Steven Spielberg wanted Howard Scott Warshaw to design the E.T. game, so Atari’s CEO called him directly. The game had to be ready by September 1. Warshaw had five weeks to build a complete game from scratch.
He was coming off a hit. His game Yars’ Revenge was a runaway success and, David Epstein writes in Range, the best-selling original title for Atari’s 2600 console.
I’d have said no. I can’t handle something that ridiculous on that kind of turnaround. But I understand how it feels to ride a high. Everything seems possible, even when the deadline and the logistics say otherwise.
He said yes. Atari made about 5 million copies of the game and sold about 1.5 million. Many buyers returned it as unplayable. Atari buried around 700,000 cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico. For years it was called the worst video game ever made, and Warshaw carried the blame for bringing down the company.
I don’t think a five-week game did that. The reasons for Atari’s fall were many, including too many competing products and bad business deals. Warshaw himself says he never believed he caused the crash of the video game industry.
So why him? I think industries and experts need a scapegoat, or a tipping point they can pin a fall on. Warshaw happened to be it.
Same designer, same year. One game made him a star and the other made him a villain. Was he a different designer for each?