It’s impossible to avoid how prevalent streaming, cloud-based, and subscription services have become across most mediums, including video games. While gamers currently have options between numerous robust subscription services, this is a relatively new phenomenon. Precursor services existed, of course, such as Netflix’s original mail-out DVD service, but generally, the technology for high-speed digital subscription services wasn’t as widely available before the last two decades. However, video games have always been rooted in digital technology and so had more potential in creating these types of services much earlier. One such example of an early gaming subscription service, Intellivision PlayCable, highlights a gaming precursor to what would become one of the main means of consuming media today.
Like modern services such as Xbox Game Pass or PS Plus, Intellivision PlayCable offered a selection of monthly games for a fixed monthly fee; there were 15 monthly games at first and which was later expanded to 20 games. Even by today’s standards, that’s a pretty decent selection. Considering the service was launched in 1980, PlayCable was very ahead of its time. There were other attempts at this kind of service in gaming, such as GameLink and the Sega Channel, however, they don’t utilize the current model of offering a variety of games for subscription cost. Particularly over the past few years, these types of subscription services have become a lot more appealing than paying per game in many ways, especially for gamers who play frequently.
How PlayCable Worked
Unlike modern subscription services, PlayCable did require some specific, dedicated hardware to download games. As the name suggests, PlayCable ran through cable wires, while the physical hardware was plugged into the Intellivision’s cartridge port. Again, considering the time period, this was an impressive venture in the gaming world. However, technological limitations did hold PlayCable back, with consumers finding the adapter very expensive, cable companies complaining about the expensive equipment they needed to run the service, and the adapters failing to preform as well with larger games. Despite this though, initial reports from Intellivision show a lot of belief in the project, and with most games being ready to play in 10 to 20 seconds, it’s easy to see why.
PlayCable was developed by Mattel and General Instrument (an electronics manufacturer). While it’s clear that the technology wasn’t quite developed enough for this type of service, there was another major factor in the downfall of PlayCable, which was discontinued in 1984. As those familiar may have guessed, this is the infamous 1983 video game crash, which caused Mattel to halt production of new hardware. With such a significant industry crash, PlayCable never really stood a chance, but it does now serve as a really interesting precursor to modern gaming services and an example of gaming’s interventions in technological development.
Significance of PlayCable
VR is another example of a technology which has a wide range of uses and has benefitted hugely from gaming’s own development of VR. While subscription services may not have the same significance in things like medicine, which VR does, PlayCable is another prime example of how interwined digital technolgoy and video games are. While other mediums struggled to adapt to the explosive growth of technology following the Digital Revolution, video games developed in tandem with digital tech as technological products.
As digital technology becomes an increasingly prevelant part of everyday life, video games offer a realm to track implementations and reactions to new technologies. While PlayCable may have only last a short time, it laid the groundwork for services like Xbox Game Pass and indeed digital subscription services more broadly. Especially in the 80s and 90s, the gaming industry struggled to establish itself as a medium on par with television and film, but today it is one of the largest industries in the world. As such, any consideration of digital technological developments must acknowledge the impact of gaming in this realm, as well as the ways digital technological developments have also shaped gaming. There is a reciporcal relationship between gaming and digital technology then, which becomes more significant as digital technology continues to grow and become a more ingrained part of everyday life.
