| The_Liquid_Laser said: This is misleading. There was a huge difference between arcades in the mid 80s and consoles in the mid 80s. (I'm talking about the US here.) Stores were clearing out all of their consoles of every kind. There were bargain bins full of Atari games for years. The console business appeared to be finished and done forever. The arcades were doing just fine. People went to them regularly throughout the mid 80's. The arcades did not appear to be in jeopardy in the slightest, while console gaming was seen as a fad. It was going to be replaced by computer gaming permanently. At least, that was the conventional wisdom at the time. The most successful time for the arcades was easily the early 80's. So revenues would be down in the mid-80's. However, arcades were in no threat of going out of business. The arcade business as a whole was doing just fine. |
I have to touch on this as I addressed computer gaming earlier in what it ran into when the 00s arrived, the problem I see with people saying arcades and computers is not one person looks at the long run in their argument and goes off the basis that because Arcades and Computers were there at the time gaming would have survived when seeing how those two branches went in the long run casts a lot of doubt on this chain of thought. For example Arcades did fine in the 80s but in the second half of the 90s however they began to decline sharply this is notable because earlier I highlighted the plight of PC gaming in the 00s as at that point Arcade gaming was really on its last legs.
The point being the two alternatives to console gaming were both in a dire situation at the same time and with out the modern consoles keeping the industry going I don't see how gaming would even still be around if anything the Arcades and Computer arguments people bring only suggest it would have just delayed the inevitable. The NES rebooting how consoles were approached and expanding the market is also what gave the market the revenue stream to facilitate it's huge growth in future and attract the likes of Sony and MS.
