Blog #8
For this blog I am going to be looking at different business models which were described in the video ‘The history of computer games’. I will be looking at Atari, from how it was set up for only $500 and eventually being sold for $28 000 000 000. I will then look at how the games industry kicked off in the UK by looking at the Oliver Twins and Codemaster. I will then look at how the Games Industry moved over into Japan with Nintendo.
Atari was set up in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney for $500. They soon employed Al Alcorn, and Bushnell put him to work on a training exercise. This training exercise turned into the world famous Pong. Pong was a huge success when it was first released as a small arcade game in a bar. Within two months Atari were making one hundred Pong Arcade machines a day. Atari, realising how successful Pong was released Home Pong so now it could be played anytime. There was of course with all new things a problem. Someone else claimed that they had the patent for the game. That someone else was Ralph Baer, the designer of the Magnavox Odyssey. They claimed that Bushnell had seen the idea at a trade show. The damage had the case gone to court to Atari would have been huge, but they decided to settle out of court for $700 000 for a paid up licence. Atari went on to develop home consoles (The VCS) to great success; at one point Atari’s revenues made it the biggest growing company in US. Atari was then sold to Warner Communications for $28 million. Bushnell was retained as chairman. The relationship between Bushnell and Warner Communication was a rocky one. Bushnell wanted to keep the company moving forward with the development of next gen consoles, but Warner Communication was happy where I was, and after one too many heated board room arguments, it was decided that Bushnell was to sacked. Once Bushnell left, other were no to far behind him. David Crane who was a developer on the VCS left Atari with three others; they were the founders of Activision. They started developing games for the VCS but Atari stopped them. This was the first time an outside developer had created games for a console, and it took two years before they were allowed to make VCS cartridges. The company then went onto be sold in 1984 to JackTramiel for $240 million. This was seen as a lot of money for a company that wasn’t doing to well at the time.
In Britain the games development industry kicked off when teenagers started to develop games on there own consoles such as the spectrum. Two teenagers that did this were the Oliver Twins. The Oliver twin made many games, including Dizzy. It wasn’t until they met the Darling Brothers (Founders of Codemasters) that they got their big break. The Darling brothers were impressed with what the Oliver twins were developing, and paid them £10 000 for their Robin Hood Game. The Oliver Twins continued to make games for Codemasters and in 1990 started their own Games Company, Interactive Studios (now Blitz Games).
Finally the last major step in games development was when a Japanese Company which created playing cards decided to move into the games development industry because of how successful it was. That company was Nintendo. Nintendo went onto hire Miyamoto whose big break came up when the Nintendo game Rader Scope failed in the US. They gave the task of coming up with something new to Miyamoto. He went onto create Donkey Kong, which went onto sell 100 million in a year. Nintendo went onto become hugely successful with games like Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda, and by the end of the 1980’s Nintendo held 85% of the games industry. Nintendo’s success continued when they released the GameBoy.
For this blog I have written about three different business models. Each one different from the last. The Atari business model shows us about a business that started of small and then became a huge player in the industry only for it then to decline once it was sold. A different business model is the British model which shows us that companies were looking to people developing games in their bedrooms, and for some companies this worked very well. The last model was the Nintendo model which was a totally different company before it became a games company. In today’s games industry, I feel that the business models today include small independent games companies being brought by the larger companies. E.g. EA buying smaller companies, Microsoft buying Lionhead Studios and Rare.
For this blog I am going to be looking at different business models which were described in the video ‘The history of computer games’. I will be looking at Atari, from how it was set up for only $500 and eventually being sold for $28 000 000 000. I will then look at how the games industry kicked off in the UK by looking at the Oliver Twins and Codemaster. I will then look at how the Games Industry moved over into Japan with Nintendo.
Atari was set up in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney for $500. They soon employed Al Alcorn, and Bushnell put him to work on a training exercise. This training exercise turned into the world famous Pong. Pong was a huge success when it was first released as a small arcade game in a bar. Within two months Atari were making one hundred Pong Arcade machines a day. Atari, realising how successful Pong was released Home Pong so now it could be played anytime. There was of course with all new things a problem. Someone else claimed that they had the patent for the game. That someone else was Ralph Baer, the designer of the Magnavox Odyssey. They claimed that Bushnell had seen the idea at a trade show. The damage had the case gone to court to Atari would have been huge, but they decided to settle out of court for $700 000 for a paid up licence. Atari went on to develop home consoles (The VCS) to great success; at one point Atari’s revenues made it the biggest growing company in US. Atari was then sold to Warner Communications for $28 million. Bushnell was retained as chairman. The relationship between Bushnell and Warner Communication was a rocky one. Bushnell wanted to keep the company moving forward with the development of next gen consoles, but Warner Communication was happy where I was, and after one too many heated board room arguments, it was decided that Bushnell was to sacked. Once Bushnell left, other were no to far behind him. David Crane who was a developer on the VCS left Atari with three others; they were the founders of Activision. They started developing games for the VCS but Atari stopped them. This was the first time an outside developer had created games for a console, and it took two years before they were allowed to make VCS cartridges. The company then went onto be sold in 1984 to JackTramiel for $240 million. This was seen as a lot of money for a company that wasn’t doing to well at the time.
In Britain the games development industry kicked off when teenagers started to develop games on there own consoles such as the spectrum. Two teenagers that did this were the Oliver Twins. The Oliver twin made many games, including Dizzy. It wasn’t until they met the Darling Brothers (Founders of Codemasters) that they got their big break. The Darling brothers were impressed with what the Oliver twins were developing, and paid them £10 000 for their Robin Hood Game. The Oliver Twins continued to make games for Codemasters and in 1990 started their own Games Company, Interactive Studios (now Blitz Games).
Finally the last major step in games development was when a Japanese Company which created playing cards decided to move into the games development industry because of how successful it was. That company was Nintendo. Nintendo went onto hire Miyamoto whose big break came up when the Nintendo game Rader Scope failed in the US. They gave the task of coming up with something new to Miyamoto. He went onto create Donkey Kong, which went onto sell 100 million in a year. Nintendo went onto become hugely successful with games like Donkey Kong, Mario and Zelda, and by the end of the 1980’s Nintendo held 85% of the games industry. Nintendo’s success continued when they released the GameBoy.
For this blog I have written about three different business models. Each one different from the last. The Atari business model shows us about a business that started of small and then became a huge player in the industry only for it then to decline once it was sold. A different business model is the British model which shows us that companies were looking to people developing games in their bedrooms, and for some companies this worked very well. The last model was the Nintendo model which was a totally different company before it became a games company. In today’s games industry, I feel that the business models today include small independent games companies being brought by the larger companies. E.g. EA buying smaller companies, Microsoft buying Lionhead Studios and Rare.
posted by Matthew Battison at 6:28 AM
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