--- title: Great Video Game Crash Of 1983 | daily.dev description: A first-hand account of the 1983 video game crash from a developer who lived through it. The speaker describes witnessing Atari cartridges flooding bargain... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/great-video-game-crash-of-1983-pf51skawt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Great Video Game Crash Of 1983 | daily.dev og:description: A first-hand account of the 1983 video game crash from a developer who lived through it. The speaker describes witnessing Atari cartridges flooding bargain... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/great-video-game-crash-of-1983-pf51skawt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/pf51SkawT.png og:image:alt: Great Video Game Crash Of 1983 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Great Video Game Crash Of 1983 **[Cain on Games](https://daily.dev/sources/cainongames)** · 12 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A first-hand account of the 1983 video game crash from a developer who lived through it. The speaker describes witnessing Atari cartridges flooding bargain bins after Christmas 1982, the collapse of console sales, the infamous ET game landfill, and the discontinuation of consoles like ColecoVision and Intellivision. He explains two key causes: a flood of low-quality third-party games (enabled by Atari losing its lawsuit against Activision) and the rise of home computers like the Atari 800 and Apple II offering better games and more utility. The crash wiped out an entire generation of US game developers, with the industry taking nearly a decade to recover. The speaker contrasts this with recent industry layoffs, arguing the 1983 crash was far more devastating. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Why Atari failed](https://daily.dev/posts/why-atari-failed-dxepi5qnt) · Two Stop Bits · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - ["We were there in the 80s for the crash, and this is definitely crashier." John and Brenda Romero reflect on the industry crisis](https://daily.dev/posts/we-were-there-in-the-80s-for-the-crash-and-this-is-definitely-crashier-john-and-brenda-romero-re-q5g2tf6bk) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Atari Brings The Computer Age Home](https://daily.dev/posts/atari-brings-the-computer-age-home-qfkf5kgm2) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - ["This is the worst crash we've seen since the 1980s," says Tim Sweeney](https://daily.dev/posts/this-is-the-worst-crash-we-ve-seen-since-the-1980s-says-tim-sweeney-t8vukpl3n) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My 1981 adventure game is now a multimedia extravaganza](https://daily.dev/posts/my-1981-adventure-game-is-now-a-multimedia-extravaganza-6kuphm9an) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development), [#gaming](https://daily.dev/tags/gaming) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/great-video-game-crash-of-1983-pf51skawt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Great Video Game Crash Of 1983","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/great-video-game-crash-of-1983-pf51skawt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/great-video-game-crash-of-1983-pf51skawt"},"datePublished":"2026-07-19T07:58:50.352Z","dateModified":"2026-07-19T07:59:31.006Z","description":"A first-hand account of the 1983 video game crash from a developer who lived through it. The speaker describes witnessing Atari cartridges flooding bargain...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dwT228jMziA/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dwT228jMziA/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Cain on Games","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Cain on Games","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--0LDOibCp--/f_auto,q_auto/v1784447924/logos/cainongames?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/cainongames"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/great-video-game-crash-of-1983-pf51skawt","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"game-development,gaming","timeRequired":"PT12M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Great Video Game Crash Of 1983","description":"A first-hand account of the 1983 video game crash from a developer who lived through it. The speaker describes witnessing Atari cartridges flooding bargain...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dwT228jMziA/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-19T07:58:50.352Z","duration":"PT12M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/pf51SkawT","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/dwT228jMziA"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cain on Games","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/cainongames"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Great Video Game Crash Of 1983"}]} ```