[ 45 ] [ 46 ] [ 47 ] By the end of 1982, Atari had begun to lose dominance as more competitors entered the market. [ 13 ] Poor critical reception and lack of a profitable marketing strategy made this game one of many cited decisions that led Atari to report a $536 million loss in 1983 and led to the company being divided and sold in 1984. [ 26 ] GameSpy's Classic Gaming called E.T. Atari's biggest mistake, as well as the largest financial failure in the industry. [ 32 ] [ 48 ] Reiley commented that the game's poor quality was responsible for ending the product life of the Atari 2600. [ 31 ] Occurring soon after Pac-Man ' s negative critical response on the Atari 2600, E.T. ' s poor reception was attributed by Kent to a negative impact on Atari's reputation and profitability. [ 12 ] Authors Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost echoed similar comments about Pac-Man and E.T. ' s combined effect on the company's reputation and the industry's reaction. [ 49 ] Buchanan also cited the game as a factor to Atari and the industry's crash. He stated that the large amount of unsold merchandise was a financial burden to Atari, which pushed the company into debt. [ 19 ] On December 7, 1982, Kassar announced that Atari's revenue forecasts for 1982 were cut from a 50 percent increase over 1981 to a 15 percent increase. [ 9 ] [ 50 ] Immediately