Video games on CNBC

There is a show on CNBC right now called Game On. It is all about how video games have evolved from their early form to the games of today. I shall share with you the wisdom that CNBC has passed on to me. Video games were first developed on computers. However, at the time, With the cost of computers you would have to play a game @ 25 cents a pop, 400,000 times to even pay for the cost of the computers. It was finally realized that televisions were the right space in which to launch the idea of on-screen gaming. The creators of the games went to companies like RCA, trying to get their product launched. It was Magnavox that finally picked up the idea. Their first product failed however, largely due to poor advertising.

The first real on-screen gaming hit was PONG by Atari, and with this hit Atari began its short lived golden days on the market. People liked PONG because they understood this simple ping-pong like gaming form. After some time, the then owner of Atari, Bushell (I think), sold Atari to Warner Communications. He stayed on as the head of the company and founded Chuckie Cheese in order to create a bigger market for arcading. Brilliant if you ask me. Soon after Atari was met with competition from Japan. Pac Man hit the scene and became a phenomenon. Then a young designer came along to Nintendo and brought something new to these games, a “story”. (oh the debate, I know) It was ET that almost killed the gaming market. Atari bought the rights to creating an ET game shortly after its release and struggled to get the game out by x-mas. The only problem was they only had 6 weeks. The game was a flop. Sales went down, stock went down and the gaming market crashed. It was Super Mario Brothers and the NES that were able to bring video games back on the market and pave the way for the future. SO that is basically part of the show regurgitated to you. I think they are doing a lot of shows this week on gaming because of the console craze that is happening right now. So see CNBC  if you want to check it out.