Video game crash of 1983

At the end of 1983, the industry experienced losses. This was the "crash" of the video game industry, as well as the bankruptcy of several companies that produced North American home computers and video game consoles from late 1983 to early 1984. It brought an end to what is considered to be the second generation of console video gaming. Causes of the crash include the production of poorly conceived games such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. It was discovered that more Pac-Man cartridges were manufactured than there were systems made. In addition, so many E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial cartridges were left.

After this the video game industry took off to the next generation hopping for the best but with large uncertainty.

Third generation (1985–1989)

The third generation started by most with the introduction in 1985, of the Nintendo’s release of its 8-bit console, the Famicom, known outside Asia as Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was bundled with Super Mario Bros. and instantly became a success. The NES dominated the North American and the Japanese market until the rise of the next generation of consoles in the early 1990s. Other markets were not as heavily dominated, allowing other consoles to find an audience like the Sega Master System in Europe, Australia and Brazil. After this the standard joystick was no more, people took over the gamepad as the standard controller for a video game console. Consequentially to the Nintendo Entertainment System release a lot of the most famous games franchises were released. These games were the heart of the third generation of video games. Games like, The Dragon Quest series, Final Fantasy series, the Legend of Zelda series and Metal Gear series.

Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

1990s

  If the 1980s were about the rise of the industry, the 1990s was all about its maturing into a mainstream form of entertainment. The 1990s saw the beginning of a larger consolidation of publishers, higher budget games, increased size of production teams and collaborations with both the music and motion picture industries.

Fourth generation (1989–1996)

In this generation was introduced the Super Nintendo or Super NES in 1991. Also, the TurboGrafx-16 debuted early on alongside the Genesis. In the World of computer the CD-ROM drives were first seen in this generation, as add-ons for the PC Engine in 1988 and the Mega Drive in 1991. Basic 3D graphics entered the mainstream with flat-shaded polygons enabled by additional processors in game cartridges like Virtua Racing and Star Fox.

Super Nintedo and TurboGrafx-16

Fifth generation (1994–1999)

This was the generation for the big boys. Sega released the Sega Saturn and Sony made its debut to the video gaming scene with the PlayStation. Sony's PlayStation would become the world's most successful console in the 32/64-bit era, with only the PlayStation 2 topping this accolade at the beginning of the 21st century. Also, after many delays, Nintendo released its 64-bit console, the Nintendo 64 in 1996. The flagship title, Super Mario 64, became a defining title for 3D platformer games. By the end of this period, Sony had become the leader in the video game market. The Saturn was successful in Japan but a failure in North America and Europe, leaving Sega outside of the main competition, while the N64 achieved huge success in North America and Europe even though it never surpassed PlayStation's sales. The N64 was also successful in Japan, even though it failed to repeat the tremendous success of NES and SNES there due to stiff competition by PlayStation.

Sega Saturn, PlayStation and Nintendo 64

Sixth generation (1998–2004)

The Dreamcast, introduced in 1998, opened the generation but failed to become a hit, and faded from the market before the subsequent consoles appeared, and Sega retreated to the third-party game market. Sony released the Playstation 2 (PS2), which would go on to become the top-selling game console to date. Nintendo followed a year later with the GameCube, their first disc-based console. In the world of computers the leader Microsoft decided to join the console world and released the Xbox.

Dreamcast, Playstation 2 , GameCube and xbox

Seventh generation (2004-present)

This is where we stand today. Microsoft releases the Xbox 360 in 2006 and it was the first Seventh generation console releases in the world doe to this it gave them a huge advantage in the competition. Later on the Nintendo released the Nintendo wii in 2007 a year later. the console's new control scheme, featuring motion-based control and infrared-based pointing was loved by most of the gamers. Sony followed in 2006 with the PlayStation 3 which is the most powerful of the three consoles but also the most expensive of the three.

Nintendo wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Well that is it. Most of the explained above is a summary of what has been the history of the video games in the world. But take in care that there will always be more to be explained and if you fell with the need to check out a more detailed history go to the helpful links section and select the history link.

Information obtain from: http://en.wikipedia.org

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