For today’s parent, raising kids in a world filled with hand-held electronic gadgets has meant dealing with the challenge of incorporating the cost of owning video game systems in the household budget. Kids and parents alike delight in spending hours carrying out military missions with their buddies, playing simulated sports against each other, or imagining themselves in fantasy realms where they possess magical powers.
One of the great things about the Internet is how many things that once required a shopping trip can now be duplicated in the comfort of one’s own home. Making things even more convenient is the power of search engines, which makes finding those free online pastimes even easier. Free online video games for kids are common nowadays, but it was not so long ago that competing in virtual contests of quick reflexes and hand-eye coordination came only to those who could rise to the challenge of a stiff price tag.
From the start, it’s taken quite a few gold pieces to afford the luxury of interactive fantasy. The very first home video game console was the Magnavox Odyssey, which used stick-on overlays for its pong-like gaming surfaces, and the figures looked like bouncing square lights. Its $75 price tag in 1972 works out to $391 today. Atari’s home version of Pong, released in time for Christmas, 1975, retailed for $99, approximately $401 in today’s economy.
We’ve grown accustomed to game consoles that use individual cartridges or discs to contain the data for different games, but that concept was novel when the Fairchild Video Entertainment System was released in 1976. The Channel F, as it became known, which also introduced the ‘hold’ function which was the first ‘pause’ button, set back families $170, which equates to $650 after inflation. Games for the system, encased in plastic cartridges tinted bright yellow, ran for $20 apiece, or $77 in today’s figures. In the wake of the Fairchild, competition was stiff–a little too stiff. Magnavox revamped the Odyssey. Coleco released the Telstar, a Pong game that sold for only $50, or $190 today. And Atari launched the now-legendary Video Computer System with a big push from Sears stores. There simply wasn’t enough business left over, and most systems failed in the market crash of 1977, with only Atari emerging as a profitable games maker.
Today’s parent has so many expenses to deal with involving their children–food, after-school activities, birthday parties, clothes–that dropping several hundred dollars on their entertainment may seem unjustifiable. Especially when so many of their interests have wound up piled in a closet, discarded in favour of the the latest new thing.
So for those families whose disposable income won’t allow for spending several hundred dollars on the new games system, take heart. If your kids really want to play some video games, get them hooked on the countless free flash video kids games that are available online. The play may be simpler, the fantasy more fleeting, but you don’t need to spend anything on games or controllers if you’ve already got a computer.
Whatever ends up being the right choice for your family, know that video game systems take a lot of initial investment for the hours of fun they provide.
The team of Israelis making investments in web-based gambling and games, and generating a profit, is progressing, pursuing in the track of Teddy Sagi, Noam Lanir the Shaked brothers, and Guy Ben-Artzi.
Latest acquisition of major share of social online games development company Playtika Ltd. at a company value of $80-90 million by US resorts and casino operator Harrah’s, a part of Caesar’s Entertainment Corporation, is staggering by just about each measure. It is actually the highest purchase of an Israeli virtual gaming business enterprise, and the 1st case that in fact a gigantic American betting company has stake tens of millions of dollars on an Israeli web based gaming start-up that has definitely not proven its good worth.
In spite of that, the real winners in the Playtika sell actually are its originators – young men, the family of certainly one of whom is well regarded. Uri Shahak is the son of former IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.
Uri Shahak co-started Playtika with Robert Antokol, who prior to that founded Cmate SA, that he sold to Oberon Media Inc. six (6) years prior to. Shahak in the past served as key games executive at 888 Holding plc (LSE:888). Antokol is Playteka Chief Executive Officer and Shahak is its COO. Shahak introduced to Playtika quite a few financiers right from the virtual gaming markets, such as past 888 CEO Gigi Levy and 888 sponsor Ofer Lezovsky, together with previous Empire Online Marketing Executive Avner Yasur, as well as realty developer Igal Ahouvi, Yariv Gilat, Dafna Weiss, and Domaine du Castel winery entrepreneur Eli Ben-Zaken.
Playtika reportedly fund raised just about $1 million, and Uri Shahak will supposedly get a several million $$ on the enterprise’s selling.
An additional motive that tends to make Playtika’s acquisition strange is the company’s financial achievements. The business enterprise was incorporated only a year ago, and launched advertising its games 6 (six) months later. Specialists discovered that the enterprise’s month to month turnover is nearly $100k, or $1.2 million a year, and it does not come with a positive net income produced by procedures.
Having said that, Playtika did not invest in advertising or online marketing, but considering the fact that its new shareholder has deep pockets, and also considering that competitive software system firms quite often succeed very quickly, Playtika has a very good chance of producing net income relatively quickly, as long as the increase in its business continues speedily.
Playtika does not consider its own an gambling company, but yet an virtual games company that develops games for use on social websites, just like Facebook and its Russian competitor Vkontakte.com. The firm has developed fairly quickly caused by the progressing global popularity of Facebook.