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The platform is irrelevant. They were more expensive than games consoles. So they lost, just like all other true personal computer manufacturers. They had too
by louthy 1y ago
The platform is irrelevant. They were more expensive than games consoles. So they lost, just like all other true personal computer manufacturers. They had too many components and couldn’t compete.
- actionfromafar 1y agoI think it was lack of vision and financial mismanagement that killed them more than anything technical. Edit: an interesting take with the games consoles, I never really thought about it from that angle before. But it makes a lot of sense. Console makers get a cut of the revenue stream of the games. Commodore never saw a cent of that and the only commercial niche they briefly owned was low-budget TV production, like cable channels and such.
- zozbot234 1y agoThe end of the Motorola MC68000 architecture killed a whole lot of platforms around that same time. Amiga was just one of them among many, but the fact that Atari ST also died, NeXT was ported to x86, the Mac was ported to PowerPC, Sun Microsystems went SPARC etc. etc. all pretty much simultaneously, is not a coincidence.
- mrits 1y agoWere they? I bought my Amiga 500 around 1992 for $200 USD at Software Etc. I think the Nintendo was around $100 USD and the games were often much more expensive. Not to mention most games were just the cost of a floppy disk if you had Amiga friends.
- louthy 1y ago$100 < $200
- Retric 1y agoA console without games isn’t useful.
- louthy 1y agoAnd a printer without ink doesn’t print. Yet we all continue to fall for this initial low price bait.
- Retric 1y agoIn 1985 the NES launched in the US at $179.99 and didn’t include a game. So while I’m sure somebody came home with a useless object, in general people where forced to but at least one. In 1996 the first hit became free.
- firesteelrain 1y agoVideo rental was huge. It's the only way I could afford to play games.
- Retric 1y agoIn 1985? That didn’t take off where I was until PS1 days.
- firesteelrain 1y agoOh yea, 1985-1987 is when a lot of the VHS places started stocking video games. It’s the only way I was able to play. My best friend across the street had the console and I didn’t (I had Atari 2600). So I would rent and we would play together. I eventually got my own in maybe 1987-1988. PS1 kicked off in 1995 and we had rentals for a long time by that point. I never owned a PS1 but same friend did. I ended up going from NES, SNES, N64 before switching mostly to PC games and eventually went to college where video games took a back seat for a number of years Mostly play Xbox now (short while I had PSP)
- rasz 1y agoPiracy made Amiga cheaper. SNES and two cartridges/Genesis with three was more expensive than Amiga 500.