When ET and Atari were about to load videogames in their greatest crisis in history

At this point, the video game industry is considered the most important entertainment, and the income it generates. But, if we look back, it is something that has never happened, since the sector was about to disappear . The most curious thing is that a single game was the cause of shaking the foundations of an entire guild: we talked about the unforgettable (for worse) E.T of Atari .

• When video games almost cease to exist
• The worst video game in history?

The story has a crime. We went back to 1983, almost 30 years ago of what is considered in history books as "the video game crisis." The funny thing is that the sector had had a certain pull in the seventies, thanks to games like pong or arcade machines in bars , thus generating interest among society. Even at that time there were some domestic consoles.

When video games almost cease to exist

But, at that time, the market was monopolized by Atari, who had all the money, the best developers and engineers and nobody approached their benefits, beyond the occasional attempt from Japan, who claimed their place with games as Space Invaders in 1978 . The problem when there is no competence is that it will be wasteful, especially after having achieved a high market share.

That caused an endemic evil of humanity that continues to occur in certain sectors. When something works well, everyone wants to get into it because they see safe income. But you have to have the knowledge to invest and develop. Everyone wanted to "chupar from the boat" and that began to generate that many video games were published for the little market there were and also not only were not too much quality , but they were all quite similar to each other: it did not exist the originality.

The Atari itself and the rest of the industry companies promoted these developments, since it was not necessary to have any license to develop or there were quality controls. So, everything was based on copying the most popular and trying to replicate it. The synergy between video games and cinema also came into play. The emerging sector wanted to take advantage of the important . Thus, Atari bought the E.T license, the famous Steven Spielberg movie. In what ended up being the worst business in history . And the moment when video games were about to exist.

For this work, Atari hired Howard Scott Warsah , who had the function of solo programming the video game for the Atari 2600 console. He had the pressure not to disappoint fans, since he became a film of success. And to do it as soon as possible. He had a month to deliver the video game with the aim of taking advantage of the film's pull .

Someone from Atari came too late to develop that video game and we already know that hurry is not good counselors. In spite of that, in the editor they were "left over" and ordered to produce hundreds of thousands of copies , forcing the distributors to buy the mass game, because it was going to destroy.

And the truth is that he did it. As you will understand, before there was no press or youtube and bought "blind", without being able to read reviews . The game sold very well during their first days, but when experts and the public had the work in their hands, they threw pests. For many, E.T is the worst video game in history : both for its quality and for what led to an industry in diapers.

The worst video game in history?

The failure was such that Atari, a sign that until then had no rival in the industry, entered bankruptcy and only one year later, in 1984 , it was sold for 280 million dollars.

And you will ask, What happened to the hundreds of thousands of copies they made? They wanted to get rid of all the ribbons. For some time it was rumored that they had been buried in the Alamogordo desert, in New Mexico **.

A juicy story to investigate, roasted that the producers Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox thought it would be interesting of copies in the indicated area. Ending one of the stories that for decades has put the sector in check.

E.T is remembered in the general culture of his house and his phone , but in the video game industry we remember it as the bug that almost ended the history of the sector ** which is right now of billions of people.