Video games are now a $100 billion worldwide business, with almost two-thirds of American households having individuals who play them on a regular basis. It's no surprise: video games have been around for decades and are available on a variety of platforms, including arcade systems, home consoles, handheld consoles, and mobile devices. They're also often at the cutting edge of computer technology.
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The Beginnings
Despite the fact that video games are now available in households all across the globe, they began in scientists' research laboratories.
As part of his doctorate research at the University of Cambridge in 1952, British professor A.S. Douglas invented OXO, commonly known as noughts and crosses or tic-tac-toe. In 1958, during the annual visitor's day at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, William Higinbotham developed Tennis for Two on a huge analog computer with a linked oscilloscope screen.
Spacewar!, a computer-based space warfare video game for the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1), was created by Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. It was the first video game that could be played simultaneously on several computers.
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The Beginning of the Home Console
Sanders Associates, Inc. developed a prototype multiplayer, multi-program video gaming system that could be played on a television in 1967, headed by Ralph Baer. It was dubbed "The Brown Box."
Baer, known as the "Father of Video Games," licensed his invention to Magnavox, who released the Odyssey, the first video game home console, in 1972. The rudimentary Odyssey console would fail and fade out commercially over the following several years.
One of the Odyssey's 28 games, however, served as the idea for Atari's Pong, the first arcade video game, launched in 1972. Atari launched a home version of Pong in 1975, which was just as popular as the arcade version.
Atari would ultimately be sued by Magnavox and Sanders Associates for copyright infringement. Magnavox went on to win more than $100 million in copyright litigation relating to the Odyssey and its video game patents over the following 20 years after Atari settled and became an Odyssey licensee.
The Atari 2600 (also known as the Video Computer System) was launched in 1977, marking the start of the second generation of video game consoles. It included joysticks and replaceable game cartridges that played multi-colored games.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the video game industry saw a number of significant milestones, including:
- In 1978, the arcade game Space Invaders was released.
- In 1979, Activision became the first third-party game developer (a company that creates software rather than consoles or arcade cabinets).
- The release of Japan's immensely popular Pac-Man in the United States.
- Donkey Kong was Nintendo's first game, and it introduced the world to Mario.
- Microsoft's first Flight Simulator game was released.
The Battle of the Consoles
Sega also launched its 16-bit Genesis system in North America in 1989, as a follow-up to its Sega Master System, which failed to compete effectively against the NES in 1986.
The Genesis made considerable progress against its elder competitor because of its technical advantages over the NES, as well as smart marketing and the introduction of the Sonic the Hedgehog game in 1991. Nintendo launched the 16-bit Super NES system in North America in 1991, igniting the first true “console war.”
From the early to mid-1990s, a slew of popular titles was released for both systems, including new brands like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, a fighting game with blood and gore on the Genesis edition.
Sega established the Videogame Rating Council in 1993 in reaction to the violent game (as well as congressional hearings on violent video games) to offer detailed labeling for every game sold on a Sega home system. The committee eventually gave birth to the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which is still used to evaluate video games depending on their content today.
With the debut of the Super Mario Bros. live-action movie in 1993, video games jumped to the big screen, followed by Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat over the following two years. Since then, a slew of movies based on video games has been produced.
The Genesis had surpassed the SNES in North America at this point, thanks to a far bigger library of titles, a cheaper price point, and effective marketing. Sega, on the other hand, was unable to replicate its success in Japan.
Gaming in the Modern Era
Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 3, and Nintendo's Wii launched the contemporary era of high-definition gaming in 2005 and 2006. Though the Playstation 3—at the time, the only system capable of playing Blu-ray discs—was a commercial success, Sony faced strong competition from its competitors for the first time.
The Xbox 360, which had similar graphics capabilities to the Playstation 3, was praised for its online gaming ecosystem and won far more Game Critics Awards in 2007 than the other platforms; it also included the Microsoft Kinect, a cutting-edge motion capture system that provided a new way to play video games (though the Kinect never caught on with core gamers or game developers).
Despite being weaker in terms of technology than the other two systems, the Wii outsold them both in terms of sales. Its motion-sensitive remote controls make gaming more active than ever before, allowing it to appeal to a far wider audience, including those in nursing homes.
Video games expanded to social media platforms like Facebook and mobile devices like the iPhone at the end of the decade and the beginning of the next, reaching a more casual gaming audience. Rovio, the company behind the Angry Birds mobile game (and, subsequently, the Angry Birds animated film), is said to have earned $200 million in 2012.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, released in 2011, was the first game to bring video games into the real world. To play the game, players must put plastic toy figurines (available separately) onto an attachment that scans the toys' NFC tags and brings them into the game. Several sequels and other toy-video game hybrids, such as Disney Infinity, using Disney characters, would follow in the coming years.
With the introduction of Nintendo's Wii U in 2012, the 8th and current generation of video games started, followed by the Playstation 4 and Xbox One in 2013. Despite having a touch screen remote control that allowed for off-TV gameplay and the ability to play Wii games, the Wii U was a commercial failure and was discontinued in 2017.
Sony launched a more powerful version of their system, the Playstation 4 Pro, in 2016, which was the first console to support 4K visual output. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Switch, the only system that allows both television-based and portable gaming, in early 2017. The Xbox One X, Microsoft's 4K-ready system, will be released in late 2017.
Both Sony and Microsoft have their eyes set on virtual reality gaming with their new redesigned consoles, a technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way players interact with video games.