Gaming Industry: How did we get here?

The gaming industry has been around for a long time. But how did we get here?

Let’s start with arcade games, which were popular from the 1980’s to the 1990’s. Notable entries include Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong. These types of games were only found in certain places. But then…

Home video game consoles hit the market, with the first being the Magnavox Odyssey. It didn’t sell that well, then along came Atari. With a whole bunch of consoles, the most notable of which being the Atari 2600, they dominated the market. Then Nintendo. The NES was groundbreaking (in sales, in graphics, etc.). The console itself cost around $89.00 then (approximately 280 dollars today). 

Company Speedrun (Arcade age)!

Namco – 1960’s

Sega – 1983

HAL Laboratory – 1985

Game Freak – Made magazines before but started video games 1989

Console Speedrun (New age)!

PlayStation 1 – 1995

Nintendo 64 – 1996

PlayStation 2 – 2000

Xbox (original) + GameCube + Game Boy Advance – 2001

DS + Playstation Portable – 2004

Xbox 360 – 2005

PlayStation 3 + Wii – 2006

PS Vita + 3DS – 2011

Wii U – 2012

2DS + Xbox One + PlayStation 4 – 2013

2013-2016 (A whole bunch of rereleases. Xbox One S, 2DS XL, etc.)

Nintendo Switch – 2017 

Xbox Series X/S + PlayStation 5 – 2020

Nintendo Switch OLED – 2021 (actually, recently!)

What’s next in the bright future ahead in the gaming world? New games? Always. New consoles? Maybe. But with new things picking up steam (like Steam) in the gaming world, things could change. Also, VR gaming is much more accessible with the Quest. What more is next? With the industry being at around 200 billion dollars, and rising, there’s no way it stops now!