The history of video games

B Y:
CAPRIAN TUDOR-GEORGE
S I M I U C R O B E RT- A N D R E I
V I L C U R A Z VA N - VA L E R I U
History of Video Games in
the 1900’s
 The first video games

In 1952, British professor Sandy

Douglas created OXO, also known as
noughts and crosses or tic-tac-toe, as
part of his doctoral dissertation at the
University of Cambridge.
 In 1958, William Higinbotham, a
man perhaps known better for his role
in the creation of the atomic bomb,
created Tennis for Two on a large
analog computer and connected
oscilloscope screen.
Arcade Machines
Arcades we're the first major meeting point
in playing video games for the public.
The first arcade game was Computer Space
in 1971 and was designed by Nolan
Bushnell and Ted Danby.
Atari's first commercial success was their immensly
popular Pong!
 The earliest home consoles

Magnavox Odyssey
The first home console launched
in 1972 Atari 2600
Launched in 1977

Fairchild Channel F
First to introduce interchangeable game
cartridges
 Notable events in 1980’s
The release of the Space
Invaders arcade game in 1978

The launch of Activision, the first third-party game

developer (which develops software without making
consoles or arcade cabinets), in 1979.
 Nintendo’s creation of Donkey Kong, which
introduced the world to the character Mario.

The introduction to the United States

of Japan’s hugely popular Pac-Man.
 Nintendo and the NES
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) launched in 1985.
The NES had improved 8-bit graphics, colors, sound and gameplay over previous consoles.
Notable titles released on the NES: Super Mario Bros., Metroid, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man,
Castlevania and Final Fantasy.
 Sony Playstation
The Playstation was created out of an aborted attempt to launch a CD-ROM based
system with Nintendo and was released in 1994.
It uses a 32-bit system and is the first to use DVD technology
History of Video Games in
the 2000’s
 Important moments in gaming history
• Sega decided to not release game consoles anymore

• Microsoft entered the market with XBOX

• Video Games started appearing in other media such as: Movies and Music

• Mobile gaming appeared

Did you own a Console while
growing up?
Most recognisable consoles of the 2000’s

PS3 (2006) XBOX 360 (2005) Nintendo Dsi (2008)

Wii (2006) PSP (2004)

 Rhythm games fad
• Guitar Hero was released in 2005 and
popularized rhythm games
• Games such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band & DJ
Hero required a guitar shaped controller which
innovated the way a controller should act

• In 2011 all this craze was over and Activision closed its
Guitar Hero division
 Graphics improvment
The 1990’s transitioned from 2D games to 3D, but 2000’s polished the many flaws and by the end of the
decade Microsoft and Sony had already been realeasing high definition games

1990’s 3D Games 2000’s 3D Games

 Mobile Gaming
Has evolved a lot since the release of the first iphone in 2007 and the introduction of App Store.
Let’s play a game!

Rules:
• You will just have to raise your hand
• You can keep score in your head if you want, but
frankly it doesn’t matter
Which company had a better selling
game?
Which company had a better selling
game?
Which company had a better selling
game?
Which company had a better selling
game?
Which company had a better selling
game?
Which company had a better selling
game?
 Best-selling games of the decade
Number Title Publisher
1 Wii Sports Nintendo
2 Wii Fit Nintendo
3 Mario Kart Wii Nintendo
4 Wii Sports Resort Nintendo
5 New Super Mario Bros. Nintendo
6 New Super Mario Bros. Wii Nintendo
7 Wii Play Nintendo
8 GTA: San Andreas Rockstar North
9 GTA IV Rockstar North
10 Nintendogs Nintendo
History of Video Games in
the 2010’s
 Console wars
The war would continue in the 2010s as the first battle was fought over motion control.

Both Sony and Microsoft focused their marketing on why their new devices were better than the Wii .

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect

Sony’s PlayStation Move
remote Wii’s remote control

For time the question of who would win between the Kinect, the Move and the Wii was treated with the upmost importance as if only now we
were about to see the real battle that will determine gaming’s future.
Still while motion control might have dominated the news at that time something else was dominating the sales..
In 2009 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 broke sales records for biggest entertainment
launch in history across ALL media.
Call of Duty’s reign of terror would not last forever but at the start of the 2010s it certainly seemed
like it might.

Call of Duty was the biggest thing at that time with release after release easily managing to sell over 20M
copies and there was a new release every year.
 Still there were well received
games released in this period
and amongst them a new trend
was on the rise.

The open world genre

 After the record success of Grand Theft Auto on the PlayStation 2 it was no surprise that more games tried to copy its
approach on the open world design, but while the 2010s would see a large number of Grand Theft Auto clones few of them
managed to leave a lasting impact.
Things would change at the start of the new decade as developers started to look beyond Grand Theft Auto for open world
inspiration.
Red dead redemption – Rockstar 2010
Fallout: New Vegas – Obsidian Entertainment 2010
Batman Arkham city – Rocksteady Studios 2011
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Bethesda Game Studios 2011
Far Cry 3 – Ubisoft 2012
They all achieved critical and commercial success to help popularize the open world as a concept that would soon become
more used in mainstream game design.
 Minecraft
Minecraft challenged how people thought about video games. Begging at the hands of one single
person, Markus Notch Persson, it would go on to become the best selling game of all time

Released in 2011, Minecraft was bought by Microsoft

in 2014 for 2.5 billion dollars with the game receiving
updates to this day.

It also challenged the perceived importance of graphics in gaming as for years people viewed graphics as a larger
and larger priority, then Minecraft came along with blocky visuals and became the most successful game in
history proving that not only are high quality graphics not needed for a game to have success but also graphics
might hold gaming back.
 Losers and winners
After PlayStation’s 3 loss in the 7th generation, Sony
made a great comeback in the 8th with the PlayStation 4:
- powerful hardware
- strong lineup of exclusive titles
- strategic marketing

PlayStation 4
Games like God of War, The last of us Part 2, Days Gone,
Uncharted 4. Helped the PS4 to outsell its competitors as
Microsoft faced challenges with the initial release and
higher launch price of Xbox One. Xbox One
 Indie Explosion
2010 - saw the release of darkly atmospheric experiential puzzle game Limbo
2011 - would bring a new take on the rogue-like genre with the Binding of Isaac
Terraria also released that year with the expansive 2D sandbox game going on to sell
44M copies making it one of the best selling games of all time.
2012 - top down shooter Hotline Miami came in hard with a mix of ultra violence and
surrealism to provide a somewhat contrast and experience.
2013 - Papers Please put the players in the shoes of a immigration inspector at a border
checkpoint
2015 - Undertale a clever twist on rpg and created an enduring fandom alongside one of
greatest soundtracks
2016 - Stardew Valley became a sensation for its open ended and relaxing take on the
farming sim genre
2017 - Cuphead
2020 - Hades
 Online Evolution and Monetization
- Deviation from the traditional one time purchase and introduction of monthly subscriptions. When it came to further
monetization, this was just the beginning.
- One time purchase didn’t fit well with online games that were continually updated so change was inevitable.
One of the earliest and more significant example is Team fortress 2 which maintained a steady active playerbase after its
release in 2007 while receiving free updates adding content. In 2010 one such update allowed players to buy and sell in-
game items and the game revenue tripled.
In 2011 the game became free to play as revenue from in game transaction had come to far exceed people that were
purchasing the game, and after the free to play update the revenue went up again. The industry took notice of that.
 At the same time, League of Legends was also starting to draw in lots of players while making
big profits. Also free to play, they made money from cosmetic skins and purchasable champions.

At the time this business model was largely praised , with free to play
helping the players to grow and as the game being highly competitive in
nature it ensured strong replayability and the playerbase grew and grew
alongside games revenue.

League of Legends became one of the most played and

successful games of all time
 Battle Royale Genre
The decades most popular new genre would come from a mod. Brendan Greene also known as his online alias “Player
Unknown” who created DayZ : Battle Royale which itself was an offshoot of the DayZ mod for Arma2.
It turned out to be a hit and led to the creation of the Player unknown battlegrounds in march 2017 that soon turned into a
worldwide gaming phenomenon.
Seeing the success of PUBG, Epic games decided to create a battle royale mode for their upcoming game, Fortnite in
September 2017. The gaming industry was never the same again.
 eSports
The 2010s were also the decade where online games spread beyond games.
New online streaming services like Twitch and YouTube Gaming opened esports for a much wider audiences and with
more popularity would come greater prize money and bigger stages.
Starcraft, Counter-Strike, League of Legends and DOTA all helped push eSports into the mainstream.

Games like Fortnite and Valorant emerged as major esports titles, attracting professional players and
establishing competitive leagues.