10 Terrible Decisions That Doomed Popular Video Game Companies

1. Huge Overestimations of E.T’s Selling Power - Atari

Atari were once the giants of the gaming industry, throwing their weight around like a wrecking ball. It was like the wild west for the developer, and with some smash hits under their belt; they’d procured a certain swagger.

It’s a shame then, that because of their decisions and overestimation of the selling power of E.T The Video Game, that they inadvertently caused the video game crash of 1983. Of course there were other factors, but E.T has become synonymous with the industry's failure, and it’s not hard to see why.

For a start, the game was a literal cash grab with it being commissioned and rushed through production from July until September 1982 in time for the Christmas holidays, this meant it skipped play testing because of a crushed time schedule and was messy from start to finish. Worse still was Atari’s decision to commission so many units that they would need to sell a copy to EVERY SINGLE Atari 2600 owner and then, on top of this, an additional one million units to clear stock.

Anyone could have seen this was a terrible decision, except of course for Atari who went ahead, lost a tonne of money and tried to bury their shame in the New Mexico desert.

[JG]