The history of Gaming Consoles

The History of Gaming Consoles

I have seen the console grow up from the old pong console and the Nintendo LCD handheld to the powerhouse like the Playstation Pro 4 and Xbox Scorpio with power and possibilities that were deemed impossible at the time. I would like to take you on a journey from their humble beginnings to their current state.

The Gaming Console's early beginnings (1978–1983)
The gaming console started out as a toy. Funny LCD handhelds that were amusing for children (and adults although they wouldn't admit it). The most famous probably is Nintendo's Donkey Kong.
Arcades games were the inspiration of these handhelds but were visually nothing compared to their arcade counterparts. There were also devices introduced that you could connect to your TV for an "arcade" like experience. The Atari 2600, Philips Videopac and the ColecoVision are the best known examples. These devices were a great success and companies like Atari became house hold names and business was booming.
But then came the video game crash of 1983. The North American gaming market collapsed. The crash almost destroyed the then-booming industry, and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing home computers and video game consoles. This crash had a number of causes:

The market was flooded with too many consoles
Competition from home computers like the Commodore 64
Inflation

Especially Atari, the market leader at the time, was hit hard and would never fully recover.
The crash lead to a couple of interesting developments. Things that would shape the console market like we know it today....

The new generation (1983–1989)
"Out with the old and in with the new" as they say. North- America had dominated the console market up until now but things were about to change. A Japanese company was ready to take it up a notch and Nintendo released its console called the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) in 1983. This was the beginning of the success for the 8-bit gaming consoles.
As a diehard Sega fan it's hard for me to admit but Nintendo's NES revitalized the console gaming market. Mario Bros and the NES took the world by storm. Because of this North-America was losing its market share to Japan. In 1985 another Japanese Company, Sega released another gaming console: the Sega Mark III, this console was later released in Europe and America as the Sega Master System.

I remember seeing the Sega Master System for the first time. I was walking past a electronics store in Rotterdam and on display was this gorgeous device displaying games I only knew from the arcades. Games like hang-on, Space Harrier, Burnout, Wonderboy. The games were on cartridges (like all the games at that time, called the Mega Cartridge) but the Sega Master System also had the Sega Card, which retailed at lower prices than cartridges but had lower storage capacity. Right then I knew I had to have this beautiful machine.

The Sega Master System did well in South America and Europe, even outselling the NES. Both Sega and Nintendo had learned from the crash of '83 and knew that for them to be successful they had to crush the competition. In the console gaming market there is only room for one market leader. The Console Wars had started....

The Console Wars
From the launch of the NES up until the mid 90's Nintendo and Sega fought a battle for market dominance. This console war was in my opinion one of the things that led to the rapid development and maturing of gaming consoles. Nintendo and Sega were on different sides of the fence. Nintendo was all about clean, healthy family fun. Sega was the new kid on the block and had the "attitude". Sega was bold and brazen and ready to take on the big N. The war was fought through advertisement where the companies openly attacked each other. It was also the first time technical specifications were used to promote the "better" console. Which console had more color, better sound. Each detail was highlighted and used for promotion. You were either a Nintendo fan or a Sega fan and both camps defended their machines with a vengeance.

Both Sega and Nintendo were quick to release their 16-bit consoles and take the fight to a higher level. In 1988 Nintendo released the Super Nintendo and Sega released the Megadrive/Genesis in 1990. The battle between the 2 companies only intensified. Other consoles were left behind in the dust. The brilliant game console Neo Geo by SNK and the PC engine could not compete. Sega and Nintendo had the games, the arcade library and marketing know-how to leave the competition behind. Nintendo had Mario as its mascot and Sega had found an icon in Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was promoted as a mascot because it represented all that Sega stood for, speed and excitement. The game also showed of the speed that the Megadrive/Genesis was capable of.

Nintendo took quite a lot of damage during the 16-bit era and lost part of its market share to Sega. Not because Sega had the better console but because of the company policies. Sega had no problem releasing Street fighter II and Mortal Kombat uncensored on their console while SNES owners got a censored version of the most famous arcade games of that time. Sega was also innovating at a rapid pace, they introduced add-ons for their console like the Mega-CD (that made it possible to play games from CD instead of cartridges) and the 32X (for more advanced 3D graphics).

But then things took a change for the worse for both companies. Nintendo and Sega were at the top of their game in the 16-bit era and working hard on their next-gen console when another company entered the battlefield. In 1994 Sony released the Playstation....

Winter is coming
Perhaps Nintendo and Sega were drunk on power or not paying attention. Whatever happened, they were totally blindsided by Sony's playstation.

Interesting fact is that Sony had approached both Nintendo and Sega with their Playstation project. Both companies rejected Sony because they felt that Sony was too inexperienced.

It was a time that gaming consoles were able to produce almost arcade like graphics. The introduction of CD's instead of cartridges would introduce new levels of gaming possibilities. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the next generation of Consoles.
Nintendo's new console, the Nintendo 64 was not able to compete with the disc-based Playstation because Nintendo was still holding on to cartridges. People were eager for new things and Sony provided. Things for Sega's follow-up console went even worse. The Sega Saturn was doomed from the start. The introduction of the Saturn was known as the worst in gaming history (https://www.cnet.com/news/why-the-saturn-was-the-worst-major-console-of-all-time/), game developers had a hard time with the complicated machine and the price tag was too high.
Sony obliterated the competition and took over domination of the console gaming market. Nintendo and Sega lost their market shares. But they would not go down fighting.

Part of the succes of the playstation was also the fact that it was very easy to make illegal copies of games. Before the playstation illegal copying games for consoles was almost impossible because of the use of cartridges.

Hail to the new King
Sega and Nintendo knew that they had to strike back to stay in the game (pun intended). The new (6th) generation consoles was their chance to take back what Sony took from them.
Unfortunately for them Sony was to release a console that would become the best selling console of all time, the Playstation 2.
Nintendo's new console the Game Cube was a clear indication that the company was changing its course. The Game Cube used discs (not CD's however) and was not as powerful as the competition. Nintendo's focus was on making good games and they did not seem too eager to battle it out with Sony.
Sega however tried to take Sony head-on with, in my opinion, the best, most innovative game console ever: the Sega Dreamcast.

I could explain why I think the Sega Dreamcast is the best console ever made but that would make this article far too long. Instead I am going to to do another piece dedicated to the Dreamcast

Sega's attempt to take back its crown from Sony failed. The Dreamcast failed for a number of reasons (mostly marketing and the immense success of the Playstation 2) and this would be the last Console Sega would produce.
Sony had other problems however because another powerhouse had taken an interest in the gaming console market. In 2001 Microsoft introduced the Xbox......

History repeats itself
Sony was now the market leader, the popularity of the Playstation unrivaled. The competition Sega and Nintendo were not able to fight back any more. Nintendo had admitted defeat and was content with their portable gaming success. Sega had backed out of the console game market entirely and had committed to only making games.
Microsoft however had other plans. They had the power, the will and means to take on Sony's dominance.
In 2005 Microsoft released the Xbox 360 one year before Sony would release their new console the Playstation 3. Apparently Sony had learned nothing from the mistakes made by Sega and Nintendo.
Maybe they were still high from their success of the Playstation 2, maybe they thought that their position was untouchable, in any case the damage was done.
Microsoft's market share grew because they were first to release a console (a very good console by the way) and because the PS3 launch turned out to be a disaster. Not only were they late to the party but the price tag of the PS3 was too high.
Another thing that Microsoft got right was Xbox live. At first people were put of by the fact that you had to pay for online access but in hindsight the service you got in return more than made up for it. Also critical to the success was the fact that online gaming on consoles was now really taking off. Games like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare had millions playing online and Microsoft had the best online service available.

The future is now
With the launch of the so called "next-gen" consoles Sony retaliated. It was Microsoft this time who was not paying attention. As Xbox 360 owner I was looking forward to the launch of the new Microsoft Console. I stayed up late for the presentation. Boy, was I dissapointed!

Watch this rant by Youtuber Angry Joe to fully appreciate my feelings at the time.

From this point on things kept getting worse for Microsoft. It was marketing disaster. Again the price tag was too high for the console. The console was bundled the kinetic camera (not sold seperately), games were linked to your account (so no lending out games or reselling), the kinetic camera was always on and you had to have constant internet connectivity.

Microsoft received a lot of backlash because of the way they presented their new console and new policies. And while they were doing damage control Sony swooped in for the kill.

The moment Sony won E3

Where do we go from here?
Well I don't know. Sony is top-dog at the moment and the PS4 is killing it. But when the next generation of console arrives we might be in for a surprise. One thing is certain and that is that nothing is certain.

History lessons
So what have we learned? Well for one thing that no company's position is untouchable. Every market leader can lose its market shares very quickly, whether it is Sega, Nintendo, Sony or Nokia. It is important to keep innovating and reinventing yourself to keep the competition and newcommers at bay. Marketing (Communication) and keeping in touch with you target audience is essential to your success.

My farourites
I want finish this post with my top 10 of favorite consoles of all time (Some I own and others I wish I owned). I have not included the current gen because they still have something to prove.