When did video games go mainstream?

[scotland171]

If we agree that gaming is now mainstream in America, Canada, Britain, Japan, France, etc...when did it become so?

The answer may be fuzzy long slog taking a decade, or it may be a seminal moment that happened quickly.  The answer may be debatable, or commonly agreed on.  I suspect that the answer is not the same, but differs from, say the UK to America to Japan.

Pong and Pac-Man certainly made big impressions in America, but the Crash of 83 shows that gaming was not yet mainstream.  

Was it a particular game or console? Was it just general rise of the internet  - back in 1997, only about 1 in 5 homes had any sort of internet connection and 1 in 3 had a computer at home.  By 2001, 1 in 2 US homes had a computer with an internet connection (and 3 in 5 had a computer).

My two coppers are that it was a combination of things in America in the late 90s. In the early 90s, gaming was still thought of as something young boys did, and that is why the ESRB came into being - gotta protect the children.  In the mid 90s, more PCs in more homes had adults playing games like Myst.   The Playstation, even if we don't appreciate the early 3D graphics now, were impressive enough where adults were showing the console and games like Crash Bandicoot off to other adults, even if the console were a holiday or birthday present for the kids.  At work, more and more people were using computers, and those computers had minesweeper and freecell on them.  

Or maybe you think mainstream is very recent with social network games and mobile games?  That certainly has brought gaming from mainstream to near ubiquity? 

How was it for you?  When did you notice that video gaming had become so commonplace it was mainstream to talk about video games even at work (like in House of Cards where a powerful politician is very open about his enjoyment of gaming).

The followup question is whether video gaming going mainstream is a good thing?  Has anything been lost in serving a wide audience?

[PinMike86661]

In the USA, they were mainstream when Pong became a massive hit, with many consoles centered around the game along with primitive racing and lightgun games. The market nearly crashed when Pong-overload set in; Taito's Space Invaders helped maintain the industry until a few years later when gaming became too mainstream with many non-gaming companies making easy money with constantly churning out rushed software ushering in a new crash. Nintendo brought the industry back into the mainstream with the NES being marketed as a toy rather than a console, combined with word-of-mouth for Super Mario Bros.. A few years later, Sega created advertising campaigns targeting a more adult fanbase with their Genesis console in hopes of selling more than their failed Master System; those several years redeemed the industry to mainstream presence. A year after the Genesis arrival, Nintendo ushered in a brand new console format with the portable console Game Boy with Tetris as a pack-in; a couple years later, Nintendo would release the Super NES to combat against the Sega Genesis. Nearly a decade after the NES, Sony (the company that helped created Sega Genesis competitor Super NES), having separated their ties from Nintendo due to various disagreements, ushered in a even larger mainstream presence with their PlayStation console, the first successful mainstream 3D CD-ROM console. A couple years after the PlayStation's arrival, Nintendo struck big with the mainstream again with their Pokemon franchise; around the same time DVDs were slowly, but surely taking over video cassettes as the leading media format. Finally in 2000, Sony followed up their mainstream success to conjure up an even more mainstream gaming product, the DVD-compatible Sony PlayStation 2. Even though Nintendo had struggles against Sony's dominance in the industry, they would strike mainstream gold with the touch screen-enabled Nintendo DS portable and the motion-centric Wii console.

In Europe, video game consoles were more niche than they were in the USA, but still decent sellers; computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad, and the Commodore family were far and away more popular than game consoles ever were. Even though Sega's Master System and Mega Drive, along with Nintendo's Game Boy and Super NES would help the console industry grow, console gaming never received the popularity it had in the USA and Japan until the Sony PS1 was released. Europe has since followed the USA and Japan to mainstream success.

Speaking of Japan, the country, like the USA, were huge into arcades when Pong became available, as well as Space Invaders a few years after (which caused a yen shortage in the country); however, they never really had a legit foray into console gaming until Nintendo's Famicom hit the scene in 1983, with the closest successful console being the Epoch Cassette Vision. Japan had been striking mainstream gold with gaming consoles like the Famicom and NEC PC-Engine; although the Sony PlayStation was the first worldwide mainstream success, NEC was the first company to have a successful CD-ROM console with their PC-Engine CD add-on and later the Turbo Duo. Japan's level of mainstream success is roughly par with the USA's with a couple big differences as the Mega Drive never took off in Japan like NEC's consoles had, as well as Sega's Saturn console being a success; however, Japan is currently undergoing a crash of their own, with mobile phones being the new industry standard and consoles selling poorly. As of now, the Nintendo 3DS is their hottest major console, with Sony's PlayStation Vita being a distant second, and Nintendo's failed Wii U is selling more than the PlayStation 4.

Overall, I would say the introduction Sony PlayStation is when gaming became legit to the mainstream.

[PinMike86661]

To answer the follow-up questions, I think games going mainstream is good and healthy for the industry, much like all other entertainment media and I feel not much is lost in the process as niche games are still on consoles, PCs, and mobile devices; however, I feel consoles are losing their identity as the majority of the Xbox One and PS4's libraries don't have that many exclusives, yet the Wii U is doing poorly despite having strong exclusive games. Exclusitivity is what makes console gaming grand as it gives them a unique charm, but if trends continue with exclusivity being ignored in favor of cross-platform and multiplatform games, I feel the industry lacks the personality that made it awesome. Japan is definitely downgrading in home and portable console interest, with mobile taking over. Honestly, I hope Japan focuses on computers like they have been for mobile; a Japanese Steam-like service is all but a pipe-dream. Also, having been born in 1986, video games have always been popular and the only real changes I've noticed are the abandonment of arcades (arcade museums like Funspot and Pinball Wizard Arcade being exceptions) and the rising popularity of computer and mobile gaming.

[FinalLapTwinkie1]

PinMike8666 makes some very good points. Arcades are when it seemed to go mainstream. It was cheaper to plunk a quarter in a machine then spring for a console.

Now it just seems mainstream but when I was growing up my parents made televisions and other electrical devices last decades not years. They would not buy a console only to replace it in a few years. I still played my NES that was bought in 1988 daily till about 1995. My Genesis bought in 1990 was still being played on a regular basis till about 2001. Now consoles seem almost throw away items. If mainstream means trading or selling a 3 or 4 year old console for a new one is now acceptable. Then yeah video games have gone mainstream.

If going mainstream has harmed anything it is the fact that developers never get the most out of a home console before being pushed to start on the next console. How many Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo machines have come and gone in the last 15 years?

Something I have noticed and it is not just this site but all sites seem to be affected. That is video game talk seems to be slowing down. People are talking but beyond a few topics on each site little is being said. The holidays are over but fewer posters are replying. Is this an effect of gaming going mainstream? Are gamers to busy playing to post on video game forums?

[LS6501]

What do you mean by "go mainstream"?  I would think that means popular and commonly known to the average citizen.  I would point at Space Invaders.  There were many video games before then, but that was the first videogame to become popular enough to enter the 'mainstream' person's awareness.

[PinMike86661]

I dunno, I think consoles are growing just fine with the times; the only noticeable rushed exits I've noticed was the short lifespan of the highly successful Game Boy Advance and Sega's not-so-successful Saturn and Dreamcast. Most consoles usually have around 6-8 years of major support until a new successor console is released. Also, the video game community is still very much active with Steam hitting huge numbers, forums like NeoGAF being extremely active, and video games being the most popular topic on YouTube. If there is a decline in posts, it's probably just people with greater responsibilities in life than posting on forums. To be honest, with the slight exception of GameFAQs, I've never noticed much of a decline in forum posts around the Internet.