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Furthermore, the hardware manufacturers of this era - in stark contrast to Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft in later decades - did not enforce exclusive control of their platforms' supply of games, effectively meaning that any group could make a game and sell it, and there was nothing to prevent limited shelf space in stores from being overloaded by third-party publishers' material. This effectively resulted in the industry becoming flooded with games of notably low quality that were nonetheless marketed heavily and produced in high numbers. | Furthermore, the hardware manufacturers of this era - in stark contrast to Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft in later decades - did not enforce exclusive control of their platforms' supply of games, effectively meaning that any group could make a game and sell it, and there was nothing to prevent limited shelf space in stores from being overloaded by third-party publishers' material. This effectively resulted in the industry becoming flooded with games of notably low quality that were nonetheless marketed heavily and produced in high numbers. | ||
1982 would see the release of Atari games which would later earn the hyperbolic title of "the games that killed gaming". ''Pac-Man'' was an Atari 2600 port of the landmark and popular arcade game of the same name, while ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' was a video-game adaptation of the movie | 1982 would see the release of two Atari games which would later earn the hyperbolic title of "the games that killed gaming". ''Pac-Man'' was an Atari 2600 port of the landmark and popular arcade game of the same name, while ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' was a video-game adaptation of the Steven Spielberg movie of the same name. Both games were high-profile titles that were adaptations of properties that were themselves extremely high-profile. In both cases, Atari rushed their programming and development processes to make early releases and manufactured colossal amounts of units in anticipation of huge hits. Both games were universally panned by critics and consumers alike, with ''Pac-Man'' being criticized for its flickering graphics and unfaithfulness to the source material, and ''E.T.'' being criticized for its cryptic nature relative to its young target audience and tedious pit-escaping mechanic. While the games sold very well, Atari grossly overestimated the number of sales they would generate, resulting in many unsold units, leading to a mass burial of unsold Atari titles, both failures and successes, in a New Mexico landfill. | ||
This began a brutal chain reaction across the entire North American gaming market, which was not at all helped by a newly soured consumer outlook on the video game concept. Most stores, lacking space to carry new games and consoles, had no choice but to attempt to return surplus games to recent publishers, but since publishers had neither new products to supply nor cash to issue refunds to the retailers, many companies folded, and of those that did not, several abandoned the video game business entirely. Stores left with units that could no longer be returned to defunct publishers could only resort to offering the titles for spectacularly low bargain-bin prices. Toy retailers that controlled consumer access to games had concluded that video games were a fad that had in fact ended, and therefore became opposed to devoting shelf space to video games and consoles in favor of other types of entertainment products. | This began a brutal chain reaction across the entire North American gaming market, which was not at all helped by a newly soured consumer outlook on the video game concept. Most stores, lacking space to carry new games and consoles, had no choice but to attempt to return surplus games to recent publishers, but since publishers had neither new products to supply nor cash to issue refunds to the retailers, many companies folded, and of those that did not, several abandoned the video game business entirely. Stores left with units that could no longer be returned to defunct publishers could only resort to offering the titles for spectacularly low bargain-bin prices. Toy retailers that controlled consumer access to games had concluded that video games were a fad that had in fact ended, and therefore became opposed to devoting shelf space to video games and consoles in favor of other types of entertainment products. |
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