Size of Atari Corp at their peak?

[atarian63]

That’s what I was referring too. 1.1 million consoles sold in 1986.

 

 

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We brought some into my store for 86 christmas, has 2 units, sold zero nes. peopel thought the robot was weird and kind of did not know what a nintendo was, has to sell them at a loss after the holiday. we had even set one up. people liked duck hunt but not for the price. Also had loads of people still asking for the 7800. We were an atari / commodore/ intv/coleco store.

[atarian63]

 

I don't agree. Put yourselves in GCCs shoes. You've arranged a deal with Warner to make a system, supply games, supply parts and sell it at a certain price for your troubles. Then your partner goes to hell and breaks apart the company, selling off pieces. Now you've got a new owner and he wants to pay you a fraction of what you previously negotiated. Of course you'd balk at this idea.

 

And honestly, I still don't believe that Atari just releasing the 7800 nationwide early would have solved the problem. Not with retailers hating video games, seeing Atari as the devil, and a line-up of same-old same old games at launch. Nintendo did a lot of work to massage the retail channel, change the type of games offered and promote the NES as something different. They should get credit for that.

nah, I think an 84 for even 85 release would have stopped nintendo cold,at first, then it's up to Atari corp to lockup titles

[empsolo]

We brought some into my store for 86 christmas, has 2 units, sold zero nes. peopel thought the robot was weird and kind of did not know what a nintendo was, has to sell them at a loss after the holiday. we had even set one up. people liked duck hunt but not for the price. Also had loads of people still asking for the 7800. We were an atari / commodore/ intv/coleco store.

I like how some of the more diehard Atarians dispute the sales success of the NES in 1986 by posting completely worthless anecdotes.

 

 

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[atarian63]

I like how some of the more diehard Atarians dispute the sales success of the NES in 1986 by posting completely worthless anecdotes.

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or uninformed idiots that were not a dealer in the day that make stupid comments. It was not an immediate success.

[empsolo]

or uninformed idiots that were not a dealer in the day that make stupid comments. It was not an immediate success.

A new console that only hit store shelves nationwide in the last five months of the year ended up selling over 1 million units by end of 1986. Meanwhile, neither Atari nor Sega were ever able to meet their targets for 1986. According Gamasutra, the 7800 managed only to ship to retailers around under 300,000 units for 1986. And you say the 7800 was a success vs the sales figures for the first year of the NES? Riiiiight.

 

 

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[JagCD]

A new console that only hit store shelves nationwide in the last five months of the year ended up selling over 1 million units by end of 1986. Meanwhile, neither Atari nor Sega were ever able to meet their targets for 1986. According Gamasutra, the 7800 managed only to ship to retailers around under 300,000 units for 1986. And you say the 7800 was a success vs the sales figures for the first year of the NES? Riiiiight.

 

 

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Honestly, a million units in a single year isn't that particularly great. The Switch sold 10 times that this year.

 

I remember 1986 very well and the 8 bit computers still owned the video game market that year -- The

Commodore 64 sold 2.5 million units in '86, so the NES wasn't particularly impressive yet. The NES

really didn't heat up until the late 80's. By 1988 and 1989, the NES was huge -- No doubt. But 1986....

it was pretty lukewarm, honestly.

 

You talk like you weren't actually there (I suspect you are a millennial telling Gen X'er's what actually

happened).

Edited February 13, 2018 by JagCD

[empsolo]

 

Honestly, a million units in a single year isn't that particularly great. The Switch sold 10 times that this year.

 

I remember 1986 very well and the 8 bit computers still owned the video game market that year -- The

Commodore 64 sold 2.5 million units in '86, so the NES wasn't particularly impressive yet. The NES

really didn't heat up until the late 80's. By 1988 and 1989, the NES was huge -- No doubt. But 1986....

it was pretty lukewarm, honestly.

 

You talk like you weren't actually there (I suspect you are a millennial telling Gen X'er's what actually

happened).

 

 

Except, here you are trying to tell me that the 7800 was selling like hotcakes when it could barely ship out 300,000 units to retailers. By comparison, Sega ended up selling 300,000 units and they considered the Master System an abject failure it's first year because it couldn't meet it's first year target sales of 500,000 units. And yet the NES wasn't a success, despite being the only console that year to sell-through 500,000 units and ended up selling over 1 million to consumers in the first 6 months after it launched nationwide. These are simply the facts. Cold hard facts. Do you want me to pull up the 1987 Chicago Tribune Story from the CES? How Nintendo by early 1987 had over 75% of the consumer market share in the video game business? Because I can.

Edited February 13, 2018 by empsolo

[JagCD]

 

 

Except, here you are trying to tell me that the 7800 was selling like hotcakes when it could barely ship out 300,000 units to retailers. By comparison, Sega ended up selling 300,000 units and they considered the Master System an abject failure it's first year because it couldn't meet it's first year target sales of 500,000 units. And yet the NES wasn't a success, despite being the only console that year to sell-through 500,000 units and ended up selling over 1 million to consumers in the first 6 months after it launched nationwide. These are simply the facts. Cold hard facts. Do you want me to pull up the 1987 Chicago Tribune Story from the CES? How Nintendo by early 1987 had over 75% of the consumer market share in the video game business? Because I can.

 

First, I have never mentioned the Atari 7800 in my post. You are conflating other people's comments.

 

Second, I don't need to read any articles about the 1980's CES shows. My uncle brought me to CES from 1984 through 1990 (he worked for a peripherals company). I was actually there. I can tell you, Nintendo of America was a tiny operation in both 1986 and 1987.... They really didn't rent a big booth and displays until 1988.

 

Third, the "video game business" was a dead segment by 1986. The crash killed it. Everyone had migrated to personal computers at the time (1984 through 1987). So having 75% marketshare of the moribund console market really doesn't say much. Nintendo's efforts did help bring back that market -- but it didn't happen overnight and certainly not in '86. The really explosive growth took place around the release of Super Mario Brother 2 -- which was again in 1988. Your timeline of events is off.

 

The defacto games systems of 1986 and 1987 were the Commodore 64, Apple IIe and Atari 8-bits. The NES took over the next year and owned the market until the Genesis clawed back market share.

Edited February 14, 2018 by JagCD

[DracIsBack]

Oh gawd

Edited February 14, 2018 by DracIsBack

[pacman000]

Back on topic....

 

How big did Atari get under the Tramels? In terms of employees?