In 1972, Atari released a platform game console called "Ping Pong" (PONG), which became popular throughout the United States. In the same year, the world's first video game to be played on a "TV" was born, and the Magnavox Odyssey was the world's first TV game console.
The Second Generation
In 1975, Atari founded Cyan Engineering, a company that began developing home consoles. By the end of 1976, Atari's founders, short on cash, sold the company to Warner for $28 million on the condition that Stella (the development codename) be brought to market sooner. By October 1977, Atari 2600 officially launched, the entire process of host *** spent $ 100 million in research and development costs. Atari 2600 creatively proposed a game console and cassette tape separation, TV and game console separation of the game system, the game console design after a profound impact. It also pioneered a new business model for monetizing game cartridges.
Early in 1977 Atari set up a software development department, specializing in the development of console-related software. However, due to mismanagement, by the end of 1978, only 550,000 of the 800,000 consoles produced had been sold. As a direct result, Atari founder Bushnell left Atari, and Ray Kassar, who took over, brought modern management techniques to Atari and implemented a series of marketing campaigns. 1979 saw the Atari 2600 become the best-selling Christmas gift of all time, selling over a million units that year.
The Atari 2600 reached its peak in 1982, selling 8 million units and growing assets from $75 million to $2.2 billion, accounting for half of Warner's revenue. Then the Atari 2600's image was tarnished by a lack of software quality control and the poor quality games that flooded the market. 1983 saw the end of the second generation that the Atari had dominated.
Third Generation
In 1983, the Japanese game market was in a state of chaotic disarray, with more than a dozen consoles launched in Japan in that year alone, though they were marketed as ordinary electronic toys, most of which were imported directly from the United States. So Nintendo developed the third-generation console, the FC console (Famicom, Red and White, known as the NES in the United States). This console brought advanced game development concepts and revolutionary game technology. It became the true originator of TV games. Especially in China, many players know and love the game console. Many games are still popular today. There are still many places in China that produce these consoles and games. Even from today's perspective, the games are still highly playable.
When the FC came out, SEGA's contemporaneous console, the SG-1000, was completely crushed. Shortly after the FC was launched, however, the hardware design of the first batch of FCs had serious bugs that could cause crashes, and in order to salvage Nintendo's reputation, then Nintendo president Pu Yamauchi decided to recall the console, which cost the company 1.5 billion yen. The incident, however, helped Nintendo establish a superior brand image, and the following year the FC was relaunched and sold 1.65 million units in one year.The FC's debut in the U.S. was even more successful.The NES was the first to be launched in New York City in October 1985, with a debut of ****15 games. By the end of 1985, the NES had sold 50,000 units in New York. The NES then began a nationwide launch in the U.S., selling one million units in one year and starting the recovery of the once-collapsed U.S. home console market.
Fourth Generation
In 1987, NEC teamed up with Hudson to launch the PC-Engine, the first console that could be retrofitted with CD-ROMs, which drew a great deal of attention from the Japanese game industry to the PC-Engine. In the same year, SEGA launched the Mega Drive (MD, known as the Genesis in the U.S.) in Japan. the console was released in New York and Los Angeles on January 9, 1989, with a suggested retail price of US$200. the console was released throughout the U.S. on September 15, 1989, with an MSRP of US$190. the PC-Engine was the first console to be released in the U.S., and was the first to be released in Japan. Since the U.S. gaming market had been largely monopolized by Nintendo at the time, SEGA decided to tap into a new demographic of gamers in the higher age groups, releasing a large number of games aimed at adult gamers.
In contrast, the FC's lucrative revenues between 1987 and 1988 left Nintendo uninterested in developing a next-generation console. However, the rising market share of the PC-Engine and MD forced Nintendo to invest in a 16-bit console, the Super Famicom (SFC), whose design featured two GPUs.
The SFC was initially slated for a July 1989 release, but was later delayed several times. However, because Nintendo had the support of a large number of game manufacturers (third parties), the SFC remained the most popular console among Japanese gamers despite its late arrival. Nintendo had already received orders for 1.5 million units of the SFC before its release, and on November 21, Tokyo's streets were filled with crowds of people waiting in line for the SFC, with many parents skipping work in order to buy a console for their children, and the huge crowds even seriously affected Tokyo's traffic. on August 13, 1991, Nintendo launched the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), which was a redesigned version of the SFC, in the United States. Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), a redesign of the SFC. Unfortunately, the SNES was too late in the game's launch, as MD had already built up a large enough mass base in the U.S. The SNES was easily defeated by MD in its first year of release. The weakening of Nintendo's power also provided an opportunity for the PlayStation to easily take over the US market.
After the launch of the SFC, the competition between SEGA and Nintendo heated up: in 1992, SEGA gained a 55% market share in North America, and in 1993, SEGA's home console business reached an unprecedented peak, with a 65% market share.
And during this period, the history of handhelds began. Due to the monopoly Nintendo insisted that the handheld's functionality was not the most important thing. Nintendo's handheld function was one or even two eras behind its home console contemporaries.GB, Nintendo's 8-bit handheld game console, was released on April 21, 1989. Its English name was GameBoy, meaning "Game Boy", and it was priced at $109. Short comment: Needless to say, when the old Ren came out, who would compete with the peak? At that time, it completely dominated the handheld market, and stabilized the market position with an advantage.
Fifth Generation
In 1992, when 3DO was developing its 32-bit console, SEGA set up the "Giga-Drive" R&D program. Due to its dual-CPU architecture, its 3D performance was 1.5 to 2 times that of the Model 1 board used for VR Fighters, and SEGA named the console "SEGA Saturn (SS)" - the sixth planet in the solar system, representing SEGA's sixth console. The name of the console was "SEGA Saturn (SS)" - the sixth planet in the solar system, representing SEGA's sixth console. The first 200,000 units of the SS were almost completely pre-ordered a month before the console's release, and 150,000 units quickly sold out on the first day.
In 1993, Nintendo and Sony began working together to develop the next-generation console, however, during the development period, Nintendo and Sony had a serious conflict over the storage media for the games. Sony proposed that CD-ROMs should be used as the storage media for the games because of their large storage capacity, low cost, convenience and lightness while Nintendo insisted on the use of cassette tapes, which were considered to be faster to read. The two sides argued a lot, and in the end, Nintendo unilaterally terminated the cooperation. This undoubtedly infuriated Sony, in order to not let the molded product down the drain, Sony decided to carry out the "PlayStation Project" alone, Sony may not have thought that this decision will change the entire development process of home game consoles.
On December 3, 1994, with the words "いちーにーさん、すべでのゲームはここにいる!"(1.2.3,所有) (1.2.3, all games are gathered here!) The PlayStation (PS) was officially launched with the classic advertising slogan. There was a huge scene of hundreds of people lining up to buy them in Akihabara and other places, and the first 100,000 units shipped were snapped up before noon, so that even the grandson of Sony president Norio Oga had to leave empty-handed. After the two heavyweight game makers Square and Enix announced that they would be leaving Nintendo with their mega-hits Final FantasyVII and Dragon Quest VII and defecting to PS, causing a domino effect in the Japanese gaming industry, many well-known game software makers joined the company, and a blossoming situation began to gradually emerge on the PS console,
On June 23, 1996, the Nintendo 64 (Nintendo 64, or N64 for short) was launched in Japan a year and a half later than the SS and PS, but Nintendo, with its strong roots, still gained widespread support from gamers, and the scale of the N64's debut sale in Japan was much stronger than that of the PS and SS, with the first 500,000 consoles sold out in just 10 days.
On September 30, 1996, the N64 was launched in North America, and the first 500,000 consoles sold out. On September 30, 1996, the N64 was launched in North America and was also a huge success. People still had faith in Nintendo, who had monopolized the console market for a decade, and the N64 seemed to be more popular than the PS and SS.
Then to the dismay of all third-party game makers, the N64's use of cassettes as its media cost a whopping $25 to manufacture, whereas CDs cost as little as 10 cents, and thus N64 games typically sold for $20 to $25 more than PS. As a result, the N64 had the smallest variety of mainstream games in history, and lacked software support for months after its release, whereas the PS and SS had unprecedentedly strong game lineups.The N64's strong debut was quickly and firmly suppressed by blockbuster titles such as Resident Evil. From start to finish, the N64 was essentially a stage for Nintendo to just put on a show.
By the end of 1994, the SEGA Saturn had sold a total of 500,000 units in Japan***, outselling the PlayStation during the same time period.
The rivalry between the two major 32-bit consoles went into overdrive on May 7, 1995, when both Sony and SEGA announced that they had sold more than one million units of both the PS and the SS.
In the U.S. market, however, SEGA did not inherit MD's market dominance. The U.S. version of the SS cost $100 more than the PS, and actually performed less well than the PS. In 1995 SEGA and Sony fought a furious price war, with SEGA taking a narrow lead, however the SS cost more to build than the PS, and after 1996 SEGA could no longer withstand the enormous cost pressures, and the SS collapsed across the board in both the U.S. and Japan, representing a win for the PlayStation .
Sixth Generation
Sega Dreamcast
SEGA Saturn suffered greatly against the PlayStation in the fifth generation due to flaws in the console design. So when it came to developing the next-generation console, Hayao Nakayama, SEGA's president at the time, decided to hire out IBM's senior engineers to set up a separate development group in the U.S., while on the Japanese side Hidetsugu Saturn led a team to work on the console design at the same time. In July 1997, SEGA executives decided to adopt the Japanese group's proposal, and named it Dreamcast(DC) -Composite word of Dream and Broadcast. It means to spread the dream to the players.
DC had already gotten orders for 500,000 units before its release, however SEGA's production partner NEC ran into serious production problems. The graphics chips could not be produced fast enough to keep up, and the first shipment of the DC in Japan was only 150,000 units.The DC was launched in the United States on September 9, 1999, and was a huge success, selling 225,000 units that day.
Sony PlayStation 2
And after Sony saw the Dreamcast's coming and powerful computing power, it had to immediately announce that it would be launching the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and publicize the PlayStation 2's display screen early. in early 2000, the online reservation for the PS2 officially started. However, the website received more than 100,000 orders within one minute of the launch. The servers were overwhelmed and paralyzed on the spot. The frenzied reservation activity continued until the end of February, *** with 380,000 PS2s ordered.
The March 4, 2000, release of the PS2 caused a new round of rush purchases. There was even a 5,000-strong queue at Akihabara Electric Street in Tokyo, with several people at the head of the queue having pitched their tents four days earlier, in a frenzy of breathtaking proportions. In the end, Sony once again created an industry myth: the PS2 sold a total of 980,000 units in three days, making it the fastest-selling TV game console of all time. 1.15 million units of the PS2 were shipped on its debut in Japan, more than the first-generation PS console that year. However, due to the extremely high market demand, the supply eventually outstripped the demand, and price speculation began to spread on auction sites such as eBay, with many PS2s being auctioned off at several times the official retail price, and even then, there were still plenty of gamers who paid the price as it was.
Nintendo NGC
On March 3, 1999, the day after Sony made the PS2 public, Nintendo and Panasonic*** held a press conference to announce the development of the Nintendo GameCube (NGC), a new-generation console, and announced that its performance specifications would be above those of the PS2. Then the NGC's debut game lineup was so weak that the NGC shipped 450,000 units in its first shipment*** and only 300,000 were sold within the first week, a stark contrast to the general lack of stock on other consoles.
The NGC's hasty launch not only failed to suppress the PS2, but also put Nintendo in a dilemma.
The NGC's U.S. debut was also unfortunate enough to be met by a strong Xbox rival, and resulted in 469,000 first batch sales in North America, nearly 100,000 fewer units than the Xbox. The game lineup was weak, a dilemma NGC never jumped out of from launch day. After the release of Xbox's Halo 2, NGC was left far behind by Xbox in Europe and the United States.
Microsoft XBOX
On November 15, 2001, Microsoft released the Xbox gaming console. Although the PS2 had already surpassed 20 million units sold worldwide by the time the Xbox launched in the U.S., the incoming Xbox was nonetheless intimidating. Microsoft hosted huge Xbox midnight premiere sales events in New York and San Francisco, with Bill Gates himself in New York's Times Square and handing the first Xbox to long-awaited gamers.
But at the time, the low price of $299 was akin to a vicious dumping ground compared to the power of the Xbox hardware. At that price, Microsoft was losing $125 on every Xbox sold. It's also true that although the Xbox, which now sells 20 million units worldwide, is firmly in second place, Microsoft's evaporative spending of $1 billion a year on hardware over the years has been a bit shocking, but Bill Gates said: "The first generation was like a game, and if you played it well, then at the end he'd say, 'You can play it again. You can play it again.'"
As of February 1999, Dreamcast sales in Japan totaled 900,000 units, failing to reach the 1 million originally projected. Subsequently, the DC, which lacked software support, began to decline under the impact of PS hits such as Final Fantasy VII. In 2000, with the launch of the PS2, DC collapsed in Japan and the U.S. In March 2001, SEGA announced that it was discontinuing the DC and withdrawing from the console market altogether.
By this point, Sony's gaming empire had taken shape, and Sony had transformed itself from a gaming amateur into the biggest winner in the TV gaming world. Though Microsoft's surprise kill in 2001 and Nintendo's pent-up counterattack brought some variables to the direction of the market, the PS2 has sold more than 100 million units worldwide as of this writing.
GameBoy Color
On October 21, 1998, Nintendo of Japan finally launched the GameBoy Color (GBC), a color version of the GB, as expected. The biggest difference between the new GBC and the previous GB was the adoption of a color LCD display, and from then on GB fans stepped into the color world. The LCD portion is a thin-film transistor TFT LCD that can display 56 colors out of 32,000 colors, (note that SFC's color variations are 32,000 colors, while MD's are only 512 colors). More importantly, the TFT display image has no ghosting, which was the worst thing about the old GB display, so it can be clearly displayed for some over-the-top and beat-em-up games.The CPU of the GBC contains a letter-speed mode, the memory is 4 times as much as that of the old GB, and the graphics is 2 times as much as that of the old GB. This allows some GBC-specific cassettes to display amazing graphics that are as good as MD's. The GBC is compatible with GameBoy games, and the graphics are in color, usually 4-10 colors. Before entering these games you can also adjust the displayed color, a **** there are 13 sets of colors to choose from, Nintendo is really well thought out. The GBC also had a special feature of infrared communication, so that corresponding games could be exchanged without the use of communication cables! Another amazing thing is that you can play 20 hours of gameplay with just 2 alkaline 5 batteries, which is really power-saving. Short comment: A masterpiece! All the designs are flawless, the only drawback is the lack of backlighting.
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance, or GBA for short, is Nintendo's new generation of portable handhelds, and it comes in a variety of colors, including blue and orange buttons with silver and transparent cases. The GBA is fully compatible with GB and GBC games, so as long as you buy the GBA, you don't need to buy another GB or GBC to play the games on them.
The GBA was released on March 21, 2001, priced at 9,800 yen, and sold for 500-600 yuan for the original machine and 450-500 yuan for the Hong Kong-made machine. Compared to GB, GBA's lifespan is much shorter, and NDS was released in 2004. Because Sony was also eyeing the handheld market, improved functionality became necessary.
Sony PSP
At the 2004 PlayStation Conference, SCE unveiled new details and detailed specifications for the company's handheld PSP, known as the Play Station Portable, which SCE called "the Walkman of the 21st century. "The PSP will have two CPUs, a high-end audio processor, a 3D graphics processor, a 4.3-inch 16:9 ratio, backlit, fully transparent Sharp ASV Ultra Wide Viewing Angle LCD screen, with a screen resolution of 480*272 pixels and vibrant, bright colors. Bright, first-class display effect; has between the PS and PS2 3D polygonal drawing ability, corresponding to the surface NURBS modeling is PS2 does not have the function, the game screen to reach a new height of handheld games and not bad connectivity.
Nintendo Nintendo DS
Nintendo released its newest handheld, the Nintendo DS, on December 2, 2004, at a price of 15,000 yen (about 1,150 yuan). Compared to the PSP, the Nintendo DS is still not much better, roughly equivalent to the level of the N64, and still holds on to the cassette. Competes with the PSP by virtue of its exceptional gameplay.
Seventh Generation
Microsoft XBOX360
Though the Xbox is the second most popular console in terms of sales after the PS2, 80% of the support actually comes from European and American gamers, and sales in Japan and other Asian regions have been dismal for obvious reasons: the Xbox has always been dominated by American-style games, which of course can't be eaten in Japan. In addition, the Xbox's huge black appearance is not loved by Japan or other Asian countries. Therefore, when Microsoft was developing its new next-generation console, it not only hired an art designer to create a streamlined white look that was much more beautiful than the first-generation Xbox, but it also invited Japanese game makers to develop games on the new-generation Xbox.
Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 console in the United States on November 22, 2005, and the curtain was raised on the seventh-generation war with the Xbox 360 first. In a year that saw the release of the console ahead of other next-gen consoles, the Xbox 360 managed to capture a significant amount of the console market. However, the Xbox 360's leading sales were not only due to the fact that it was released earlier than the other consoles, but also because of the high quality of the game graphics, which were greatly improved over the sixth generation, which attracted gamers to buy the game. In addition, the Xbox Live online service, which has been available since the first generation of Xbox, is also the biggest selling point of Xbox 360. In addition to being able to connect to the Internet from the console and play online games with other players, as with the first-generation Xbox, the Xbox 360 also allows gamers to download game demos, mini-games, movies or TV movies from online stores. Some of these factors make the Xbox 360 more popular with gamers than the first-generation Xbox.
Sony PlayStation 3
But Sony, which has dominated the console world for a decade since the fifth generation, didn't have it so easy. in May 2005, Son
4D Motion Gaming
y formally unveiled the PlayStation 3 (PS3), which was shown at E3 and announced that it would be released in the spring of 2006. go on sale in the spring of 2006. However, close to the release date, it was re-announced that the release date had been delayed to November 2006 due to Blu-ray Disc and HDMI specification development issues.On November 11, 2006, Sony finally launched the PlayStation 3 console. At the beginning of the PS3, the first 100,000 units in Japan and 400,000 units in North America were immediately snapped up, and in North America, there were also incidents of people being injured in line to buy a PS3 and being robbed at gunpoint. However, because the PS3 is a home multimedia gaming platform, the cost of the Cell processor and Blu-rayDisc for high quality video and audio is very high, so although the features are the richest of all consoles, the price is also the highest of the seventh generation of consoles.
Nintendo Wii
And it didn't take long for the PS3's sales to be blown out of the water by the Wii, which was released a few days after the PS3.
Nintendo initially kept a very low profile for the console, which caused a worldwide sensation when it was released.
At E3 2005, Nintendo first unveiled plans for a next-generation console codenamed "Revolution," and wowed the audience with a demonstration of the creation of the
Monkey King
new somatosensory controls. Shortly after Nintendo announced that the new console would be called the "Wii", Nintendo demonstrated the complete console and operation of the Wii at the E3 show, and at the same time opened up the demo game, which attracted a great deal of attention from gamers and the media all over the world.
On November 19, 2006, Nintendo was the first to launch the Wii in the U.S., sparking a much more enthusiastic and long-lasting rush to purchase the Wii than the PS3, which had much weaker hardware than the Xbox 360 and PS3, but cost the least of the three. The Wii's greatest strength is its unique motion-sensing controller, the Wii Remote, which recognizes the movements made by the player using the Wii Remote, creating a whole new way of playing games. And this new physical operation of the Wii led many non-traditional gamers (women and middle-aged and older people) to play the console, allowing Nintendo to create a whole new market. Eighth Generation. Microsoft xboxone, Sony ps4, Nintendo wiiU, Sony psvita, Nintendo 3ds (hopefully)