Why didn't the economy have an effect on the game industry back in '92?Her are some points why.
There weren't nearly as many games coming out back then as there is now and badly developed games had an easyer time selling since the games review bussines wasn't as wide spread as it is now and many reviews were controlled to some extent by publishers and console makers.
A dev team was for to most part smaller then 10 ppl and the games had a shorter dev time. That means low cost for game development
Publishers and developers got a bigger proffit from each copy of a game sold because of the smaller budget. The money that would go into a budget game to day exceeds a AAA title back in the days.
companys were smaller back then and could live of the sales of a game for a long time even if it wasn't a major succes.
Several games were "garage games" meaning made by ppl who were not getting payed untill a publisher picked it up so that meant that publishers didn't need to pay for the dev cost, just the publishing rights.
A falled game wasn't the end all for many companys back then, even the smaller ones could make games that didn't sell well and still continue running.
Many companys like say Sega and Midway(and many others) had a steady stream of money coming in from the arcade bussines. Whit Midway releasing MK back in '92 they were in their golden years because of the huge succes of MK and other Midway arcade games.
Whit higher dev costs and personel cost its harder for a fev/publisher to just live of the sales of one game for a long time and that means that after every prodject they have to restructure their work force in a way that would save them money. Now whit the costs higher and the profit margine lower it is a very fragile industry that could crumble or force smaller publishers and developers out of bussines whit one falled game. (like Free Radical)
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