Over the past 30 years, video games have become an integral part of our culture, and the video game industry has become a multi-billion dollar economic gold mine. The popularity of video games went mainstream in the 1970s, when games like Pong and the Atari 2600 home console reached the public. Due to public demands for new and better gaming systems, there are always new and better games for video consoles coming out. Now, thanks to the popularity of video games, the growth of the video game industry reached $70 billion in 2013. The first computer games were created in the 1950s but did not have the technology or imagination to be mass-produced. Until the early 1970s, with the increase in technology, there was the first successful home console, the Atari. In 1977, with the success of the original Atari, Atari Inc. released the first major hit for home consoles, the Atari 2600. In 1982 the Atari 2600 became a pop culture hit, with the help of the best-selling Pac games -Man, selling over 2 million home consoles worldwide. Atari Inc. had gross sales of over two billion dollars in 1980. In 1982 there was the video game crash, and by 1983 most retailers thought the video game fad had passed. Most video game companies like Atari had gone bankrupt by 1984. Many believed the video game industry was dead until a Japan-based toy company called Nintendo came out with the Nintendo Entertainment System, known as the NES, in 1985 . spoke with their wallets that video games were not dead, and in 1992 nearly 62 million NES consoles were sold. With the help of games like Super Mario Bros. 3, which sold 11 million copies in the NES's lifespan, becoming the most popular game of its time at the time. Today... half the paper... millions of dollars worldwide in the first 24 hours, making it the largest release day sale of any piece of entertainment. Making Grand Theft Auto 5 cost Rockstar Games 266 million dollars: they earned over 1 billion in less than 3 days. There are many games that reach the billion dollar mark every year, Call of Duty fans earn over a billion dollars every year. The growth of the gaming industry is popularly linked to it, it's not just a niche for hardcore gamers, it's part of our pop culture. The video game industry is expected to grow from $67 billion in 2013 to $82 billion in 2017. That's because it represents an ever-growing part of our culture. According to Nielsen, in 2012, 56% of U.S. households owned at least one current-generation gaming console. Nielsen also states that in 2012, 45% of gamers were women. It's not just a boys club, both genders are passionate about video games.