When you look at the video game industry right now, you can’t possibly see it “going out of business,” barring something explosive or implosive happening. After all, AAA titles are making billions of dollars by selling millions upon millions of units. Then there are the mobile games making billions a few dollars at a time. But in the early 1980s, when the video game market was going through one such “gold rush,” everything crashed in 1983. It seemed like the end of the video game market until the Nintendo Entertainment System, aka the Famicom, arrived in Japan.
The irony here is that, at the time, Nintendo wasn’t known for making consoles. They were a toy company that had gotten into the arcade industry. Their version of the system, called the Famicom, was based on several previous consoles that had dropped in America, like the Colecovision. They also wanted to make a very expensive console to help people do various things, but the company President then decided to make things cheaper.
Also, when the Famicom launched on July 15th, 1983, it didn’t have an easy time as there were hardware problems. But eventually, those were fixed, and the system flew to new heights in Japan. They started getting interest from 3rd party developers, and Nintendo knew what their next step was.
What was that? Going to America. By this point, it was 1984, and the gaming industry in the US had crashed so hard that games were being buried in landfills due to them not selling well.
Nintendo took their time and looked at the market and the area they were selling in before bringing the Nintendo Entertainment System to life there. If you wondered why the NES and the Famicom looked so different, that’s why. In 1985, the video cassette recorder was popular in the US, so a redesign was done to make it feel like that.
Eventually, the NES was released in America, and it became an instant hit because Nintendo made fun quality titles, easy to get into, and you could play with others right next to you. The rest, as they say, is history.
If you’re curious, the Famicom/NES era was so influential that all these franchises were introduced on the platforms: Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Kirby, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Shin Megami Tensei, and more.
Many considered the Famicom a risk when it came out to Japan and “foolish” when it came to the US as the NES. But now? We know that we wouldn’t have what we have now without it.
