Activision triumphs
Founded in 1979, Activision is a new type of company like never before. Before Activision appeared, if any company wanted to enter the game industry, it needed to make a game console before starting to make games. For example, Atari must first make Atari 2600, and then make game cards for 2600. Mirohua must first make Mirovar Odyssey 2, and then make Milovar Odyssey 2 game cards. If you want to make a game, first make a game console.
Activision's business model is to make game cards for game mechanics.
This is a living Lei Feng, how can Mirohua make a game card for Atari? Doesn't it think Atari is not moisturizing enough?
Before creating Activision, four programmers consulted lawyers about Activision's business model, and the reply was that it was completely legal to make game cards for other game console manufacturers. Solving the legal problem, four programmers who had run away from Atari— David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, plus a record player, Jim Levy, founded Activision.
Activision, which was familiar with the production process for the Atari 2600 game, quickly got into working order, releasing them in 1980: Dragster, Fishing Derby, Checkers, and Boxing. Kaboom, released in 1981! And Pitfall in 1982! The most successful: Kaboom! Sold 1 million copies, and Pitfall! 4 million copies were sold.
In January 1980, Casa made a special advertisement at CES, alluding to Activision as a villain who stole trade secrets. Atari then launched a lawsuit against Activision, accusing them of stealing trade secrets, violating confidentiality agreements, and infringing intellectual property rights. Atari also warned its retailers that if they sold Activision's gaming cards, they might be disensuaded from selling the Atari 2600.
"Because of our support, Atari will sell more consoles, but they don't see it that way," Crane said. We were probably Atari's best helpers, and they didn't think so either. ”
Activision was fighting a lawsuit with Atari while developing atari 2600 game cards. In 1982, the lawsuit finally came to an end: the court rejected Atari's complaint, and Atari lost!
Forced to be helpless, Atari and Activision reached an agreement outside the court: Activision paid Atari the game license fee, and Atari approved the game card produced by Activision. This made Activision the first third-party game developer and established a model in which console manufacturers license third-party development.
Atari's defeat also sends a very important message: all companies can legally develop game cards that run on the Atari 2600.
Activision's first CEO, Jim Levy, proposed that "game developers are also artists." Activision's game cards print photos and quotes from the developer on the box, as well as the background and story of game development, like movies and records.
Activision's five founders: David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Jim Levy.
These five pioneers in the history of game art took game designers out of the definition of console vassals and formed a whole new industry: game production. Game makers are no longer just engineers, but artists. The games they make are no longer toys, but works of art like movies, music, and books.
The picture shows the founding group of Activision.
The anti-phagocytosis of the game card
Activision's victory opened the door to game card making.
Just as the Chinese game industry flocked to make page games in 2010, in 1982 countless companies in the American game card production industry also flocked out.
Crane observed that beginning in 1982 many companies were backed by venture capital and entered the game production market. Most of the games these companies make are "the worst games you can imagine." Activision has game development experience with the Atari 2600, while other game developers do not. Newcomers can only gain market share by relying on commercial espionage, poaching, and reverse engineering to make game cards. Atari imitated this practice. It hired several programmers from Mattel's game studio, which sparked a lawsuit between Atari and Mattel.
Tips: Mattel released the Intellivision console in 1979, which has sold 3 million units in history and has 125 games released.
At CES in 1982, there were only 17 manufacturers of Atari game cards, and a total of 90 games were released. In 1983, 158 vendors began making games for Atari, and the number of games reached 400. And the vast majority of these game cards are shoddily made.
For example: Ralston Purin, a dog food company in St. Louis, Missouri. They also released the Atari 2600 game card: Chase the Chuck Wagon.
According to the market forecast of Activision's marketing division, they expect the total market for game cards in the United States to be 60 million in 1982, and Activision can gain 12-15% market share. However, between 1982 and 1983, more than 120 million game cards were produced.
In this case, Atari did not react effectively, but instead joined the frenzy of game cards. What Atari saw was that the profits of game cards far exceeded those of game consoles, and payments were paid back faster than those of game consoles. Atari buys a lot of inferior games from third-party companies, labels them as Atari and brings them to market.
Not only that, but they also use the advantages of their sales network to force retailers to hoard game cards. This practice made Atari's earnings report very good, and the inventory transferred to retailers became Atari's financial report data.
The game card frenzy caused Atari's share of the game card market to fall from 75 percent in 1981 to less than 40 percent in 1982. These games not only affectEdari, but also made Activision's high-priced high-quality game cards unsalable. The market for high-priced game cards shrank sharply and was replaced by rough, low-priced game cards. The makers of these low-cost game cards don't make games, but are very good at advertising and designing. Like the pictures on the instant noodle packaging, users are fooled when they buy it. One hundred and eighty dang, dang dang is not the same.
When these, consumers are counted on the Atari 2600.
The reputation of home consoles is deteriorating.
Until 1982, Atari was considered the dominant player in the home console industry. The defeat with Activision has forced everyone to re-examine whether the home game console industry has such a high growth value. Console companies can't dominate their own game releases, so what's the value of selling more consoles?
At the same time, the personal computer industry also entered a period of rapid development in the early 1980s. Commodore International lowered the price of its 8-digit PC VIC-20 directly to $199, entering the price range for home consoles. Commodore says the product is aimed at gamers. VIC-20 advertises, "Why only buy video games from Atari or Intellivision?" "Unlike games, the VIC-20 is a real computer," but "can also play great games."
Where did the price war for the personal computer business go in 1982? In June 1983, the New York Times published the feelings of industry practitioners: "I have been in retail for 30 years, and I have never seen such a self-destructive pattern of goods in any category. ”
What is Atari doing?
The last straw that broke the camel's back: E.T.
In 1982, "E.T.", directed by Spielberg, swept the United States, immersed in the touching friendship story of humans and aliens. E.T. is a legend in the history of cinema, grossing $792 million worldwide and $435 million in North America. That record took a decade to be broken by Jurassic Park, another film directed by Spielberg.
In June 1982, Warner CEO Steve Ross began negotiations with film director Steven Spielberg and distributor Universal Pictures to obtain permission to produce the E.T. game. At the end of June, Warner announced that it had licensed E.T. to produce an E.T. game.
Details of the deal were not disclosed, with media claiming that Atari had paid at least $20-25 million.
After the agreement was completed, Ross asked Atari CEO Casa for his opinion, and Casa replied: "I think this is a stupid idea, how can we change an action movie into a game?" ”
So this pot, Casa does not back.
The problem between Warner's headquarters and Atari has existed for a long time. Entrenched at Warner's headquarters is a group of business elites, all holding calculators in their hands and staring at Wall Street MBAs. They don't care about Atari, they don't care about Atari's products, they don't care about Atari's users, they only care about financial numbers.
Remember Howard Warsaw, who developed the best-selling game Yars' Revenge? After Warner made a deal with Universal, Casa called Warsaw to make him the game developer for E.T. Warsaw had developed a game of the same name for Spielberg's other film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, so this time the E.T. game was still developed by him.
Below is a Raiders of the Lost Ark game developed in Warsaw.
To catch up with the Christmas sales season, Casa offered Warsaw a $200,000 bonus and an all-inclusive package for a Hawaiian vacation, asking Warsaw to complete the game's development by September 1.
As an experienced designer, Warsaw is on the move. Based on E.T., he built a worldview, set goals, and designed the game's core mechanics: a collection game that crossed obstacles. Warsaw and Atari executives showed Spielberg the game design of E.T., and Spielberg said he was indifferent. Instead, he asked, "Can't you make something more like the Pac-Man game?"
Warsaw did not accept Spielberg's opinion, but believed in itself. In 5 weeks, Warsaw completed the production of "E.T.". Then shake your ass and go on vacation to Hawaii with a $200,000 bonus.
Below is Atari's E.T. advertisement.
Even so, the schedule is still tight to guarantee that it will be sold at Christmas. Remembering the "Pac-Man" transplanted from Namco, that game also had serious experience problems, but still sold 7-8 million copies. This shows that the quality of the game is not a necessary condition for a big hit, and Atari decided to cancel the game testing process. How could Spielberg's "E.T.", how could it not be popular?
Another source of confidence for Atari is that in October they asked retailers to place a large number of orders for E.T. game cards. Retailers saw Atari's overwhelming publicity and confidence in E.T., and they all placed over-orders for fear of running out of stock. Over-orders, expectations for the game, atari produced the number of E.T. game cards: 4 million copies.
Starting from Activision to third-party game production, and losing a lawsuit with Activision led to shoddy game cards flooding the market, a personal computer price war, blind optimism and misjudgment of the market.
One mistake after another, linked together, gave Atari a noose hanging around his neck. The next step is to remove the stool.
Not E.T. needs your help, but Atari needs your help.
The stool came right away.
On Christmas Day 1982, "E.T. was released as scheduled.
Under the overwhelming advertising, E.T. sold more than 1 million copies. The New York Times followed up with a report that game adaptations based on successful films, especially ET, would become a lucrative source for video game development.
Within days of the victory, bad news came. The game developed in 5 weeks can be imagined in quality. Atari received an increasing number of returns, with 669,000 of the game cards allegedly sold being returned, in addition to 2.5-3.5 million boxes lying in the warehouse, none of which had been seen. At the time, ataly, there were more E.T. game cards in stock than the Atari 2600 sold. That's an incredible number because Atari's 2600 cumulative sales are around 20 million units. If it's all the stock game cards, that number is a bit believable.
For the E.T., his designer Warsaw said: "In fact, E.T. was the one that I successfully overcame a major technical challenge. I wrote the game independently in 5 weeks, and no one in atatari's game development department could match that record. This game is supposed to be a better game, and it is not bad to complete it in 5 weeks. I've found that users don't pay attention to the development cycle. The only thing they care about is the gaming experience. I personally think E.T. is a complete, qualified game. There are also people who like it. It's obviously not the worst game of all time, but it feels good to be the author of the worst game of all time. Between E.T. and Yars' Revenge, I made the largest span of gamers. ”
The implication is, good and bad, I can do it in Warsaw.
5 months is Yars' Revenge, 5 weeks is only "E.T.". Blame me.
In the face of such a big event, there is something worth mentioning: "E.T. is the first video game to take a special artist, and his name: the abbreviation of Jerome Domurat appears in the game as an Easter egg, and the name of Warsaw is another Easter egg.
The end of the Atari era
In mid-1983, Atari laid off 3,000 employees (10,000 in total). Unsold game cards, including Pac-Man, E.T., and most of the 1982 cards and consoles, filled Atari's warehouses. At the end of 1983, Atari's total loss exceeded $536 million.
In September 1983, the Daily News of Ala morgordo, New Mexico, reported that 10 to 20 semi-trailers had departed from the Atari warehouse in El Paso, Texas, loaded with Atari game cards and consoles, crushed and buried in landfills. Atari claims that the 2600 and game cards will be destroyed because of the release of the Atari 5200, after all, the Atari 5200 is not compatible with the 2600. On September 29, 1983, another layer of concrete was poured on the broken Atari garbage, which is rare in waste disposal.
This place has an exclusive term: the graveyard of the Atari game. There is speculation that Atari destroyed at least 3.5 million game cards here.
On May 28, 2013, the Alamogordo City Council granted Canadian entertainment company Fuel Industries access to the landfill to shoot a documentary, Atari: Game Over. Xbox Entertainment Studios aired the documentary series in 2014 as exclusive video for xbox ones and xbox 360s.
From the Atari Game Over in 1983 to the launch of the Microsoft Xbox in 2001, there really weren't any decent console companies in the United States. Microsoft's broadcast of this documentary on Xbox is really meaningful.
In 1982, Atari also released a problematic console, the 5200.
In 1984, Atari was sold by Warner to Commodore International. There are still some stories in atatari, but they are all irrelevant marginal content.
The 1983 American game crash
At this point, gamers across the United States resented the degradation of Atari and the entire home console industry, and game consoles and game cards became e-waste overnight. North American gaming revenue fell from $3.2 billion in 1983 to $100 million in 1985, a 97 percent drop. There are countless bankrupt companies in the whole industry, And Mirovar quit the game industry, and Activision switched to computer game development. Mattel and Coleco also shut down their gaming businesses in 1985.
In the history of video game art, the events that occurred in 1983-1985, triggered by Atari's E.T. products, led to the collapse of the american game market. There is a proper noun: Video game crash of 1983. In Japan, the event is called: Atari shock.
Japan's name is obviously much softer, in fact, the 1983 American game crash, the main impact is still North America. The rest of the world, such as Japan and Europe, has not been greatly affected. The events of 1983 suppressed the development of American family consoles, and in the future family console wars, the North American market became a battlefield for Japanese companies. But the development of computer games in the United States has given the United States an excellent advantage in the future computer game wars.
Atari's story is coming to an end.
Was Atari a sinner in the history of video game art? Obviously not, the collapse of the US game market is the result of rapid technological progress, rapid user development and capital brutality, and the three factors tearing each other apart, and cannot be blamed on a company.
Atari is a symbol in the history of game art. At this moment, the art of video games is standing at the crossroads of science and technology and humanities, and moving in any direction is progress.
Next, set your sights on Japan on the other side of the Pacific. The story there is equally wonderful.