Video Games And The Video Game Industry

The very first ‘Video Game’ was invented by Edward U. Condon in 1940, At first it was a simple game called ‘Nim’. In nim players try to avoid picking up the last match. Thousands of people played it, although the computer won at least 90% of the games. Around ten years later in 1950, a new computer program was created by Claude Shannon for the game of chess. In autumn of 1972 the first gaming console was released by ‘Magnavox’ and they called it the Odyssey. Three years later, the next big gaming console arrived when Sears sold the first ‘Atari Pong.’ This was the beginning of a long partnership between Atari and Sears. This relationship lasted multiple years, and Sears sold several successful games. Multiple years later in 1985, Nintendo released the Nintendo Entertainment System. This new gaming console dominated the Gaming Industry and grew Nintendo’s Company. Nintendo created several gaming console legends, such as the Game Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advanced, Nintendo Gamecube, Gameboy Advanced SD, and Nintendo DS, all of which made a huge impact on everybody’s childhood from 1985 to 2005. In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century Playstation and Xbox also started releasing consoles. They are still to this day making successful Gaming Consoles, and individual games, as well as Xbox and Playstation.

The network effects in the video game industry are derived from the console system that is sold to consumers. If a company is able to increase penetration in this arena, though at-cost/ below-cost pricing or pull created through the development of desirable content, it can potentially lock in the added value of the video games sold for the system. Which is to say, the console locks-in the network effects in the industry and the games serve to reap the profits. The video games, however, may present something of a challenge in that they can be somewhat easily replicated by competitors. Nintendo used an encrypted chip system to reduce this possibility.

Video games are an ever-growing franchise that is constantly undergoing change. Ever since the dawn of video games, new consoles, games, developers, and teams have come together, fallen apart, triumphed, and failed. What is it that has allowed some to thrive where others failed? Several different factors have changed and influenced the world of gaming, including the history that is continuously being written, the people who have built the games behind the scenes, and, of course, the actual video games themselves. Numerous video games have been more successful than others, but identifying what components set the successful apart from the unsuccessful is something definitely worth observing.

So, I’m going to change things a bit. Instead of just talking about dates and numbers, which can be boring; I’m going to give this a little casual twist. So, in order to start the history let’s get a few facts out of the way. Let’s talk about gamers, mainly because I’ll be using the term a lot; gamers are people who spent a lot of time playing videogames. The Average gamer playing video games has spent twelve years playing them. Adult gamers have an average of fourteen years of playing videogames, guys have an average of sixteen years, and girls have an average twelve years. Speaking of girls did you know that 47% of gamers are girls? I would have never guessed that, but it’s a fact. So, as of 2013 49% of all people who live in The United States owns a console. All of them that own a console have at least two of them. Me, I own eleven… I think I may have a problem. Anyway, now that some of the facts are out of the way let’s start, THE HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES! Now before I start I want to talk about all the most important events in the history of videogames, as I call them eras. Each era is very important because they shaped the videogames we know and love today.

Video games have made a killing in the world of entertainment, it is a multibillion dollar industry.

With the video game industry making billions of dollars each year, we see article after article coming out on the news attacking them. They have been said to rot your brain, make you fat, and turn you into serial killer, incapable of feeling emotion or empathy for your fellow man.

This led to a market that was flooded with consoles and left many consumers confused. Adding to this confusion was the fact that there wasn’t many reliable sources for game information. The market was overwhelmed with lackluster and poorly made games and no one was being informed as to which games these were. So eventually people just stopped buying games. All of this mixed with Atari manufacturing too many console units and games led to a market crash many call “The Video Game Crash of ‘83” causing many to label video games as a dying fad.

Video games, like all things, can get out of hand when not done in regulation. I belive that the video games themselves

It goes down to how well we are influenced by these video games. Every day, people are constantly bombarded by advertisements and about 70% of us are taken away by how well the product or idea might seem like. That

Video games were originated first in laboratories by scientists. “This first idea came from their imaginations in late 1940s but unfortunately it did not reach the people as they were confined only to laboratories. This situation was observed till early 1970s until arcade games became popular.Then later on a new start-up named “Atari” unleashed a new

This video game was actually backed by the department of Energy, and used an oscilloscope (an electric testing device, commonly used to detect brainwaves or cardiac pulses) as the display. The 1960’s gave rise to one of the first widely acceptable titles, “Spacewar!” along with the invention of the light gun. However, when the 1970’s arrived, video games began to take off. In 1971 Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney created a coin operated version of “Spacewar!” Called “Computer Space.” These two men would later found Atari in 1972. The first game published by Atari was also the first video game to garner media attention, the insanely popular “PONG.” “PONG” was a major turning point in the industry, but it was the Taito Corporation that ushered in the “golden age of arcade games” with “Space Invaders” in 1978. The 1970’s also saw the rise of the first video game consoles, with the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972.

In today’s modern age technology has become a part of our day to day lives. Nowadays it seems like everything tries to be digitized and electronic. If you go to most cities and everyone there will have an electronic device on them. Some parts of the cities may also have places dedicated to just technology. Entertainment for kids was to either go outside or watch television, now kids will use phones, tablets, and computers to fill in that time. But there is one type of entertainment that has had controversy even when it raised to popularity. Video Games have been known to have ups and downs over the years. Why have video games been getting a bad rep over the years? Will video games ever get the positive recognition they deserve?

All these developments have created a new type of market. The video games industry has changed dramatically, from a teenage boy playing in front of the TV to a business man or woman playing on a smart phone, blackberry or tablet. Video games are socially accepted as an entertainment tool and has being viewed positively.

Herman et all (2002) points out that history of video games begins from 1971 year, when Nutting association released 1500 machines with Spacewar video game. At the beginning it was too difficult to control the game process and playing machines had huge dimensions. But by the time with new technologies they become more compact and easier to play. According to the information given by Herman et all (2002), the period between the years of 1978-1981 is called ‘golden age’ of video game industry. In this period the arcade games ‘Football’ and ‘Space Invaders’ were released. All previously known sale records were broken by these two games with nearly equal wages. In this time interval great breakthroughs in the field of graphics were achieved,

The video game console industry is a very competitive segment. This segment requires a keen eye on product development as well as strategic product marketing and a rather large logistics arm to ensure rapid distribution to targeted areas. Video game industry in the US, which is hugely driven by retail sales of software and hardware, registered revenues of USD ~ million in CY'2012. Even so with the advent of new video game players in the industry, the revenues decreased by 11.7% compared to