What caused the Intellivision to lose steam so fast?

[Atari Pogostick]

The Intellivision was the main competitor to Atari technically between 79-82. It gave use a completely different take on games than Atari did, Mattel focused on strategy, puzzles, and RPG type of games, while the 2600 focused primarily on arcade ports. The Intellivision has arcade ports as well, and usually did better than the 2600 on cross-platforms titles, but generally focused on more mind-exercising games.

 

Now by the time the ColecoVision came out, the 2600 suddenly started beating on the Intellivision much more than before. ColecoVision ate it's lunch before it even released, and Mattel was barely seen in commercials anymore. It's almost like the Intellivision fell off the map.

 

Was Mattel not able to keep the momentum going for the Intellivision. For awhile it seemed like long-term competition to the 2600, and then it kind of vanished. Not completely of course, but it did not have anywhere close to the presence it had before. You even occasionally heard of the Odyssey2 at times.

 

I know Mattel made a few wrong moves like broken release dates, and the Aquaris debacle, but you'd think that Mattel had enough of a library to establish itself and it's like momentum hit a brick wall and never came back.

Edited September 11, 2018 by Atari Pogostick

[mbd30]

What do you mean about the Intellivision losing steam so fast? It's normal for consoles to lose steam after 4 or 5 years. Console generations typically last about 5 years.

Edited September 11, 2018 by mbd30

[mr_me]

When the coleco vision, atari 5200, and commodore 64 came out in 1982 they had higher resolution. Graphics were everything at the time so the Atari 2600 and Intellivision were relegated to budget systems. Mattel had a next generation system in engineering, now known as Intellivison IV, but Mattel decided to get out of hardware in mid 1983 and focus on software. By January 1984 Mattel Electronics closed.

 

Mattel never competed for the big arcade licenses, in the early 1980s. Arcade titles were huge and helped atari and coleco sell consoles. Still Mattel sold 750 thousand Intellivisions in 1983, that's not that far behind the others.

[Atari Pogostick]

What do you mean about the Intellivision losing steam so fast? It's normal for consoles to lose steam after 4 or 5 years. Console generations typically last about 5 years.

around 82 it was basically brushed aside. Intellivision wasn't even in the market much more than 2 years by that point. Atari 2600 still had momentum, but the Intellivision did not.

 

While I understand Coleco and the 5200 had better graphics as the other poster said, the Intellivision had a good library, a cheap price, and better graphics than the 2600 with a ton of sports, rpg, and strategy titles. Yet the Intellivision basically hit a wall in overall growth compared to before. I find that very strange because none of the other consoles had the type of games the Intellivision library had in droves.

 

When the coleco vision, atari 5200, and commodore 64 came out in 1982 they had higher resolution. Graphics were everything at the time so the Atari 2600 and Intellivision were relegated to budget systems. Mattel had a next generation system in engineering, now known as Intellivison IV, but Mattel decided to get out of hardware in mid 1983 and focus on software. By January 1984 Mattel Electronics closed.

 

Mattel never competed for the big arcade licenses, in the early 1980s. Arcade titles were huge and helped atari and coleco sell consoles. Still Mattel sold 750 thousand Intellivisions in 1983, that's not that far behind the others.

By the time of 1983 however Mattel was already approaching near the 3 million LTD figure it was known for. It seems most of its sales were 82 and before, and then kind of died after, even before the crash. Which given the type of library it had, just seemed a bit strange to me. I get arcade games were generally more popular than the types of games in the Intellivisons library, but it also seemed like the base that brought the Intellivision before also vanished.

One theory i read about on another Atari board is the Aquarius failure pushed some previous Intellivision buyers to computers were those types of genres were frequent, but I'm not sure how true that is.

Edited September 11, 2018 by Atari Pogostick

[mbd30]

around 82 it was basically brushed aside. Intellivision wasn't even in the market much more than 2 years by that point. Atari 2600 still had momentum, but the Intellivision did not.

 

While I understand Coleco and the 5200 had better graphics as the other poster said, the Intellivision had a good library, a cheap price, and better graphics than the 2600 with a ton of sports, rpg, and strategy titles. Yet the Intellivision basically hit a wall in overall growth compared to before. I find that very strange because none of the other consoles had the type of games the Intellivision library had in droves.

 

My mistake. I thought that it came out in 1979, but it looks like that was only test market and that it was actually released in 1980.

[mr_me]

 

around 82 it was basically brushed aside. Intellivision wasn't even in the market much more than 2 years by that point. Atari 2600 still had momentum, but the Intellivision did not.

 

While I understand Coleco and the 5200 had better graphics as the other poster said, the Intellivision had a good library, a cheap price, and better graphics than the 2600 with a ton of sports, rpg, and strategy titles. Yet the Intellivision basically hit a wall in overall growth compared to before. I find that very strange because none of the other consoles had the type of games the Intellivision library had in droves.

 

By the time of 1983 however Mattel was already approaching near the 3 million LTD figure it was known for. It seems most of its sales were 82 and before, and then kind of died after, even before the crash. Which given the type of library it had, just seemed a bit strange to me. I get arcade games were generally more popular than the types of games in the Intellivisons library, but it also seemed like the base that brought the Intellivision before also vanished.

One theory i read about on another Atari board is the Aquarius failure pushed some previous Intellivision buyers to computers were those types of genres were frequent, but I'm not sure how true that is.

 

In 1980 about 200k intellivisions sold. In 1981 about 1 million intellivisions sold and Mattel had about 20% of the market. I haven't seen numbers for 1982, but 750k intellivisions were sold in 1983. The three million Intellivisions was a total lifetime estimate which is probably more like 3.5 million. Mattel's market share was around 20% in 1981, higher than it was in 1980. In 1982 my guess is their market share went down slightly. So yeah I'd say they hit a wall in 1982 in terms of growth but they still had significant market share. In 1982 Atari 2600 sales were about the same as 1981 and that includes the 1982 pac-man hype which boosted console sales. Still, like Intellivision, the 2600 market share was slightly down as well.

 

The Intellivision having better graphics than the 2600 is arguable. Atari has more colours, has double the vertical lines of resolution and the same sprite resolution. Intellivision was easier to program so most of their games looked better.

[spacecadet]

The crash.

[Gentlegamer]

When are all these alts getting banned?

[+nanochess]

Not at all!

 

Both the Atari 2600 and Intellivision remained popular by the entire decade of 1980.

 

The Intellivision 2 came out in 1983 and the Atari 2600 Jr came out in 1986.

 

Both were dropped by 1990, last games by Atari Corp were Klax, Motorodeo and Xenophobe, and last games made by INTV were Stadium Mud Buggies and Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball.

[Atari Pogostick]

In 1980 about 200k intellivisions sold. In 1981 about 1 million intellivisions sold and Mattel had about 20% of the market. I haven't seen numbers for 1982, but 750k intellivisions were sold in 1983. The three million Intellivisions was a total lifetime estimate which is probably more like 3.5 million. Mattel's market share was around 20% in 1981, higher than it was in 1980. In 1982 my guess is their market share went down slightly. So yeah I'd say they hit a wall in 1982 in terms of growth but they still had significant market share. In 1982 Atari 2600 sales were about the same as 1981 and that includes the 1982 pac-man hype which boosted console sales. Still, like Intellivision, the 2600 market share was slightly down as well.

 

The Intellivision having better graphics than the 2600 is arguable. Atari has more colours, has double the vertical lines of resolution and the same sprite resolution. Intellivision was easier to program so most of their games looked better.

 

I'm not entirely sure the 2600 could run some of the post-crash games released on the Intellivision. I know that the Intellivision has a much better CPU with 16-bits in bus. Although I'm not sure how much software took advantage of that.