How the Birth of Video Game Developers in the 1980s Changed the Industry

The development of technology means that the different ways we can entertain ourselves in modern society are vast. We have access to streaming platforms, unlimited hours of music and, of course, games. That being said, it was hardly a smooth road getting to this point. For us to have access to all of the different forms of entertainment that are currently available, a number of different things had to happen.

Gaming Before Developers

First in gaming came large arcade machines. People would go out to arcades and even restaurants to play the likes of Pong, Tetris, Asteroids and Pacman. These were incredibly popular: The Saturday Evening Post described PacMan as being like the Beatles of the arcade, making its manufacturer - Namco - $1 billion.

Prior to the introduction of publishing houses, games that we could play on our own accord were just replications of arcade games. Though these games were still good (some of the most iconic are laid out here by Game Spot) they didn't spark the imagination of gamers and therefore were left by the wayside a bit. It would be another decade before gaming reached our own homes.

 

How Did Game Developers Change This?

Nowadays, more people consider gaming at home thanks to the massive range of titles available to us. That means, regardless of what we are interested in, we are able to play games that cater to those interests. In online gambling, the range of online casinos that are available to us these days have changed the scene. We used to have to go to casinos in order to play such games. Now, the range available means we need sites such as BonusFinder Casino which can lay out different reviews of sites and the games available to help us work out which are best to play on.

In the mid-1980s, developers such as Tencent Games, with titles like Street Fighter, came about and completely changed the way we viewed games. Due to third parties working on titles and the low cost of publishing games, new titles getting released were a lot more bold and unique than what gamers were previously used to.

This has continued to this day as the need for narratives and innovation in games was highlighted thanks to their subsequent popularity. If these publishing houses did not come about then gaming would likely have remained boring and repetitive.

The '80s Changed Gaming

For us to get to the level of gaming we have available to us today, there had to be dull periods and massive evolution within the industry. This was seen in the 1980s, when games made their way into people’s homes, but they were merely replicas of that which was available in arcades. This is no longer the case and it was the introduction of third-party publishing houses that ensured this. They made it so that the games released were more unique in their nature and people could take advantage of exciting narratives and innovation.

Images courtesy Depositphotos