The Atari 2600 was the first home video game console by Atari, Inc. Released on September 11, 1977, it is credited with being the first system to start popularizing home video gaming. The 2600 was expensive for its time and only really saw major success after a few game smash hits video games were released in the early 1980s. Towards the end of its life the costs for building the console and the games was so cheap Atari made a killing on every sale.