Videogame Crash from 1983

The founding of Activision is a blessing and a curse for the industry: the fact that everyone now produces games ensures an explosion of software. For the Atari 2600, in 1982 and ‘83, about 300 titles are published by third parties alone, while Atari himself has published just over 50 games since the launch of the 2600. In addition, there are nine different consoles on the market in the USA in 1983, all of which are arguing for market shares.

The oversaturation of the market, the often poor quality of third-party games and some prominent flops of Atari itself lead to a fall in sales in North America in 1983. Mattel, Coleco and MB as well as countless other hardware manufacturers are withdrawing. Countless software companies are breaking down. Atari loses about $500 million (about $1.2 billion adjusted for inflation) as a result of this crash and is smashed into several companies that have nothing in common with each other except the Atari name and logo.