The earliest game idea on record was in 1948 and was a missile simulator game based on radar displays from WW2. Like this game, many of the first video games were made in science labs and although they worked they were unable to leave the labs due to being either too big or too expensive. However, this all changed in 1972 when Magnavox realised Odyssey, the first home game console, closely followed by the first commercially successful game, Atari's Pong also in 1972, creating the first generation video games.
It wasn't until the second generation of video games where games hit mainstream popularity with Space Invaders being the big hit. Space Invaders is currently the highest grossing video game of all time having made $1 billion by 1981 and was the first video game to record and display high scores. Shortly after the realise of Space Invaders was PacMan, realised in 1980 and is currently the second highest grossing game. PacMan was the first video game to introduce power-ups and cutscenes and also set a standard for video game characters and their marketing, making it still one of the most recognisable video game characters.
However in 1983 home game consoles dropped in popularity and was starting to be seen as a passing trend until 1985 when Nintendo, who originally made and distributed playing cards, realised their first console which changed the way companies designed video games. One of their early big hits was Donkey Kong which was the first game that included a storyline and later on used one of the games characters Jumpman, who is now widely known as Mario, and made their biggest franchise.
Then in 1994 Sony realised they first PlayStation. This completely changed video games consoles as not only were their games were on a disk instead of a cartridge but their attitude in their games and marketing are memorable. Sony later came out with the PlayStation 2 which still today is the most sold video game console with 155 million being sold. Due to PlayStation's hard to beat popularity many companies stated to drop out of hardware and moving over to software distribution, an example being Sega who realised their last games console, The Dreamcast, in 1998 but continue to distribute games. Although the first Xbox, which was realised in 2001, fell short to it's rival PlayStation, they would hit back in the 6th generation.
The 7th generation consists of the three biggest games consoles Nintendo, PlayStation (Sony) and Xbox (Microsoft) battling as to who would be on top. It started with the Xbox 360 in 2005 which was ahead of it's time with features such as Xbox Live, achievements, Xbox connect and being able to download softwares such as Netflix. However, Sony would fall short in 2006 with the PlayStation 3 due to using technology such as blue-ray when many house holds at the time didn't have a HD TV therefore being overlooked. Out of no where Nintendo realised Wii in 2006 which blew up; so much so that for over a year there was supply shortages due to such high demands. The Wii console was a bit it with families but was limited with games due to their gameplay/controller leading to WiiSports being one of their few big hits.
Now we are in the 8th generation, home of the Wii U, PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Although the Wii U is popular, the big competition is between PlayStation and Xbox; much like earlier generations being split between Sega and Nintendo consoles, you are either a PlayStation fan or a Xbox fan.
From the Odyssey to Xbox One it's amazing how far game consoles have come and we can't wait to see what's next for the game industry.
ความคิดเห็น