With Sony’s PlayStation3 and Nintendo’s Wii video game consoles going on sale in the US within two days of each other last week the video game market is set for a spurt of sales right in time for the year-end holiday period. The third player in a triumvirate of gaming systems vying for consumer attention this year is Microsoft’s Xbox360 which has already been in the market for almost a year. (The product has just launched its marketing campaign in India and has signed on Akshay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh as ambassadors.)As with every new generation of gaming consoles, experts consider the current crop to be seventh generation, this time too each product boasts of hip new technology and electronic wizardry that technology and gaming buffs will find difficult to resist.
The PS3, a vastly upgraded version of the smash hit PS2, was touted by Sony as the most powerful video gaming system ever launched. While the post-launch sentiments have not been entirely favourable the PS3 does boast of a list of features that looks impressive. The premium variant packs in a 60GB hard drive, a Blu-ray drive, HDMI inputs, Bluetooth, Wifi and multiple flash card readers. The basic variant is no push-over either but lacks Wifi, card readers and has a 20 GB drive. If that was not enough the PS3 has processor power that makes the most powerful desktop PCs look childish. And finally there is the shiny new ‘Sixaxis’ controller that works wirelessly, charges via USB and is, hold your breath, motion sensitive in all six degrees.
Comparatively the Wii, which comes at less than half of the PS3’s $600 price tag, is smaller, considerably less powerful but still has tempting goodies like a revolutionary motion sensitive ‘Nunchakku’ controller that has come in for rave reviews, Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Both consoles, and the Xbox, boast of internet support with online multiplayer gaming and even game downloading options. While reviews have been mixed, and understandably so for a whole new generation of gaming systems, the lines that stretched outside retailers for miles, and often for over 4 days before sales began, indicate that this is going to be an interesting time for video game buffs who have the pockets to try out all the fabulous hardware on offer.
Indeed with all the technology and unprecedented gaming power, the video gaming industry has come a long way from the jarring beep sounds and inert two dimensional graphics that was considered cutting edge just thirty years ago. It is a journey that literally began and owes tremendously to Atari’s infamous Pong game.
Thank God for Pong
The gaming system industry is one that has seen intermittent periods of crisis. And it faced its first crisis way back in May 1972 when Magnavox launched the first mass-market home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. While the console was well-received it was not a success. Right from the starting blocks the gaming console business was having trouble capturing consumer attention.
Thankfully in November of that year Atari launched the arcade version of its PONG game. A modified version of table-tennis, the game was a smash hit. That was just the impetus needed to kick start the industry. Soon manufacturers like Magnavox and Atari themselves brought out consoles that played PONG and similar games. The game was so popular that some systems exclusively played PONG and nothing else. Consumer lapped it up. The home video game console had arrived.
Generations
Those PONG machine were First Generation machines of course. They had no CPUs and ran games off digital circuits. Controllers were basic in nature with analog inputs. These types of consoles were popular till 1976-77 when they were replaced by the next generation of consoles that boasted CPU’s built into the system. The first such product was the Fairchild Channel F. In 1978 Magnavox launched their own series of second generation consoles called the Odyssey2. Even electronic majors like Philips got into the act with the Philips G7000 that was popular in Europe for the next few years.
But the product which stole the imagination of millions of consumers then, and many have fond memories of that to this day, was the Atari 2600. It was the first blockbuster console clocking up sales of some 25 million units by the time the console was retired 14 years later.
Second generation machines also heralded the arrival of third party game developers. With games no longer hard wired into consoles and systems like the 2600 running off interchangeable cartridges, users now had the first taste of consoles with large game libraries. The Atari was not without competition. Intellivision from Mattel and the Colecovision console from Coleco soon entered the market and found sizeable fan followings.
By now the market was slowly getting saturated with games and consoles. A slough of developers let loose an almost unending stream of mostly poorly developed games. EA and Activision are some of the few developers who went on to survive the crash that hit the industry in late 1983. The 2600 even had pornographic games developed for it that became cult favourites.
The Crash
The same console that heralded the second generation boom, the 2600, also played a key role in the crash that drove several companies bankrupt and marked the end of the second generation in consoles. Both the E.T. and PacMan games for the Atari console were huge disappointments and are considered to have begun the fall. Developers and console builders who had bet big on the booming market collapsed. Games were being sold in bins to clear stock. The media erupted when news emerged that Atari was burying thousands of E.T. cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico.
The fall was complete when inexpensive home computing systems like the Commodore64 quickly began to eat into the gaming market. Several things changed in the aftermath of the crash in 1984. Third party developers and console companies developed better ties. Several manufacturers like Mattel and Coleco exited the gaming industry completely. But the key impact was a shift in the base of power. The United States lost its edge to Japan. And it was from Japan that we would see a new generation of consoles and resurgence of fortunes.
Eastern Fortunes
On October 18, 1985 Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the U.S. following a stellar debut in Japan. Initial teething troubles during the Japanese launch included unreliability and programming errors. But Nintendo responded with a recall and a new motherboard and soon the Famicom, as it was called in Japan, began flying off the shelves. The third generation was born.
By the time console reached American shores it had already built up a fan following and a formidable array of games. One in particular set the American gaming scene on fire.
Super Mario Bros. ranks only below Tetris in its popularity. The game revolutionized design and gameplay and was instrumental in not just propelling sales of the NES but also in reviving the sagging gaming industry. Nintendo would keep the leaping Mario Brothers as a mainstay of all subsequent product launches in the years to come.
By the late 80’s and early 90’s the revival was complete. The NES was soon eclipsed by both Sega’s Mega Drive and Nintendo’s own Super NES, both fourth generation machines with 16-bit processors that pushed graphics to a whole new level for video gaming systems. These machines brought home users one step closer to an arcade-quality experience.
Arcade: Game Over
With growing sales of 16-bit game systems and the impending arrival of fourth generation 32-bit systems amusement arcades rapidly began losing consumer attention. While games like Street Fighter II and other one-on-one features prolonged the inevitable end, by the time the 80’s drew to a close amusement arcades had closed down or had moved to expensive video games with greater interactivity and advanced technology.
The period also saw the emergence of sophisticated handheld consoles spearheaded, once again, by Nintendo with the Game Boy. The mono-colour console was by no means the most advanced, Sega’s Game Gear and Atari’s Lynx were both more powerful and had colour screens. But the long battery life and popular games like Tetris has kept the Game Boy far ahead in the handheld market.
The stage was now set for fifth generation systems. The battle was bloody but it ended with a new entrant who would surprise everyone with a console that beat even the wizards at Nintendo.
PlayStation
Sony’s entry into the gaming scene occurred after what many Japanese considered a terrible betrayal. Nintendo had signed up Sony to develop CD technology for their gaming consoles which still worked on cartridges. But at the last moment, literally, Nintendo announced that they were instead ditching the Sony alliance to go with Philips.
Sony considered dropping they work they had done for Nintendo but then decided to see if they could develop it into a complete console themselves. The rest is gaming history.
On December 3, 1994 Sony unveiled the first PlayStation. After a production run of over 11 years, one of the longest in the console industry, the PlayStation was finally retired in March this year. The PlayStation saw Sony suddenly climb to the top of the gaming pile. The CD-based system suddenly made cartridge based systems then prevalent in the market look obsolete. The PlayStation had better sound, graphics and also facilitated much longer gameplay. The competition melted away. Sega’s Saturn was a failure and the Nintendo 64 was a worthy competitor but could only rack up one third of the PlayStation’s massive 100 million sales worldwide.
The 128-bit era
In five generations the entire gaming industry had been recast. The leaders of the first and second generations had been blown away by the Japanese giants. And in the end Nintendo itself had been upstaged by Sony. The sixth generation, or the 128-bit era, would see yet another formidable player jump into the fray.
The period between 2001 and 2005 saw Sony cement its position at the top with launch of the eponymous PSTwo. The console continues to be a worldwide success and successfully combined gaming with a versatile entertainment platform that could play DVD movies and audio CDs. The period also saw the US finally return to the global console wars through the Microsoft Xbox.
After much hype and rumour Microsoft finally launched the Xbox in November of 2001. It was the only completely American console available in the market and analysts predicted that the console would extends Microsoft domination of desktop PCs to gaming consoles as well. But these prediction were well off the mark. The PSTwo outsold the Xbox by a hundred million (and counting) to 24 million with the Microsoft product just squeaking past Nintendo’s own GameCube.
The fifth generation also saw a plethora of sophisticated handheld gaming devices from both Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo released both the GameBoy Advance and the DS while Sony brought out the PlayStation Personal. These handhelds had quality and technology never seen before on portable gaming devices. Some have even gone so far as to call the launch of the DS and PSP as the beginning of the seventh generation of gaming devices.
This generation also witnessed the development of two key trends. Online gaming quickly became popular with all major consoles supporting internet connectivity. The other was the development of several ‘video game franchises’ across platforms with cult fan followings. Titles like Max Payne, Hitman, Halo and the EA suite of sports games were developed and anticipated with all the attention usually associated with big studio Hollywood productions.
Titles like Grand Theft Auto also brought a new vein of controversy into the story. With never seen before capabilities consoles were beginning to depict life a little too well. Games were accused of being obscene, racist, and violent. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was briefly banned after a mini sex-game was discovered hidden away in the software. Even September 11 had an impact on games with many developers toning down sequences and scenes subsequent to the attacks.
May the battle resume!
Now, after almost five years to the day when the Xbox and GameCube were released in 2001, console gaming moved into the seventh generation with the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. Gaming buffs will have to much relish over the next few weeks as accessories, games and add-ons become available around the world. Already lines for the consoles are running into hundreds and thousands and the demand is expected to far outstrip supply.
Initial reviews indicate the battle between all three consoles to be keener than expected. The Wii may be underpowered but the competitive pricing and revolutionary controls have won it accolades. The PS3 has the sheer power going for it. The Xbox 360 is no pushover either having already clocked sales of over 6 million consoles. And then of course we need to see how the software fuels the demand for consoles.
It will be an interesting time for industry analysts. For the gaming buffs amongst us all we can do is reach into our pockets and shell out some dough for one of those cool babies.
But first you will have to get past me in the line!
Also by Hafta
- A walk in the clouds - February 26th, 2007
- Off the beaten path in Toledo - February 26th, 2007
- Lazy French Holiday - January 22nd, 2007
- Mumbai Votes - January 15th, 2007
- Full House Mumbai - December 4th, 2006