An IU professor wants to change how you think about Pong
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Photos: Courtesy of Raiford Guins
Dive into the most important video game of all time in a new book from Indiana University professor Raiford Guins.
Why it matters: The arrival of Atari's Pong in 1972 wasn't just a tech breakthrough that launched a multibillion-dollar industry. It was a marketing revolution wrapped in an understated wooden cabinet.
Driving the news: In the book "King Pong: How Atari Bounced Across Markets to Make Millions," Guins argues that the reason we have video games in our living rooms, smartphones and Google Doodles traces back to a deliberate design and marketing strategy Atari deployed more than 50 years ago.
Zoom in: Unlike the flashier or more complex machines it would compete with for quarters, Pong's cabinet was short and quiet and stripped of garish graphics.
- That restraint allowed Atari to put it in spaces like cocktail lounges, hotel lobbies and student unions that never would have tolerated a pinball machine.
- By 1974, the company had rebranded itself as "Innovative Leisure," a calculated move to make the old coin-op amusement category feel outdated by comparison.
Between the lines: Guins reframes the Pong story around business instead of engineering by focusing on how Atari created an entirely new product category rather than just a new device.
- The book also examines Pong's oft-overlooked predecessor Computer Space and why its five-button control scheme failed where Pong's two knobs succeeded.
What he's saying: "The big leap I make in this book is that we have Atari to thank for the fact that we have games at our fingertips all the time," Guins told Axios.
What's next: In addition to celebrating the release of "King Pong," Guins is writing "Museum Games," a Substack series examining video game museums and how they're grappling with a growing preservation crisis as the industry goes digital.
Go deeper: This IU Indy team wants to save your favorite video games