When did gaming become mainstream?

[GetToTheTop]

I'm looking for exact time periods, all the sources I've found are too vague about when gaming stopped being just a nerdy thing some people did to something that almost everyone does.

[tmwfte]

October 18, 1985

[=CrimsoN=]

Whenever consoles became affordable. So yeah probably around the mid 80s.

[Goose]

When this ad released

YouTube™ Video: Ozzy Osbourne- World of Warcraft Commercial TV Ad 

Views: 5,607,236

Ozzy Osbourne- World of Warcraft Commercial TV Ad

[Z i o ⚡]

Probably the time of Nintendo. Computer games were still more obscure then.

[GetToTheTop]

Originally posted by tmwfte:

October 18, 1985

Wasn't their still a time period after the NES's creation that it still wasn't mainstream?

[GetToTheTop]

Originally posted by Beep:

When this ad released

YouTube™ Video: Ozzy Osbourne- World of Warcraft Commercial TV Ad 

Views: 5,607,236

Ozzy Osbourne- World of Warcraft Commercial TV Ad

Oh my god I've never seen that before

[↑↑↓↓←→←→BASelect]

I would say when atari came around.

[Florida Man]

Around 2004 or 2005, video games had outdone Hollywood in terms of profits for the first time.
That was when the same sleazy executive types who ruined the movie industry started turning to game design and the slow, gradual demise of gaming began.

[Goose]

There are other commercials too, including Mr T

[Z i o ⚡]

Originally posted by Depression Slayer:

Originally posted by tmwfte:

October 18, 1985

Wasn't their still a time period after the NES's creation that it still wasn't mainstream?

Probably until it got more popular and known about. It's hard to consider when exactly it became a mainstream thing.

[tmwfte]

Originally posted by Depression Slayer:

Wasn't their still a time period after the NES's creation that it still wasn't mainstream?

Not really. Even during the arcade and Atari days, gaming was still mainstream. There was only that two year period or so after the crash that it died.

[GetToTheTop]

Originally posted by Florida Man:

Around 2004 or 2005, video games had outdone Hollywood in terms of profits for the first time.
That was when the same sleazy executive types who ruined the movie industry started turning to game design and the slow, gradual demise of gaming began.

So the same people that brought more attention to gaming also brought about its decline?

[Florida Man]

Originally posted by Depression Slayer:

Originally posted by Florida Man:

Around 2004 or 2005, video games had outdone Hollywood in terms of profits for the first time.
That was when the same sleazy executive types who ruined the movie industry started turning to game design and the slow, gradual demise of gaming began.

So the same people that brought more attention to gaming also brought about its decline?

What? No ... ?
The sleazy executives who had never played a video game before was attracted to the huge financial opportunities that games had started to provide and ruined games with the same kind of corporate mentality that ruined Hollywood.

[Ⓥenom Ⓢnake 🐍]

I don't think it was in the 80s. I mean consoles were rising in popularity, but I think we might be a bit biased about it because we like games and probably hung around other people that like games. I think it would probably be more along the lines of when the PlayStation first came out. They started delivering more cinematic feeling games, which attracted a wider fan base.

Of course that's been a long long time ago so my brain might not be working so right.

[tmwfte]

Originally posted by Ⓥenom Ⓢnake 🐍:

I don't think it was in the 80s.

It spawned an entire ancillary industry in the '80s with the rise of Blockbuster and rentals. If not for mainstream appeal, rentals for those who couldn't afford the prices for all the games, no widespread industry.