I’ll say it simply: consumers had nothing to do with the demise of the Atari. It’s retailers, who bought cartridges without ever thinking the gravy train would stop. Atari and everyone else told them consumers had an insatiable appetite for full price cartridges.
But when the sales cratered, due to an oversupply, retailers were stuck with the cartridges without the ability to return them. So they turned to the measure that killed the Atari: clearance bins. When all the games you could hope to ever play are in a bin for a buck each, no one is buying anything at 30$ anymore.
Nintendo’s never going to say it, but their practices with the NES were not quality control; they were doing price control.
But when the sales cratered, due to an oversupply, retailers were stuck with the cartridges without the ability to return them. So they turned to the measure that killed the Atari: clearance bins. When all the games you could hope to ever play are in a bin for a buck each, no one is buying anything at 30$ anymore.
Nintendo’s never going to say it, but their practices with the NES were not quality control; they were doing price control.