The 2024 Video Game Crash (The New Dawn)

They called it......... a fever.

PRELUDE
In the early 2020s, home consoles were huge: an era kickstarted by the release of the PS5, and held aloft with platinum hits like inFamous 3, De2roi2 Become Human, Gran Turismo 7 and Grand Theft Auto 6. Players were keen to buy all the games available, and the market obliged: Video Games were now more profitable than Big Retail.

The startup Microsoft company, Henio was the vanguard of the industry backed by the financial might of Microsoft, and dominating ever since Nintendo's liquidation in 2023. The Daracinous, later known as the TVGS (Television Gaming System) was the standard: with the biggest games and aggressive marketing, it was unstoppable; sale performance knocking out the Nintendo Switch out of the market, ending 39 years of great standards. There was a downside, however........

The TVGS had very easy-to-use programming language, it's only downside. As such, way too many 3rd party developers were looking to enter and Microsoft couldn't manufacture enough discs to meet demand: a licence to print money, retailers committed to sales a year in advance. As it has been proven in history, where gold is, there will always be a rush to get the most of it.

IT STARTS
Surely the TVGS had no lack of rivals against itself. Electronic Arts and the Evolucionista, the Hasbro Razor X, Chevrolet's Astrocade, Rookervision, Nintendo Switch II and the Sega Dreamcast 2. Even worse, with no control over disc publishing, a majority of games were stuck in development hell, and even worse, games that had a 9 month development schedule were appearing on the market.

EA was beginning to improve their game quality and deliver hit titles like - Air Solstice, Riverslide and Disaster Manager. But those were joined by a cavalry of games of more questionable quality. During 2023, the total number of games for the system doubled, and in 2024, it tripled. Shelf space was stretched thin - and per-game revenue drag raced to the bottom. Henio weren't concerned. They were in the lead. Millions of dollars spent on exclusive licenses, tie-ins and massive marketing budgets. The more they spent, the more they earned. The games themselves, unfortunately, did not matter.

After Mario and Luigi were left homeless in 2023, Microsoft asked if they wanted to meet Master Chief and the TVGS. They said "yes" and the consequences were violent. Sadly, with a cruel time budget of 7 months, and the easy programming language of the TVGS, the final product was eye-burning. Mundane gameplay, crude controls and no story. The expectation of a authentic Mario game fell short, really short. In the run up to Christmas 2024, Mario and Luigi Adventure was joined by two worse rivals, Crazy Bikes, written off as a inferior version to the Ridge Racer franchise and Watch_Dogs: Underscore.

Underscore is often cited as the reason for the crash: "worst game ever made in human history" - But it was a mediocre sequel to keep milking the Watch_Dogs franchise, that was already up for 10 years now. It was never the cause, just a symptom. A few disappointing games aren't enough to sink an industry - but when marketing promise fails to deliver, a creeping realization emerged. Everyone knew it. The TVGS was a complete failure.

THE GAME IS OVER
A cold 2024 was coming to an end. With no warning, Microsoft announced earnings for the last quarter: and it was the worst news ever. The game discs weren't selling. Unsold discs were being returned to retailers in droves. Instead of meeting their ambitious growth predictions, revenue had dropped 50%. Stock prices plunged very badly and a panic hit Wall Street. Confidence in the nascent industry evaporated. Total losses for the year stacked up to half a trillion dollars. No amount of marketing could save Henio from the bitter truth: it's over, it's gone.

The upstart company originally driven by curiosity was torn apart by corporate greed, and a refusal to innovate - rapid growth: at any price. Where Henios led, their rivals followed - for better, or for worse. Sega was liquidated like Nintendo, Chevrolet and Hasbro abandoned the gaming industry to turn back into making automobiles, or toys, and a plethora of clones, were discontinued. Henios was sold for a song to the new C.E.O of Electronic Arts, Karl Smit: games were consigned to clearance bins and shelf space reallocated in favour of hotter trends: Bakugan, Transformers, Ben 10 and Hot Wheels.

The video game fad was over.

WIP