The evolution of the Video Games Consoles-

• What is a console- 

A gaming console is basically a device that allows us to play graphical games over a screen. Traditionally gaming consoles allows specifically to play games ,but with the evolution, consoles have started providing innovative features with gaming, the industry has skyrocketed generating billions of dollars in revenue across years of sales. 

The biggest players in the industry are Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s XBox and Nintendo.

• Birth of Gaming-

The history related to Gaming can be seen as far back as the 1950s, when simple video games were developed for personal entertainment purposes only. This was the time when the gaming industry was kept inside a small building with people having no idea about “it’s potential in the coming future.

The first ever game, for most of us would be the great “PONG”, but unheard of the story of “Tennis for Two” , which was the brainchild of a Physicist, and made just to make a Science Conference a little interesting for it’s visitors to know that Science has a relevance with the population. 

William Higinbotham, the physicist behind the game, made the working game within a couple of weeks. He was the in-charge of Brookhaven National Laboratory’s instrumentation subsidiary, and headed the it’s exhibition and hence wanted to give it an interesting approach to it’s thousands of visitors. Therefore reaching the idea of developing a simple game to keep the visitors interacted with the science exposition.

This lead to the making of “Tennis for Two”, this game was extremely simple ,and as the name suggests based on Tennis. The game had to be played with two players, there were only two components, a knob and a button.Players could turn the knob to adjust the angle and press the button to hit the ball. The game was very  uncomplicated and the players could get out only if they failed to hit the button at the correct time.

The Original Tennis for Two Graphics

The Game- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PG2mdU_i8k

• Establishing of the Gaming Industry-

When it comes to gaming,everything is interesting, and so is the story behind the creation of the  first ever commercial game- PONG. In the early 1970s, the Atari Company gave their employee a task to create a game based on Table Tennis. Pong was planned to be a very simple game with only a joystick type of controller which would control the pads on which the ball would bounce. 

Allan Alcorn developed the “Pong”, and Atari Co. finally released it in the year 1972.Pong became a success. Though the Magnavox Odyssey sued them over copyright infringement. It didn’t stop Atari from making Pong bigger and better than ever before. Pong’s success led them to release Pong’s Home version. Which became even a bigger success. Pong hence became the first ever commercially successful game in history. 

The Original Pong Arcade Game

The commercial success of the Atari produced Video game, helped many others to try their hand in this industry which is now currently estimated to be worth more than $200 Billion.

• Development of Gaming Consoles- 

1. Brown Box

“The minute we played ping-pong, we knew we had a product. Before that we weren’t too sure.” This line was said by- Ralph Baer. The founder of the first ever Gaming Console or Gaming Box as said back in the day. The brown box could be made to be played with a number of different games by switching multiple switches. 

The Console which was named “Game Unit #7” as it was the seventh prototype developed by the team, was patented in the year 1967, and was called the Brown Box because of the looks of the box, which was made of Brown wood.

Game Unit#7 AKA The Brown Box

     2.     Magnavox Odyssey 

Magnavox Odyssey was the first ever commercial home based video console. With brown box gaining popularity through word of mouth publicity, the concept,design and the license was brought by Magnavox. Magnavox in the future realeased a series of Gaming Consoles. The Magnavox Odyssey didn’t have any sound for the games and only presented visual graphics on the screen.The box was made of three individual boxes, White, Black and a brown box,each having their particular task. This console had a total of 28 individual video games in it. This console earned more than $100 Million over the span of 25+ years, of which the major portion was earned through a number of lawsuits. 

Magnavox Odyssey

3.        Nintendo Game & Watch

In 1979, Gunpei Yokoi gained the idea of handheld gaming while seeing a commuter trying to pass his time on a portable calculator. He then decided to make a handheld gaming console which was named the “Game & Watch” . This series became Nintendo’s success and led the company to a global phenomenon. Later Nintendo released a number of gaming consoles named as “Nintendo Famicom”. In 1989, Yokoi agained made a new console with the portability of Game&Watch and cartridge interchangeability so that players have multiple choices of games

Super Nintendo or Super NES was Famicom’s successor with higher hardware capabilities was released in 1993. This lead Nintendo to even a bigger success, in 1995 Nintendo had sold more than a billion cartridges with Mario Bros been the most successful franchise.

The Nintendo Game & Watch (Left)  and The Nintendo Famicom (Right)

4. Sony PlayStation

Sony first released the Original PlayStation in 1994. Sony Interactive Entertainment completely changed the face of console gaming industry with its launch. 

Though this soon to be a legendary gadget, was once a failure. The console which later became the most sold gadget in the history of gaming ever was originally a joint project between Sony and Nintendo. This console had a CD-Rom with an already existing Nintendo Famicom, but Nintendo decided to cancel its partnership as both the companies were on an argument over revenue distribution and later in time went on to partner with Philips with the same technology. This led Sony to make their very console “THE PLAYSTATION”.

PlayStation released 3 more generations of their consoles, PlayStation2 which is the most sold individual console in the history- with more than 155 Million units sold, PlayStation3 and the PlayStation4 which sold a million units within its first 24 hours of launch,creating a world record in the gaming industry. Sony PlayStation 5 which is supposed to be launched in the coming years, will allegedly be offering 8K graphic support, Ray tracing which is the latest enhancement in the industry. 

PlayStation(1994)

5. Microsoft XBox 

After two Japanese Tech giants already into the marketing, and succeeding with their humongous sales numbers. An american company,which at that time was the most valuable company finally entered the Billion Dollar industry of Gaming Consoles. This american company was obviously Bill Gates lead Microsoft. 

The Xbox which was the 5-th generation gaming console was launched in the american market in 2001,the main rival of the console at the time were Sony PS2. The PlayStation 2 being the most sold ever console,XBox could not really beat it, but Microsoft trusted their console and launched its successor the XBox 360. Sony had their numbers with them, but Microsoft had the advantage of being Microsoft, the coverage of their PC Software, Windows. Hence, they started giving PC access in their gaming console,which became their USP.

The 2001 XBox Console

XBox 360 had several hardware enhancements,with the main being Kinect Motion Sensor which allowed gamers to use motion to control their movements in some games. This lead to a huge sale with making XBox 360 the most sold American console,and also got in the list of top-10 most sold gaming consoles.

The XBox 360

Gaming Consoles have become a household device in the last decade.With this industry gaining even higher popularity, the market now not only features gaming but serves the fundamental principle of entertainment,by providing the consoles the power of multiple features.With the market getting more competitive with PC gaming,the consoles have started getting more interactive and cost-efficient day by day. The current market worth is estimated to be around $40 billions and is calculated to reach $55 billions in the upcoming 5 years.

GamerzByte India is an eSports Entertainment Co., dealing in managing and organizing electronic gaming events, contests and/or tournaments across India. They are based in Mumbai, India and are expanding their network progressively PAN India.  through our channel partner. At GamerzByte, eSports or Competitive Gaming Tournaments are played across platforms such as PC, Console, Mobile and VR. They currently have 2 verticals – Offline Tournaments & an Online eSports Events Portal. Offline Tournaments are held across India covering 4 cities so far with an expansion plan of covering all major tier-1 cities by next year. Their Online eSports Events Portal is built with an idea of bringing the tournaments experience online & with a vision to reach out to every gamer in India. With a passion and a commitment to the best gaming experience, GamerzByte India strives to create a professional community for gamers.

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This post is written by Karan Gaggar. Gamer and a traveler at heart, and I love to spend my time trying in contributing what all I can do for these communities. I have been gaming since I can remember, also into the field of freelance photography and cinematography. Cheers guys.