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A Brief History Of Video Game Pricing, Part 2

By Chris Kiriapolous

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 02Mar2012
Word count: 549
Viewed: 23 time(s)

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If you own a video game system or have bought a console for your kids, you know that they cost a pretty penny. You buy the system, you buy games, you buy controllers, and it all adds up. Sure, you don't have to pay lots of money to enjoy playing simple games, like the free games for kids you find online, but if you're looking for a deeply involving gaming experience, you're going to have to shell out hundreds of dollars. It may seem like prices are out of control, but when you put them in historical perspective, they're not all that bad. Video game systems have always been a luxury item, especially for a kids game.

The first home game system that could handle multiple games was the Fairchild Video Entertainment System, released in 1976. The first video game console to become a serious must-have in households was Atari's Video Computer System, later christened the Atari 2600. Released by Atari to compete with the Fairchild Channel F, it was not an immediate success, but it survived the market failure that sunk the Fairchild the following year and competition from rival systems by Bally and Magnavox.

The 2600 hit the stratosphere in 1980 when its adaptation of the arcade hit Space Invaders became first smash hit for a home game system, with many people buying the entire system just so they could defend the Earth from a fleet of alien spaceships by shooting at them from behind shields. Buying an Atari 2600 set back consumers $200 in 1976 and the price had not dropped when the 2600 experienced its greatest success. In today's market, that translates to a whopping $766. Cartridges that cost $21 back then would now sell for $80.

Mattel, inspired by the success of the Atari, launched a relatively successful system with better graphics and sound, the Intellivision, in 1979. Its superior technology came with a heftier $300 price tag, which works out to nearly $800 today. The Intellivision had a four-year run before the great video game crash of 1983, releasing 125 games for the system.

Atari responded to the technical superiority of the Intellivision with the 5200, whose computing power matched that of its rival. It carried the same $300 price tag as the Intellivision, which in 1982 dollars is equivalent to just over $600 today. (For those who weren't there, inflation was quite steep in the early eighties.)

Mattel's toymaker rivals couldn't help trying to get in on the action. Milton Bradley released the Vectrex in 1982, with its unique vector-based graphics, at the $200 price point, or $450 today. Then in 1983 Coleco got in on the action, topping the quality of all its rivals with the ColecoVision, whose graphics almost matched the quality found in arcades. The ColecoVision undercut the competition with a $175 price tag, just under $400 in today's dollars.

The games that people enjoyed on those consoles are quite simple compared to the games you'd play on a console that sold for $400 today. Many of them have been duplicated as free online flash games for kids and adults. The fun is still the same as it was, but now the console you buy to play them also allows you to read articles like this one, among other things.

The fun never ends with kids games online, with dozens of games based on your favourite kids shows.

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