Worst Video Game Ever Was Crushed & Buried In New Mexico Desert

Worst video game ever crushed & buried in New Mexico desert.

Was E.T. for Atari the worst video game ever? Well, that’s a subjective question that’s really up for players to decide. Nevertheless, we can say that E.T. certainly was a huge mistake for Atari and its release had some disastrous effects on the already-struggling video game industry.

A saturated market with poor quality games frustrated consumers in the early 1980s:

Consumers were already losing faith in video games in the early 1980s – there were too many of them being produced without good quality control. Lots of companies were trying to sell video games and make money doing it. They were trying to get games to market very quickly before their competitors released their own game titles. Little did video game manufacturers realize…rushing these games out instead of taking the time to do market research and invest in creating a quality product would lead to the downfall of them all! Poor graphics, boring storylines, and glitchy mechanics frustrated consumers who had to decided to spend their extra cash on video games in the early 1980s. Consumers decided that maybe their hard earned extra dollars they could spend on things like toys and games might be better spent elsewhere. They began to spend less money on video games and more money other products for entertainment. It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that in 1983, Cabbage Patch Dolls sales took off and video game sales decreased dramatically.

E.T. for Atari was a prime example of poor quality:

Atari rushed the E.T. video game to market, hoping to profit off the fanbase who had loved the Steven Spielberg movie. Atari made a deal with Spielberg late in the game, and didn’t start developing the E.T. game or its hardware until the end of July 1982. They started in July 1982 and rushed it to market in December 1982 (just over 3 months), doing very little market research. Atari decided to produce 5 million cartridges, a large number, simply because they believed the game would be a hit since the movie had been.

E.T. sales were initially good during the 1982 holiday season. Atari was right that people were interested in the game because they had liked the movie perhaps. But once word got out that the game was difficult and pretty awful to play, sales tanked. Critics of the game said the plot didn’t make much sense or match the tone of the successful E.T. movie. They also complained the graphics were very simplistic and of poor quality. Last but not least, the game was overly difficult to play! E.T. repeatedly falls into holes that are hard to get out of without falling back in. Over and over again. Not too much fun to play. Consumers were bored and frustrated. Maybe E.T. was the final straw. In 1983, that seems to have the case. 1983 video game sales plummeted and remained stagnant. People just weren’t interested in gaming anymore.

Atari buries its excess E.T. video game inventory in the New Mexico desert:

In 1983, Atari had a huge number of extra E.T. video game cartridges that it had already produced but that nobody was willing to buy. What to do with them without everybody knowing about their enormous miscalculation? Well, bury the game cartridges in the New Mexico desert of course! Yes, Atari actually buried at least 20 semitruck loads of these game cartridges in a private desert landfill. When word got out that Atari had done this…what did Atari do? Well, try to cover it up, of course! They literally steamrolled these cartridges into the ground and poured cement slabs on top of them so that nobody would know just how big of a mistake Atari had made when it produced E.T.

Eventual Excavation:

In 2014, the cartridges were excavated and it was confirmed that, yes, many – if not all – of the game cartridges were in fact copies of the E.T. game. A few museums now showcase excavated cartridges and tell this outlandish cover up story.

 Interested in reading more? Check out this cool book for more slices of video game history!

Source:

The Ultimate History of Video Games, Stephen L. Kent (2001, Three Rivers Press).

Video Game Gem Vault

1231 E Michigan Ave

East Lansing, MI 48823

(517) 400-7264

play@videogamegemvault.com