Many gamers today don’t realize it, however the games industry almost died in 1983 because of quite a lot of issues, including market saturation. Nintendo basically single-handedly saved the industry a year later with the launch of the NES in North America, and it’s been a thriving business ever since. That doesn’t mean a crash won’t ever happen again though.

SuperData Research and Digital River partnered up on a brand new report that appears on the current state of gaming. They discovered that 79 percent of gamers own not less than one game console with the typical variety of consoles owned among that group sitting at 2.6. That’s a number of hardware, and SuperData Research is bothered that gamers is probably not willing so as to add more:

“Industry veterans will remember the crash of 1983, when the games market was saturated with hardware devices. Today, the industry runs an analogous risk, as [with] an improved-than-ever console installed base, consumers may well be proof against adding more hardware to their living rooms.”

It’s definitely an engaging thought, and one that’s supported by recent data showing gamers increasingly moving to PC and mobile devices. In 2008, 42 percent of gamers played games on consoles while 37 percent primarily played games at the PC. This year, the numbers have almost reversed with 51 percent of gamers primarily playing at the PC while only 30 percent play games on consoles. It doesn’t help that 13 percent of gamers are actually on mobile.

Things definitely look grim for consoles, but there’s a lot of differences between the crash of 1983 and the gaming industry of today which can be worth taking into consideration.

For starters, consumers really only have three consoles to choose between – the Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One. Sure, there are microconsoles just like the Ouya, but most gamers are going to be troubled with consoles from the gigantic three. Within the years leading as much as 1983, gamers needed to select from five different consoles. The shortage of quality controls on software also didn’t help matters as gamers increasingly stopped buying games after Atari botched its Pac-Man port and released the infamous game adaptation of E.T.

It must also be noted that there are actually more gamers than ever before. many of the gamers that were brought in with the Wii and DS have since jumped over to mobile and PC, but there’s also lots which have stuck around because of big franchises like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed. These same gamers would possibly not upgrade to next-gen consoles this year, but they’ll once the franchises they love stop popping out for current gen consoles.

Even with all this, a crash could certainly still happen. i might argue, however, that a contemporary crash is much likely to occur due to the losing developers. Everyone is going to need to play games whatever, but they’re going to visit the platforms that experience the games they need. That platform was mobile for the past few years, but that’s beginning to slowly unravel as increasingly developers realize that it’s nearly impossible anymore to get a success like Angry Birds. Those developers at the moment are moving back to console and PC where the audience is more receptive to their games and discoverability isn’t as much of a difficulty.

I’ve always been a believer that the gaming industry is enormous enough for everyone. That doesn’t mean things can stay an identical though. Sony and Microsoft are already evolving to compare what players want with social and mobile integration being built into next-gen boxes. They can have the large AAA games that players want at home with complementary experiences on mobile.

In the tip, all of here is to mention that the games industry is changing. That vary is also scary, but it’s also presenting us with a variety of new experiences and opportunities. There’s never been another moment in history where gaming have been more exciting than it’s now, and we’re just getting started. Despite the fact that the large publishers suffer a crash, that’s unlikely to harm gaming within the slightest. Developers with ideas are still going to make games, and gamers are still going to play them.

[Image: Wikimedia]
[h/t: Games Industry International]