Video game crash of 1983

Video game crash of 1983
Impacted
Location	Primarily in the United States
Date(s)	1983-1985

The video game crash of 1983, known in Japan as the Atari Shock, is a large scale recession that happened in the video game industry, primarily in the United States.

Cause

It was caused by a multitude of factors, including a lack of quality control in software releases, and an excessive amount of hardware releases.

Recovery

To combat this, when Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America in 1985, they had a strict set of rules that any company would have to abide by to be an official licensor and created the "Nintendo Seal of Quality" on officially licensed products.

Gail Tilden, then the head of Nintendo's advertising department in 1983, also came up with the term Game Pak to avoid the term ROM cartridge in order to prevent reminding customers of the video game crash of 1983.

These efforts were successful and after the release of the NES, the industry continued to flourish. By the 21st century, the video game industry had become the most profitable entertainment industry in North America.