The Future of Video Games Video games are the one medium that continues to evolve at a significant pace. It’s tough to keep up if you casually pick up a controller to play. America and gaming have a complex and, at some points, perplexing history. When the Atari 2600, the first phenomenally successful home gaming console, was released, children and adults in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s went crazy for the relatively primitive machine’s graphics. It was a way to interact and play as your favorite movie characters and in countless space games. However, since it was the first megahit, mistakes were made. The market was oversaturated with games of very low quality, both from amateur developers and major companies. Stores couldn’t separate poor products from the few successful ones. Many believe the nail in the coffin was when the company banked on two extremely popular properties to get them through the holiday season, “E.T. The Game,” and “Pac-Man.” The former was labeled a major disappointment. Atari wanted the game out for the Christmas season, but that meant giving developers only a few weeks to work on a game. The result was a lot of disappointed kids on Christmas day. The game stank. Families returned it. Nobody bought the excess copies that were produced and rumors are many copies were buried in a landfill. Pac-Man, the beloved arcade game, was supposed to be a sure fire hit. However, the Atari adaptation was vastly inferior to the arcade experience. This is among the many factors that led to what is known as the video game market crash in 1983. Atari consoles, along with many other fine machines, went to the bargain bins at toy stores and electronic shops. Nintendo, which was already a hit, burst into the states in the mid-‘80s and against all odds, got Americans hooked on gaming again, thanks to quality control and amazing software. The industry really hasn’t looked back since. To this day, gaming is an extremely lucrative business and it appears that it’s not going anywhere anytime soon, which begs the question of what the future of gaming holds. There are many theories. We’ve seen innovations with motion controls. Here let’s try to separate future and gimmicks with the possible future direction of the industry. BY JAIME DEJESUS QNS.com 22 WINTER 2016
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