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The Video Game Crash of 1983 is well known for the effect that it had on the video game console market in North America. A prime example is Atari burying thousands of unsold game cartridges in landfill. However the effect on other global markets is not as obvious to me.
What effect, if any, did the 1983 crash have on other game console markets, such as Asia, Europe, and South America?
A prime example is Atari burying thousands of unsold game cartridges in landfill.
Well, that may have had its source with hubris over overestimated sales numbers (and licensing fees), in combination with less than desirable conversions regarding quality (Pac-Man) or story (Raiders of the Lost Ark) or combinations of both (ET).
However the effect on other global markets is not as obvious to me.
As there was next to none.
What effect, if any, did the 1983 crash have on other game console markets, such as Asia, Europe, and South America?
In Europe (*1) video consoles weren't as much hyped as in the US, and the market was far from saturation. In addition, US manufacturers didn't hold a major stake. European manufactured systems like Saba Videoplay, Philips G7000 or Interton VC4000 covered most of the market. Unlike US manufacturers as Atari or Coleco or Mattel, who tried to establish their systems as brands on their own, European systems were sold (in addition) under many brands (*2), usually by TV manufacturers who often adapted them to the feature interfaces of their TV sets (*3) or were even built into a TV set. Still, games could be exchanged, thus supplying all these 'different' systems with a reasonable game base to support purchase.
The transition to home computers, after 1980, happened in Europe well before market saturation, resulting in a smooth 'hand over', making already good home computer sales, when distributors in the US still tried to push ever more video games. It also enabled European companies like Thomson, Amstrad, Sinclair or Philips to establish major market shares.
The US downturn also had a major influence on dependencies of US companies (Atari, Commodore) by giving them a greater say in product development and support, as they became (for some time) the sole source of reliable income.
In Japan the situation developed mostly similarly, as here again the video game market was mostly supplied by local manufacturers and a smooth transition to early home computers happened without creating a bubble first.
*1 - Western Europe, at this time.
*2 - The Interton system gives a great example for this strategy in Europe
*3 - Usually also resulting in better picture and sound quality.
The very same article you link says in German Wikipedia (rough translation):
At the time of the North American crash the European market was strongly dominated by games for home computers, thus the crash had next to no consequences.
My memory completely agrees with that - There was no such thing as a Video Game (console) hype, so as such nothing that could crash - There was a home computer hype instead.
I was really surprised there actually is such an entry at all on German Wikipedia.
I do remember a very short (and small) wave of simple fixed-program "tennis/squash" video games consoles at the end of the '70s, but consoles like Atari VCS, Coleco, Mattel, Vectrex (if you consider that a Game Console) and even Philips/Magnavox (which was somehow European) never really got a foothold in European market in the '80s. Too expensive, too limited (to gaming), I guess. The home computer market, instead, was a real hype, starting with Sinclair computers in the early 1980s, and followed by Thomson, Acorn, and other European makers, later Commodore and Atari. As there was no console game bubble in Europe, no one heard it go bust.
The Master System was the first really successful console in Europe; this was quite a while after 1983. Prior to that, video gaming was almost exclusively performed on home computers.
Prior to 1983 the big names in Europe were luminaries such as Sinclair, Commodore, Acorn and Thomson. All of those companies survived into 1984, and the market even grew from there — that's when Amstrad/Schneider launched the last of the really successful 8-bit computers.
If anything, 1982 and 1983 were boom years; Amstrad may have been a chronological outlier in achieving success but they were far from being an outlier in terms of launch date. Of the notable not-quites, the same period contains the Oric, which went on to a successful second-life in France as a decent budget micro with RGB SCART support; and the Enterprise which was a noble but late attempt at the same segment as Amstrad won of a perfected 8-bit. Less notable ones include the Memotech, the Tatung Einstein and the Camputers Lynx.
Further evidence can be found in the software houses: Rare and Argonaut were founded in 1982; Reflections and Rockstar North were founded in 1984.
So: existing companies survived, and capital continued to be available for new ventures.
One of the ironies of the whole period is that by the late '80s, the surviving American manufacturers — primarily Commodore and Atari — were primarily successful only in Europe. Commodore Europe outlived its parent, and it's no coincidence that the first post-Commodore owner of the Amiga IP was Escom, the German PC manufacturer. Initial shipments of the Atari Lynx and Jaguar both sold out in Europe, based on the reputation of the ST a few years earlier..Of the big five platforms for games as the '90s approached — the Spectrum, C64, CPC, ST and Amiga — three were American machines.
So: Europe saw no ill effects from the crash, even though it would be inaccurate to call it a freestanding ecosystem.
The German market for video games and pinball machines had another crash at roughly the same time. From 1983 on, youth protection laws restricted those machines to locations where youth under age 18 had no admission.
That pretty much killed all the video games in public places and pushed the sales of home video game consoles and especially the Commodore C64 and Amiga computers.
