initial segue in to the technological boom but at what cost? Despite experiencing huge financial success, video games have been rotting youthful minds since 1974 and counting.
In the first year of official retail production with Sears, Atari sales topped $450 million in 1975. Following this notable success Atari began struggling with knockoff manufacturers and faced new competition entering the market. While the Atari game console was patented, the concept was not and this allowed a market without barriers to entry for new companies with investors chomping at the bit to get their piece of the action for an obvious money maker in a newly established market. Initially Atari faced competitors like Coleco, Commodore64 and Intellivision who saw some success but were unable to compete with the price point that Atari was able to produce. Feeling that their products were superior to the expanding Atari competitors placed their systems in price points outside of the average consumer and targeted the upper middle class consumers with a price tag averaging $499 compared to the Atari console price of around $199. Game cartridges averaged around $20 for Atari and competitors offered their then superior graphic driven games
Many people of today remember how video games began the decay of the physical and mental well-being of the world’s youth since the inception of the Atari game Pong in 1974. What Atari creator Nolan Bushnell did not realize back then was that when he invented this wildly successful creation it would leave such a large imprint on society; physically, mentally and emotionally. Many youths of today are more apt to spend a whole weekend hosting a video game marathon of the more popular First Person games like Halo or Call of Duty than they would being outside playing real games like tag football, baseball or basketball with their friends. Video games was the initial segue in to the technological boom but at what cost? Despite experiencing huge financial success, video games have been rotting youthful minds since 1974 and counting.
In the first year of official retail production with Sears, Atari sales topped $450 million in 1975. Following this notable success Atari began struggling with knockoff manufacturers and faced new competition entering the market. While the Atari game console was patented, the concept was not and this allowed a market without barriers to entry for new companies with investors chomping at the bit to get their piece of the action for an obvious money maker in a newly established market. Initially Atari faced competitors like Coleco, Commodore64 and Intellivision who saw some success but were unable to compete with the price point that Atari was able to produce. Feeling that their products were superior to the expanding Atari competitors placed their systems in price points outside of the average consumer and targeted the upper middle class consumers with a price tag averaging $499 compared to the Atari console price of around $199. Game cartridges averaged around $20 for Atari and competitors offered their then superior graphic driven games