HISTORY OF CONSOLES

1st Generation to 7th Generation

PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTERS

• It has been 35 years since the first publically available game console. In that time, the battle for the market has been intense. Technology is always changing and so are the audiences.

• You must think of the production and distribution of games in three sections:

PAST / PRESENT / FUTURE

• ATARI• NINTENDO• SEGA• SONY• MICROSOFT

These are the main producers of game consoles.

PRODUCERS AND DISTRIBUTERS

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1958 – William Higinbotham & Robert Dvorak develop the first one player interactive game - Tennis For Two - in a laboratory using technology adapted for analysing missiles.

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1975 – Atari produce a game for the HOME MARKET - Pong - before this only arcade games were available. This started a lucrative business of coverting arcade games throughout the 70’s and 80’s.

TIMELINE FACTS

• Atari continue their success, Warner buy them for $28 in 1976.

• They release the ‘Atari 2600’ 25 million units are sold generating profit of $5bn.

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1982 – This ruined everything for Atari, E.T sparked the crash in the American video game market.

Watch the Game

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1982 – The Sinclair ZX is launched in the UK by eccentric British inventor Clive Sinclair, creating another round of PLATFORM WARS (key word!)

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1983 – Suddenly, Japan enter the race with the NINTENDO (the console was called a Famicom but we know it as the NES)

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1989 – The HANDHELD market is born with the NINTENDO Gameboy….and…

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1989 – SEGA launches the Mega Drive it become the best selling console on the market. (And yes, I got one for my 8th birthday)

TIMELINE FACTS

• 1995 – The Sony Playstation is launched outperforming SEGA.

TIMELINE FACTS

• 2001 – Sega announces it’s withdrawal from the market and Microsoft enter with the launch of the Xbox.

TIMELINE FACTS

2005 (Christmas time)• Nintendo launch the Wii• Microsoft launch the Xbox 360• The launch of the PS3 is delayed

TIMELINE FACTS

• 2007• After a series of

delays Sony release the PS3 which is; at present, the most successful games console on the market.

In a nutshell…

• So what were the most important advances in game consoles over the last thirty years?

• Graphics• Handheld technology• Game cartridges to compact disks (CDs)• Multiplayer capabilities

TASK 1.1

• Complete research into the uses and pleasures older audiences experienced from playing older consoles and work out how similar and/or different the experiences are to 6th 7th generation consoles (such as PS3 & Xbox).

• This will help develop your understanding of the videogame industry from the audiences perspective.

What to do:

• You may work in pairs-• Talk to older brothers and sisters / cousins what

consoles did they own? What were their favorite games? What did they dislike about their console?

• Repeat this exercise with an older relative.• Next consider your own experience. How much

or little has actually changed over the 30years since the launch of the Atari?

RESEARCH• How you show your research is up to you but

you may wish to colour code different age groups, use graphs and charts or even present your findings using video recordings of friends and family that you interview.

Created by Miss Savage for Poole High School