The Entire History of Video Games

video games have come a long way from Once being seen as a temporary fad to just toys for children or immoral corrupters of a youth today the gaming industry easily surpasses the film and music Industries combined and it's still growing still as tempting as it might be to draw comparisons to more established Industries the reality is that video games have proved to be something unique no other industry has been so closely tied to technological progress no industry has ever grown so far so fast and no other industry has experienced so much change in such a short time with multi-billion dollar companies rising and falling in the space for a few years and the entire gaming landscape being radically changed more than once by a couple guys working out of a garage and all this in something that's only been around about 50 years video games have come a long way and their evolution has been remarkable today though more and more people seem to be viewing the industry with pessimism and despite continued growth its future doesn't look quite as bright as it once did with companies and consumers alike increasingly seeming to be looking to the Past so let's talk about the past all of it from the very first game right up to where we are today and every major event in between this is the entire history of video games and it begins with something that would end up as a bit of a staple for the industry War [Music] World War II was kind of a big deal in addition to deciding the fates of a global population and shaping the modern world as we know it it also saw rapid technological advancement that would pave the way for something equally important video games after building the first ever digital computers for the purpose of numerical processing and code breaking as part of the war effort this technology was subsequently commercialized and found its way to several universities and where computers Go video games soon follow of course they weren't exactly designed as video games so much as demonstrations to show what computers could do or just experiments to further the field of computer science the first to be shown to the public was Bertie the brain in 1950 who played tic-tac-toe poor Bertie was apparently quite good although every photo seems to show him losing and he was dismantled two weeks after the exhibition as tended to be the case with these early computers the first game to be created as entertainment was 1958's tennis for two aside on simulation of a game of tennis that ran on an analog computer and was created by William Higginbotham a man perhaps better known for his role in the creation of the atomic bomb meanwhile in 1962 space War a two-player 1v1 space battle simulation created at MIT became the first game to see wider distribution as its source code was shared between students and institutions as the 60s continued more games were created for the Mainframe and mini computers of the era but their popularity was quite limited by the fact that the computers needed to run these games cost thousands and thousands of dollars something affordable for a university but less so for the average family things would change in the 1970s however as video games started to appear alongside pinball machines and other mechanical games in arcades the first arcade video game was computer space in 1971 which took heavy inspiration from the earlier space war and was designed by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Danby computer space saw limited success but its craters still believed in the potential of the medium so they founded their own company Atari at the same time as this new breakthroughs were happening elsewhere as in 1972 the first ever Home console was released by electronics company Magnavox it was called The Odyssey and its development started six years earlier with the version finally released being the seventh successive prototype the main challenge the team faced was affordability the technology for a Home console existed it was just a question of how to keep the price low enough that anyone would be willing to manufacture or buy it but eventually the team led by Ralph bear found a way and so video games at long last came to the American family home this was an important Milestone although the Odyssey didn't exactly see The Runaway success of later consoles still it's simple two-player table tennis game did provide the inspiration for atari's first game the remarkably similar looking future phenomenon pong released in arcades in late 1972 pong was a game that changed gaming proving immensely popular in arcades and at 25 cent a game also immensely profitable at the end of 72 we did three and a half million dollars and then we did 19 million and then we did 35 million it was a hockey stick in fact pong was so popular but the first machine installed quickly stopped working Atari were called out to get it going again and found the problem was that the cash box had overflowed from the vast amount of quarters leading the machine to become jammed and so arcade exploded in popularity as pong proved Gaming's potential video games had arrived and at the birth of this exciting new medium where the possibilities are endless how did everyone react you might wonder well obviously they copied the one thing everyone knew already worked Atari made sequels and successes as well as their own dedicated home pong console and other companies made their own versions alongside their own sequels and successors and dedicated home systems pong was everywhere as profit led to proliferation and before long video games were in Decline by the mid-1970s arcade growth slowed and then shrunk as the market became saturated with Pond clones and brand new companies that had once rushed to cash in on this big new thing started going under Atari themselves fared better although they had their own Troubles by way of a lawsuits that came from Magnavox over the Striking similarities between pong and their table tennis game Atari settled but they weren't the only ones being sued and magnavox's winnings ended up totaling over 100 million dollars and so arcades were struggling but thanks to technological advancements over the 70s a new prize was up for grabs and the competition would be intense arcades might have been where video games got their start but home consoles offered an even greater opportunity and people were quick to realize it in 1975 the year atari's home pong released there were seven other companies releasing home video game consoles of Their Own by 1977 there were at least 82 other companies with 160 different models being released in that year alone the consoles from this era were dedicated systems meaning they could only play one or more built-in games that came included a lot of these were simply pong clones with Atari even taking measures to make the cloning process more difficult to hinder their Rivals we actually became quite diabolical about seeing ways that we could just mess them up we put a chip in and we purposefully mismarked it so that when somebody copied us they put the wrong chip in this they didn't stop the market from becoming saturated however but this time a solution would come through Innovation and once more it would be Atari who led the way okay [Applause] the Atari video computer system is 20 cartridges with 1300 game variations you play on your own TV set [Music] Atari video computer system later called the Atari 2600 released in 1977. one year after the Fairchild channel f became the first ever console to feature interchangeable cartridges Bushnell saw the advantages cartridges provided and rushed to produce a cartridge-based system of his own but earlier problems with lawsuits increasing competition and decline in arcade sales meant atari's funds were getting low and so they made a deal with Warner Communications to sell Atari for 28 million dollars the consequences of this deal would be seen most clearly in the following years but for now it meant Atari had the money to finish their new console to beat out their main rival Magnavox who would release their own cartridge-based system The Odyssey 2 in 1978. the Atari 2600 would be huge with lifetime sales of over 30 million units a number that dwarfs any other console of the era still this success came slowly and in late 1977 the entire gaming industry experienced its first but by no means last crash the combination of a saturated Market full of dedicated systems alongside new cartridge-based systems that proved far more desirable meant heaps of dedicated systems suddenly stopped selling leading retailers with a surplus of stock they couldn't shift and causing game developers to cancel most dedicated systems that were currently in development the resulting downturn hit the gaming industry hard leading economists and media figures to speculate whether the entire gaming industry had simply been a short-lived craze that was now coming to the end of its life cycle amidst this pessimism the Atari 2600 with its relatively high price point of 200 which is almost 1 000 after adjusting for inflation was seen as a tough sell and retailers and consumers alike were hesitant to embrace it meaning Atari was only able to sell a fraction of the systems they manufactured in its first few years further competition would also come from other cartridge-based systems including the intellivision from Mattel and the coleco vision from felico but Atari would soon find the killer app they needed that would not only get themselves back in business but would also get the entire gaming industry back on track [Music] Space Invaders was created by Japanese developer tomohiro nishikado at taito in 1978 and it is easily one of the most important and influential games ever made before Space Invaders different regions like America Europe and Japan had little crossover between them but Space Invaders quickly moved Beyond Regional borders to become the first truly Global gaming Mega hit and that was by no means its only achievement its gameplay may look relatively simple today but in the 70s it was anything but as a fixed shooter where the player takes on rows of gradually descending aliens while hiding behind fully distractible bunkers it was the first game to have enemies that shoot back at the player it helped Pioneer the move away from timers over to lives based systems it was the first game to feature a high score system giving it to potentially infinite replayability and it was the first game to feature continuous background music the background track itself was Dynamic and increased in Tempo in time with the enemy's increased movement speed as rounds progressed giving the action a real sense of tension as the difficulty ramped up this iconic part of the game wasn't actually intentional during its development nishikado found that the arcade's processor struggled to handle so many enemies on screen at once and yet as the player took out more and more of them the render speed increased causing the aliens to move faster and faster this created a difficulty curve where the challenge Rose and fell within each level to create moments of higher and lower intensity a principle still seen in game design to this day Space Invaders also featured some semblance of a story aliens were invading from space and you had to stop them okay it's not much but compared to the more abstract pong or breakout it made the action feel much more contextually meaningful and marked the beginning of arcade games paying more attention to these kinds of aspects and if all that wasn't enough there was also the game's sales by 1982 Space Invaders had grossed 3.8 billion dollars which is over 13 billion after inflation meaning it was the then best-selling video game and highest grossing entertainment product of all time for the industry this meant video games were back and soon it wasn't just Space Invaders 1978 marked the beginning of what has since been named the Golden Age of the arcade 1979 saw the release of asteroids from Atari which continued the space Battle Theme this time in an asteroid field with more complex physics-based movement while also using cutting-edge vector graphics that utilized lines instead of pixels to provide a crisp display unlike anything that could be produced on a home TV screen the trend of popular arcade games where you shoot things continued in 1980 with atari's 3D first person tank Sim Battle Zone as well as their track all controlled Missile Command which took inspiration from the still ongoing Cold War to task players with defending cities from intercontinental ballistic missiles 1981 gave the world Defender from Williams Electronics which pioneered the side-scrolling Shoot Em Up genre and Gallagher from Namco a fixed shooter which featured complex enemy patterns and power-ups both features that would define the genre moving forward Shooters weren't the only thing coming out of arcades though in 1980 namco's Pac-Man gave the world its fast gaming mascot Pac-Man while establishing the maze Chase genre and being the first game to feature power-ups as iconic as he would go on to become however Pac-Man's path to success wasn't a simple one the game initially struggled to beat namco's 1979 space shooter galaxian in Japan while in America publisher Midway was hesitant to manufacture many units as they were unsure how it would perform the reason for this was that it didn't involve any shooting and so Executives feared it would be less popular with arcades mostly male player base this was something developer toru iwatani had also considered as he'd deliberately tried to create a game that would appeal to women as well as men and offer something different to war or Sports hence the colorful design cute characters and emphasis on eating rather than killing it wasani figured that girls like eating things more than killing them and it seems he was onto something because in the end players couldn't get enough of Pac-Man's addictive pellet eating action within a year it had become the best-selling arcade game in both Japan and America outgrossing even the 1977 film star wars in Revenue Pac-Man was one of the first but by no means last times a video game found record success through broader appeal and targeting new audiences its use of vibrant color and its focus on a central titular character would also go on to become video game Staples and would soon be seen in other popular arcade titles like konami's 1981 Road and River Crossing hit Frogger by 1982 color and 3D technology were being combined in even more impressive ways like in namco's visually striking racing simulator Pole Position and the arcade golden age was in full swing with profits from games reaching New Heights and taito Atari and Namco establishing themselves as the three biggest developers around arcades were more than just a place to play games however through features like high scores multiplayer and the ability to watch and compete in front of other people arcades provided a social aspect to gaming that went beyond just playing much like how twitch allows people to watch discuss and compete in various games today arcades were the live streaming and Esports of the 20th century and they offered better gaming experiences than you could get in your home with higher quality graphics better sound and unique immersive elements like wheels and pedals in racing game cabinets okay it would also have a significant impact on future game design their quarter-hungry monetization method has sometimes led to criticism over their High difficulty with older console games also sometimes coming under Fire for inheriting that high difficulty but popular arcade titles knew that if difficulty was the only thing they had to offer players wouldn't have any reason to keep coming back and so they learned how to make skill based challenges fun and make players want to improve and keep playing still as important as arcades were Space Invaders Legacy goes beyond just kicking off the Golden Age of arcades and breaking sales records because it also turned things around for the home video game market and Atari in 1980 Space Invaders came to the 2600 allowing people to play the arcade classic from the comfort of their home this was the first arcade to Home console port and it wouldn't be the last [Music] Shield his world games from Atari the number one video computer system with more games than any other everyone's gone [Music] Space Invaders for the 2600 became the first ever killer app or system seller in video game history and it certainly sold systems with atari's consumer sales almost doubling to 200 million dollars in the year it released before skyrocketing to over 800 million in 1981 with Atari taking 65 percent of the global market share and so the great console Battle Royale that had defined so much of the 70s was over and Atari was The Runaway winner a victory that proved to be surprisingly short-lived [Music] in 1982 Atari was the fastest growing company in American history yet by the end of 1983 they were one of the fastest falling with yearly losses of over 500 million dollars amidst the slide in parent company Warner's stock of almost 70 percent in 1984 Atari was sold with Warner receiving no cash for the sale and never again would Atari be a leader in the video game industry so what happened well there is an obvious answer but that only tells part of the story to really understand we need to rewind a bit and look at where Atari came from when Nolan Bushnell and teddambi decided to start a video game company together they both pitched in 250 of their own money to get the company off the ground by 1982 Atari had 10 000 employees and were bringing in 1.7 billion dollars in operating profits and this all happened in the space of around 10 years Atari had a colorful history and some important people once worked there including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who left after a few years to start their own company by the name of Apple as well as a young programmer by the name of Bill Gates who was fired for not doing enough work Atari also had a bit of a reputation for their relaxed office culture you know flexible hours informal dress code the usual sort of thing since we had a lot of young people we would constantly offer to throw a party if they hit quota and it turns out when you've got 18 19 20 year olds they're much more interested in the party than an extra you know 50 cents an hour so we got known as a party company there's a story that if you walked by the Borrego Street Building and you breathe deeply by the air vents you'd get stoned because of the pot smoking inside of it was so heavy this made them a popular place to work but it didn't last the gaming industry was at The Cutting Edge of technology which meant to compete and to win funding was necessary hence the move to become a subsidiary of Warner in 1976 which brought in a 120 million dollar cash injection and made the 2600s 1977 release possible Warner Communications were a big business however meaning they took a keen interest in how their new subsidiary was being run to this end Warner brought in an experienced business exec Ray kasar in 1978 to help with marketing and commercialization but as the influence of Warner grew so too did the conflict with then CEO Nolan Bushnell particularly over Bushnell's desire to continue to invest in research and development for new technologically Superior consoles this ultimately led to Bushnell's departure in late 1978. he would go on to found American restaurant chain Chuck E cheese and Atari went on to Soaring New Heights now with a more professional worker culture under the oversight of kasar conflict wouldn't end here however Atari was succeeding but they were also changing and not everyone was happy with their new Direction in 1979 four experienced Atari programmers David crane Larry Kaplan Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead resigned over atari's policy to not credit or provide royalties to the actual game developers these Engineers would create a software program that would result in 20 30 million dollars in sales and they were making this little paltry salary and they figured gee I'd like to get a penny or two or three per each cartridge so we go to the president of Atari and point that out and he said to us and I'll quote he said you are no more important to that game than the person on the assembly line who puts it together so they figured if they weren't going to get credit for their work why do that work for someone else which led them to form their own company Activision the first ever third-party developer who made sure to emphasize the role of game creators on their products Atari responded like the true corporate Powerhouse they were at this time and sued Activision but they weren't successful at preventing them from producing games for Atari consoles and instead a deal was agreed where the third party company would pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to the console owner a system that's existed ever since Activision were only the start of atari's problems though other senior developers would also jump ship but it was in early 1982 that marked the beginning of the end when Atari tried to repeat the earlier magic of their Space Invaders and asteroids arcade ports with Pac-Man for the 2600s the problem was Pac-Man was no Space Invaders or asteroids released originally in 1980 it ran on 1980s arcade technology with vibrant color smooth animations and high quality sound all things for now dated 2600 struggled with the result is a port that will forever live in infamy as one of the worst of all time a Pac-Man in name and not much else still atari's disappointments that year were only just getting started November saw the release of the 5200 atari's Next Generation home system which kicked off the 16-bit era unfortunately despite being early to the market there wasn't much else the 5200 had going for it its initial price point of 270 dollars was high it didn't originally come with backwards compatibility there were few new titles released for it and the controller was widely criticized and while its graphics and Hardware were a step up from the 2600 and other 8-bit systems the upgrade they provided was small and poorly shown by the few titles the 5200 had available which tended to just be ports of 2600 games is reported to have left Atari over disagreements with the direction of future console technology and the commercial failure of the Atari 5200 seemed to vindicate his stance finally the top atari's year off it was ET which released just in time for the holiday season [Applause] only from Atari made especially for systems from Atari the video game that lets you help E.T get home just in time for Christmas happy holidays from Atari ET has regularly been called the worst video game of all time this may be rather harsh but history is rarely known for its kindness still most of all time or not ET is certainly symbolic and it's a perfect example of a hubris that brought atari's downfall Atari had acquired a license at high cost for an ET game following the success of the movie but they wanted the game released in time for Christmas to take advantage of increased holiday sales this meant a development time of only a few months and so they brought in experienced developer Howard Scott warshaw who had just completed the ambitious and critically acclaimed yar's Revenge more sure embraced the short development time as a unique Challenge and tried to do the miraculous he failed and the result is a confusing Adventure game that had little connection to the original movie Beyond its strangely shaped protagonist this didn't phase Atari however who skipped audience testing to save time and produced an optimistic 5 million copies for retailers only a fraction of which ended up selling E.T was a bad game but in this way it wasn't unique in fact after the success of Activision more and more developers entered the third party space this was before game developers needed a license to publish games on consoles which created a free-for-all where quality was a much smaller concern than profit and where accusations of industrial Espionage and reverse engineering became rampant due to third-party developers lack of familiarity with the hardware of the system they were designing games for by the start of 1983 at least 100 different companies were developing games for the 2600 in a rush to cash in on the now booming Video Game Craze in the process quality control was often ignored and in this period consumers had few ways to differentiate between good and bad games before it was already too late as the market continued to become increasingly saturated with low quality games retailers were forced to Discount stock to try to get rid of these games encouraging consumers to continue purchasing the now discounted Bad Games leading to a loss of consumer confidence which even video game Titan Atari wasn't exempt from in fact Atari likely deserve more of the blame than anyone Pac-Man for the 2600 was a bad game but it was also the best-selling video game of all time and even then Atari still produced far more copies than they ultimately sold and so with a saturated Market little quality control rapidly depleting consumer confidence and even more emerging competition from the home computer Market the gaming industry did the inevitable and sunk spectacularly in the great gaming crash of 1983. change sales have gone tilt the man e-arc aren't selling what will to understand the scale of This Disaster it helps to look at the numbers in 1983 home video game revenues peaked at 3.2 billion dollars by 1985 this number had fallen to 100 million a decrease of almost 97 percent once quarterly earnings started to reveal the degree to which games had stopped selling investors started panicking cashing out their gaming stock and effectively ending the supply of new money that had previously supported the once growing Market as a result many newer gaming companies went bankrupt Mattel Calico and Magnavox all discontinued their gaming lines entirely and Atari was sold for almost nothing with hundreds of thousands of unsold games being famously dumped and buried in a landfill in New Mexico arcades still saw some popularity but they once more entered into a period of decline with the golden age having now come to an abrupt end and so video games were officially over being once more seen as nothing but a short-lived fad not so different from other popular toy lines that burn bright and then burn out once consumers get bored of them and this is how they would continue to be seen in America for the next two years until a new name entered the scene foreign while the American gaming industry crashed and burned in 1983 across the Pacific in Gaming's second largest market the year would be remembered for a different reason the release of the Nintendo family computer also known as the famicom it wasn't until 1985 but Nintendo would bring their new console across the Pacific and rescue the American gaming industry but for Nintendo the story starts much earlier founded in 1889 Nintendo began Life as a playing card manufacturer before diversifying into tabletop games and eventually electronic toys the first foray in two video games came from making lightcon accessories but in 1977 they went a step further with the release of the color TV game a Japanese only dedicated Home console inspired by the success of Magnavox and Atari which contained pong in six different variants in Nintendo's defense at least they paid Magnavox for a license unlike most the color TV game sold well thanks in part to its modest price and Nintendo went on to produce several more variants all for their home markets of Japan they also entered the arcade space with a game based on the board game Othello it was during this period that a fresh-faced 25 year old by the name of Shigeru Miyamoto joined the company but Miyamoto would not be Nintendo's first gaming Superstar that honor belongs to one gunpei yokoi head of Nintendo's research and development One Division and creator of the iconic handheld game and watch apparently inspired by yokoi watching a board businessman playing with an LCD calculator on a train The Game and Watch was an early dedicated handheld with an LCD display and fixed animations it also pioneered the d-pad inexpensive and long running the game and watches sales blew most early handheld competition out of the water selling more units than even atari's 2600 over the course of its lifetime but Nintendo was only just getting started after several less successful arcade attempts the company's next big break came with 1981's Donkey Kong designed by Miyamoto with the oversight of yokoi it was originally developed as a way to reuse old cabinets of miyamoto's previous and rather less successful radar scope Donkey Kong took inspiration from Popeye and featured the titular ape as the game's Barrel throwing antagonist alongside the player controlled Jumpman who would go on to become one of the most recognizable characters in the world after he was renamed to Mario Donkey Kong was one of the earliest Platformers and the first game to feature jumping it also broke new ground in narrative design featuring a complete storyline told entirely on screen with Donkey Kong kidnapping Mario's girlfriend who the player then Works to rescue before finally watching the 2B reunited it was also a massive hit establishing Nintendo's name internationally and creating a bit in war between console Rivals Atari and Kaliko over the rights to publish it Nintendo would follow Donkey Kong with multiple sequels but it was their return to home consoles that would change the gaming industry forever at first glance the famicom didn't look that remarkable it was an 8-bit system in a time when Atari had already given the world 16 bits of power and home computers were quickly becoming more powerful still yet the famicom did have a dedicated picture Processing Unit in addition to its CPU as well as a reasonable launch price of just under 15 000 yen its greatest assets would eventually be its game selection but an impressive Library took time and the famicom's first year on the Japanese Market saw it get off to a slow start it would pick up momentum eventually however and the great gaming crash of 1983 didn't have nearly as large an impact on Japan as it did America meaning by the end of 1984 Nintendo's family computer had become the best-selling console in Japan and was well on its way to becoming Nintendo's greatest success yet this still left Nintendo's toughest challenge though America which in 1985 was still reeling from the earlier crash with confidence in video games at an all-time low to get retailers to even stock their console Nintendo had to make buyback deals in case of poor sales but that still left the even bigger problem of selling the console in the first place I mean how do you sell a gaming console to a country that doesn't want anything to do with video games well Nintendo's answer was to pretend that it was something different [Music] to witness the birth of the in the entertainment system [Applause] will you be the first to see to touch to play with Rob the extraordinary video robot he follows the commands you put on screen to help you tackle even the toughest challenge will you be the first to raise the incredibly accurate zapper and play games like Duck Hunt and Hogan's alley the first to build a library of game packs like Kung Fu and golf even games like excitebike that you program yourself will you be the first to get all this in one package the Nintendo Entertainment System where video technology is more than a game enter the Nintendo Entertainment System not just a video game console but something brand new and it wasn't just about the name the NES was designed to look like a video cassette recorder rather than a console its cartridges were rebranded as game packs and it shipped with several accessories like the robotic operating buddy Rob and the iconic light gun which marketing made sure to emphasize as much as possible Nintendo's work didn't stop here though as they had an entire gaming Market to rebuild and so the number one priority became restoring consumer trust in video games to do this they strictly controlled third-party development putting limitations on companies to avoid the oversaturation that had plagued Atari in Japan this led to a growing bootleg market so with the NES Nintendo added a special lockout chip to combat this while creating an official Nintendo seal of approval to allow buyers to identify Nintendo license products and as for those products Nintendo also paved the way for their console launch with arcade releases of the same games through the Nintendo versus system in 1984 which was built on similar Hardware to the famicom this not only helped spread Nintendo's name before the release of the NES but also established the trend of console titles matching the quality of their arcade counterparts to try to repair the damage of games like Pac-Man for the 2600s Nintendo even shifted to using in-game-like box art in place of the detailed yet dissimilar artwork of so many earlier games all this had an impact but Nintendo had one final Ace up their sleeve which came once more from the mind of Shigeru Miyamoto and would Mark the arrival of Gaming's next killer app released in the same year as the NES Super Mario Bros set a new standard for years players had grown accustomed to games taking place on a single screen and then in came Mario with side-scrolling platforming action across multiple screens multiple levels multiple environments and all with different power-ups boss fights and jaw-dropping hidden secrets to top it all off Super Mario featured precise controls that took full advantage of Nintendo's new d-pad controllers alongside detailed vibrant visuals and one of the most iconic soundtracks in video game history from composer Koji kondo Mario even had a strong sense of identity by this point in time a lot of games had featured space Combat Sports simulations and fighting but Mario offered something genuinely unique you played as a shape-changing mushroom eating Turtle stomping Italian plumber who warped Between Worlds while searching for a princess and somehow the concept worked with a childlike charm that appealed to all ages and so Super Mario Bros was a landmark title that kicked off the greatest selling video game franchise of all time but it's not like the NES only had Mario in fact only a year and a half later the Nintendo Entertainment System would see the arrival of another gaming Legend once more from the mind of Miyamoto [Music] The Legend of Zelda did to action adventure games what Super Mario Bros did to Platformers with a massive fantasy world fully open to players and packed with Secrets Zelda offered a sense of adventure and freedom to explore never before seen in a console game it was also the first console game to feature a save system thanks to battery-powered memory built into the game's cartridge which helped support its more ambitious design and once more The Legend of Zelda was a huge critical and Commercial Success [Music] as time went on the nes's impressive Library grew and grew launching many of Gaming's most loved series and establishing many of the rules of game design that would continue to be seen for years to come Castlevania brought action-packed Gothic horror Metroid brought atmospheric sci-fi Mega Man offered alternative high quality platforming Action Metal Gear helped popularize the stealth genre and Dragon Quest and for later Final Fantasy established the Japanese console role-playing genre the NES was also well supported by high quality arcade ports like ghosts and goblins Contra and Double Dragon as well as a range of Nintendo original sports games providing even more diversity basically the NES had everything and it conquered the American and later European console markets getting the gaming industry back in business in the process this didn't happen overnight and the Damage Done to the American Market really was significant but by 1989 the console markets had finally bounced back close to earlier levels with consumer confidence largely restored over his lifetime the NES and famicom sold around 62 million units which was more than double the Atari 2600 making the NES the best-selling console of the time and still one of the best selling to this day and with Nintendo's console Supremacy and so many American companies having exited the market following the earlier crash Japan was able to take center stage of a gaming industry with Nintendo's name becoming synonymous with video games still even if Nintendo had taken a sizeable lead they wouldn't remain unchallenged for long as another Japanese company was about to make their attempt at beating Nintendo at their own game Sega was a big name in arcades they entered the Japanese Home console Market at the same time as Nintendo when the arcade golden age was starting to wind down at first console the sg-1000 released in 1983 on the very same day as Nintendo's famicom but it would struggle to compete with Nintendo's Superior system likely as a result of sega's inexperience with console development in 1985 it was redesigned as the Sega Mark III which released in North America in 1986 as the Sega Master System [Music] twice as much memory as any other video game Advanced video technology like scrolling backgrounds Graphics in 64 colors did light phasers and you can add to the excitement with sports pads control sticks and the first video games ever in 3D Sega is the one the Sega Master System the challenge will always be there the Master System went head-to-head with the NES while copying much of its marketing strategy in terms of Hardware it had a clear Advantage with a wider color palette and a small Edge in raw power but this wouldn't be enough to make up for its biggest weakness its lack of third-party support to publish games on the NES licensees had to agree to a strict two-year non-compete Clause that didn't allow them to bring their titles to Nintendo's competition this left the Master System with a much smaller library and while Sega were able to bring their own first party arcade titles including the fast-paced rail shooter space Harrier and iconic racing game outrun two of the best arcade titles of the mid-80s this ultimately didn't prove to be enough and even these games were still inferior on Console than as arcade Originals this ensured that Sega failed to come close to matching Nintendo in Japan or North America although they did do enough to overtake a flagging Atari who Under New Management had released their own third generation console the 7800 a system notable for its innovative backwards compatibility and little else still by this point gaming was Global and so Sega turned their attention to other markets in Europe the NES had failed to achieve the same level of success as in America with Nintendo taking a more hands-off approach and leaving the distribution to other companies it also arrived notably late with most countries not seeing the NES until 1987. this was the same year Sega brought over the Master System and with no more Head Start and sega's strong reputation as an arcade developer Sega started to beat Nintendo for the very first time by 1990 the Master System was Europe's best-selling console and Sega didn't stop at Europe in fact a deal with toy and electronics company tech toy saw Brazil become the master system's single best-selling country after its release in 1989 by contrast the NES didn't come to Brazil until 1993 giving Sega a unique chance to capture a by no means insignificant Market Sega wouldn't be the only new Challenger amidst the now once more growing gaming industry however you were about to witness the future and video game entertainment the turbo Graphics 16 entertainment super system [Music] 16-bit power arcade quality graphics and an unbeatable selection of titles what's available now and sneak previews of what's coming [Music] Hudson soft and nec's turbo Graphics 16 released in 1987 in Japan under the name PC engine and in 1989 in America and Europe the console was so eager to let consumers know that it was a 16-bit rather than 8-bit system but it's included it in the name kicking off what is sometimes referred to as the bit Wars as well as the fourth generation of Home consoles as the first truly next-gen system the turbo Graphics did boast some impressive Hardware with a higher resolution and expanded color palette to go alongside its 16-bit GPU this was matched with some impressive sales in its home region of Japan with the system getting off to a flying start and beating out the NES in its year of release unfortunately this strong performance wasn't replicated in other regions with poor marketing and a delayed release leading to commercial failure in North America and canceled plans in Europe still for Sega this new competition represented a clear threat and so in response they immediately began working on their own 16-bit system it was finished one year later long before Nintendo would have a 16-bit system themselves and it turned out to be sega's best console yet [Music] video game system games great graphics real challenge stereo sound and the hottest Library 2 with games like Altered Beast golden ax super hang on forgotten World space Harrier 2 revenge of Shinobi communist sort of baseball Buxton last battle Arnold Palmer tournament golf super thunderblade soon Thunder Force 2 fools and ghosts Mystic Defender level 3 and more Genesis from sneaker Genesis the new generation in video games the Sega Genesis otherwise known as the Mega Drive outside America released in 1988 in Japan 1989 in America and 1990 in other regions and with it Sega now had a system powerful enough to do justice to their expansive arcade Library as well as a clear technological lead on their main rival Nintendo they even had a new marketing slogan 16 bit Sports Action [Music] Montana free pet rally free Buster Douglas free super Monaco GP free or Collins free and so heading into the next decade the console war was finally heating up with one of Gaming's greatest rivalries about to unfold the only thing Sega still needed was a killer app of their own that could finally go head to head with Nintendo's popular mascot Mario but for Nintendo there was no reason to panic just yet as the end of the 80s saw them release a new system of their own one that will go on to outsell all of their previous systems combined [Music] Nintendo's Game and Watch was a success but its LCD technology limited it to one game put system to compare your koi's next console he wanted to create a handheld device with interchangeable games that offered an nes-like experience on the go this was the result they said it wasn't humanly possible all the power and excitement of Nintendo right in the palm of your hand introducing Game Boy it's portable it's in Stereo and its games are interchangeable Game Boy comes complete with batteries and the outrageous new game Tetris and for head-to-head competition use video link and blow your opponent away Game Boy only from Nintendo now you're playing with power portable power the Game Boy released in 1989 and was around in various iterations for the next 20 years during which Nintendo dominated the handheld Market the entire time it did require four double a batteries but this was a price players were more than happy to pay it also lacked a backlight which was more of an issue a contrast dial was included but this still meant the system was unplayable without a light source and even in a well-lit environment the gray and green color scheme didn't provide the best Clarity or general aesthetic to make matters worse the Game Boy released against heavy competition with three other handhelds also vying for dominance at the same time Ataris links sega's Game Gear and nec's turbo Express all three of these Rivals blew the Game Boy away in technical capabilities featuring not only a backlit screen but also full color and far more impressive graphics by comparison the dropped Grays and greens of the Game Boy must have seemed rather pathetic a sentiment held by many even at Nintendo during its development where the game boy had earned the nickname Dame game a pun which basically translates to bad game in the end though the Game Boy wound up punching far above its weight and easily surpassed all competition proving that in the constantly advancing battleground of Cutting Edge technology that is the gaming industry sometimes having the best specs isn't what matters the most you see in return for a less technologically advanced product Nintendo offered something at a more affordable price with a much longer battery life and a durable More child-proof Design if success was down to critics the Game Boy would have come last in reality however success is decided by the consumer which in this case often meant parents and it turned out that in this example practicality and affordability beat Superior technology and it wasn't even close for gumpe yokoi this must have been the ultimate Vindication of his design philosophy which has been translated as lateral thinking with whippered technology I.E achieving Success Through finding new and innovative ways to use cheap or mature technology in an industry obsessed with The Cutting Edge this has been successfully employed by Nintendo time and time again and despite yokoi's unfortunate death in 1997 his philosophy can still be seen within the company to this day of course this is only part of the game boy's success story because it also had another advantage over the competition designed inside the Soviet Union by Alexei pachinov in 1984. Tetris began life as more of a benchmark than an actual video game in a Time long before anyone could ask can it play crisis computer engineer patinov had to settle for developing his own games as a way to test the capabilities of the latest Hardware the idea for Tetris came from trying to recreate the puzzle game pentominos when patinov had the idea to make the pieces descend vertically the lack of a graphical interface on the Electronica 60 patchinoff was working on did pose a slight problem but it wasn't enough to stop tetris's core idea from being enjoyable and soon patchinoff was sharing his Creation with his friends and eventually making an IBM PC version with the help of a talented 16 year old school student from here Tetra spread like a contagious virus first infecting pachinov's office then the whole Academy of Science before moving across Moscow and then beyond doing what few Soviet citizens of the time could do and crossing the Iron Curtain this kicked off a race from multiple eager parties to acquire the rights of the game for broader distribution in the West the only problem with the situation was that the Soviet Union didn't really believe in copyright law outside of everything should be controlled by the state leading to confusion over who owned the rights of the game and a complicated battle between different competing parties with plenty of buying and selling of rights that sellers didn't actually own the ultimate winner was game designer Hank Rogers who acquired the rights for Nintendo the original plan for the Game Boy was to sell it alongside the new Mario title Super Mario Land but Nintendo was so impressed by Tetris after Rogers showed it to them that they followed his advice to use it instead in the hopes that its simple addictive nature could transcend experience age and gender barriers to be a game that everyone could enjoy and it was at first glance Tetris might seem similar to popular arcade games of 10 years earlier but with no concerns about maximizing quarters Tetris considerably lowered the initial difficulty and this did result in a game that anyone could play as it eased people into the experience while naturally building tension and excitement as the game progressed Tetris required fast moment-to-moment reactions as well as broader more strategic planning and when players made a mistake it was obvious where they went wrong and what they could do better next time for the pick up and play Game Boy it was a perfect match and it went on to sell tens of millions of copies on Nintendo's new system alone as well as many millions more across PC NES and later mobile versions making it potentially the best selling game ever made even to this day this helped the Game Boy get off to a strong start from right from its launch which meant as the 80s grew to a close Nintendo retained their dominant position as leaders of the gaming industry having far surpassed Atari and held off a new challenge presented by Sega all this time however as console and arcade Giants froze and fell another section of the industry experienced its own story one with a different starting Place different games and a very different impact on the future [Music] World War II was kind of a big deal in addition to deciding the fates of a global population and shaping the modern world as we know it it also saw rapid technological advancement that would pave the way for something equally important the home computer originally computer game development was limited to only the most enthusiastic hobbyists they started in the early 70s with one of the first and most well-known examples being 1971's Star Trek a text-based strategy game where players took control of the USS Enterprise to hunt down Klingon warships other early examples include Oregon Trail a text-based strategy game best known by its later incarnations 1976's Colossal Cave Adventure a text-based adventure game inspired by real life caving and Dungeons and Dragons 1977's Empire a turn-based war game inspired by the board game Risk Zork also in 1977 and also a tech space adventure game inspired by Colossal Cave adventure and mud or multi-user dungeon a text-based real-time multiplayer role-playing game that helped Pioneer the MMO genre in 1978. of these six examples all accept Colossal Cave Adventure were created by students in fact Star Trek was created by a high school student who had started hanging around the University of California Irving's computer lab in his free time so for computer games it was teenagers who led the way maybe due to the younger generation's inherent creativity but also because computers were so expensive that University students were some of the only people who had reliable access to them this started to change in 1977 with the arrival of not one but three more affordable home computers the Commodore pet the TRS-80 and the Apple II if you want to know what affordable means in numerical form well the most successful of these the Apple II cost 1298 at release which is over six thousand four hundred dollars after inflation so maybe not affordable for most but it was a start these early computers tended to ship with some games included but they also came with something else basic a general purpose programming language that gave computer owners not just the ability to play games but also to make them themselves and they did the best known example of this is Sierra online founded by husband and wife Duo Ken and Roberta Williams after playing Colossal Cave adventure and deciding to make their own similar game on a family member's borrowed Apple II the result was the first ever graphical Adventure game Mystery House a murder mystery focused game inspired by Agatha Christie novels and one of the earliest examples of both Graphics in a PC game and Horror in any video game Sierra online went on to have numerous hits including king's quest Leisure Suit Larry and quest for Glory another example is a calabath the first ever computer role-playing game made by a teenage Richard Garriott in 1979 originally on his school's Mainframe PC and finished on an Apple II bought by his father garriot sold the game at his local computer store in a Ziploc bag with a cover sheet drawn by his mum until a copy of the game made it to California Pacific computer company who signed the deal with Garriott to take over publication and sold 30 000 copies the founders of code Masters the darling Brothers have a similar story where they became wealthy and established game developers by The Ripe old age of 16 and 17. selling games by mail order from their bedroom arcade and console gaming became corporate almost as soon as it came into existence but by contrast the computer gaming industry was heavily Grassroots with hobbyists bedroom coders and literal children often leading the way laying the foundations for the entire industry and proving just what these new home computers were capable of this did mean the PC scene was much slower to monetize their efforts with piracy known at the time as sharing being such common practice that many people weren't even aware it could be considered wrong and what started as sharing between friends quickly evolved into selling bootleg copies for a fraction of the original price the differences between computer and console gaming doesn't stop here though from the higher age of the average player to the higher price of the systems to the vastly different control schemes to Regional differences with PC gaming particularly flourishing in Europe the same region where consoles caught on the slowest PC gaming basically grew up independently to the rest of the gaming industry and nowhere is this more evident than in actual game design arcade games started off simple they were highly replayable and fiendishly challenging in large part due to their monetization and they tended to focus on skill based gameplay experiences that came alongside arcade specific features like high scores and lives console games then grew out of this foundation with Atari and Sega owing much of their console success to their arcade ports and the NES Library being packed with games which emulated many aspects of popular arcade titles of the era PC games however were quick to embrace complexity text Adventures like Zork gave players a staggering amount of freedom in their text inputs while mods did similar while adding in other human players as well 1980s genre Pioneer Rogue offered a huge randomly generated world for players to progress through groundbreaking RPGs like 1981's Wizardry or Ultima provided deep dungeon crawling Overworld spanning adventures with plenty of Statistics classes and items in many of these titles gameplay seemed to take a back seat to trying to simulate a rich virtual world for players to become immersed in many of these games were still highly challenging but less emphasis was placed on constant fail States and replayability with difficulty instead often coming from depth and low Fidelity visuals be they text ASCII or spreadsheet were often embraced as a way to provide greater freedom and maybe as a way for programmers to avoid learning to draw or hiring artists in time many of these differentiators would become less clear as the borders between PC and console would gradually erode with Japanese role-playing games being an obvious example of cross-pollination but this process occurred slowly and many of these same differences between computer games and their console cousins are still evident today still as the 80s evolved so too did the home computer with systems becoming more affordable amidst Rising competition it seems everybody is interested now in home computers well so far home computers are just a fraction a small fraction of those being sold in the United States but because our technology is growing by Leaps and Bounds computers can help us with a lot of household items for grown-ups as well as for the kids the next generation of computers would include the ZX Series from Sinclair nec's PC series the Atari 8-bit family the BBC micro and the amstrad CPC the best-selling of these was the Commodore 64 which released just under 600 and holds the world record as the highest selling single computer model of all time at the same time as this Computing heavyweight IBM launched their now iconic personal computer series popularizing the term PC these came with Microsoft's dos operating system and supported open software development for the first time before this all home computers were incompatible systems meaning all programs had to be ported to specific systems to meet the individual Hardware requirements of each one the IBM PC and its many subsequent clones instead allowed software to be ported much more easily which ultimately greatly benefited game development Hardware wasn't the only thing improving in this period though by the mid-80s PC games were also making impressive strides 1984's King Quest from Sierra showed the evolution of the graphic adventure genre with an animated protagonist and interactive world space Sim Elite broke new ground by adding Advanced 3D graphics and action gameplay into an incredibly deep and open space sandbox Ultima 4 in 1985 set a new standard for role-playing games by moving them beyond their established Dungeon Crawler formula with a more expansive World a richer more nuanced story and a new moral choice driven approach to game design 1987's dungeon master on the other hand evolved The Dungeon Crawler into the realm of 3D with added real-time combat elements the 80s also saw the merging of entertainment and education in several fondly remembered edutainment games the 1985 version of the Oregon Trail taught children history as well as the dangers of dysentery typhoid and rivers while the also released in 1985 where in the World is Carmen San Diego taught geography and the dangers of art theft of course the Oregon Trail was also an enjoyable strategy game with genuine emergent storytelling and roguelike random generation years before Rogue even existed and where in the World is Carmen San Diego was a very well made Adventure game with strong replayability in some ways the educational elements of such games were light but that didn't stop them showing up in thousands of schools tricking children into learning or tricking teachers into letting children play games during school depending on your perspective ultimately edutainment computer games were a trend which didn't really catch on but they still serve as a valuable reminder of a time when gaming was in its infancy and developers were exploring novel applications of this new exciting medium by the end of the 80s the era of bedroom coders was coming to a close with husbands and wife Duos and pioneering teenagers soon being replaced or going on to found legitimate development teams with professional work environments one such company Electronic Arts would see a major breakthrough with their 1988 John Madden football a game which would not only kick off one of the industry's largest Sports series but also showed the more mainstream Direction PC games were now heading in 1988 also saw the release of Hall of Radiance the first in a long line of gold box Dungeons and Dragons RPGs where after years of video games taking inspiration from DND they were now finally starting to make that relationship official with home computers continuing to become more affordable PC gaming ended the decades in a promising place its early years should perhaps best be remembered as a time of innovation and enthusiasm the computer gaming Market started small popularity was created through word of mouth and sharing between friends creators enjoyed unprecedented levels of creative freedom and monetization was often a distant after fort yet many of the games produced from this era were just as impressive as their console and arcade Rivals albeit often in very different ways regardless the impact of these games on the industry was considerable and gaming wasn't the only thing they impacted in a time where the personal computer was a brand new invention computer games also played a significant role in showcasing just what this new piece of technology could do and in popularizing the idea that a computer could be more than just a machine for work and so even if the history of computer games stand somewhat separate to the rest of the industry it still played a vital role and its importance would only grow as the years went by [Music] Gaming's early years were tumultuous with lawsuits bankruptcy and corporate takeovers coming alongside Innovations and breakthroughs all while technology progressed at Breakneck speeds leaving both software and Hardware behind after only a few years within this chaos the video game industry Rose fell Rose fell and then finally rose again and each time there was a connection to the quality of the games first with the novelty of Pawn before the industry got smothered in an abundance of punk loans then with the golden age of the arcade and atari's move to bring that golden age to consoles before a massive low quality cheaply produced games once more sunk Atari and much of the industry with them and then finally with Nintendo bringing new life to the industry with their higher standard of quality and groundbreaking Flagship series the evolution of the gaming industry wasn't exactly smooth but by the end of the 80s Video Games had come a long way in 1972 there was Pawn in 1989 Prince of Persia on the Apple II used rotoscoping technology to produce smooth true to life animations shadow of the beast on the Amiga combined detailed Sprite work with Parallax scrolling to create stunning backgrounds final fights on arcades up the level of detail and the amount of things on screen at once to seriously impressive levels and even on consoles the new generation of 16-bit systems was starting to really show what those 16 bits could do with games like golden ax providing much better visuals than was seen in the last generation and it wasn't just graphics on the NES developers experience with designing games and their familiarity with the system was also showing dividends take the opening of the famously difficult action platformer Ninja Gaiden [Music] thank you sound visuals and cinematic style are all combined masterfully here to create some really compelling storytelling that draws players in and contextualizes what you actually do in game and it does all this in less than a minute meanwhile on PC games like the city Builder SimCity or God game populace will once more treading new ground and creating new genres that challenged how people thought about video games still if you really want to see how far games have come no single title Illustrated it better than the latest entry in Nintendo's most iconic series widely considered one of the greatest games ever made and as close to perfect as a sequel can be Super Mario Bros 3 is the Pinnacle of the NES library and it still holds up all these years later where some NES sequels went in both new directions not always with the best results the third game in the Super Mario series instead takes everything which worked about the first title and does it bigger and better from the new Overworld to multiple new power ups new enemies larger levels enhanced visuals and expanded move sets multiplayer and a much longer run time it was a game which did quite a bit to impress but what shined brightest of all was its creative level design every world had its own theme every stage felt distinct and new things were introduced constantly with the player never quite sure what to expect next somehow in just three years since the first game the team behind Super Mario Bros 3 worked out how to make the perfect 2D Mario game and then they did it games had come a long way but in the grand scheme of things they were just getting started and the next decade would bring even more progress more change and more drama [Music] by the start of the 90s the gaming industry was well and truly established with the launch of the Game Boy Nintendo had cemented their status as the market leader but the Aging Nintendo Entertainment System was now facing tough competition from sega's next to generation Genesis setting the stage for one of Gaming's most legendary rivalries meanwhile the increasing affordability of the personal computer was making PC games a more serious part of the industry while gaming itself was moving ever towards the mainstream with bigger budgets bigger names and bigger controversies overall though the 90s was a time of Rapid technological progress at the dawn of a decade the 8-Bit NES a third generation console was the best selling on the market yet by the decades close consoles were entering their sixth generation with 128 bits of computing power inside much more advanced systems Graphics would transition from 2D Sprites and pixel based to the brave new three-dimensional world of polygons cartridges were replaced by the much higher capacity CD-ROM multiple new genres of games emerged including the most popular of all time massive franchises were established including the most successful of all time and game design experienced its own Evolution as developers raced to keep up with the continually Changing Times before all this however the decade began with action and while the fighting between consoles might be what's most remembered about the 90s arcades also had some important fighting of their own to do first arcade growth came to a stop following the crash of 1983 but arcades still made up a large part of the market afterwards and they still continue to offer the definitive video game experience by way of graphics and immersion for those who had the quarters to play by the start of the 16-bit era however their technological Edge was narrowing and even arcade heavyweight Sega had started to move away from marketing itself as the company that brought the arcade experience home due to their perception of arcades losing relevance within the industry most people probably expected the 90s to be the decade where arcade games quietly disappeared and maybe that would have happened if not for the arrival of one game that changed everything [Music] Street Fighter 2 wasn't technically the first fighting game but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was reaching arcades in 1991 it represented a massive Evolution from capcom's 1987 predecessor and brought many of the Staples people have come to expect from the genre including combo mechanics precise joystick controls and a focus on face-to-face player burst player action before Street Fighter 2 competitive video games were about high scores and so the competition was indirect but Street Fighter 2 allowed players to go head to head making competition more active exciting and genuine this was a major step for gaming and paved the way for the concept of deathmatches as well as more serious competitive tournaments and games as a form of Esports four arcades though fighting games were simply a match made in heaven and they instantly brought new life to the scene the social nature of arcades was a perfect fit for a genre that was about being best and winning in style and the popularity of Street Fighter was explosive causing a significant Resurgence in arcades before soon going on to be one of the highest selling console games of the Next Generation and leaving an immediate impact on pop culture Street Fighter 2 was soon met with competition itself first from snk's Fatal Fury in late 91 then from midways infamously violent Mortal Kombat in 92 before arcade once more cemented themselves as the leaders of video game technology with The Cutting Edge 3D of virtual fighter from Sega in 93 and namco's Tekken in 94 with a whole host of other smaller names springing up along the way for a Time fighting games were the hottest genre in gaming and they made a lot of money in the process with electronic gaming monthly reporting that in Japan fighting games accounted for 80 percent of all gaming sales in 1996. other important advancements in arcades came from the move to 3D technology which preceded the jump to 3D seen in the next generation of consoles and was in large part the result of a rivalry between Sega and Namco this can be seen in Virtual fights are on Tekken as well as a number of notable racing and light gun games including virtual racing Daytona USA Virtua cop and House of dead from Sega and Ridge Racer Point Blank and Time Crisis from Namco konami's highly original rhythm-based Dance Dance Revolution in 1998 also proved highly influential still while arcades might have seen a Renaissance in the early and mid 90s this was ultimately only enough to delay the inevitable and as the decades grew to a close amidst a surging console Market Arcade once more entered into a period of decline as the era of the arcade gradually came to an end today arcades mostly exist as a nostalgic relic of the past but their importance on gaming history was enormous for years arcades were the largest and most technologically advanced section of the industry and in addition to producing many of Gaming's greatest titles they also left an enduring impact on gaming culture still while arcades might have kicked off the decades action it would be consoles that would take the fighting to a whole other level Sega shot first in addition to beating Nintendo out the gates in entering the fourth generation Sega was also responsible for making things personal by deliberately targeting Nintendo in their marketing [Music] conventional wisdom might suggest that naming and by extension giving publicity to your main competitor in your own marketing isn't the best strategy yet conventional wisdom isn't always correct Genesis does may be the most famous gaming commercial of all time and it exemplified the spirit of the fourth generation taking shots at Nintendo wasn't the only part of Sega of America's Grand strategy however they also sought to create a strong library of unique games which would appeal to Western audiences and help make the Genesis stand out early examples of this can be seen with Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and several celebrity indoor sports games like Joe Montana football or Pat Riley basketball that you still didn't provide Sega with a true system seller they needed though and to make matters worse their head start only lasted so long as in November of 1990 Nintendo's much anticipated 16-bit system finally launched in Japan alongside the latest entry of one of Gaming's now most iconic series Super Mario World in a head-to-head comparison there wasn't a lot to differentiate the two competing pieces of hardware the Genesis did have an advantage in pure CPU power but the Super Nintendo posted more RAM better sound quality more on-screen colors and more detailed Sprites the systems were also similarly priced meaning it was games that would be the ultimate deciding factor and it was here that Sega was about to make their most important player yet Mario had launched Nintendo into the Home console market and was seen as Central to Nintendo's success so Sega decided they needed their own Mario work on the character design started all the way back in 1988 and went through multiple revisions with Sega Japan and Sega America working together and often disagreeing over the direction Central to the design was the decision to emphasize speed and to appeal to Western audiences with designer naoto Oshima even going to New York to ask locals in Central Park their opinion on the design which ultimately led to a blue Hedgehog by the name of Sonic the emphasis on speed carried over to game design with the team wanting Sonic's default speed to be equal to Mario's running speed and for his running speed to be a great deal faster this led to many animation and frame rate problems but the team stuck with the idea not wanting to compromise their desire for players to go fast levels were then designed to be large and non-linear to take advantage of the main character's enhanced movement while also once again being seen as a straight upgrade to the levels seen in Mario finally vibrant colors and a laid-back soundtrack were used to give the game a strong sense of identity and in summer 1991 the project was complete with Sonic the Hedgehog releasing worldwide about two months before the North American release of the Super Nintendo and so at long last Sega had their killer app gotta go hey guy you're the first serious gamer I've seen all morning check this out brand new branding bits super this one oh this is a Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega Genesis huh wow Sonic's fast too no no we kid rap game will take Sonic and Genesis Sonic was an immediate success and with it the Genesis outsold the Super Nintendo two to one in the 1991 Us holiday season with Sega taking a 65 share of the 16-bit market meanwhile in Europe Sega performed even better as for Super Nintendo wouldn't see an EU release until mid 1992. this was one of the major differences between Nintendo and Sega at the time as while Sega were pioneering the idea of a global release for systems and software Nintendo were by contrast much slower at bringing their products to other markets in the end this paid off for Sega and allowed them to take a clear lead over their rival for the very first time and this wasn't the only Advantage Sega thou had their greatest weakness in the last generation third-party support would no longer be a problem after Sega entered the market early and offered Publishers much more favorable license in terms than Nintendo they also worked hard to stay on top of Hardware developments releasing the Sega CD or Mega CD in 1992 as an add-on for the Genesis the Sega CD wasn't cheap and its sales numbers were relatively modest but it did offer a more high-end product to those who wanted it and the new CD technology provided much greater storage capacity allowing for more detailed audio and entirely new types of games like Bose focused on full motion video lastly Sega also didn't slow down with their aggressive marketing the Sega Genesis has blast processing Super Nintendo doesn't so what's blast processing do [Music] and uh what if you don't have blast processing it is debatable with a blast processing is even real but one thing everyone can agree on is that the Super Nintendo doesn't have it I mean sure technically the Super Nintendo was the more advanced system but technically the Genesis did have faster processing so Sega made sure that's what they focused on and it worked still even if Nintendo didn't have blast processing there was something they did have which some might even say is more important games the Legends of Zelda are linked to the Past released in America in 1992 and did for Zelda what Super Mario Bros 3 did for Mario as a near perfect Sequel and one of the best games of the 16-bit era A Link to the Past expanded the Overworld expanded Link's moveset expanded the dungeon design and then added an entire parallel Dark World for the player to travel between that was similar and yet completely different to the world they knew the result was a landmark action adventure game that set a standard for 2D Zelda still not surpassed to this day and Nintendo didn't stop there sequels were expected but Nintendo had new ideas too and they still had one of the best people around for the job Shigeru Miyamoto worked on several of the super Nintendo's early first party titles including the new futuristic racing game f-zero and the technologically groundbreaking rail shooter Star Fox the first Nintendo game to feature polygonal Graphics through the use of an additional Graphics chip included in the game's cartridge released in early 93 Star Fox went on to become one of the console's best-selling games although it was still surpassed by another new Nintendo franchise 1992's Super Mario Kart which brought Mario and friends into the world of cart racing kicking off their own sub-genre in the process still Nintendo weren't the only one making good games Sega may have courted many third-party Publishers but some of the most important stayed loyal to Nintendo and brought a number of impressive sequels with them Square released Final Fantasy 4 known then as two outside Japan Enix released Dragon Quest V which sold millions of copies even as a japan-only title Konami released Super Castlevania 4 allowing players to once more take the fight to Dracula but most important of all was Capcom who were at the time holding the rights to the hottest game in the world Street Fighter 2 and while this game would eventually find its way to both systems it still came to the Super NES first giving Nintendo a head start of more than a year on what would go on to be the best-selling third party title of the generation and with Street Fighter Nintendo had the edge they needed holiday season 1992 and this time Nintendo was selling more systems allowing them to climb back into first place in 93. Sega weren't done yet though and the battle was about to get even Messier wasting their time after the success of their new best-selling game of all time Sega released the sequel to Sonic in late 92 featuring even faster gameplay alongside reoccurring series sidekick tails but it was their more adult titles that would truly Define for next year two major features of this era of console Warfare were the idea that Sega had the more mature system and games than the family-friendly Nintendo and debates over which version of specific games were better these days exclusive to what people most remember but plenty of titles came to both systems sometimes with completely different variants kicking off endless arguments between fans over which system had the superior version Contra 3 Alien Wars vs Contra hardcore Super Castlevania vs Castlevania bloodlines Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turtles in time first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the hyperstone heist and on it went sometimes two competing titles would be pretty much identical but there were other times when there were big differences and clear winners and losers for example with Street Fighter 2 the Super Nintendo was King with not only a year Head Start but also a more suitable controller that had four face buttons alongside two shoulder buttons compared to just three face buttons on the original Genesis controller other times though the Genesis Reigns Supreme like with 1993's Aladdin where the Genesis version was aided by real Disney animators and went on to be one of the system's best-selling games and then there was Mortal Kombat a game which combined arguments over sega's more adult nature and arguments over which system had the superior version and ended with Sega and Nintendo sitting in front of a U.S congressional hearing on the dangers of violence in video games violence and violent images permeate more and more aspects of our lives and I think it's time to draw the line I know that one place parents want us to draw the line is with violence in video games the fact is that a new generation of video games crosses that line containing the most horrible depictions of graphic violence and sex including particularly violence against women you see much like street fights are before it's Mortal Kombat was a big success but its graphic depictions of violence and brutal post-bictory fatalities attracted more attention than from just players kicking off a media frenzy and National conversation on the role of violence in video games when Mortal Kombat made its way from arcades to consoles Nintendo opted to tone down the Violence by removing the blood effects but Sega instead left them in as an unlockable option making the Genesis version the most desirable knowing that controversy might be on its way Sega created their own internal rating system ahead of mortal kombat's console release but this didn't prove to be enough and by the end of 1993 the national conversation on video game violence had reached U.S Congress with both Sega and Nintendo being called up to answer some difficult questions a number of advocacy groups and Senators spoke on the issue presenting a united front while focusing heavily on Mortal Combat and be strange Sega see the FMB Game Night Trap and claiming that there had been a systemic failure of the gaming industry to police itself when it came to those speaking in favor of the gaming industry however those present were anything but United with Nintendo getting the chance to speak first and wasting no time in putting the blame squarely on sega's lack of internal policy in the past year some very violent and offensive games have reached the market and of course I'm speaking about Mortal Kombat and Night Trap and let me say that for the record I want to state that night trap will never appear on a Nintendo system obviously it would not pass our guidelines this game which as you've indicate indicated promotes violence against women simply has no place in our society meanwhile Sega began by defending itself in the way that Sega fans at the time defended their favorite gaming system on School Playgrounds I.E by reminding those in attendance that the Genesis unlike its competition wasn't made for kids in recent days the glare of the media Spotlight on this issue has resulted in the circulation of a number of distorted and inaccurate claims the most damaging of these distortions in my view is the notion that Sega are only in the business of selling games to children this is not the case Seiko also highlighted their new rating system but this received a lot of pushback including from Nintendo's representative who seemed much more interested in attacking Sega than defending the gaming industry let me make just a couple of other points I can't sit here and allow you to be told that somehow the video game business has been transformed today from children to adults it hasn't been in Mr White who is a former Nintendo employee knows the demographics as well as I do furthermore I can't let you sit here and by this nonsense that this Sega Night Trap game was somehow only meant for adults I'm not the fact of the matter is this is a copy of the packaging there was no rating on this game at all when the game was introduced small children bought this at Toys R Us and he knows that as well as I do ultimately the Senators seemed unimpressed by Gaming's great console war and decided to treat Sega and Nintendo in much the same way that a teacher might treat two squabbling children by giving them both a slap on the wrist and telling them they better start working together to make things right so Gaming's fear system Rivals came together with other representatives from the industry to create the interactive digital software Association which soon led to the creation of the entertainment software rating board or ESRB who would produce a unified set of age ratings for all commercial video games that retailers would then opt into enforcing something that has since become common practice across many different regions in the Congressional hearing Sega came under the heaviest attack and following public outcry many retailers pulled the controversial Night Trap from their shelves however when it came to actual video game players this didn't seem to damage sega's reputation at all and instead helped cement their status as the cooler more mature gaming company ultimately leading to sales going up holiday season 1993 and Sega came out on top retaking the overall lead in 94 with 55 of the market by 1994 Sega and Nintendo weren't the only ones dealing with controversy though as in the world of the personal computer another violent video game was exploding in popularity and leaving its own mark on gaming history in the early 90s consoles might have received the most attention and made the most money but PC was still the place to be for Innovation and it saw a number of big releases of its own Lucas Arts 1990 pirate themed The Secret of Monkey Island set a new standard photographical Adventure genre with its user-friendly interface sharp comedic writing and a more open game design but removed any sort of fail State and ensured players could never be locked out of puzzles or the means to progress the game in 1991 Sydney's civilization popularized the 4X genre of strategy games where you explored expanded exploited and exterminated your opposition while guiding a human civilization over the course of several Millennia a concept that proved as expansive and original as it was addictive Delphine software's strikingly cinematic action-adventure game another world also released that year leaving a lasting impression on many who played it featuring a Scientist fighting for survival on an alien planet it placed a heavy emphasis on presentation and told its story entirely without dialogue creating a game that felt years ahead of its time and would influence a number of important future titles including Ico Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill in 1992 Westwood Studios created the first real-time strategy game with doom 2. combining resource Gathering Base building and small-scale warfare into an addictive new formula Dune 2 would be followed by blizzard entertainment's Warcraft Orcs And humans in 94 and westward's alternative history Command and Conquer in 95 which together established the RTS as an important genre within gaming 92 also saw the birth of the survival horror genre with infograms alone in the dark a game that went beyond embracing horror as an aesthetic by deliberately disempowering the player to heightened attention and create a sense of dread its Haunted Mansion setting and cinematic camera would also greatly influence future titles of the genre meanwhile in the world of role-playing games the Ultima series continued strongly with its highly acclaimed 7th entry the black gate but it was a spin-off from the main series that proved to be the most Innovative RPG that year Looking Glass Studios ultimate underworld was the first role-playing game to feature first person action in a 3D environment described as a dungeon simulation by its creators Ultima underworld combined for Dungeon crawling of genre grandfathers like Wizardry with cutting-edge action gameplay and environmental design to create a brand new type of action RPG that would pave the way for the immersive Sim genre and many future titles 1993 also saw the release of the visually stunning graphic adventure game mist from cyan Inc which took full advantage of the vastly expanded storage capacity on the new CD-ROM to create its iconic picturesque 3D Island while helping to popularize the adoption of CD drivers in the process mist's puzzle solving gameplay was quite slow but its Graphics were far beyond anything else at the time leading it to become one of the best-selling PC games of all time finally in 1994 Mythos games sci-fi strategy game XCOM UFO defense combined turn-based tactical battles with real-time management to create a surprisingly deep Earth Defense simulation unlike any other game before it while origin system's ambitious latest entry into the space combat one Commander series included extensive live-action f b cutscenes that featured big Hollywood names like Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell representing a major step of PC gaming towards the mainstream still as important as each of these games were none of them are what the early 90s are best remembered for for that we need to go back to the start of a decade where a small group of 20-something-year-old developers were working for software companies softdesk in an office in Shreveport Louisiana it was here that 20 year old University Dropout John Carmack was thinking about a well-known problem in PC game development how to achieve side-scrolling graphics on a computer you see while computers were powerful in certain ways they weren't designed specifically for gaming meaning there were some things consoles were just better at like allowing for faster refresh rates this meant PC struggled to redraw an entire screen at the same speed as a console making the iconic side scrolling seen in so many of the most popular video games impossible until Carmack had an idea why redraw everything on screen when you could instead only redraw the parts that actually change this became known as adaptive tile refresh and with it comac was about to change the world of PC gaming first Commack and Friends recreated Super Mario Bros 3 step by step something people thought couldn't be done on PC they then sent the end result to Nintendo who were admittedly impressed but told them they didn't want Nintendo games on anything except Nintendo Hardware meaning all their hard work had been for nothing so next they decided to make their own game instead with no corporate backing or funding they decided to team up with shareware distributor apigee software to create the side-scrolling platformer Commander Keane it was completed in just a few months and saw great success through the shareware model then once the first royalty check arrived John Carmack John Romero Adrian Carmack and Tom Hall decided to quit their jobs at softdisk to found their own company ID software Carmack soon turns his attention to Gaming's New Frontier 3D and once more encountered a similar problem to before which was the computers of the time were just too slow to allow for fast action in 3D environments its software continued to create more shareware distributed games while experimenting with 3D which allowed Carmack to iterate on his new 3D engine by restricting the Viewpoint to increase speed using Sprites and texture mapping to save space and so on the end result was Wolfenstein 3D which released in summer 1992 and allowed players to mow down hordes of Nazis from a first person perspective in 3D environments Wolfenstein was the first true first-person shooter and its fast-paced and smooth action made it hugely successful but it would soon be overshadowed by an even more impressive game [Music] released in late 1993 Doom was a game which changed gaming bigger faster and more violent than Wolfenstein with visuals that look years ahead of its predecessor Doom was an instant classic for years there was no FPS genre there were only Doom clones it invented the Deathmatch for helping to Pioneer the concept of network multiplayer it spawned one of the most active mod scenes of all time while greatly popularizing the concept of modding and it was estimated that by late 1995 it was installed on more computers worldwide than Microsoft's latest Windows operating system Doom was a gaming phenomenon and it only achieved that level of success because underneath its demon infested exterior and Innovative technology was a really well made game that used Fast action varied enemy encounters and complex level design full of secrets to create a formula that still holds up all these years later Doom also served as a perfect representation of what made PC gaming so different to consoles in the early 90s was desperately trying to Market itself as the mature alternative to Nintendo games like Doom were providing a genuine mature alternative without even really meaning to and while consoles were embroiled in a clash of corporate Giants and spending tens of Millions on marketing every year Doom was self-published distributed through shareware and made by initially just five guys with two more coming on to help near the end and despite this humble background it was still the most impressive 3D game the industry had ever seen and it helped to create the most successful genre in gaming there have been independent games that have been phenomenally successful since Doom but it is truly rare for an independent game to be so successful while also being technologically years ahead of its competition the shareware distribution model can also be seen as a forerunner to digital distribution it worked by offering part of the game as a free trial that anyone could download and play and then asking players to pay to purchase the rest with no retailer or possibly publisher it meant games sold this way had much more limited reach but for lack of any middlemen also meant lower prices for consumers and a larger cuts of revenue for the developer and so it should come as no surprise then but Doom's success quickly turned its creators into multi-millionaires six months after Doom's release John Carmack owned two Ferraris he was 23 years old at the time It software would follow Doom with a sequel in 1994 before creating an even more powerful engine to produce their fully 3D Doom successor quake in 1996 which took multiplayer to Soaring New Heights with far more modes and built in 16 player online capability Quake was another big hit and with it the era of online first person shooter domination had arrived but for consoles the mid-90s would also bring the next generation of systems and it didn't exactly play out as most people expected [Music] 1994 was a big year for the gaming industry but its start was still dominated by the Rivalry between Sega and Nintendo and the Fallout from the violent video game debate Sega had now edged back into the lead and this period would see several of the Genesis best exclusive titles such as the beat em up classic Streets of Rage 2 the side-scrolling platformer rocket Knight adventure and the action-packed running and gunning gun star Heroes 1994 but also see the release of not one but two new entries into sega's hottest series after Sonic 3 became so large during development that it could no longer fit into a single cartridge causing it to be split into Sonic 3 and the separate Sonic and Knuckles Nintendo had plenty of games of their own however 1993's Super Mario All-Stars remade the first three entries into the Super Mario Bros series with Super Nintendo level graphics and is notable as not only one of the system's best-selling titles but also one of the first examples of a massively Successful video game remake in 1994 Nintendo would release one of the super Nintendo's most highly acclaimed titles with Super Metroid which upgraded the formula of the original game while retaining its Rich sci-fi atmosphere and focus on exploration still Nintendo's biggest game that year came at the hands of another developer due to concerns about falling behind Sega Nintendo began looking for other Studios to bring on board leading them to approach the uk-based studio rare who had impressed them with their latest 3D model rendering technology Nintendo suggested they use these pre-rendered Graphics to make a platformer and gave them permission to use one of their oldest IPS to do it [Music] foreign [Music] Donkey Kong Country released in late 1994 its unique visual style brought it a lot of attention and convinced Nintendo to heavily back it with a generous marketing campaign even so the game still exceeded expectations setting the record for the fastest selling game of all time and going on to become the third best-selling game on the system it also wild critics impressing with its creative level design and Timeless soundtrack in addition to the Striking visuals Donkey Kong Country wants the edge Nintendo needed to pull back into the lead following a strong holiday season in 1994 but while high quality new titles ensured the Super Nintendo was still going strong by this point Sega was starting to turn their attention to Future systems the fifth console generation started early and saw heavy competition the 3DO released in America in late 1993 and boasted some seriously impressive technical specifications becoming the first system to fully take advantage of new CD-ROM technology it also launched with a retail price of 700 which is 1 400 after inflation and struggled to build a library of solid exclusives meaning It ultimately struggled to compete with later better known systems despite its strong launch and as for those later systems two would go head to head in Japan in late 1994 but this time Nintendo wouldn't be one of them Sega began work on the next system early after realizing the importance of CD-ROMs and having had promising results with 3D technology in arcades at the same time as this they tried to maintain support for the Genesis by creating a second add-on in addition to the Sega CD called the 32x that would bridge the gap between the two generations and offer a cheaper entry into the 32-bit era unfortunately Sega struggled to produce enough games for either the Sega CD or the 32x to really justify their high costs meaning both pieces of Hardware ended up as commercial failures and might have damaged sega's reputation with fans who did buy these add-ons due to their perceived lack of support still it was the Next Generation where the battle would truly be decided and so Sega went all out on developing a new system that could meet their lofty expectations while Sega was working on a 32-bit system of their own however a new entrance into the video game scene was doing the same and getting ready to change the console landscape forevermore Sony was an electronics company founded after World War II and best known for their music products like the Sony Walkman their first foray into gaming hadn't turned out very well a joint venture with Nintendo led to them producing the sound chip used in the Super Nintendo but they also worked with Nintendo on a CD-ROM add-on for the system before it could be completed however Nintendo got cold feet over how much control the terms of a deal gave Sony and instead went to negotiate a more favorable deal with Sony's main rival Phillips not knowing this Sony went on to announce their Super Nintendo add-on at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1991. it was called the PlayStation and the very next day Nintendo got up on stage themselves and announced their new partnership with Philips declaring the PlayStation dead in the process for Sony this was a serious blow and an even more serious betrayal something not taken lightly in Japan's honor-based business culture they responded by severing all ties with Nintendo with many Executives at Sony wanting to end all activity connected to the gaming industry which they had come to view as too close to the toy industry to fit with Sony's established brand in addition to being apparently highly unreliable Ken kutaragi the man in charge of the PlayStation's development wanted the opposite however kutaragi was confident in his technology and proposed Sony got it alone and create a standalone console while using the company's poor treatment from Nintendo to support his argument for why they shouldn't give up on the idea in the end kutaragi got his way but he still had a problem Not only was developing their own system considerably risky but Sony also had no actual experience in game development in the past consoles had lived and died on the strength of their first party support which for Sony didn't even exist so not knowing anything about game development the team decided to stick with what they did know hardware and business to this end they designed the system from the ground up with a focus on 3D polygon graphics and also set out to secure their desperately needed third-party support to do this they formed Partnerships with established Japanese developers like Namco and Konami while purchasing the uk-based signosis who were best known for their widely popular puzzle game lemmings this gave Sony their first in-house team and it was through this that they would stumble into their big break developers at cygnosis found the current workstation based development kits to be overly expensive and impractical and so they persuaded Sony to instead use a PC based development system thus marking a major turning point for the Contour industry which had largely ignored PCS until then PC based development was not only cheaper and more efficient it also streamlined the process for third parties while making porting games between PC and Sony's new system much easier than before something which proved crucial in allowing Sony to compete with their more established rivals as the console neared completion Sony decided to break from the tradition of using the company's name in the title of the system due to upper management sphere but failure could damage the company's brand and so the console would keep its original name and in December 1994 the PlayStation launched in Japan just one week after release of another new console the Sega Saturn series [Music] the two systems were similarly priced and offered similar performance but it was Sega who proved to be the early favorite thanks in large parts to the hugely popular Virtua Fighter which sold at a near one-to-one ratio with the Saturn at release for the PlayStation it was sega's big arcade rival Namco that would be the console's most important developer in its first year with Ridge Racer proving the most successful launch title and Tekken soon following to give the PlayStation a 3D fighting game of its own still exclusives wouldn't be the most important factor in the new system's First Years as both systems prepared for their Global release both companies came up with a plan to give them the edge over the other which they would reveal at the first ever Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1995 where 40 000 eager attendees packed for Los Angeles Convention Center to get a glimpse of the next generation of gaming Sega went first and took to the stage to announce that due to high consumer demand the Saturn would release immediately that very day at select retailers this was four months before the expected September release date and Sega hoped this Head Start would give them the advantage unfortunately for them however other retailers responded to this surprise announcement very negatively with KB Toys even dropping Sega from its lineup and the early release also left for Saturn's launch lineup rather light on games things quickly went from bad to worse though because Sony followed with a surprise announcement of their own which came when SCE president of America Steve race took to the stage to give one of Gaming's all-time greatest speeches join me for a brief presentation [Music] thank you 299. 299 was 100 less than the Saturn meaning the systems were no longer similarly priced and it turns out that while sega's gamble backfired Sony's instead paid off the PlayStation released on the 9th of September 1995. two days later it had sold more units than the Saturn had in the last four months the PlayStation's launch was huge and what's more they're easier to develop for system was about to start proving its worth as a number of former PC developers soon started releasing games for Sony's new console multiple examples include platformer Rayman from Ubisoft in 95 Naughty Dogs soon to be iconic Crash Bandicoot in 96 which gave the PlayStation its first real mascot and Tomb Raider from core design a graphically impressive action-adventure Game featuring one of Gaming's most recognizable female leads 96 also saw the release of another landmark PlayStation title from Capcom with Resident Evil which may be the single most influential survival horror game of all time all of these titles were big commercial hits with Resident Evil Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider each going on to sell over 5 million copies the Saturn did have games of its own with several high quality arcade ports alongside some strong new first party titles like Knights into dreams and Panzer Dragoon Sony however increasingly seemed to have the rest of the gaming industry on their side and in time Sony's initial Victory would turn into a Slaughter for years Sega tried to set themselves apart from Nintendo by appealing to an older demographic and marketing their system as the more mature option but now Sony was doing the same and beating Sega at their own game in 96 Sega responded to the growing pressure with the release of the Saturn model 2 which aimed to lower the retail price and cost of manufacturing Sony however replied by cutting the price of the PlayStation to 199 ensuring their lead just kept growing for Sega the situation was starting to look desperate and the competition would only increase as an old friend of theirs would soon release a console of Their Own while the fifth console generation was getting off to an explosive start Nintendo were quietly enjoying the super Nintendo's finest years after a drawn out and tightly fought competition with the Genesis where Sega had often come out on top in its later years the supply of new Genesis games slowed up allowing Nintendo to finally pull comfortably ahead in a 16-bit market that was still going surprisingly strong this may have been partly because 1995-96 saw some of the super Nintendo's best games Super Mario World 2 Yoshi's Island saw Mario return with a stunning new art style and fresh Yoshi focused gameplay rare followed up with a monstrously successful Donkey Kong Country with not one but two more sequels than almost matched the first in sales and RPG fans were spoiled for Choice with the cult classic earthbounds idiosyncratic take on Modern America offering a setting unlike anything players had seen before square and Nintendo's collaborative Super Mario RPG offering a Mario game unlike anything players had seen before and final fantasy's latest entry six or three depending on region providing the series highest rated and best-selling title to date lastly there was also Chrono Trigger which was developed by a dream team that included the creator of the final fantasy series the creator of the Dragon Quest series and the creator of the Dragon Ball Manga Chrono Trigger featured a time traveling adventure with multiple endings lots of reactivity and some of the best visuals and music of a 16-bit era and it's often considered to be one of the best jrpgs of all time still as strong as the super Nintendo's last year's were nothing can last forever at least not in the always evolving gaming industry and development of Nintendo's next console started as far back as early 1993. after that development of a CD based system failed to work out with either Sony or Philips Nintendo formed a new partnership with silicon Graphics to bring their powerful supercomputer technology to the world of consoles the final products released in 1996 with the name Nintendo 64 to emphasize its 64 bits of computing but as powerful as Nintendo's new system might have been it was about to face heavy competition and its main rival had a head start alongside one other key advantage [Music] Nintendo arrived late but the N64 did have some things in its favor Nintendo's continued focus on affordability meant the system was able to match for new prices of Saturn and Playstation while offering much more powerful Hardware we've doubled the PlayStation's Ram at three times faster CPU and a much higher polygon count the 3D Graphics of the N64 were simply A Step Above any of their competitors Nintendo also innovated with their controller by adding a thumb controlled analog stick reminiscent of the joysticks of older gaming systems the overall design might seem clunky by today's standards but it was an important step for the time and analog controls greatly complemented the move to 3D the N64 also came with four controller ports which was two more than its Rivals and made it a great system for multiplayer games Nintendo's launch lineup initially looked less promising with only two games available for the North American release this lack of games was what delayed were released in 1996 and for most consoles two titles would never be enough luckily for Nintendo however one of those games was capable of doing some rather heavy lifting games [Music] [Music] here we go [Music] Super Mario 64 didn't just bring Nintendo's popular mascot into the realm of 3D it also shattered expectations for what a 3D platformer could be before it games of the genre had used fixed cameras or just suffered from loose imprecise controls but using the new analog stick Mario was given full 360 degree movement with a detached adjustable camera and a rich array of movement options levels were big and inviting begging players to explore and experiment and the cartoony visual style was a great fit for showcasing the n64's high polygon count basically it was a strong a launch title as Nintendo could have asked for but it still wouldn't be enough because as impressive as the N64 and Mario were there was one thing the PlayStation did which ninten didn't and that was ucds Nintendo's console was more powerful it did have a higher polygon count and shorter load times but CDs had higher capacity and for many developers this was the most important factor the best known example of this was RPG veteran Square who had been a loyal Ally to Nintendo and had originally begun work on their next Final Fantasy game on the Super Nintendo as development progressed Square soon realized they wanted to use pre-rented video and backgrounds something that would only be possible with a larger capacity of the CD meaning creating the game for Nintendo's new console was no longer possible as development continued Square invested more and more resources into the project resulting in an estimated development budget of more than 40 million dollars making it the most expensive game ever made at the time and it turned out Square's investment paid off foreign [Music] [Music] released in 1997 and was unbelievably successful its use of full motion video and pre-rendered CG gave it a cinematic style which wowed audiences and critics alike its setting and characters felt fresh and exciting in an era years before Anime had found mainstream popularity and when most Japanese RPGs still didn't even get released outside Japan and its story and sense of adventure resonated with players of the time in a way that few other games ever had Final Fantasy VII sold over 10 million copies eventually going on to become the PlayStation's joint best-selling game of all time for Sony it was the PlayStation's killer app and they didn't even need to do anything to get it the higher capacity of CDs allowed for the use of FMV as well as higher quality sound and even more realistic and detailed textures and so the N64 was the more powerful system in all ways except for the one which mattered the most Nintendo weren't out of the competition yet though because there was something they could do which Sony couldn't make their own games the N64 couldn't match the PlayStation's early sales but it still got off to a solid start thanks in large part to Nintendo's strong pre-established reputation and more games were soon on the way at the end of 1996 Mario 64 was joined by Mario Kart 64 bringing cart racing to the third dimension and giving the system its second best-selling game in 97 Nintendo continued their new naming convention with the well-received Star Fox 64 and gave Mario sidekick Yoshi his own Standalone title with Yoshi's story they also received invaluable support from the then second-party developer rare who were about to give the console one of the era's most iconic games foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] single-handedly proved that first person shooters could work on consoles and they could work well taking inspiration from Doom but opting for a more realistic approach GoldenEye featured a memorable single player campaign that did an admirable job of providing a James bond-like experience complete with a rich story varied levels and stealth elements but it was multiplayer but the game is best remembered for by bringing the fun of the Deathmatch to consoles GoldenEye proved to be a massive success and went on to sell over 8 million copies putting it only behind Mario 64 and Mario Kart as the system's best-selling game and the hits from rare didn't stop a golden eye they also gave the system a second popular cart racer with Diddy Kong Racing before kicking off a new critically acclaimed platforming series with Banjo-Kazooie before following this with Donkey Kong's successful 3D debut in Donkey Kong 64 and finally by providing werby successors to both GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie in 2000s with perfect Arc and banjo Tui Nintendo also had more important games of their own with two in particular going on to help Define the fifth console generation the first would see The Return of Nintendo's other Flagship series and produced what may be the most critically acclaimed game of all time The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time released in late 1998 and made the transition to 3D while retaining the series Focus on exploration and adventure with intuitive combat intricate dungeon design and a huge world full of secrets Ocarina of Time was a staggeringly well made game but what truly elevated it to one of Gaming's all-time greats was its sense of atmosphere and weight at times dark somber and even surreal Link's quest to defeat Ganondorf felt as epic as it was enchanting in a way rarely matched in a medium before or since Nintendo also gave the world a new take on the fighting genre in 1999 with Super Smash Bros featuring an All-Star cast of classic Nintendo characters smashed moved the focus away from character-specific combos to create a more approachable but no less enjoyable fighting game that was unlike anything else on the market still as impressive as Nintendo's first and second party titles were in this period they still weren't enough to match the PlayStation's ever-growing lineup with so many developers favoring Sony system because of its ease of development and the advantages of CDs Nintendo was left with little third-party support and the more the PlayStation user base grew the more developers wanted their games to be on it Sony finished for decades strongly they took inspiration from Nintendo to produce their own dual analog controller in 1997. they transitioned their marketing from targeting Sega towards directly targeting Nintendo after Nintendo became the main competition and with each new year they saw multiple major titles but ensured the PlayStation's dominant position grew and grew 1997 brought well-received sequels to Tomb Raider and crash bandicoots alongside the only other game that could match Final Fantasy and sales numbers Gran Turismo produced by polyphony digital a new japanese-based first-party studio within Sony Gran Turismo received Universal Acclaim and set a new bar for graphics and realism in a driving game surpassing even arcade competition in a somewhat symbolic step for the industry in 1998 Sony's lineup was arguably even stronger with widely successful sequels to Resident Evil Tekken Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider that would be joined by high selling new series like insomniac's Spyro the Dragon perhaps the year's biggest surprise came from another ex-nintendo Ally when Konami released their latest entry into the Metal Gear series much like Final Fantasy VII before it Metal Gear Solid Wild players with its cinematic Focus this time produced through in-engine cutscenes alongside full voice acting and an unusually mature and complicated storyline the results was one of the most story focused and cinematic experiences ever seen in a game and it too would receive Universal Acclaim alongside 7 million copies sold 1999 was once more a packed year with even more sequels this time to Final Fantasy Resident Evil Spyro Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo alongside a new survival horror game from Konami in Silent Hill and a cart racer to compete with Nintendo in the form of Crash team racing as the console generation progressed the reality of the situation became clear Sony's lineup of games was simply too strong and it allowed the PlayStation to maintain the dominant leads on its competition from its release all the way to its discontinuation 12 years later in the process the PlayStation became the first console in history to surpass 100 million units sold which was more than twice that of the previous generations leader the Super Nintendo and almost 70 million more than Sony's closest competition the N64 by contrast the Saturn sold only 9.2 million leaving Sega a distant third place and in serious trouble during this period disagreements over the company's Future Between the Japanese and American divisions were reported to be frequent ultimately the rapidly declining profits led the company to discontinue the Saturn in 1998 in favor of focusing on the Next Generation where they hope to get a head start on the competition throughout the development of their next console Sega tried to learn from their mistakes with the Saturn by paying close attention to production costs and trying to select Hardware components similar to personal computers to assist software development the system also used a custom version of Windows operating system to further help with porting games between PC and was the first console to include a built-in modular modem to enable internet access and online play in the end the console was completed while the fifth generation was still going strong and in November 1998 it released in Japan with a global release coming one year later this is the day the day the day you have studied for utilize your Superior skills your Superior intelligence Ryan you're gonna get rude shut up quadruped [Applause] it's thinking the Dreamcast got off to a slow but steady starts pre-orders in Japan were high but Hardware shortages meant Sega couldn't keep up with demand meaning they failed to meet their initial sales goals the American launch went smoother however and the first Year's sales seemed promising the launch lineup included a number of first party titles but its two big early Stars would be Sonic adventures and Soul Calibur the first represented Sonic's first true 3D debut and quickly became the system's best-selling game while namco's Soul Calibur was one of the most highly acclaimed fighting games of all time and is notable as being graphically Superior to its arcade counterpart and showcasing just how much next-gen systems could do still early sales were one thing but the true test for Sega would be when their competition joined the sixth generation and for that they wouldn't need to wait long and sorry but decade came to a close where after years of intense neck and neck battle between Sega and Nintendo it was Sony who ultimately came out as the winner and they won by some way for Nintendo the end of the 90s weren't all bad however because there was one area where they remained firmly on top the Game Boy released in 1989 and quickly surpassed its technologically Superior competition Nintendo supported their new handheld system with a number of first-party continuations of classic Nintendo series this meant more Mario with Super Mario Land 2 before new series antagonist Wario got his first game in Wario Land Super Mario Land 3. the Game Boy also got a sequel to Metroid with Metroid 2 return of Samus as well as a new 2D Zelda with Link's Awakening other unloadable early Game Boy games include puzzle game Dr Mario Kirby's first ever outing in Kirby's Dreamland and a continuation of the original Donkey Kong series as well as a portable title from rare called Donkey Kong Land these games were all well received and helped the Game Boy to continue strong but it would be a new series which came to Define handheld gaming in the 90s before that Nintendo would release the highly experimental and rather disastrous Virtual Boy in 1995. a 32-bit technically portable headset and controller the virtual boy was the first console capable of displaying stereoscopic 3D although it was only in red and black and there were concerns about long-term use causing permanent eye damage it was also pushed to Market before it was truly ready and received negative reviews for its high price uncomfortable design and weak selection of games that struggled to use its novel 3d effect in interesting ways ultimately the Virtual Boy Ended as a clear failure and was discontinued less than a year after its launch before even receiving a European release but it was at least one of Gaming's more Innovative and unique failures for Nintendo this appointment wouldn't last long however because they were about to stumble onto a game that would single-handedly conquer the world [Music] Pokemon released in 1996 in Japan 1998 in America and 1999 in Europe it was inspired by Creator Satoshi tajiri's childhood hobby of collecting insects but upon hearing the idea for the game Nintendo were initially skeptical in the end it was support from Shigeru Miyamoto that helped get the game off the ground with the game boy's Link cable enabled multiplayer acting as a major influence in creating a game focused on collecting and trading rather than being a more traditional RPG the idea to have different versions of the same game with exclusive Pokemon came from Miyamoto who thought it would encourage the game's social aspects and in the end Miyamoto and Tajiri would be proving right but success didn't happen overnight after our long and problematic development Pocket Monsters red and green released in Japan to decent but not remarkable sales by the end of its first year the game sold over 1 million copies in Japan alone but then instead of slowing down like most releases Pocket Monsters did the opposite with a blue and yellow version released later to renew interest and strong word of mouth as a result of the game's social aspects sales just continued to grow with 3.65 million copies sold in Japan in 1997. to put this in perspective the total lifetime sales for the Game Boy in the region at this time was only 7 million but then Game Boy sales started to shoot up as well by the end of a slow localization process Nintendo and Game Freak had finally started to realize the potential value of what they had their hands on and so they decided to increase the game's marketing tying the game's promotion to the upcoming anime and the series new mascot Pikachu Across America and Europe Pokemon Red and Blue broke sales records after sales record with 31 million copies sold worldwide or 46 million including all versions it was later described as the most successful video game of all time and received the world records for best-selling video game excluding bundle sales in short Pokemon was a phenomenon unlike anything seen before in the history of gaming and it was a phenomenon that didn't stop at the games an anime a card game merchandise accessories movies spin-offs sequels and more all in mere months as the franchise grew and grew with children all around the world doing whatever they could to get their hands on anything and everything Pokemon for a short period of time the world seemed to stand still gripped in the midst of a genuine pokemania it was possibly the biggest cultural phenomenon the modern world has seen and it's hard to think of any one thing that has matched it since to this day Pokemon is the highest grossing media franchise in the World surpassing Mickey Mouse Star Wars Harry Potter and marble and it doesn't look like anything we'll be catching up with it anytime soon if there were any doubts still about the gaming industry's mainstream potential by the late 90s they didn't survive the arrival of Pokemon and all this every bit of it was kicked off on the back of one simple game when people talk about the greatest games of all time there are a lot of obvious choices but Pokemon Red and Blue might be one of the most overlooked aimed primarily at children with a legacy that is far outgrown the original titles it's easy to forget how fresh and addictively enjoyable Pokemon's concept of combining role-playing mechanics with monster collection truly wants to players at the time it provided a perfect introduction to the RPG genre but it also added excitement and personality to the experience with players feeling a strong sense of attachment to their pocket Companions and always wanting to see what new creatures awaited them in the next location or which Pokemon might evolve next or what Secrets there might be out there in the world waiting to be uncovered the multiplayer aspects and growth of the franchise Beyond gaming then helped turn Pokemon into the unprecedented craze that it became but that wouldn't have been possible if not for the strength of the original games which makes them seem worthy of a special place in Gaming's history and as for the Game Boy it soon received an updated model with the Game Boy Color which released globally in late 1998. its best-selling game was unsurprisingly the next entry into the Pokemon series but it included full backwards compatibility with the game boy's existing Library allowing Game Boy Color owners to not only play their old games but also play them in color amidst surging pokemania the new Game Boy sold well with combined sales with the original reaching over 118 million units making it the fourth best-selling system of all time it was also surprisingly long lasting with the game boy's lifespan starting in 1989 and Lasting until 2003 which wasn't bad for a system that released already far behind its competition in terms of technological power and as for that competition by the mid 90s it barely existed although the Japanese only won the Swan from Bandai did mean there was at least one other system out there at the end of the decade regardless when it came to handheld the 90s was a period of absolute Nintendo domination to a degree rarely seen in the industry before or since still the Game Boy wasn't the only system that ended the decade well [Music] on computers the second half of the 90s are best remembered for the growing presence of online gaming and for the large number of critically acclaimed genre defining titles PC gaming experienced slower growth than consoles during this period but the PlayStation itself marked the move towards more PC friendly development and many of the console's best-selling games like Tomb Raider Final Fantasy and Resident Evil were also released on Windows the PC still had plenty of exclusives of its own though and it still led the way in a number of key genres 1997 kicked off with Blizzard's action RPG Diablo which took the role-playing genre in a New Direction and reached new levels of commercial success as a result before Diablo computer RPGs were known for their complexity and were often seen as rather Niche but Diablo's isometric action Stripped Away some of the depth to instead place a heavier focus on atmosphere combat and item progression going on to sell over 2 million copies as a result if action didn't appeal to you 1997 also saw the release of a major step for more traditional RPGs with interplay's Fallout which featured a bleak post-apocalyptic setting and a morally ambiguous Choice driven storyline to provide a fresh take on the role-playing genre 1997 also saw a landmark real-time strategy game with Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires which proved to be a popular historical take on the genre and featured impressive online and network play integration its sequel in 1999 was even more successful and has retained an active multiplayer Community to this day growing access to online connectivity also paved the way for one of the year's most important releases in origin systems Ultima Online which became the first game to create a multiplayer online RPG on a genuinely massive scale building on what was started with mods many years earlier Ultima Online offered an open-ended player-driven experience with up to 2500 simultaneous players in a single virtual world which far surpassed any other game of the time and popularized the idea of the MMO 1998 saw the focus on online gaming continue with the arrival of Blizzard's next major series Starcraft featured a well-made campaign and a rich sci-fi setting but what truly set it apart was the popularity of its multiplayer using Blizzard's integrated Battlenet service Starcraft offered fast and efficient matchmaking and its highly distinctive yet well-balanced factions were a perfect fit for competitive multiplayer this led to it becoming the best-selling RTS game of all time with 11 million copies sold by 2009. it also did much to establish the modern Esports scene as we know it today particularly with its popularity in South Korea where televised commentated tournaments began as early as December 1999. other important games of 98 include Grim Fandango a highly original point-and-click Adventure game from genre veterans LucasArts thief the Dark projects a first person stealth game from Looking Glass Studios known for its immersive design and vast player freedom and bioware's Baldur's Gate a fancy RPG that sets a new standard for Dungeons and dragon Space video games and marked for starts of a new era for the genre 1998 would also see valve make their gaming debut with their genre defining half-life with its immersive seamless story regular integration of puzzles and humble scientist protagonist Half-Life was almost the polar opposite of Doom and it showcased the genre's potential for storytelling while proving that first person shooters could be much more than just Doom clones in 1999 Ultima Online was joined by another massive MMO by way of EverQuest from Sony Online Entertainment EverQuest soon surpassed ultimate online Play account and established the formula of leveling partying dungeon running and gearing that would come to Define so much of a genre and would be copied by so many future games 99 also saw a release of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 which gave turn-based strategy fans a cult classic title but is still one of the best examples of its genre to this day System Shock 2 which combines role-playing with first person shooting and survival horror elements to create a sci-fi cyberpunk classic and planescape torment which gave the decade one of its most memorable RPGs while winning much praise for its mature story intelligent writing and thematic depth the 90s would close out in fitting fashion with two multiplayer focused FPS games going head-to-head for the title of best online shooter the first was Quake 3 Arena the latest game from its software and the other was Unreal tournaments from epic games both games were multiplayer only Arena Shooters and both games offered impressive 3D graphics and lightning fast action unreal stood out for its greater variety of guns and game modes while Quake was often considered the game of choice for traditionalists but regardless of individual Allegiance collectively the two games represented the Pinnacle of Arena Shooters at a time when Arena shooters were the Undisputed Kings of the FBS genre amongst the already mentioned games were a number of other successful series and sequels including a number of popular simulation and strategy games together these gave the PC a rather diverse lineup of games and this was a time when PC gaming was still largely distinct from that scene on consoles in the end though the 90s were the decade where PC gaming moved towards the mainstream while still managing to maintain much of what originally made it unique from talented young developers making industry changing breakthroughs to have a long-running focus on depth and complexity in game design or the general tendency of catering to more mature audiences the 90s was also the decade that online gaming made its big breakthrough which can be seen in the popularity of new genres like MMOs real-time strategy games and first person shooters with Time online gaming played a greater and greater role in the industry but it was PC that led the charge while providing a glimpse at Gaming's future in the process [Music] the 90s was for decades where gaming grew up it began with all our war between Sega and Nintendo but in the end it was Sony who emerged Victorious and for once it wasn't because of game design this marked the changing point for the industry Atari succeeded because they were the ones who first brought high quality arcade games to consoles Nintendo brought console gaming back from the brink with the Nintendo's seal of approval and a focus on high quality first party titles Sega finally managed to match Nintendo only after their own Landmark series arrived by way of Sonic and The Game Boy flourished thanks in large part to Tetris and later Pokemon Sony however achieved Victory through business and Hardware leaving most of the game design to those who already knew how and instead placing their focus on effective marketing and designing a system that appealed to developers through ease of development this showed the growing importance of third parties who had come a long way since Activision first broke away from Atari to get the recognition they felt they deserved now third parties were no longer just an annoyance and they were no longer optional Nintendo filled in a great lineup of first party titles in the fifth generation with several being remembered as some of the greatest games of all time but the Nintendo 64 had a total of 388 licensed games released in its lifespan compared to over 3 000 for the PlayStation the 90s also saw a rapid evolution of technology and might be the single most transformative decade in gaming the move to 3D was a major part of this with arcades leading the way in the early 90s alongside certain pioneering PC and console releases by the end of the 90s however the entire industry had embraced 3D technology and the advancements being made within just a few years was staggering alongside 3D the 90s was also the decade of the CD which paved the way for full motion video realistic audio and more detailed textures and the decade where online gaming and competitive multiplayer found their footing with several new genres being established which would only grow in importance in the years to come finally for game design the 90s was the decade where games started to go big and to shed their Arcade Origins if someone were to try to pinpoint the start of AAA gaming it might have to be Final Fantasy VII with a huge budget a massive marketing campaign and a development staff of over 100 people it was simply a different kind of game to what was being produced at the start of the decade for comparison many of Nintendo's most iconic 16-bit games had development teams of around 10 to 20. but with new technology came higher demands on game developers and by the end of the 90s games in general were becoming bigger and more expensive to create the 90s also saw a substantial move towards the Cinematic and the idea of games as a unique medium to tell stories rather than just as a set of challenges for players to overcome this can be seen in titles like metal gear solid and Half-Life and their popularity clearly showed that this approach resonated with players while at the same time as this traditional arcade features like high scores and lives were starting to disappear amongst Gaming's most popular titles overall though the 90s was an exciting time for gaming with Fierce rivalries impressive technological progress and many new emerging genres but as a new millennium beckoned the industry was getting ready to experience rapid change all over again [Music] the 2000s were a massive decade for video games technological innovations of the 90s matured with rapid advances in 3D and online the console Wars continued with the arrival of the next and final major player followed by a Seventh Generation that no one could have predicted and game development moved further towards the AAA at the same time but new areas of the industry started to arrive changing gaming forevermore still at the dawn of the New Millennium the gaming industry was defined by uncertainty after months of panic about a Y2K Computing apocalypse that in the end didn't happen the industry then ran headfirst into a much realer crisis when the.com Bubble Burst leading to a stock market crash that hit the tech industry particularly hard all while Gamers around the world held their breath in anticipation of the next generation of consoles many questions were on people's minds how would Sony follow up the most successful console of all time how would Nintendo respond to losing the top spot in the previous generation would Sega be able to do enough to survive and what would be the impact of the Computing giant Microsoft throwing their hat into the increasingly crowded Arena before the next wave of systems could really get going however the previous generation enjoyed one of its finest years as developers pushed 5th gen consoles to their limits and PC saw the arrival of its best-selling game yet highlights on the Nintendo 64 include The Surreal sequel to Ocarina of Time the Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask which featured a Time Loop mechanic alongside a surprisingly dark tone to create an experience just as memorable as its predecessor and almost as universally acclaimed Perfect Dark from N64 heavyweight rare which was a spiritual successor to GoldenEye that built upon the landmark Shooter's gameplay while adding a multitude more options to create the fifth generation's definitive first person shooter and Paper Mario which continued the Mario RPG tradition established on the Super Nintendo with a new take on the concept and a new two-dimensional art style on the PlayStation Final Fantasy continued its strong critical and Commercial run with Final Fantasy 9 which featured a return to the more traditional fantasy settings of older games alongside some of the most spectacular pre-rendered graphics on the system 2000 was also the year that Final Fantasy was joined by the 32-bit debut of its great rival in Dragon Quest VII which quickly went on to become the best-selling PlayStation game of all time in Japan despite its late release and finally Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 refined the formula of its 1999 predecessor to become one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made it might be tempting to see Tony Hawkes as just a series of well-made skating games but to do so would be a great Injustice as they were clear examples of games so good they transcended their genre with simple yet addictively enjoyable gameplay that helped them secure an immortal place within early 2000s gaming culture the PC also saw its share of big releases with RPG fans in particular being spoil for choice bioware's follow-up to Baldur's Gate provided an expansive and deep sequel that Still Remains as one of the best examples of its genre to this day ion storms cyberpunk conspiracy Thriller Deus Ex impressed with its open-ended Mission design and high level of player choice and Blizzard's loot-filled action RPG series Diablo returned in its second entry with improvements to gameplay and a story that made it even more popular than its predecessor 2000 would also see the release of another important FPS but offered something markedly different from the popular Arena Shooters of the time originally a mod for Half-Life Counter-Strike placed a greater focus on realism and the Tactical side of the genre and quickly received plenty of attention online including from Half-Life creators valve who offered to buy the intellectual property and hire the mods Creator before releasing the game officially Counter-Strike helped create an enduring Esports scene as well as a number of hugely successful sequels and showed the Innovative nature and potential benefits of a game supporting modding something that has become increasingly rare in games as times went on of course none of the games mentioned so far come close to matching the impact of the year's biggest release from Maxis and SimCity crater will write the Sims was like nothing else before it as a social simulation with impressive building tools Sims turned life itself into a video game and wowed players with the amount of Freedom it gave them and the level of detail it managed to include from carefully guiding your Sims up a corporate ladder and finally purchasing the local Mega Mansion to turning their life into an inescapable never-ending hell The Sims was a massive hit with players and received seven expansions which was a huge amount for the time it also sold over 11 million copies making it the best-selling PC game of all time until it was overtaken several years later by its sequel much like Pac-Man or Tetris before it the Sims was a game which found unprecedented levels of success by appealing to people who may not have typically played video games by 2000 personal computers were starting to become a common household item and The Sims universally understandable concept and general accessibility made it the perfect gateway to the medium for those who may not have been swayed by the fast-paced death matches of Quake or the advanced Dungeons and Dragons of computer RPGs accessibility and broadened appeal would be a major part of the decade but not before the next generation of console Wars got underway in fittingly dramatic fashion [Music] the Dreamcast got off to a solid start and its launch lineup was followed by a number of memorable titles the most important was Shemu which Sega hoped to be the system's killer app featuring Advanced 3D graphics and FMB cutscenes alongside a detailed open world complete with NPC schedules variable weather effects and a day night cycle shenmue was a major step forward for open world game design ambitious Innovative and technologically impressive it received much critical praise and sold well although unfortunately not well enough with development costs of around 50 million dollars shamro was one of the most expensive games ever made and its sales of 1.2 million weren't enough to recoup such a high investment it also didn't become the major system seller Sega hoped it would be meaning for the Dreamcast there was still more work that needed to be done of a strong early performance on the system included Crazy Taxi and rk's Infused action-packed racing game Jet Set Radio a skating action hybrid that embody counterculture and was one of the first games to feature the use of cell shading and fantasy Star online a continuation of sega's popular Fantasy Star series and the first ever online RPG to appear on consoles Fantasy Star online showcased the dreamcast's impressive online capabilities and was particularly successful with Japanese audiences where online PC gaming still hadn't really caught on in the end though the dreamcast's Fate would be decided more by its competition than its games and 2000 was the year that Sony's next-gen successor was ready to make its debut Sony PlayStation 2 will be the biggest thing to come along since TV was invented the buzz on this product is that strong PlayStation 2 PlayStation PlayStation 2 the most fastest video game system ever following the tremendous success of the PlayStation many were left wondering how Sony would top the best selling games console of all time Sony's answer was to leave people wondering meaning information about the PlayStation 2's development was kept as secret as possible with Sony refusing to even confirm that they were working on a new system secrecy wouldn't last forever though and that the Tokyo game show in September of 1999 the PlayStation 2 was revealed with demos for Gran Turismo and Tekken to show off its next-gen graphical capability it wasn't the games or Graphics that impressed the audience the most though but rather two specific design features the first was full backwards compatibility that covered the entire PlayStation 1 Library as well as some of its accessories like its controllers at the time backwards compatibility was an often requested feature yet the only other console to provide it without additional add-ons had been the otherwise disappointing Atari 7800 and if backwards compatibility alone wasn't enough the PlayStation 2 also included a built-in DVD player this was when DVD players were still relatively new and Standalone units could often cost more than the ps2s 299 launch price which made it seem like rates value for money and helped its reputation as being More Than Just A Game's console when this was combined with the strong momentum behind Sony's brand after the success of velar's system it was enough to ensure the PlayStation 2's launch was a big success with the new console selling out in Japan and later America as Sony struggled to meet the high demand the launch lineup was also noticeably weak with few Heavy Hitters outside of perhaps Tekken Tag Tournament from Namco and no first party titles from Sony but in the end this didn't matter too much as in October 2000 the PlayStation 2 finally arrived in America and quickly became the Public's Most Wanted games console foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] rapidly declining Dreamcast sales and yearly losses of over 400 million dollars the discontinuation of the Dreamcast was announced on the 31st of January 2001. this would be the end of the line for sega's Hardware aspirations but they would live on as a third-party developer and publisher and in March 2003 the company finally had a profitable year again after five years of consecutive losses as for Sony having collected one scalp already they turned their attention to those who remained and prepared themselves for what would go on to be one of the biggest years in video game history again today isn't about you it's about the new Xbox and quite frankly I couldn't be more excited the Xbox is everything the rock is Cutting Edge powerful exhilarating and like The Rock it will be the most electrifying thing coming out this year Microsoft unveiled their debut gaming system at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2001 and right from the start Microsoft wanted the world to know how seriously they were taking the industry with major marketing campaigns being launched alongside offers to acquire several big players including Nintendo square and EA for decision to enter the console space came after seeing the PlayStation success in the last generation with then CEO Bill Gates worried that an unopposed Sony could become so dominant but they might threaten Microsoft's line of Windows PCS Microsoft had also seen the way the PlayStation's PC Focus development kits had won them third-party support which led to the idea of just creating a console using PC hardware and DirectX programming interfaces with the use of DirectX being what led to the console being named Xbox the result was a powerful system with technical specifications notably Beyond any of its competitors the console included a built-in DVD player just like the PS2 as well as a hard drive and impressive online support but Microsoft was called Microsoft for a reason I.E they were a software company meaning that at the time they had no actual experience in manufacturing Hardware this led to expensive development and Manufacturing costs with Microsoft ultimately making a loss on each unit sold still luckily for them if there was one thing Microsoft did have available it was money and in November 2001 the Xbox released in America three days before the arrival of the Sith gen's final contender let me introduce you to a new baby like little babies it's small to make a lot of noise Nintendo might have been down after their last gen defeats in the PlayStation but unlike Sega they were far from out with dominance still in the handheld market and a strong selection of established first party series for their next system Nintendo's priority was to avoid the mistakes which cost them with their last console this meant no more cartridges although they didn't opt for a DVD based system either and instead use the more data Limited minidisc they also tried to ensure the system was easier to develop for and that it didn't release significantly later than the rest of the competition Nintendo did try out several more experimental features including stereoscopic 3d motion controls portability and microphone support but for now these ideas played little role in the final console and so Nintendo's GameCube was a fairly traditional system that was less powerful than Microsoft's Xbox but with a slight technological Edge over Sony's PS2 and CPU and graphics cards the marketing focused on Nintendo's reputation and first party success making use of the catchphrase a Nintendo difference but one thing which did remain the same was a lack of effort on Nintendo's part to entice third-party exclusives Nintendo also weren't able to meet their initial Target of the holiday season in the year 2000 which would have seen their new console launch alongside Sony's but at least this time they wouldn't be quite so far behind and at E3 2001 the system was fully unveiled with Shigeru Miyamoto himself taking to the stage to announce for release date and launch lineup with a later price reveal putting the GameCube at 199 100 less than its two rivals unlike every Nintendo console before it however something or someone was noticeably absent as for the first time Nintendo would be launching their system without a Mario game to support it in Mario's Place was his brother in Luigi's Mansion which went on to receive positive reviews but was a far cry from a generational defining Mario titles of earlier consoles luckily for Nintendo though even if Luigi wasn't able to live up to his big brother's big reputation Nintendo did have another title mere months away which could Super Smash Bros melee took the formula of its predecessor and ran with it featuring more characters more stages more gameplay modes more music and updated multiplayer but ensured it would be a hit with fans and critics alike even decades later melee went on to be the gamecube's best-selling title and acted as a fantastic Showcase of what Nintendo were bringing to the sixth generation Microsoft however had a killer app of their own to mark their entry into the console space most of Microsoft's early efforts to buy third-party developers weren't successful but one company they did acquire was a relatively unknown yet still successful Macintosh developer by the name of Bungie the Studio's sci-fi FPS series Marathon was exactly the type of game that might appeal to Western audiences but its Mac only status had previously limited its reach in the late 90s Bungie had begun work on a follow-up to Marathon and after it was unveiled at 1999's Mac World Expo by none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs Microsoft decided to swoop in and make their move impressing the team at Bungie with their commitment to the gaming industry and securing the studio and their new title exclusively for Xbox in the process with this Microsoft had now found their tampon title to Center the Xbox's launch around but for Bungie things would be far from simple the switch from computer to console brought a number of development challenges the team's deadline was incredibly tight and the weight of an entire new console was being placed quite squarely on their game's shoulders in the end though Halo proved up to the task launching alongside the Xbox and becoming an instant critical and Commercial Success Halo was a very ambitious game the biggest surprise then might be that in the end all its Ambitions seem to pay off featuring vehicle combat alongside massive open world-like environments with impressive enemy variety AI behavior and encounter design Halo was a fantastic game but even more impressive was how well it played on console Bungie added subtle auto aim to accommodate for the use of a Gamepad over a mouse and used a system of input buffering to make movements feel smoother and more precise the result was a huge step forward for the console FPS genre and the creation of Xbox's first true Blockbuster title but while Nintendo had melee and Microsoft had Halo Sony on the other hand had what might be the single greatest year of Contour exclusives in all of video game history 2001 was massive for the PlayStation 2. many of the ps1's best-selling series would see sequels with Gran Turismo 3 aspec Final Fantasy 10 and Metal Gear Solid 2 each releasing to Universal Acclaim and incredible sales what's more each of these games showcased outstanding Graphics making the difference in the new generation crystal clear to potential buyers alongside these was another important title that would leave a lasting impact on game design and would kick off the ps2's best-selling series rockstars Grand Theft Auto 3 this wasn't the first Grand Theft Auto game but it was the first in 3D and its fully open world an emphasis on player Freedom was unlike anything that came before it it remains a landmark open world game and did much to change people's conception of what video games could achieve and this was still just one of many major titles releasing on the PlayStation 2 that year looking back today the most impressive thing about the ps2's 2001 release lineup is surely its diversity with different genres and tastes being catered to and Innovative new titles coming alongside the more expected big sequels Ico gave players something original mature and creative capcom's Devil May Cry brought arcade inspired action and created its own new genre in the process Konami Silent Hill 2 gave the console one of the greatest horror games ever made Naughty Dogs Jack and Baxter brought Sony a major new series and offered something a little more light-hearted and there are other games that could be mentioned here too the PlayStation 2's lineup was stacked and this was exactly what Sony needed to keep them on top amidst the launch of their Rivals new consoles still even if the PlayStation 2 would end the year ahead both the Xbox and GameCube did see strong initial sales with many retailers selling out of the systems each console also had its own clear Advantage with the GameCube being the cheapest and the Xbox being the most technologically advanced and so in 2002 Sony set out to take those advantages away to do this they cut the price of the PS2 to 199 dollars to bring it in line with the GameCube and set about creating a PlayStation network adapter add-on alongside several first party online focus titles like Socom to compete with Microsoft's soon to be launching Xbox Live 2002 would also bring a number of PS2 exclusives with the three biggest being Square's latest action RPG Kingdom Hearts which combines Final Fantasy characters with massive Disney franchises Insomniac Games Ratchet and Clank an important action platformer that would get a number of sequels on the system and rockstars Grand Theft Auto Vice City which followed on from GTA 3 by bringing the series to a new city and new decade and found even greater success in the process Nintendo and Microsoft had other important titles in the following years as well but each company would also experience their own third-party struggles Nintendo did finally receive the Mario game they needed with Super Mario Sunshine which featured a tropical setting and a new spin on 3D Mario gameplay other classic Nintendo series would also get new entries with Metroid Prime seeing Metroid make its 3D debut in an atmospheric and immersive take on earlier games that retained much of what made the original special Zelda returned with Wind Waker which your players take to the ocean and explore many islands in a new cell-shaded art style that was a dramatic departure from the previous games Mario Karts returns with Double Dash which replaced the Sprites of the N64 version with full 3d and allowed two Riders per cart to provide a new take on co-op gameplay Animal Crossing and Pikmin made their debuts giving players a relaxed open-ended life Sim alongside a highly original real-time strategy puzzle game and other Nintendo series like Mario Party rounded out what was admittedly a strong first party lineup when it came to third-party support however Nintendo will once more at a disadvantage after having done little to secure exclusive third-party titles in the lead up to the sixth generation what's more rare a developer who had done more to support Nintendo than any other in the last two generations started to experience financial difficulties and were forced to look for a buyer Nintendo already had a significant stake in the company and could have purchased the rest but they instead declined leaving room for other interested parties like Nintendo's newest rival Microsoft while rare did release one GameCube title before this their acquisition by Microsoft still left Nintendo's already lackluster third-party support even more lacking in a strange twist of fate one of Nintendo's most prominent third-party developers in this period was none other than Sega who brought a number of series to the GameCube including Sonic and fantasy star the only other notable third party that provided exclusives was Capcom who would bring a number of Resident Evil games including timed exclusivity on Resident Evil 4 alongside some new IPS still while the GameCube did have exclusives it also found itself left out of certain multi-platform releases as for Generations stretched on some examples include Burnout 3 Black Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 certain entries into the Pro Evolution Soccer series Hitman contracts and Blood Money the night club 2 and so on individually none of these titles may have been deal breakers but the cumulative effect meant the GameCube had the smallest library and came to be seen as the worst system for multi-platform games Microsoft would also eventually bring Grand Theft Auto over to Xbox once more leaving Nintendo out of what was arguably the biggest Series in gaming at the time to make matters worse Nintendo were also increasingly finding that they were developing an image problem in Western markets amidst the gaming industry that was putting out more and more mature titles and marketing from Sony and Microsoft aimed at securing older audiences Nintendo's GameCube came to be seen as the console for younger audiences this reputation had been developing since their Showdown with Sega but now it was starting to do real damage particularly with teenagers who might place a lot of value on how a gaming system is seen by their peers it may no longer be true today but in the early to mid 2000s GameCube just wasn't cool and this had an impact on sales meanwhile with the Xbox Microsoft also faced problems as they struggled to provide Master Chief with any backup attempts were made though Project Gotham Racing received strong reviews but failed to come close to matching the sales of Sony's Mega hit Gran Turismo blinks the time sweeper would see key star from the Sonic series creating an XBox exclusive platformer but it too failed to make a major impact and new acquisition rare failed to live up to their past Heights with games like grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conquer live and reloaded Microsoft's most prominent third-party supports came from Japanese publisher Tecmo who made a deal early on with Microsoft and contributed to the popular fighting Series Dead or Alive and the 3D action debut of Ninja Gaiden as well as from several former PC developers who brought a number of RPGs to the console these included bethesda's breakthrough open world RPG the Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind lionhead's ambitious new IP fable and bioware's popular Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire these RPGs would go on to be some of the most highly acclaimed titles on the system and further cemented Xbox's growing reputation with Western audiences but compared to the PlayStation 2's continually expanding Library the Xbox still had a lot less to offer by comparison as a result Microsoft placed great hope on their upcoming online service Xbox Live which launched one year after the console in November 2002. Xbox Live was an impressive service for its time featuring friends lists voice communication and fast matchmaking while making use of an ethernet port and the faster broadband connection over the still popular dial-up its Flagship launch title was epic's unreal Championship but a disagreement with Electronic Arts over the terms of a new service led to EA withholding all of their games from Xbox Live for its first few years still Xbox's online system was a success and launched before Sony's alternative without the need for any additional Hardware its impact on the industry hadn't been quite as dramatic as Microsoft had hoped for though or at least it wasn't until the services killer app arrived in 2004. [Music] thank you Halo 2's campaign was a solid follow-up from the first game but this wasn't the main thing it came to be known for with Halo 2 Microsoft's best series was able to take advantage of their console's best feature and it turned out to be a match made in heaven Halo 1's multiplayer had already impressed but for many players this would be their first experience moving from split screen to online and the Improvement was dramatic Halo 2 quickly became the console's best-selling game and the most popular thing on Xbox Live vindicating Microsoft's decision to prioritize online features on their console while also creating one of the most fondly remembered multiplayer experiences of all time but as successful as Halo 2 was it wasn't the best-selling game in 2004. in fact it wasn't even close as just when Xbox fans finally had a real reason to celebrate their console superiority the PlayStation 2 would see the arrival of its own best-selling game with Grand Theft Auto San Andreas which would go on to reach an unprecedented 17 million copies sold on PlayStation 2 alone San Andreas took the open world design of the previous games and drastically increased the scale featuring three distinct cities instead of one alongside many new features that improved immersion and customization the game did come alongside controversy particularly after the modern Community were able to uncover a hidden code left in the game's files but enabled a crude sex minigame which led to outrage and a revision of the game's rating from the ESRB to the very rarely used adult-only rating still this wasn't enough to stop it from becoming one of the most successful games of all time and Sony's Playstation 2 flourished alongside it receiving an updated slim model the month before its release and promptly selling out again during the holiday season the final years of the sixth generation would see Sony continuing to add to their already strong lineup of games with high selling sequels to Metal Gear Solid Gran Turismo Final Fantasy Tekken and Kingdom Hearts alongside an impressive new action Series in Santa Monica Studios God of War unique titles came alongside the bigger names as well with games like team icos visually stunning and emotionally evocative Shadow of the Colossus or the weird and wonderful Katamari Damacy from Namco truthfully neither the Xbox or GameCube had bad lineups of games the PlayStation 2 was just on another level and this would ultimately be reflected in its sales over its long long life the PlayStation 2 sold over 155 million units worldwide making it the best-selling gaming system of all time a title it still holds to this day by contrast the Xbox and GameCube sold 24 million and 21.7 million units respectively making this the most decisive victory of any console generation since the Nintendo Entertainment System brought the home video game Market back from the dead Sony benefited from strong third-party support the built-in DVD player backwards compatibility a highly competitive price and a growing reputation of excellence in the console Market for both Microsoft and Nintendo there would be Silver Linings however the Xbox successfully forged itself a place within the console Market took second place in a highly competitive generation and found great success with Halo and Xbox Live two things which showed much promise for the future as online gaming and home broadband both continued to become more and more widely adopted meanwhile for Nintendo they continued to build on their established first party series while cementing their reputation for making quality games the GameCube may have suffered due to its perception as being for younger audiences but Nintendo may not have younger Gamers will one day grow up and by staying true to their vision and creating great games for all ages Nintendo continued to create franchises with strong nostalgic appeal and sometimes Nostalgia can have great dividends in the future in the end it seems fitting but the gamecube's best-selling game would be the crossover title Super Smash Bros melee as no other game better represented the system's appeal or Nintendo's strengths Nintendo's different approach also allowed them to set themselves apart from the competition and while that isn't always the best strategy to win it can sometimes help you survive and ultimately survive they did as did Microsoft and while Sony's lead may have looked insurmountable gaming has always been an industry where things can change quickly before a new wave of consoles could go head-to-head however the handheld Market would finally get to experience a console war of its own Nintendo had dominated the handheld Market since as far back as the original Game and Watch in 1980 and after the game boy beat out a number of Rivals in the early 90s Nintendo spent years being virtually unopposed her Reign continued in the early 2000s with the long-awaited Game Boy Advance which released worldwide in 2001. the system still lacked a backlit screen a feature other handhelds had included as early as the Atari Links in 1989 but otherwise it launched at an affordable 99 and compared to the now seriously dated Game Boy it provided a decent Step Up the original game boy was technically inferior to be 8-bit NES whereas outside of a smaller screen resolution the Game Boy Advance was technically superior to the 16-bit Super Nintendo this had clear benefits for games so long as you could see them on the poorly illuminated screen that once more got to haunt a new generation of children Nintendo would follow the Game Boy advanced with the advanced SP two years later which updated the model and finally included a light source and now the Game Boy owners could at last see what games they were actually playing they were in for a treat because the Game Boy advanced had an extensive library on top of backwards compatibility with the original game Boyce cartridges the system's best-selling game was Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire its second best-selling game was Pokemon fire red and leaf green and its third best-selling game was Pokemon Emerald but it had successful games outside of Pokemon as well as all the Nintendo series you'd expect with plenty of ports of Super Nintendo classics one thing it didn't have was an original Mario title of its own but without any competition that hardly mattered and The Game Boy Advance and advanced SP were highly successful with sales of over 81 million units still Nintendo's era of free reign wouldn't last forever and at E3 2003 it was revealed that they would face new competition from the same company who had just beaten them twice in the Home console Market PlayStation Portable will allow consumers to enjoy 3D gaming similar to The Experience delivered on PlayStation 2. it also has the ability to deliver high quality movies music and video as well as other forms of Digital entertainment content through one Central device and all of this is made possible through Cutting Edge Technologies aimed at helping us explore the future in new ways Sony had dabbled in the handheld space already with the pocket station a portable add-on for the PlayStation 1 that released in 1999 exclusively in Japan their next attempt would be rather more ambitious and the announcement showed off some impressively powerful technical specifications alongside a heavy focus on multimedia support with movies music and online web browsing Sony's plan was simple due for handhelds what they did for consoles through following the same approach I.E good Hardware disk based operating functionality outside of games and strong third-party support and as for that Hardware Sony were Keen to highlight just how similar it was to the still mid-cycle PlayStation 2. at a time when Nintendo's current handheld was only on the level of a two generations old Super Nintendo and their next handheld was being developed in line with the last gen and 64. basically Sony was planning to skip ahead and deliver a product a whole generation more advanced than their rival for Nintendo however power wasn't the main priority the idea for their next system came from Hiroshi yamuichi a man who served as Nintendo president for an incredible 53 years the dual screens were similar to certain models of The Game and Watch and Nintendo wanted to use their new system as a chance to innovate and move away from a conservative image but they were worried they'd started to develop Nintendo were still taking the handheld Market seriously though in fact after the mediocre sales of the GameCube the next generation of handhelds came to be seen as more important than ever with President yamoichi famously saying that if a new system succeeds we will rise to heaven but if it fails we will sink to hell and so Sony's Playstation Portable and Nintendo's DS went Head to Head both systems launched at a similar time in Japan in 2004 although the DS had a four to five month Head Start in other regions the DS also had a lower retail price of one hundred and fifty dollars to the PSPs 250. meanwhile the PSP had a clear advantage in Hardware with a larger display higher resolution and a much more powerful CPU this translated to far better graphics with the PSP succeeding at coming close to PS2 level minus the smaller resolution whereas the DS was still clearly one generation behind Nintendo's new system did come with a touch screen however and this was several years before the arrival of smartphones meaning few people had seen this technology before the combination of two screens and touch-based controls did make the DS stand out but it wasn't initially clear to prospective buyers just how big an impact this would have on their gaming experiences and so as both systems launched the PSP was the one generating the most hype with reviewers impressed by the system's power and with Sony riding high off the momentum of two record-breaking home consoles in Japan both systems got off to strong starts with the PSP selling out faster but the DS selling more units due to Greater Supply in America the PSP released later and performed below Sony's expectations while the DS surpassed Nintendo's Europe saw more or less the opposite though as while the PSP again arrived late this time it sold out at record speeds quickly surpassing the earlier numbers of the DS and so in their first year the two systems seemed to be neck and neck and attention then turned to the games in the console Market Sony had always excelled at attracting third parties but when it came to handhelds they were still a newcomer whereas Nintendo had been working with third parties on handheld games for many years as a result both systems received plenty of third-party support but Sony no longer had the clear advantage the PSP looked to continue the success of its less portable cousins through continuations of many of Sony's best-selling series its biggest success would be Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories and this would be followed by a spin-off to Jack and Daxter a new Tekken title with dark Resurrection a second Grand Theft Auto with Vice City Stories multiple Metal Gear Solid titles with tactical card game Metal Gear acid and the more traditional Metal Gear Solid portable Ops and a new Ratchet and Clank game in size Matters later releases would see new entries into the final fantasy series with Crisis Core and basidia a Kingdom Hearts prequel with Birth by Sleep entries into the Gran Turismo and God of War series and several games from capcom's new Monster Hunter series which proved hugely popular in Japan the PSP was further helped by the addition of a miniature analog stick which was a feature the DS didn't have which helped the PSP's reputation as a more serious gaming system meanwhile over on the DS there would also be continuations of popular series with the First new 2D Mario since the Super Nintendo in New Super Mario Bros as well as Mario Kart DS a portal of Super Mario 64 Animal Crossing Wild Woods Mario Party DS and the Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass however alongside these more familiar names the DS would also find success with several new series that were deliberately designed around the system's touchscreen one of the most popular of these was petsim Nintendogs which released early on and quickly became a big hit but amongst the DS's best-selling games were a number of other names that didn't seem to resemble the usual gaming top sellers these included Brain Age train your brain in minutes a day Professor kagayama's maths training the hundred cell calculation method Big Brain Academy Flash Focus Vision training in minutes a day and English training have fun improving your skills if you want to know just what a big deal Brain Age train your brain in minutes a day was all you need to know is that it sold more copies than any Pokemon game released on the DS the game was inspired by a popular Japanese book train your brain 60 days to a better brain and after a new president of Nintendo satoru Iwata met with the author a decision was made to implement the book's thesis in a new game for Nintendo's upcoming handheld that they hoped might appeal to casual gamers and it did Nintendo released a number of semi-educational puzzle games over the DS's lifespan and this became a major contributor to the success of its software sales Sony targeted core Gamers by doing something similar to its existing consoles and found success with the teenage and young adult markets but Nintendo found considerable Success With both younger and older demographics including people who may not traditionally have had much experience with gaming and so just like with the design of their system both companies had radically different approaches with their gaming lineups and with time one started to perform better than the other but the S saw consistently stronger software sales and was able to maintain its momentum through a number of redesigns starting with the DS Lite in 2006 Ben with the SI in early 2009 and lastly with the DSi XL one year later these redesigns weren't universally applauded with the dsi's removal of backwards compatibility with Game Boy games and its introduction of digital cameras being seen as questionable but for DS Lite in particular helped the console maintain sales meanwhile the PSP also saw Hardware updates with the PSP 2000 and 3000 reducing the size and improving the screen and the later PSP Go providing a total model redesign alongside a move to digital only still the go retained the system's high price and over time interest in the PSP dwindled while the DS pulled further and further ahead this might be because while the PSP came close to matching the ps2's best titles in terms of Graphics its game still felt consistently inferior to their console inspirations early Metal Gear titles in particular seem to Mark A Drop in quality but even the PSP's best-selling grand theft auto titles were still widely considered to be worse than the games which inspired them then as the next generation of consoles arrived with high definition Graphics the PSP's visuals were no longer quite so impressive and with neither graphical prowess or must have games to sell the system and competition from newly arriving smartphones diminishing the PSP's role as a multimedia device the system was left struggling meanwhile the DS was different in both gameplay experiences and audience and so it was able to maintain its more unique place within the gaming Market over time in the end the Nintendo DS sold over 154 million units making it the best-selling handheld and second best-selling system in history only behind the PlayStation 2. meanwhile the PlayStation Portable sold around 18 million units making it an impressive debut by Sony even if it still ultimately fell well behind this competition for handheld overall however this may have been the greatest Generation in gaming history with record numbers of titles genuine Innovation from Nintendo impressive power from Sony and overall sales figures far beyond anything which came before or after by the end of the decade smartphones were well on their way bringing the New Frontier of mobile gaming with them and creating fresh competition for dedicated handheld systems still for a while the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable put handhelds on top of a gaming world and with two very different systems to choose from consumers were arguably the biggest winners of Gaming's miniature console war nothing lasts forever though and the arrival of mobile gaming would come to Mark the beginning of the end for handhelds and this wasn't the only part of the industry where things were changing [Music] for many years PC gaming had been a place of new Innovations and independent development but by the start of the 21st century The Divide between PC gaming and consoles wasn't quite so clear anymore the PlayStation 1's use of PC based development kits made porting between computers and consoles easier than ever and as a result many PC developers started to bring their games to consoles as well this trend continued into the Next Generation as all major console players now took the importance of porting and cross-platform games into consideration at the same time the console Market had seen rapid growth since the launch of the PlayStation 1 making it a more lucrative Market than ever and then Microsoft entered the console space as well making PC gaming and consoles even more closely connected the result of all this was that PC gaming wasn't really as important in the 2000s as it was in the previous decades and several notable PC developers started to design their games with consoles in mind and maybe even as a priority one of the best examples of this is BioWare whose Baldur's Gate series had helped Define the computer role-playing genre in the late 90s then after another PC focused RPG in Neverwinter knights in 2002 they made Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic for PC and Xbox a game with a more console focused design than earlier titles and then their next two games Jade Empire and Mass Effect continued the console Focus design and released exclusively on Xbox and Xbox 360 while only later coming to PC and so while PC games did continue to release in this period for developers this was a time when consoles were often more important the 2000s would also see certain classic PC gaming genres start to fall out of fashion either because of changing consumer interests or changing Trends in game design or just the impact of console growth over PC examples include point-and-click Adventure Games Dungeon Crawlers turn-based RPGs Arena Shooters certain simulation games and even real-time strategy games some series that did see substantial PC success this decade include the already mentioned Sims which received sequels in 2004 and 2009 the total war series which started with Shogun Total War in 2000 and received four more sequels over the next 10 years and the civilization series which saw its third entry in 2001 with further sequels in 2005 and 2010. perhaps the PC's most standout release in this period was valve's Half-Life 2 in 2004. built on the Studio's brand new source engine its Graphics alone were a whole generation ahead of anything on Console at the time and when combined with the engine's Advanced new physics simulation the game offered one of the most realistic and immersive experiences anyone had ever seen still Half-Life 2 was more than just the graphical showcase it used its new higher level of detail to craft affected environmental storytelling its physics were incorporated into puzzle design and allowed for the addition of a new gravity gun and it combined varied gameplay evocative World building and an immersive seamless story to create one of the most enduring single-player FPS experiences of all time Half-Life 2 is one of the most highly acclaimed games of the 21st century and it sold over 12 million copies at a time when big PC exclusive seemed to be dying out Half-Life 2 was a game which came to symbolize the system and its player base even if it did still release on consoles a few years later still even if the PC might have been past its golden age there was one area where it continued to innovate and it was an area which was only growing in importance online online gaming may have started in the 90s but for 2000s was when it exploded the biggest contributor to this was the adoption of broadband in 2000 only three percent of American homes had Broadband but by 2010 that number had increased to 66 percent and Broadband meant convenient high-speed internet access which was perfect for playing online games in 2001 dynamix's tribes 2 up the scale of online Shooters to a staggering 128 players in fast-paced jetpack-fueled action in 2002 EA's Battlefield 1942 offered a rather different kind of large-scale multiplayer Warfare with up to 64 players in an impressive simulation of a realistic battle alongside EA's murder of honor and Activision's Call of Duty in 2003 these three series established the modern military shooter something that would play a massive part in the gaming industry for years to come in 2004 battle released Counter-Strike Source ensuring the popular round-based shooter continued to stay relevant and in 2007 valve released Team Fortress 2 a class and objective-based FPS that has continued to remain active and popular to this day online shooters were making their way to consoles as early as unreal championship in 2002 but for many people PC was still the best place to experience them with custom matchmaking dedicated servers and loyal communities all shaping an experience unlike the one on the more tightly controlled consoles but online gaming wasn't just about shooting other people one of the biggest trends of the decade was the growth of massively multiplayer online RPGs with games like Dark Age of Camelot RuneScape Ragnarok online Final Fantasy 11 and Star Wars Galaxies all following on from what Ultima Online and EverQuest started in the late 90s still when it came to MMOs there was one game which reigned Supreme over all others released in late 2004 World of Warcraft took Blizzard's popular fantasy series online in a massive way with a staggeringly large open world distinct factions classes and races and more attention than previous MMOs to accessibility and leveling World of Warcraft quickly became hugely popular by 2010 it was well into its second expansion and had over 12 million concurrent subscribers all paying monthly fees in a time before microtransactions loot boxes or DLC this represented a serious amount of continuous income on a scale which the gaming industry had never really seen before 12 million players also meant a serious amount of time was being invested into warcraft's virtual world as more and more players followed the reputation of the genre as something life-consuming addictive and dangerous grew as those Outside The Gaming Community tried to make sense of this new growing phenomenon in reality some of the panic this led to was overblown but there was an element of truth to it as well for some people MMOs really were addictive The Escapist promised of another world to lose yourself in the competitive nature of player vs player combat and end game raiding and the social bonds that come from spending so much time with other players in a shared world all contributed to an experience still new to many people that could provide hours of fun but could also be hard to turn away from World of Warcraft would be followed by many other MMOs most of which took heavy inspiration from its success but in the end the genre's growth didn't last and rather than going on to conquer the entire gaming world the genre instead seemed to Peak at the decade's end as more and more online games started to emerge for a time however World of Warcraft really did stand at the top of the gaming world and it became an important part of 2000's gaming culture in the process still while World of Warcraft might have been the biggest online game of the 2000s it certainly wasn't the only one that left the lasting mark on the industry and in fact it wasn't even the only one to come from the warcraft series Warcraft 3 released in 2002 and was an important online game in its own right with an active modding and competitive scene that were aided by The Game's inclusion of a world editor this allowed players to create custom scenarios or maps for the game and many of these fun popularity online but one map in particular would go a whole lot further defense of the Ancients took inspiration from an earlier custom map in Starcraft and shifted warcraft's more traditional RTS Focus towards hero first Hero action DOTA proved to be a big hit and would continue to get updated over the course of a decade with a dedicated Community being built around its competitive play which soon started appearing at esport events by the end of a decade daughter was starting to attract serious commercial attention and in 2009 one of its original developers alongside the recently formed Riot games would launch their own take on a standalone dota-like experience called League of Legends in time pajama's name would change from DOTA like to MOBA or multiplayer online battle arena and in a little more time this would become one of the most popular genres in the world and it all started with a single custom map for Warcraft 3. Counter-Strike and Team Fortress were also games which started life as player created mods and between them they proved that the Innovative and independent side of PC gaming where developers could change the entire industry with a few lines of code written in their bedroom was still alive even in the console dominated 2000s and speaking of console domination the mid-2000s also brought the arrival of a new generation alongside the greatest Fall From Grace since the collapse of Atari [Music] with the PlayStation 2 Sony achieved the unthinkable and they were set to enter the seventh generation of consoles with a huge lead in market share and in their Flawless reputation with the public one year after the release of NX system however they would find themselves firmly in last place in sales while making a significant loss on each unit sold with onlookers questioning if they were witnessing the beginning of the end of the once a mortal PlayStation for 10 years Sony dominated the console Market without any competitor coming close for 10 years they looked unbeatable until suddenly things changed the story of how this happened began at E3 2005. for years Gamers the world over had been eagerly awaiting the next generation of gaming and it was here that they were finally going to get to see it with Microsoft Sony and Nintendo showing off their new consoles officially for the very first time for Nintendo the reveal was still rather secretive the console was named the revolution due to Nintendo's belief that it would revolutionize the industry but the reason for that Revolution wasn't yet made clear and other than a look at the Prototype model some technical details and a brief showing of some Next Generation Metroid the audience was ultimately left with more questions than answers for Microsoft the event meant details the already announced Xbox 360 was set to launch later that year ahead of its competition and Microsoft showed off upcoming games provided technical specifications and emphasized the new online interconnectivity with in-game messaging downloadable games and further online support being planned Sony however wasn't as close to their console's release date and so the event came to be about the future Sony's main announcement was the cell multi-core microprocessor that would be powering their new upcoming system this was being built in collaboration with IBM and Toshiba and used genuine supercomputer technology making it a promising piece of Hardware that could put Sony's system a clear step above its competition in terms of pure power Sony spent far longer showcasing the cell processor than any company would normally spend on such a subject with both Tech demos and games designed to show off its capabilities some of what was shown was genuinely mind-blowing it can be hard to tell on Lower resolution video footage after years of further technological advances but for the time the quality of certain games was far beyond anything people had seen before Beyond Microsoft's recent 360 showcase and Beyond what many people thought was even possible for example Killzone featured animations physics and lighting effects that are still difficult to achieve today 18 years later including explosions casting shadows in real time for people who knew a little about gaming Hardware this could only mean one of two possibilities and arguments were quick to break out online about which one was true either Sony was about to obliterate the competition and dominate a third console generation in a row with their far superior system or the game shown were fake I.E pre-rendered videos that were only posing as games or at best actual games that were instead running on top of a line PC Hardware in the end time would tell but not before the Xbox 360 launched the 360 released in November 2005 at 299 or 399 dollars depending on model and it received a positive critical reception sales started strong but manufacturing problems limited Supply leading to the system selling out in all regions except Japan while not selling as many units as was originally hoped the launch lineup was nothing remarkable with Call of Duty 2 and perfect dark zero being the best-selling titles yet neither represented a true system seller and so with one console released the field was wide open with everything still to play for 2006 or the PlayStation 3 being delayed from its earlier release date of spring to later in the year while the 360 continued strong adding more exclusive games to its Library including the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion Dead Rising and Saints Row meanwhile E3 that year brought Nintendo's big reveal and reactions were mixed the new name the Wii was widely mocked and the showcasing of the new motion controls left audiences uncertain for Nintendo and the gaming industry this was a bold New Direction and no one seemed quite sure yet what the impact of this would be one thing it did make clear however was that Nintendo wouldn't be in the competition for the most powerful next-gen system anymore and would instead be finding success or failure through forging their own path and so attention returned to Sony who were about to have a conference that would live in infamy ever since our development teams all around the world in all of our Studios have been hard at work converting that technology and vision into Magic [Music] whoops another exciting aspect is the ability for consumers to make microtransactions 599 US Dollars and we've been digging deeper and discovering what kind of muscle this machine really has and you can see from all of the games that we have up and running on PlayStation 3 that we're really starting to push what this machine is capable of real time weapon change it's exhilarating what they're creating for the Playstation 3 is inspiring so that sums up our playable section when the E3 began in the 90s it was something aimed primarily at investors and Industry professionals and it came alongside boring PowerPoint presentations full of sales figures and bar charts as time went by E3 became more and more about media coverage and consumer Outreach with it becoming the number one place to make gaming announcements while also drawing heavy consumer scrutiny by 2006 E3 was starting to attract more consumer attention and Sony's presentation wasn't exactly convincing making fun of e3 conferences has gone on to become a recurring part of online gaming culture but this was where that tradition started and we're certainly not interested in gimmicks so you can position this next to your TV screen and see for yourself what is coming up behind you and we're certainly not interested in conventional thinking uh Genji 2 is an action game which is based on Japanese history the stages of the game will also be based on famous battles which took actually took place in ancient Japan so here's this giant enemy crab it's Ridge Racer Ridge Racer it requires huge financial investment 599 US dollars but we must take risks to reap the rewards settled on stage awkwardness and giant enemy crabs were the least of Sony's worries a retail price of 599 or 499 for a model with a smaller hard drive and several missing features was a staggering amount of money well beyond the competition or what's anyone expected the system would include a Blu-ray player which helped Sony promote the Blu-ray format but unlike the DVD player of the PS2 for most consumers this did little to make up for the system's high price as the Blu-ray format was still rarely being used at the time Sony however Justified the high price on the basis for the power of their system made it worth it they were Sony they made the best consoles and the higher price was reflective of their far more powerful Hardware Sony didn't see the problem with this logic but other people did alongside the price release date and lessons on Japanese history Sony also showcased several upcoming games yet most of them didn't look as impressive as what Sony had shown the year before what's more they also didn't look especially different to the already released games on the Xbox 360. Sony did have a more powerful system but it seemed they didn't have much to show for it of course some people disagreed with arguments raging online about the console's graphics and people possibly seeing whatever they wanted to see in the end time would once more tell the true story and in November 2006 the PlayStation 3 released in America and Japan with a last minute delay leading to the European release being pushed to early 2007. regardless of the price the system did still sell with stock shortages and online scalpers causing controversy the PS3 launch lineup also didn't have too much to offer and featured fewer games than the 360 had at release with the best-selling game being resistance full of man still by this point the Xbox 360 had been out for a year already and in that time its Library had grown considerably with the month of the PS3's launch just happening to coincide with Microsoft's latest big exclusive Gears of War a third person shooter from epic games gears was a major critical and Commercial hit its heavy focus on cover-based combat was seen as a fresh take on the shooter genre and it was the perfect game to fill a space left open by the 360s absence of a new Halo what's more its Unreal Engine powered Graphics wowed critics and showcased what 360 was capable of and it seemed that what the 360 was capable of was Keeping Up with the supposedly more powerful PlayStation 3. of course arguments about Graphics still raged online but by this point for most people it was clear that if the PS3 did have an advantage it wasn't a big enough one to win them the console generation outright at this point you may be wondering what the hell was going on inside the PlayStation 3 and whether the system even was more powerful to begin with and this was a question many people asked throughout the Seventh Generation the simple answer is that the cell processor famously used by the PS3 was more powerful but it was also more complicated which made it harder for developers to actually utilize its power meanwhile the 360 had a solid CPU itself while also having a small Edge when it came to GPU power and a more convenient shared memory system in the end though any difference in power didn't really matter the key decider was third parties Sony hoped that they'd continue to lead the industry and that developers would prioritize developing for their more powerful system as a result in reality however the Xbox 360 quickly gained the sizeable share of the market and so developers priority became making sure their games were available on both systems with some developers even going as far as to publicly criticize Sony's more difficult to develop for Hardware but as the 360 was easier to develop for most multi-platform games were developed primarily but the Xbox 360 and then ported to the PS3 meaning not only did the PlayStation 3 lack a graphical Advantage but in many multi-platform games the PlayStation version either looked or ran worse the PS3 did produce some great looking exclusives particularly later in its life once developers had more time to get used to the system's architecture but its reputation for having inferior versions of multi-platform games at a time when multi-platform games were becoming more important did damage the system sales with Microsoft often seeing much better software sales for multi-platform titles it also damaged Sony's brand and without a graphical Edge or many strong exclusive games early in its life the PlayStation 3 fell behind the 360. while the Xbox's Library continued to grow 2007 brought more exclusives to Microsoft System including Crackdown Forza Motorsports 2 Bioshock and Mass Effect the biggest of these though was the much anticipated Halo 3 which promised players the chance to finish the fight in what was to be Master the chief's final game Halo was huge it went on to sell over 14 million copies in what many considered to be the best game of the Seventh Generation up until that point Sony would have some exclusives of their own that year but the likes of a new Ratchet and Clank Uncharted Drake's Fortune and Gran Turismo 5 prologue weren't enough to match the 360 Superior offerings what's more many of the series that once made the PlayStation the console King were going or had already went multi-platform from Grand Theft Auto to Devil May Cry Tomb Raider or Tekken Sony's list of exclusives seem to be getting smaller and smaller and at E3 2008 it was announced that even Final Fantasy A series more important to Sony's early success than any other would be coming to both systems Microsoft did face some of their own problems the most expensive being high rates of Hardware failure and the infamous red ring of death reports of technical problems appeared early in the 360s life but the true extent of the issue wasn't made apparent until a year or two after its launch as more and more systems continued to fail in the end Microsoft was forced to make an official response to the situation alongside offering all Xbox owners a full three-year warranty covering repairs and shipping this was estimated to cost over 1 billion dollars and slowed the Xbox's momentum at a time when Microsoft would have loved to instead have been pulling further ahead as the decade groups were closed the PlayStation 3's Outlook was finally starting to look more positive consecutive hundred dollar price Cuts in 2007 2008 and 2009 finally brought the system to an affordable price several early 360 exclusives like the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion and Bioshock turned out to only have timed exclusivity and made their way to Sony's system as well and as the generation continued the PlayStation 3 was able to add more and more exclusives of its own including LittleBigPlanet Metal Gear Solid 4 Kill Zone 2 Infamous God of War 3 and Gran Turismo 5. meanwhile be exclusives on the 360 started to come slower with highlights including Fable 2 left for dads and sequels to Halo and Gears of War the decade would end with Microsoft still in the lead but with Sony working hard to make amends for their mistakes by taking heavy losses on systems sold after price Cuts as they tried to Foster an image of appealing to core Gamers and creating strong first party titles still for Microsoft the 7th generation can only be interpreted as victory whereas for Sony they went from being Untouchable to having to fight for their life when Sony launched the PlayStation 1 they found record success through the system's affordable price its ease to develop for and its great third-party support that led to many exclusive titles ten years later they seem to have ignored all of these factors and were instead relying on name recognition to sell their system no matter the price and to bring developers to their side no matter the challenge of development yet while it might seem like Sony's downfall was brought about by arrogance it might be fairer to say that they were simply over ambitious the man responsible for many of the decisions involving the PlayStation 3 was then Sony interactive entertainment CEO Ken kutaragi who is sometimes described as the father of PlayStation for kutaragi this was to be his last direct involvement with Sony's gaming division which was something he had once done so much to help create and he truly believed in the power of the cell processor and had hopes its technology could be used in other Sony products in the end this wasn't to be but kutaragi had taken gambles with the PlayStation 1 and 2 as well and in the past this was a big part of what helped turn Sony into the leader of the industry this time however he simply got it wrong still Sony weren't the only ones who took a gamble in the seventh generation and while the PS3 and 360 were in Fierce competition for the core gaming Market Nintendo were finding success elsewhere [Music] the Wii wasn't like its peers where Sony and Microsoft moved to high definition Nintendo's system remained at the 480p of the previous generation breaking the long-running convention of new consoles being more powerful than their predecessors instead Nintendo opted to avoid direct competition and to Target a broader demographic in what has sometimes been called the Blue Ocean business strategy which asserts finding value in less contested Market spaces to this end Nintendo set out with the goal to innovate taking inspiration from the success of the Nintendo DS as well as the popular arcade rhythm game Dance Dance Revolution and new advancements in motion sensing technology the end results released in November 2006 mere days after the PlayStation 3. unlike the PS3 however the Wii cost a mere 250 and it quickly sold out beating the combined sales of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in most regions during its launch the Wii offered something genuinely new and people seemed eager to try it out for themselves by September 2007 the Wii had overtaken the 360 despite releasing a year later and it continued to sell well until 2010 when it started to experience a rapid decline amidst increased competition for many people though the Wii was the perfect family console its advertising targeted a wide audience including mothers and grandmothers and its wealth of party games and simple pickup and playability led to many people who may not have usually played video games being willing to give it a go its best-selling titles reflect this broader appeal with the bundled Wii Sports selling and impressive 82.9 million copies we Sports didn't receive the strongest critical reception mostly due to the gameplay's lack of depth but its Simplicity worked well as an introduction to motion control and as a way to attract those new to gaming other new first party motion control games like we play we fit Wii Party and Wii Sports Resort also sold impressive numbers with Nintendo managing to Showcase various creative ways to use their new technology particularly through the combination of exercise and gaming in Wii Fit alongside these were many of the classic series people have come to expect from Nintendo with Mario Kart Wii and new Super Mario Bros Wii being the best-selling titles and Super Mario Galaxy Super Mario Galaxy 2 Super Smash Bros brawl and the Legends of Zelda Twilight Princess being its most highly acclaimed Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 stood out in particular for once more offering a fresh take on the 3D Mario formula this time with a space theme and lots of creative level design focused on different uses of gravity much of the Wii's Library focused on its motion controls however and on this aspect opinions varied with some seeing it as a bold new step for gaming and others seeing it as more of an imprecise gimmick the legacy of the Wii is also hard to judge it was the best-selling system of its generation and yet in its later years its sales fell consistently behind both its rivals in hardware and software and this severe loss of momentum may have went on to hurt Nintendo's next console for a time it looked like the system would live up to its early code name but in the end the motion control Revolution didn't really amount to much suggesting that the success of the system might have been more down to novelty then the inherent value that motion control provided there were also problems beyond the system's less impressive graphics with poor online support poor audio and a plethora of lower quality titles that seem designed to purely cash in on the latest craze with little regard to Quality this came alongside a lack of long-term third parties of thoughts from more established video game developers who often stated they found motion controls difficult to implement and develop for the Wii would also miss out on many multi-platform games due to the difficulty of porting to a system with lower technical specifications yet at the same time the Nintendo Wii was one of the most unique and daring consoles the gaming industry has ever seen and it remains an iconic part of gaming in the 2000s and while motion controls may not have been the future for mainstream gaming appealing to wider demographics May well have been the 2000s would see another Trend come and go in the form of accessory based Rhythm games across different systems and different titles the Guitar Hero and rock band series saw hugely impressive sales and while this sub-genre soon fell away this was around the same time but smartphones and mobile gaming were starting to explode and Conquer The Casual Market as well as a big chunk of the entire industry in the process in this sense the Wii may have been ahead of its time in making inroads into new more casual audiences but it would soon find itself outgunned in the great casual War by the rapidly growing Mobile Market Mobile gaming wasn't the only thing on the rise at the end of the decade however as while console gaming was increasingly going big some developers started to take a rather different approach foreign the 2000s can be seen as for decades where AAA gaming came to dominate with bigger budgets better graphics and longer development Cycles at the same time but certain Styles or genres of games were increasingly being pushed out of a limelight but in the shadow of this increased focus on Blockbuster titles at the expense of all else something else started to appear in the decades second half independent game development has long played a vital role in PC gaming from pioneering students in the 70s two-bedroom coders in the 80s to shareware successes in the 90s and even modding Innovations at the turn of a decade independent development was around since the industry's beginning and it never stopped being important still throughout the 90s and 2000s a technological gap between what small independent teams and big commercial Studios could do grew and grew moving the industry further and further away from independent development in the early 2000s however several factors would align that helped give rise to a new form of indie game development the first was the internet which paved the way for more effective online distribution without the need for retailers or publishers the internet also saw the start of browser-based gaming which was made possible through programs like Java and Adobe Flash this would give rise to a wealth of user-generated content with hosting sites like Newgrounds seeing massive amounts of traffic over the decades proving the popularity of even much more limited games with some browser-based games quickly becoming successful enough to get full PC retail releases like with popcaps 2001 Match 3 game Bejeweled at the same time as this new dedicated software like game maker studio and new unified game engines like unity and Unreal Engine was starting to lower the programming barrier to entry in game development finally in 2004 Half-Life 2 released and Indie gaming would never be the same because despite being very far from an indie game itself Half-Life 2 was the first game to be offered on and required the installation of steam the half-life Community wasn't exactly happy about this but the half-life Community didn't have a choice and Half-Life 2 was a difficult game to resist in 2005 steam would release its first third-party games on the platform including independent titles like Ragdoll Kung Fu and darwinia and as theme's digital distribution model cut out retailers and Manufacturing costs it gave developers a higher profit margin meaning that once valve proved the model could work they were able to start attracting bigger names including its software idos and Capcom leading to further growth for the platform this came alongside the rise of the term in the game once upon a time there were no distinctions between games on the basis of developer status or budget but as the industry grew people eventually started to differentiate between small cheaper independent titles and the more traditional full-priced commercial releases one of the first games to help create this distinction was Cave Story which was developed by one man Daisuke Amiya over a five-year period starting when he was in college Amia was inspired by the games he played growing up like Metroid and so he made a 2d platforming Adventure game with a retrovisual style Cave Story was finished in late 2004 with Amia making it available online for free the reason he didn't charge anything was because he fought the shareware model would be too much hassle to implement and he just wanted more people to play his game after working on it for so long and people did play his game with several Western media Outlets reporting on and praising it soon after its release and showing amazement that such a game could come from just one single developer but as Cave Story released for free in a time before most people had ever heard the term indie game it didn't find mainstream success and Amia simply continued working his full-time job at a printing company until six years later when Cave Story released on Nintendo's we wear service and finally became a commercial success Cave Story has been described as the quintessential indie game and it would Inspire others to follow in its wake while digital distribution and new development tools made doing so more and more achievable the next major step for Indie Games would once again come from valve and a non-indie game however portal released in 2007 and its creative puzzle design and memorable Story made it one of the year's most critically acclaimed games portal was only about three hours long however which seemed far too short for a normal full-priced commercial release as a result valve got around this by selling it alongside Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 in a retail compilation called The Orange Box still photos high quality and widespread popularity clearly highlighted the potential of smaller more focused games at the same time as this Microsoft were looking to promote their own Xbox focused digital distribution store Xbox Live arcade which was a perfect place for Indie Games due to their smaller download sizes and so Microsoft began the Xbox Live arcade Wednesday's program which promised a new arcade game to be released each week over summer as well as the Xbox Live arcade unplugged compilation discs to promote Xbox Live arcade games to normal retail consumers this was followed by the Xbox Live summer of arcade which began in 2008 and saw Microsoft heavily promoted series of newly releasing Indie Games each summer the first Year's lineup included Castle Crashes Bionic Commando re-armed Gallagher Legions Geometry Wars 2 and braid and this proved to be a big success which helped establish the concept of Indie Games with General audiences by 2009 promising Indie titles were starting to become a common occurrence even outside of Xbox's summer of arcade and steam Spelunky from Derek U combined platforming gameplay with the procedural generation of roguelikes to create a new type of non-traditional roguelike design that many future games would emulate flower from back game company released on PSN and took players on a calm and emotional Journey that contrasted sharply from the violence of most mainstream games and World of Goo from 2D Boy released on PC and Wii and impressed with its simple yet challenging puzzle design and memorable presentation and so by 2010 indie games in the form that we think of them today had arrived and they were just starting to become an important Force within an industry that was otherwise moving in the opposite direction thank you at the start of the decade Sony were at the top of the industry and were preparing for the release of a console that would soon be even more successful by the end of a decade they were in last place and trying desperately to rebuild their damaged reputation at the start of a decade Microsoft was still yet to formally enter the gaming space yet by the decades end they were in the strongest position they would ever find themselves in with the Xbox looking increasingly like the core gaming console of choice at the start of a decade Nintendo were the company for classic console gaming yet by its end they were finding new levels of success by appealing to new audiences with new types of Technology things change fast in the gaming industry and in just a few more years everything just mentioned would end up changing again but it wasn't just the fates of the major players that were in flux in the 2000s game design itself would see major Evolution as mainstream gaming moved further and further towards AAA approach the jump from B6 to 7th console generation would be the last time but new consoles would bring a really noticeable upgrade in graphics as games went from 480 to 720 resolution but even this came at a cost as the average frame rate of console games dropped as a result from 60 FPS down to 30. for years gaming Graphics had steadily increased but now the industry was starting to see diminishing returns with sacrifices having to be made to Performance to make continued advancement possible and yet the best selling and most critically acclaimed games were without doubt the ones that looked the best in 2009 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Broke records for sales and Uncharted 2 Broke records for Game of the Year Awards with both games putting a huge focus on linear cinematic set pieces and the highest levels of presentation that technology would allow and yet while mainstream gaming was getting noticeably more expensive and less diverse it was other areas of gaming that would see the largest growth at the end of 2009 Rovio entertainment's Angry Birds and popcaps Plants vs Zombies had just released as smartphone fueled mobile gaming was becoming a larger and larger section of the industry Sony and Microsoft were both preparing for the release of their own motion controlled devices to try to replicate Nintendo's success with casual audiences and a little indie game by the name of Minecraft was starting to make waves online after its first release to the public while a little multiplayer game called League of Legends was just coming to the end of its beta gaming was changing just like it always does and the changes of the next decade would see some of the industry's toughest challenges yet alongside some of its best and worst moments the console Wars would continue in the 2010s but the first battle was fought over motion controls Nintendo had responded to criticism of the original Wii remote poor Precision with the Wii Motion Plus in 2009 this new add-on up the accuracy but only in games developed with it in mind and it will be required for certain later titles like Wii Sports Resort and The Legend of Zelda skyward Swords still both Sony and Microsoft focused their marketing on why their new devices were better than the Wii now just like this but this way too because real boxers don't hit like this Sony posted about their accuracy pointing to the little glowing plastic ball on the end of the PlayStation Move remote as proof that the device is special and making liberal use of terms like accelerometer and actual sensors synergistic processing units and internal magnetometers and no I did not make any of those terms up just now Microsoft on the other hand decided the best marketing strategy was to freak everyone out with their surreal virtual child simulator project Milo in 2009 there we go what do you think look at what just happened orange Claire grew a picture on a piece of paper the piece of paper was held up to Milo natal recognized the piece of paper scan the piece of paper in Milo looked at that piece of paper recognized the shape recognize the color unable to get on with this project this is true technology that science fiction is not even written about and this works today now unfortunately while it may have apparently worked that day one year later when Microsoft returned to showcase the connect again it was rather less impressive being something more in line with the earlier PlayStation itoy meanwhile the child Milo was never seen again for gaming fans that were happy using normal controllers this was a strange time to be alive both E3 and gaming media were dominated by the new upcoming battle for motion control Supremacy for time the question of who is win between the connect the move and the Wii was treated with the utmost importance as if we were only now about to see the real battle that would determine Gaming's future in the end though it turns out Gaming's future had other plans the PlayStation Move released in September 2010 received positive reviews for accuracy and responsiveness particularly when compared to the Wii and then produce disappointing sales as the more serious gaming audience Sony were targeting at the time showed a little interest a disappointing selection of games to support it certainly didn't help either and in three years time it was all but forgotten Microsoft's connect on the other hand released in November 2010 for a higher price and received worse reviews and then it broke the world records for the fastest selling consumer electronic device while easily surpassing the move in the process probably because it was marketed heavily towards a more casual audience and the controller-free experience it offered was something different to the already widespread we reviewers criticized input lag and the lack of depth in games on offer but did praise the canex innovativeness three years later and the connect was far from forgotten but we'll get to that later around this time the Wii would also see itself slow as the motion control craze seemed to be coming to its natural conclusion after the novelty started to wear off still while motion control might have dominated the news at that time something else was dominating sales in 2009 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Broke sales records for biggest entertainment launch in history across all media in 2010 Call of Duty Black Ops broke the same records surpassing Modern Warfare 2. in 2011 Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Broke records again surpassing Black Ops and in 2012 Call of Duty Black Ops 2 Broke records again surpassing Modern Warfare 3. Call of Duty's reign of terror would not last forever but at the start of the 2010s it certainly seemed like it might put simply Call of Duty was the biggest thing in gaming at the time with release after release easily managing to sell over 20 million copies and there was a new release every single year the multiplayer formula established by Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare proves incredibly popular with players and Activision was happy to do everything they could to cash in on this and so in a time when there was less online shooter competition Call of Duty became the Undisputed King amidst The Soaring popularity of mobile games the yearly domination of Call of Duty and the newly arriving motion control devices there was a sense at this time but older or core gaming audiences might be being left behind in an industry but didn't seem to need them anymore this would play a major role in the next console generation but there were still well received games being released in this period and amongst them a new trend was on the rise the open world after the record success of Grand Theft Auto on the PlayStation 2 it's no surprise that more games would try to copy its approach to open world design but while the 2000s would see a large number of Grand Theft Auto clones few of them ended up leaving a lasting impact things would change at the start of the next decade however as developers started to look Beyond Grand Theft Auto for open world inspiration games like Fallout 3 in 2008 Assassin's Creed 2 in 2009 Red Dead Redemption and Fallout New Vegas in 2010 Batman Arkham City and the Elder Scrolls V Skyrim in 2011 and Far Cry 3 in 2012 all achieved critical and Commercial Success to help popularize the open world as a concept that would soon come to be used more broadly in mainstream game design and as the decade continued more and more games made the transition to open world including most of the biggest Series in gaming like Metal Gear Solid The Witcher Dragon Age Final Fantasy Mass Effect Forza The Legend of Zelda Halo and Pokemon alongside many of the Decades biggest new IPS this fit the established gaming industry trend of trying to make bigger and better games to continually one-up what came before where open world seemed to represent the next step in this while also providing an opportunity to Breathe new life into established franchises the move towards open worlds brought benefits like increased immersion and player freedom but it would also lead to criticism about repetition and game experiences being drawn out or padded with the term open world fatigue sometimes being used as per decades continued still at the start of the decade open worlds were relatively fresh and early examples like Red Dead Redemption and Skyrim were some of the most highly praised and best-selling games of their respective years still while much of gaming at this time was moving in certain recognizable directions there were two games which stood out for doing something different the first was Dark Souls which released in 2011 on consoles and 2012 on PC from software had already impressed players with demon souls in 2009 but Dark Souls was where they would reach a much wider audience and the game quickly developed a reputation for its high difficulty and unforgiving Design what really made Dark Souls stand out however was how different it felt from so many other games of its era since for days of arcades video games had been becoming easier and more accessible year after year to the point where increasing accessibility was seen as a fundamental part of good game design the general consensus was that older games were often far too punishing so developers added things like regenerating health and regular checkpoints or that all games were too vague and confusing so developers added more tutorials guidance and features like minimaps or that all games were too simple and video gamey so developers focused more on the Cinematic side with action set pieces and cutscenes and then Dark Souls came along and ignored all of this it punished players for mistakes even taking away their valuable experience points it gave players minimal Direction and made a world where it was easy to get lost and it told its story almost entirely indirectly leaving 99 of the experience as pure gameplay Dark Souls broke all the rules about how a modern game should be designed and in doing so it created something unique which many players fell in love with time Dark Souls developed one of the most enduring legacies of any game from the modern era although its reception at release was more modest it was only the 32nd highest reviewed game from 2011 and it was widely ignored by Game of the Year Awards yet it was also a game which people kept playing and talking about and soon its influence was hard to deny every difficult game would come to be compared to it countless Indie Games would directly copy it and even mainstream games would start to indirectly copy it all while its reputation kept growing in short from combat design to the lack of hand-holding to the use of difficulty or its approach to storytelling Dark Souls was a title which made the industry reevaluate what good game design truly meant and yet it arguably wasn't even the most important game released that year if Dark Souls challenged how people thought about game design Minecraft challenged how people thought about video games beginning at the hands of a single developer Marcus Notch Pearson Minecraft would go on to become the best-selling game of all time with a staggering 238 million copies sold a number which is still Rising Notch took inspiration from the ambitious colonism toward Fortress and the block-based mining game in finiminer to create a procedurally generated block building sandbox that was made available to the public online in 2009 and received regular updates over the next two years in 2011 it received its official release and in 2014 Minecraft was bought by Microsoft for 2.5 billion dollars with the game still receiving regular updates to this day Beyond simply being one of the most played games ever made Minecraft popularized the concept of Early Access where players paid to access a game that's still in development and continuous development where a game is continually expanded over time with no specific planned ending it also challenged the perceived importance of Graphics in gaming for years Graphics had been getting better and better and becoming a larger and larger priority even as this caused development time and costs to continually increase then Minecraft came along with pixelated blocky visuals that looked several Generations old and became the most successful game in history in doing so Minecraft proved that not only are high quality Graphics not needed for a game to be successful but also the graphics might sometimes be holding gaming back Minecraft's popularity was a result of the freedom it provided players to create and explore and do more than most other games allowed and this level of Freedom was only made possible by the simpler visual style where not every asset needed thousands and thousands of polygons or multiple dedicated artists at a time when the gaming industry was fully embracing AAA design and indie games were still finding their footing Minecraft was a Monumental statement about what video games could and maybe should be and between Minecraft Dark Souls the open world Trend yearly Call of Duties and unwanted motion controls you have a great representation of what the next decade in gaming would be all about video games were changing just like they always were but now conflicts and divisions were starting to be more obvious as the industry continued to grow and expand within this multiple distinct battles can be identified like mainstream vs Indie conventional game design versus counterculture core gaming vs casual maximizing monetization versus preserving a franchise and so on and it was these divisions that would truly Define the next decade including the next generation of console Warfare [Music] in the Seventh Generation Sony shocked the World by losing after years of PlayStation domination Sony looked Unstoppable but a high price complicated system architecture and the loss of key exclusives allowed Microsoft to close the gap with core Gamers while Nintendo thrived through appealing to new and more casual audiences the fate of all three of these companies would soon change though and this started before the Next Generation even arrived after years of leading the pack the Wii sales fell behind both the 360 and PS3 at the same time but New Motion control competition arrived and consumer interest seemed to wane Microsoft saw its lead over Sony dwindle and eventually disappear as the 360 lost momentum amidst few new exclusives and Sony systems saw its finest years after price cuts and model revisions turned around sales Sony strong end of a generation would be complete with the release of The Last of Us in summer 2013 which was heralded as one of the finest games of the generation at the same time that the PS3 finally managed to overtake the 360's total lifetime sales Focus then turned to the Next Generation which had officially begun in 2012. and a runner on second Hernandez is on the mount and here comes the 3-1 pitch swinging in a Miss 98 mile per hour fastball [Music] this was the world first reveal of Nintendo's new console as shown at E3 2011. you may notice a heavy emphasis on the words controller this trailer is three minutes long and that word shows up on screen 12 different times the word console isn't used once and the Wii U console isn't even shown the Wii U was one of Nintendo's greatest failures and much of that failure is often said to be down to Consumers failing to understand what the system even was looking at the reveal trailer shows how this might have happened and even among gaming media this caused some confusion amongst general consumers who may not follow gaming news closely I.E much of the Wii's new player base it would have been easy to mistake this device as just an expensive add-on or a new Nintendo themed tablet and this poor marketing decision surely hurt the system sales this isn't the whole story however and even during its development the Wii U experienced a bit of an identity crisis that went on to follow it for the rest of its life the Wii exceeded Nintendo's expectations and excelled with casual gamers but Nintendo started to worry that if they appealed too much to Casual audiences it might hurt their reputation with more core audiences as a result Nintendo made Bridging the Gap between the two groups a priority for their next system and so they decided on HD graphics as this was expected from core audiences and that it should also include a new Innovative feature that could appeal to families and Wii fans hence the tablet-like controller this controller wasn't as revolutionary as the Wii's motion controls had been though as tablet computers were already gaining popularity at this time the controller was also heavy and bulky in design had a short battery life and needed to be in range of the Wii U console to be used making it more limited than an actual tablet Nintendo also struggled to show off the advantages this hybrid approach brought to game design whereas the Wii's motion control was simple to understand and easily demonstrated still in November 2012 the Wii U launched to the public for 299 or 349 dollars the critical reception was mostly positive with praise given to its backwards compatibility with Wii games and peripherals as well as the potential of its unique controller initial sales were lower than Nintendo expected though and the launch lineup had few must-play titles with the best sellers being a new new Super Mario Bros and the party game Nintendo Land as time went on Nintendo would release more games on the system including new entries into most of the series people expected like Mario Kart and Smash Bros although the importance of these games may have been diminished by the fact that many also released on Nintendo's latest handheld the 3DS the Wii U's biggest problem however would once again be third party support at the start of the Wii U's life it was on par with the still current PS3 and Xbox 360 meaning titles could be ported between these systems and these ports made up a big part of the Wii U's early lineup these games rarely made interesting use of the Wii U's unique controller and sometimes ran worse than the older generation versions due to differences with the system's Hardware but this was still a lot better than what was to follow once the next generation of consoles arrived the Wii U once again became technically inferior to its Rivals causing great difficulty for third parties when porting multi-platform games to the system and as the Wii U got off to a slow start which led to a small user base third parties then had even less incentive to bring their games to the system at all less than one year after its release EA and Bethesda both publicly stated that they had little plans for future Wii U games and this problem only grew over time by the end of the Wii U's life the only game amongst its best-selling titles that didn't come directly from Nintendo was Minecraft and so for the fourth generation in a row Nintendo's console was the worst place to be for third-party games and this time the problem was bigger than ever Nintendo designed the Wii U as a system that would appeal to both casual and core audiences but with little third-party support and few games which made interesting use of the controller the Wii U failed to pull in many core Gamers and with confusing marketing a high price and the lack of a strong new gimmick it failed to replicate the Wii success with casual gamers and so the Wii U was a complete failure and dumped Nintendo firmly into last place as soon as its competitors arrived but as disappointing for Nintendo as this must have been at least they could soon console themselves but they weren't the only one who dropped the ball in the eighth generation introducing Xbox One TV experience TV TV and movies TV Xbox watch TV TV TV TV TV TV watch TV TV TV and TV remote TV experience TV TV TV TV TV TV TV anybody TV TV MTV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV TV television Television TV television television television Television TV TV TV television television television I'm thrilled to announce a live action Halo television series televisions TV sports sports sports Television TV TV TV TV to understand how the eighth generation Was Won you have to keep in mind what have been happening leading up to it the biggest Trends over the last five or six years had been the success of the Wii and motion control the huge growth in the mobile market and Call of Duty continuing to break every sales record under the sun people may not have admitted it but the truth was core Gamers were starting to feel like they were being forgotten the industry was growing but it was growing away from what made many people like games in the first place and the only thing big companies seem to care about now was finding new ways to reach the more lucrative casual Market and so as the next generation was about to be revealed there was never a more important moment to put the focus squarely back on high quality games then came the official Xbox One reveal show which was the first look at Microsoft's new system and the moment Xbox fans had been waiting for for years and the only thing being mentioned was TV TV TV TV TV TV TV it took 33 minutes almost all of which was focused on TV but for a single video game was shown and when it was it was just the highlight reel for the next yearly installment of multi-platform EA Sports titles this was followed by the more promising Forza 5 then a newly announced confusing game TV show hybrid called Quantum break and then it was back to actual TV coverage Halo made an appearance as a newly announced TV show Steven Spielberg made an appearance to talk about TV American football made an appearance as something you can apparently watch on TV and then the show finished with Microsoft's biggest reveal Call of Duty will appear on Xbox later that year just as it had for the last six years because it was a multi-platform yearly series and then the show was over this was how Microsoft threw away all the Goodwill they had slowly built with core audiences over the last 10 years at a time when Gamers were worried about how the industry was changing Microsoft used the one moment where everyone was watching them to prove that all of people's fears were true the reception to this reveal was universally negative but things would soon get a whole lot worse three weeks later at E3 2013 Microsoft had one last chance to make a big impression before their systems release and the show ended up dominated by news that the Xbox one would be an always online system that owners couldn't play games on it without an internet connection but people could no longer sell or share used games due to new DRM measures and that the built-in connect would be always on watching you recording your daily activities for storage in Microsoft database in case of any future bad behavior that last part may have been added more by the public than Microsoft themselves and Microsoft were a little unfortunate to be holding their press conference one week after Edward Snowden the documents revealing unlawful surveillance by global security agencies still for the most part Microsoft did it to themselves fortunately we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity it's called Xbox 360. right so stick with 360. that's your message if you don't like it if you have zero access to the internet that is an offline device I mean seriously at this point victory was being handed to Sony on a silver platter and all they had to do was mention video games a few times and remind people that at least they're not Microsoft in addition to creating an amazing library of new titles on PlayStation 4 We're equally focused on delivering what Gamers want most without imposing restrictions or devaluing their PS4 purchases for instance PlayStation 4 won't impose any new restrictions on the use of po4 games yes that's a good thing we believe in the model that people Embrace today with PlayStation 3 and continue to demand just heard you there when a gamer buys a PS4 disc they have the rights to use that copy of the game they can trade in the game at retail sell it to another person lend it to a friend or keep it forever thank you in addition PlayStation 4 disc based games don't need to be connected online to play [Applause] and it won't stop working if you haven't authenticated within 24 hours Sony's best announcement was still to come however I'm very proud to announce that PlayStation 4 will be available at 399 dollars this meant the PlayStation 4 would be 100 cheaper than the Xbox one and it wasn't because of less powerful Hardware in fact if anything the PlayStation 4 seemed to be the most powerful system the reason for the Xbox's higher price was the built-in connect device a feature that offered several benefits yet was highly disliked by many in-gaming communities for Microsoft the reveal and its follow-up were a disaster one week after E3 they announced that the new DRM policy would be scrapped that the system would no longer require an internet connection and that owners would even be allowed to unplug the connect and still use the console president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business Don matrick departed shortly after but by this point the damage was already done and the high price still remained in November 2013 both consoles released to the public with the PlayStation 4 quickly selling out by the end of the year it had sold 1.2 million more units than the Xbox One with time this lead grew until in 2015 Microsoft announced that they would no longer be publishing sales figures Microsoft may have hoped but after the release of the Xbox One their reputation might improve due to the quality of the system but unfortunately for them this too was not to be because while the two consoles were similar in specs and architecture it was the PlayStation 4 which seemed to have the edge and was consistently performing better when it came to multi-platform games for Microsoft there was little they could do but again repair their damaged reputation and prepare for the future at E3 2014 they revealed a 399 dollar connect free version of the console to bring the system in line with the PlayStation the TV focused Xbox entertainment Studios was also closed later that year and focus for the future shifted more towards video games with Microsoft purchasing several Studios including Mojang the creators of Minecraft which Microsoft continued to allow on Sony systems in what they hoped would be seen as a pro-consumer move for Sony they'll lead over both Microsoft and Nintendo never seem to be any doubt and while in time Microsoft did succeed at distancing themselves from past controversies the PlayStation 4 continued to be a well-received and well-like system that offered a far more impressive list of exclusive titles this lineup was admittedly slow to get going but later included Marvel Spider-Man God of War Uncharted 4 The Last of Us Part 2 Horizon zero Dawn ghost of tsushima Final Fantasy VII remake and bloodborne meanwhile the Xbox one had a few highly reviewed exclusives outside of Halo Gears of War and Forza still by this point exclusive titles played a much smaller role in determining a console's fate than they had in the past with most games being multi-platform and with console exclusives increasingly being released on PC by all parties except Nintendo there can be no mistake however that the PlayStation 4 won the 8th generation the most recent sales figures show that Sony system sold over 117 million units which is more than twice as many as the Xbox One and vastly more than the 13.5 million of the Wii U for Nintendo the battle was lost before it even began for Microsoft inferior multi-platform performance few exclusives and a higher launch price and what's ultimately doomed the Xbox One although the Damage Done by the poor handling of the initial reveal and the heavy focus on TV made sure that the system got off to the worst possible start Microsoft had found some success at targeting casual audiences with the release of the connect in 2010 and they presumably hoped to continue this by including the connect with their new console and focusing heavily on multimedia wanted to bring new audiences people that were outside of what traditionally was thought of as our core gaming audience that was really the intent at the time within the company there's always a sense of do-more and grow but I think Dawn was looking for like what's that next big leap after connect and I think I think sense that TV could be that thing like Nintendo finding but the Wii U had to compete with real tablets though Smart TVs were also readily available by the time the Xbox One launched which made much of the systems multimedia utility less impressive their biggest mistake however was simply failing to consider their core audience when designing their system and marketing it if they'd focused on TV in addition to video games the reaction wouldn't have been so negative but instead all they had to show alongside their TB related announcements were anti-consumer features like always online and DRM and a high price that was a result of a feature most people didn't even want when Gamers were worried about being abandoned by the industry Microsoft did exactly that and it cost them still like others before them Microsoft and Nintendo were down but not out and things do change quickly in gaming as the rest of the industry was making clear [Music] in the DS and PSP went head-to-head in the mid-2000s nintenzo was the clear winner but the PlayStation Portable was far from a failure and as the next generation of handhelds was revealed at the start of the 2010s it looked like history might repeat with both companies sticking to a similar approach Sony doubled down on power boasting of near PlayStation 3 level graphics and Nintendo introduced a new unique feature to complement their dual screen design by way of stereoscopic 3D this is something Nintendo had been flirting with for Years first with the japan-only famicom 3D system in the 80s then with the universally panned Virtual Boy in the 90s and even with an unreleased LCD attachment for the GameCube in the early 2000s this time however 3D was the main attraction and with a relatively low cost and no need for additional glasses it was a feature that got people talking the Nintendo 3DS released in March 2011 for 250 dollars reviews were positive with praise given to the addition of a new Circle pad analog controller backwards compatibility with DS games and the improved user interface while criticism was directed towards the low battery life the main talking point though was unsurprisingly the 3D effect with reactions varying widely and B's reactions were more important than usual as the 3d effect didn't pick up on camera making it hard for Nintendo to show off still some people were blown away by the effect some saw it as nothing but a gimmick and some complained about it inducing nausea and headaches it also required rather precise positioning of the system or the effect with blur which was a little impractical for a handheld device the 3D effects did at least make the system stand out as something new but in the end this didn't translate well to sales with Nintendo struggling to sell many units outside Japan leading to a surprise price cut of 70 only four months after launch after this sales increased but it was a significant sacrifice for Nintendo to make just to get the device off the ground the PlayStation Vita on the other hand launched at the end of 2011 in Japan and in February 2012 outside Japan meaning it took almost one year longer to release from its rival its price of 250 dollars put it in line with the 3DS's launch price but behind its updated price reviews for Sony system were also positive with the improved performance impressive display rear touchpad and second analog stick all helping to make the system stand out as a significant step up from the original PlayStation Portable the main criticism was the memory card requirements which created an additional and necessary further cost that was made worse by the fact that only Sony Brand memory cards worked with the device meaning users had no choice but to buy Sony's expensive cards even if they already owned other memory cards still the Vita did its best to get off to a strong start and boasted a relatively big launch lineup of 25 titles which was more than most consoles or handhelds in this era those games included uncharted golden Abyss Wipeout 2048 FIFA 12 and Rayman Origins davita's first year would also see more major releases such as Little Big Planet Persona 4 Golden Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation and Call of Duty Black Ops declassified as Sony tried hard to establish the system's reputation with core gamers at first this looked like it might work with the Vita seeing promising sales at launch but these numbers soon declined and by the end of 2012 it had only sold 4 million units well below Sony's expectations and with slow sales came a loss of interest from many third-party Studios causing Sony to abandon their strategy of trying to sell the system through big releases and instead adopt a more Indie Centric approach where they reached out to mobile and PC developers to try to bring as many promising smaller titles to the platform as possible in August 2013 Sony also dropped the price by 50 alongside a reduction in memory cards and in conjunction with the more successful Indie focus and the system's strong sales in Japan the Vita was able to survive but it never came close to matching its predecessor or the 3DS as for Nintendo they would launch an updated 3DS XL model in summer 2012 followed by a model without the 3D display named v2ds one year later followed by a new more powerful version called the new 3DS in late 2014. alongside Nintendo's characteristics strong first party lineup and decent third-party support from companies like Square Enix Konami and Capcom this helped keep sales far beyond the Vita the 3DS would even see the release of a new monster hunter game from Capcom which had long been one of the PSP's best-selling series still as dominant as the 3DS was over the beta it still fell far short of the original DS with less than half of its total lifetime sales the reality was that both the 3DS and Vita were solid handheld devices that made significant improvements on their predecessors the 3DS is much talented 3D struggled to prove its value in the long term with many players simply turning it off for most games once the novelty wore off and the beta shot itself in the foot with how it handled memory cards but in a different era it's easy to imagine both systems finding strong commercial success still in the end it wasn't a different era and in the 2010s the 3DS and beta combined wouldn't even come close to matching the mobile market the harsh reality was that in a world where most people already had smartphones dedicated handhelds simply seemed to have too much competition and so for Sony and Nintendo this would be the final handheld generation Nintendo dominated the handheld market for decades often with a staggering market share but nothing lasts forever as for mobile gaming it revealed an entirely different side of the industry one with different monetization models different games and different dominant regions for most observers of this the biggest takeaway was the industry's size and growth I've started the 2010s the mobile industry was still well behind consoles or PC but as the decade continued it soon caught up and by the decades end it was considerably larger than all other types of gaming combined most mobile games made money through in-app purchases or in-app advertising rather than the more traditional buy-to-play model and the amount of money individual games could make was staggering the game with the highest revenue was Arena of Valor also known as honor of Kings in China which is a MOBA made by Chinese gaming giant 10 cent that's brought in over 14.6 billion dollars since its release in 2015. if numbers that large Seem a bit abstract to you I like to use the currency called the Bethesda Microsoft bought Bethesda and the IPS for 7.5 billion dollars so Arena of valor's Revenue is about two bethesda's other high grossing mobile games of a decade include the RPG physics game hybrid Monster Strike supercell's fantasy theme strategy game Clash of Clans the Battle Royale focused pubg mobile the match 3 RPG hybrid Puzzle and Dragons the more traditional Match 3 game Candy Crush Saga and Pokemon go an augmented reality-based Pokemon game from Niantic that received a lot of mainstream attention during its release in 2016 for its unparalleled ability at making Gamers touch grass it also caused Nintendo's stock to increase by 50 in the space of a week it can be difficult to talk about mobile games without the conversation eventually leading back to money whether it's the growth of the industry the revenue of individual games or the methods of monetization that are commonly used still for many people Mobile gaming is about the convenience of games that can be played in short bursts wherever you happen to be with little barrier of Entry as the industry is growing to be so large it's developed a lot of choice and diversity and as smartphones have continued to become more powerful what can be achieved on them has increased at the same time in the end though regardless of people's various opinions on mobile gaming it's impossible to deny the industry's significance particularly as the trends seen in the mobile industry would soon make their way into the gaming mainstream [Music] online gaming has been steadily growing since the early 90s and the 2010s were no exception what would change this decade though was the way online games made money World of Warcraft was a hugely important game not just because it had 12 million active players but because those 12 million players were each paying a monthly subscription fee compared to a more traditional one-time purchase monthly fees were massive but when it came to further monetization this was only the beginning the one-time purchase business model didn't fit well with online games that were being continually updated and emphasized long-term engagement and so change was inevitable one of the earliest and most significant examples was Team Fortress 2 which maintained a steady active player base after its release in 2007 while receiving regular free updates adding additional content in 2010 one such update allowed players to buy and sell in-game items like hats and the game's Revenue immediately quadrupled in 2011 the game was updated to be completely free to play as revenue from in-game transactions had come to far exceed photos of people purchasing the game and after Team Fortress 2 went free to play Revenue went up again and the industry took notice at the same time as this new online games like League of Legends were also starting to draw in lots of players while making a big profit League of Legends was also free to play and made money through cosmetic skins and purchasable champions players could acquire these Champions through slowly earning in-game currency as they played but many would choose to purchase them for real money with more Champions and skins being added over time to ensure there was always something new to buy at the time this business model was largely praised with the free-to-play aspect helping the player base grow and the earnable in-game currency providing an alternative to needing to spend real money of course players did still spend money and as the game's highly competitive nature ensured strong replayability the player base grew and grew alongside the game's Revenue as League of Legends became one of the most played and most successful games of all time still changing monetization wasn't exclusive to multiplayer games Once Upon a Time arcade games made big money by making Gamers pay to play but some games went even further like Double Dragon 3 which featured an in-game shop where players could purchase a range of items including new characters weapons and power-ups this was widely criticized and arcades eventually lost popularity making the one-time purchase model of non-arcade games even more standard older PC games did often sell physical expansion packs that added additional content at less than full price and these were generally regarded quite positively as a fair way to expand existing games Advanced with the arrival of Xbox Live where some games started to provide bonus downloadable content usually for free the Xbox Live marketplacement evolved with launch of the 360 and soon featured small pieces of downloadable content at small costs with one of the most infamous being the two and a half dollar cosmetic horse armor in the Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion a similar practice was later adopted by Sony and Nintendo at the same time but music games like Guitar Hero and rock band were gaining popularity while making purchasable downloadable songs a core part of their business model and so smaller or micro transactions were introduced to multi and single player games alike Electronic Arts also introduced micro transactions via in-game stores into several existing series like The Sims with its third entry VA would then add a form of luck based micro transaction in the 2009 edition of FIFA something that is now commonly referred to as loot boxes loot boxes would go on to be added to many other popular online games including Counter-Strike Team Fortress 2 Battlefield Call of Duty League of Legends and more in 2011 Rockstar pioneered a new approach by selling content that didn't exist yet in the form of a rockstar pass that could be purchased to unlock Future content other games like Mortal Kombat and Call of Duty soon adopted this season pass approach as well and in Call of Duty this would split the player base between bows would be season pass maps and those without 2012 Capcom Street Fighter attack and crossover Drew criticism after including future DLC files on the game's physical disk while in 2013 Deadspace 3 again from EA became one of the first single-player focused games to offer a purchasable weapon and resource pack to assist players in its campaign later games like Assassin's Creed Origins from Ubisoft and middle of shadow of war from Warner Brothers would take paid advantages in campaigns significantly further and in time microtransactions in-game stores loot boxes and season passes would all become common practice in many big budget games although often not without criticism from players the media and even governmental Regulators who have lichen loot boxes to gambling and raised concerns over their potential harmful impacts meanwhile gaming companies have often sought to defend these editions by claiming that they're only providing players with more choice and that increases in video game budgets have occurred over time while game prices have stayed relatively flat meaning further monetization methods have become necessary still regardless of whether any necessity does truly exist more monetization means more money and businesses don't usually turn down a chance for extra profit as single player focused games are less monetizable a trend also began towards games as a service or live service games where AAA games tried to expand into online areas or just placed increased focus on future content updates to create continuous engagement from players the king of live service games is unquestionably Grand Theft Auto 5 which continued Rockstar's tradition of high quality and University acclaimed open world titles in 2013 but then took things a step further with Grand Theft Auto online GTA online allows up to 30 players to freely roam GTA 5's World while completing lobby-based missions and earning experience points with a focus on General progression and while it did originally have a rocky launch it soon went on to be hugely successful when Grand Theft Auto 5 released it easily surpassed Call of Duty sales records selling 11.2 million copies in its first 24 hours unlike so many of the best-selling games before it however Grand Theft Auto 5 continued to put out impressive sales figures year after year after year this was partly because of future releases on next-gen consoles and PC but it was also because of the impact and enduring popularity of Grand Theft Auto online and so the gaming industry saw how Blockbuster single player games could be transformed into Blockbuster live service games where they could not only continue to sell more copies due to staying relevant for longer but could also tap into the unbelievably lucrative territory of multiplayer fueled microtransactions one year after GTA 5 Bungie released their new online focused first person shooter Destiny which combined elements of the MMO genre with FPS gameplay Destiny was also very profitable with Publisher Activision claiming it was the most successful new gaming franchise launch in history and between the success of GTA online and Destiny the live service Trend was established and proven Beyond doubt others would soon follow including several developers that had previously built reputations around creating single-player games such as BioWare with Anthem Bethesda with Fallout 76 and Crystal Dynamics with Marvel Avengers clearly not every live service game was a success but for the biggest Publishers in the industry live service offered the biggest rewards and the trend towards live service games is still very much alive today still online gaming in the 2010s wasn't just defined by changes to monetization for decades would also see a number of new genres and new takes on existing genres as online gaming expanded upwards and outwards in 2014 Blizzard's Hearthstone achieved major success for its successful and Polished take on the digital collectible card game genre in 2015 rocket League from zionics combines cars rockets and football to create one of the decade's freshest sports games and in 2016 Blizzard's OverWatch received great critical Acclaim for its team and hero-based FPS design that stood out from most other popular Shooters at the time for decades most popular new genre would come once more from a mod this time from Brendan green also known by his online Alias player unknown who created Daisy Battle Royale which itself was an offshoot of the DayZ Mod for armor 2. taking inspiration from the Japanese film of the same name the mods focused on player vs player combat with a large number of combatants on a big open map the scale of the map and the random placement of weapons was intended to introduce an element of unpredictability and the Battleground was designed to get progressively smaller as the games went on to ensure regular action the result turned out to be a hit and would eventually lead to the creation of the Standalone player unknowns Battlegrounds in March 2017 that soon turned Battle Royale into a worldwide gaming phenomenon seeing the success of player unknown's Battlegrounds epic games decided to create a battle royale mode for their upcoming construction shooter hybrids fortnite to create fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017 and between the two games the gaming industry was never quite the same again fortnite and pubg offer different takes on the same idea with pubg being more focused and prioritizing realism and fortnite standing out thanks to its building mechanics and more cartoony aesthetic the games would also fare differently in different markets with pubg being a massive success in Asia and fortnite finding dominance over schoolyards Across America and Europe still one thing both games had in common was being staggeringly successful pubg quickly broke the record for most concurrent players on Steam with over 3.2 million which was about 2 million more than the next highest game on record and soon fortnite was able to boast even greater numbers many other Battle Royale games followed in the Wake some successful some not some higher budget some low some Shooters some anything but and while most of these would not find long-term popularity that didn't stop plenty of developers from trying anyway the 2010s were also the decades where online gaming spreads Beyond games gaming tournaments had been around for a long time and by the 90s some were even quite large like the Nintendo World Championships in 1990 or the evolution championship series for Fighting Games Starting In 1996. in the 2000s televised coverage started to be more popular particularly in South Korea where Starcraft was well on its way to becoming the new National religion in the mid-2000s Esports history was made at Evo 2004 when Daigo umihara playing as Ken in Street Fighter 3 performed the Daigo parody nothing [Applause] the 15-hit consecutive Parry with only one pixel of Health remaining into a combat victory that would see umahara through to the finals has since been described as the most iconic moment in Competitive Gaming history it was also a perfect showcase for the potential appeal of Esports and by 2010 that potential was quickly becoming reality new online streaming services opened Esports to a much wider audience and with more popularity and come greater prize money and bigger stages as Starcraft Counter-Strike League of Legends and DOTA all helped push Esports into the mainstream with time more and more games would follow as the numbers kept rising and by 2019 DOTA 2's the International Tournament had a total prize pool of over 34 million dollars and League of Legends 2019 World Championships would see a peak of 44 million concurrent viewers over the course of a decade Esports became big business but people weren't only watching Competitive Gaming live streaming and let's plays made possible by platforms like twitch and YouTube also Rose the popularity in the first half of a decade becoming a major new tool for video game marketing and drawing great amounts of attention to certain titles horror games like amnesia the Dark Descent and Five Nights at Freddy's or the social deduction game Among Us stand out as examples of how small games with little marketing can still have massive impacts through this new online social media field ecosystem social media also brought a greater Focus to various controversies video games and controversy have long been acquainted for example Mortal Kombat and Night Trap in 1993 Doom following the Columbine shooting in 99 Grand Theft Auto San Andreas following the discovery of the hot coffee mod in 2005. panic over the MMO genre following the success of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2s civilian killing no Russian mission in 2009 all provide examples of major gaming controversies but all of these past examples had one thing in common which was about the controversy was caused by people outside of the gaming industry looking in the 2010s however controversy started coming from within while becoming more frequent and more intense one of the earliest examples of this was the ending for Mass Effect 3 which fans viewed as disappointing for the similarity between different endings and for their failure to represent players choices over the trilogy a negative response led to an open letter from bioware's founder charity drives from fans statements from the Federal Trade Commission and Better Business Bureau a revised extended [ __ ] DLC a significant number of cupcakes and a disparaging parody from weird owl why don't you just confess [Music] yeah admit that the end of this game totally sucked I think you mentioned this everyone did for a disappointing game this level of negative attention was unprecedented but it turns out this was just a taste of what was to come in 2014 Gaming media and gaming communities embraced the political culture war with gamergate and both have been vigorously arguing about politics ever since but there were also controversies over monetization like with Middle Earth shadow of War Star Wars Battlefront 2 and genshin impact controversies over the disappointing State games released in like with no man's Sky Fallout 76 and cyberpunk 2077 controversies over working conditions and crunch periods at Studios like with BioWare Rockstar and naughty dog controversies over sexual misconduct like with riot games Ubisoft and blizzard controversies over graphical downgrades controversies over DRM controversies over lack of accreditation controversies over lack of difficulty options controversies over games releasing too soon controversies over games releasing too late controversies over story decisions controversies over censorship controversies over translations controversies over voice acting pay controversies over cameos controversies over original authors controversies over political representation gender representation sexual representation racial representation and religious representation and controversies over controversy and controversies over a lack of controversy and you could probably drag this section out even further if one was so inclined it's worth keeping in mind that for media outlets and online content creators controversy is one of the best ways to make money and people are willing to do whatever they can to encourage it more surprising though is how much consumers seem to have embraced this approach and how difficult it's become to avoid this constant focus on controversy within gaming communities as a result and so the 2010s were a decade where the internet changed many things and video games were no exception still while not all of these changes were positive the internet did allow for one part of the industry to flourish like never before [Music] after major breakthroughs in the 2000s independent game development continued to thrive in the 2010s this period saw mainstream games growing cost and development time which often LED Studios to taking increasingly conservative approaches by sticking to proven genres in series meanwhile the smaller budgets of Indie Games meant they only needed a fraction of the sales to be profitable meaning developers could still succeed by appealing to Niche audiences or through taking greater risks the result was a huge amount of diversity from genre to art style to level of accessibility or more as Indie Games brought variety at a time when the industry needed it the most which can be shown clearly by looking back through some of the Decades most critically and commercially successful titles 2010 saw the release of playdead's Darkly atmospheric experiential puzzle game limbo and team meets fast-paced and fiendishly difficult 2D platformer Super Meat Boy 2011 would bring a new take on the roguelike genre with The Binding of Isaac which added action gameplay and Zelda inspired procedurally generated dungeons as players helped Isaac Escape his abusive mother relogix Terraria also released that year with the expansive 2D Sandbox game going on to cell 44 million copies making it one of the best-selling games of all time in 2012 Journey from that game company impressed many with its striking useful visuals audio and non-verbal storytelling that would help it win several Game of the Year Awards whereas thanaton games top-down shooter Hotline Miami came in hard with a mix of Ultraviolence and surrealism to provide a somewhat contrasting experience 2013's papers please from Lucas Pope tested player's morality by putting them in the shoes of an immigration inspector at a border checkpoint in the Glorious dystopia of aristoska in 2014 Yacht Club games 8-bit side scrolling platformer Shovel Knight paid homage to Gaming's past while impressing with cutting-edge controls and level design 2015's undertale from Toby Fox provided a clever Twist on RPG conventions and created an enduring fandom alongside one of Gaming's greatest soundtracks in 2016 video game players that wanted to avoid going outside were positively spoiled for Choice concerned Apes stardew Valley became a sensation for its open-ended and relaxing take on the farming Sim genre plattario from woob software gave players an endlessly deep Factory and automation simulator while establishing its own genre in the process and rimworld from ludion Studios combined Base building and emergent storytelling in its addictive and relatively accessible Take On The Colony Sim genre meanwhile 2017 seemed determined to test player's skills with the demanding and impeccably presented cuphead from Studio mdhr that had players running gunning and repeatedly dying to its many creative boss fights and Hollow knight from Team Cherry an expansive and surprisingly epic metroidvania that had players take on the role of a nameless Knight as you explore the Fallen Kingdom of hallownest in 2018 subset games into the breach offered strategy fans Something New by stripping away much of a genre to place all the focus on its Rich tactically engaging turn-based gameplay 2019 would see the release of Mega crits much copied yet never bested road-like deck builder slay the Spire as well as Mobius digital's time Loop Adventure game outer Wilds that gave players complete freedom to explore its miniature solar system as they unraveled the mysteries of its Unforgettable universe finally in 2020 supergiant games wowed the world with the action Rogue like Hades a game with so much content and such high quality presentation but it almost seems to have left the Indie label behind Indie Games have come a long way to the point where the term Indie increasingly tells you very little Once Upon a Time the word seemed to imply certain characteristics like games that are short cheap Retro or artsy yet by the end of the decade Indy could imply almost anything with massive companies like Ubisoft EA and tencent all creating games in traditionally Indie Styles all while independent developers increasingly create games with a level of ambition size or presentation comparable to many big name Studios it's also worth noting that there are many other games that could have been mentioned in this section as well and it is a testament to the strength of BND Market just how spoiled the choice you are when looking for high quality games to highlight still the vast number of indie games being developed over the past decade became a talking point in itself with many Raising concerns that so many Indie Games makes it harder and harder for Indie developers to get noticed and find success as the Indie Market seem to be reaching a point of saturation in the later half of a decade the term Indie apocalypse started to be used to refer to this situation and yet while increased competition may have made success harder there has been no sign of an indie Market collapse and good games continue to be released this continued rise of Indie gaming also brought a number of related trends Minecraft paved the way for the concept of Early Access where many Indie Games would release unfinished and receive continuous updates over time this helped establish new genres like survival games while also aiding developers by assisting with funding during development and making it easier to incorporate player feedback the downside of this system was that it could also lead to anti-consumer practices of misleading advertising over promising or just abandoning games unfinished after receiving players money still for every standout Early Access disaster it's easy to find other standout successes alongside Early Access the 2010s also saw the rise of crowdfunding in game development usually through the platform Kickstarter this often involved respected figures within the industry wanting to bring back Classic series or genres that Publishers deem too risky to fund and crowdfunded games could vary between relatively big games from already well established Studios to much smaller projects from Individual Developers with time many crowdfunded games were released and amongst them were many of the Decades most acclaimed indie games but there were also plenty of notable failures from MMOs accused of being scams to games that critically bombed or just games that never released at all through the combination of crowdfunding and indiegrowth the 2010s would see a lot of genre revivals particularly from those once popular in the past that don't fit well with modern AAA game design these included RTS Games point-and-click Adventures crpgs shoot em ups Boomer Shooters space sims classic survival horror beat em ups FMB games and many more retro inspired games in particular saw a Resurgence in the 2010s possibly because people who once grew up with older games were now old enough to create games themselves and took inspiration from their favorite games of the past but also because the smaller budgets of Indie Games fit well with retro inspired design and developers weren't the only ones making games this decade one of the most played games at the end of the decade and one of the most confusing for older Generations was Roblox a game creation platform that allows users to share their own games inside its engine Roblox attained great popularity with younger Generations probably as much like Minecraft before it it tapped into players natural creativity finally the 2010s would also see game development Go Global as Indie development and digital distribution opened the industry up to more regions around the world still as the ninth generation of consoles finally approached in the latter half of the decade the attention would once more return to Japan foreign [Music] has more experience in the gaming industry than Nintendo but in 2012 the gaming veteran experienced something new as for the first time since entering the industry Nintendo would see a financial loss for the year of 366 million dollars in 2013 they would report similar losses and in 2014 those losses would grow even greater the Wii U was a failure but for the first time Nintendo was starting to fail as well they had never been further behind in the console race the once reliable handheld Market was rapidly shrinking and unlike certain other big names they didn't have additional areas of business outside of gaming video games were basically everything to them and this is the climate in which they would create their next and possibly last console Nintendo's growing desperation was visible long before Xanax console would be ready in 2014 the company heads crafted a new strategy to turn their finances around a key part of this was to reverse their earlier stance on mobile gaming originally Nintendo wanted to preserve the quality of their franchises and continue their practice of only allowing Nintendo games on Nintendo Hardware but now they were looking to enter the mobile market in an attempt to maximize their intellectual property leading to core Nintendo series like Super Mario Animal Crossing and Mario Kart making their mobile debuts this was also the time that Nintendo launched amiibo a toys to life figure series that had built-in functionality with certain Nintendo games still as useful as additional monetization might be Nintendo still knew that deciding factor would always be their next console so how do you respond to record losses and your greatest ever failure well Nintendo's answer was to double down and try the same thing again and so once more Nintendo would avoid competing with their rivals in terms of power once more they would focus the console around a portable screen and once more they would Target the same audience with the same intent to bridge the gap between Sirius and more casual gamers still far from creating a Wii U too this console would instead learn from the Wii U's mistakes and address its greatest shortcomings providing true portability without needing to stay close to a console as well as better battery life a more comfortable and versatile design and of course less confusing marketing officially announced in October 2016 after years of fan rumors and released in March the following year but Nintendo switch was a Gamble by this point many Nintendo fans were sick of being behind the competition in terms of power and were frustrated by Nintendo's continued focus on gimmicks the Nintendo switch ignored this similarly the Nintendo 3DS while less successful than its predecessor was still Nintendo's best-selling system at the time and by creating a new portable device Nintendo will risk in competition with their own system while also combining their two main existing revenue streams what's more after several disappointing years Nintendo were fast approaching the point where they simply couldn't afford another lackluster launch and following the reveal plenty of onlookers were expressing doubts but in the end those doubts would not be founded the switch launched strong by the end of March it had sold 2.74 million units exceeding Nintendo's expectations Nintendo responded by increasing production capacity the switch responded by continuing to sell Nintendo upped their forecast for the financial year aiming for 10 million units sold and the switch then updates sales again meeting this target with Mom's despair by the end of its first year the scale of Nintendo's success was starting to be revealed it would take the switch less than 12 months to overtake for lifetime sales of the Wii U and in the process it became the fastest selling games console in history things change quickly in the gaming industry but sometimes they change in your favor there is no single reason for the switch's record-breaking success and its reception from reviewers was no more positive than the Wii U before it the portability of the system is a clear upgrade from its predecessor and the switch may have benefited more from a lack of handheld competition as while smartphones were more common than ever the switch offered something much more traditional and substantial than Mobile gaming did which might have appealed to a different audience it may also have benefited from the failure of the Wii U Nintendo learned from the earlier systems hardware and marketing to make needed improvements on their second attempt and we use underplayed Library also gave Nintendo the perfect opportunity to Port many of its best games over to their newer system to quickly expand the switches lineup and ensure the system got off to a strong start and speaking of games the switch certainly had its share including a launch title that may have been the first true killer app seen in more than a decade the Legends of Zelda breath of the wild is one of the most highly acclaimed games in history by taking Zelda open world it gave new life to the Zelda series and the open world genre with a more hands-off and exploration-driven approach to game design that many felt represented would have been lacking from many other games of the modern era breath of the wild was a true system seller and its sales clearly show this as it accounted for almost 50 percent of the switch's early software sales with the game selling nearly one to one with the console launching with a Mainline Zelda title let alone one of the best received Zelda titles in history is always a significant Advantage for a console but the switch's first year included more hits Than Just Breath of the Wild soon after its release it would receive its all-time best-selling game by way of the ever popular Mario Kart 8 which was an expanded version of the Wii U title as well as a well-received sequel to third-person territory control game Splatoon and even a new 3D Mario game in Super Mario Odyssey which gave us which its second critically adored must-owned title in a time when consoles were increasingly launching with weaker and weaker lineups and had less and less exclusive games the switch finished its first year looking like a true heavyweight with plenty more still to come and as the Nintendo switch got off to a great start it pretty much solved Nintendo's long-running third-party support problem as many developers no longer wanted to miss out on the switch's larger user base but it wasn't just Nintendo who would have a good year in 2017 and it wasn't just Nintendo who needed such a year after the Nintendo Entertainment System launched in 1985 Japan dominated the gaming industry for over 30 years but as gaming moved to high definition this quickly started to change more and more of the best-selling and highest reviewed games were coming to be from outside Japan with major Japanese series like Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo seeming to experience longer more drawn-out development periods and a decline in critical and fan reception in this period a new trend began of Japanese Studios Outsourcing established franchises to Western developers something that was once almost unheard of and this wasn't just small unknown series either it included some big and beloved names like Resident Evil Silent Hill Devil May Cry Dead Rising Castlevania Contra and more the worst part of his Trend was that almost every one of these games was received far more poorly than the older Japanese developed games of the same series meanwhile other major Japanese Publishers like Square Enix would make moves to acquire western-based developers in order to adapt to the changing Market demands Konami went even further by going on to abandon games altogether in favor of focusing on gambling and the Pachinko Market while industry giant Sony shifted their focus far more heavily towards Western developers and Western audiences and this was more than just a change in where development was taking place from 2007 to 2012 the Japanese gaming industry shrank for five years in a row and the only major Japanese developer doing well in this period was Nintendo who were about to release the Wii U and so as the Japanese gaming industry stumbled and fell a lot of people started to take notice the views of the general gaming populace were perhaps best summarized by once popular Indie developer Phil fish when asked what he thought of recent Japanese games suck sorry like you guys need to get with the times and make better interfaces and like update your technology uh we're totally kicking your ass back then you guys are the king of the world but time has passed no this is this is uh well I mean I don't like Japanese games either you have a joyless husk right a joyless sauce yeah let's just leave it a joyless husk Japanese games are a joyless as tone deaf as this might now seem at the time fish really was just saying something many people were thinking and it wasn't just Western developers and journalists Japanese developers were also highly critical and it's not an exaggeration to say that the Japanese industry was experiencing a genuine crisis that was made even more dramatic by how much of a fall from grace it seemed to represent but in 2017 this would finally change as Japan took back its crown it began before the year even started at the very end of 2016 two games famous for being stuck in development hell finally released Final Fantasy XV was first shown in 2006. The Last Guardian the next game from the team behind Iko and shadow of Colossus was first announced in early 2007. ten years later after much anticipation the region and Desperation these games finally made it to the public and both were received positively but this was only a taste of what was to come January 2017 Resident Evil 7 released to critical Acclaim after the previous Mainline entry was widely panned and achieved success by returning the series to its survival horror roots the very same day Yakuza 0 released in the west becoming the most successful Yakuza game of all time and popularizing the series outside Japan in February Neo released ending developer ninja Theory's long run of poorly received titles and becoming their most highly acclaimed game since Ninja Gaiden in 2004. March brought near automata which released a critical Acclaim becoming the first game from beloved audible game director Yoko tarot to reach mainstream audiences this was the same month that the Nintendo switch and breath of the wild also made their debut April continued with Persona 5 which became the most highly reviewed jrpg since Final Fantasy 9 in 2000 while also making thousands of people online say the words I don't usually like jrpgs but something worth keeping in mind here is that Yakuza 0 Neo near automata and Persona 5 All released as PlayStation exclusives in the first half of 2017 all received great reviews and all sold millions of copies and yet at E3 2016 Sony wouldn't promote any of these four games they ended up as some of the best PlayStation exclusives in years on a console that was at the time light on exclusives and yet Sony had refused to show any of them in favor of focusing on multi-platform games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare remastered and Lego Star Wars the Force awakens this was probably because these games simply looked too Japanese and despite being a Japanese company Sony seemed to decide that showing such japanese-looking games could be bad for their brand this was the situation Japanese games were in at least this was the situation in the eyes of the biggest Japanese games company in the world until 2017 happened June brought the Triumph in Return of one of Gaming's most iconic fighting series Tekken after an eight-year absence July brought the release of Dragon Quest 11 only in Japan and yet Japan alone was enough to reach 5 million copies sold August brought the return of 2D Sonic in Sonic Mania a game not made by Japanese developers but instead by several Sonic fans and yet it went on to give the iconic Japanese series its best reviewed game since the Dreamcast September brought the return of Metroid in Samus returns seven years after the last Metroid game and 13 years since the last 2D Metroid October brought Super Mario Odyssey and December rounded the year off with Xenoblade Chronicles 2 the best-selling game in the long-running Xeno series and another reason for switch and jrpg fans to be happy that year for video games some years are better than others and 2017 was without doubt one of the best of the modern era there were a good Western and indie games released that year as well but it was Japanese developers who stole the show and the idea that the Japanese games industry was falling behind or dying would be permanently dispelled ever since Nintendo and the switch would find further success in the following years with major titles like Super Smash Bros ultimate Animal Crossing New Horizon and many many Pokemon games still as the decades reached its end attention would return once more to the other two major Giants of gaming as their next generation of consoles were getting ready to finally release [Music] the most interesting thing about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox series X is how uninteresting they are Once Upon a Time different gaming consoles were entirely distinct species but look past for deceptively varied exteriors of Sony's and Microsoft's latest efforts and you'll find near identical pieces of hardware AMD 8 core zen2 CPUs AMD Radeon rdna gpus similar SSD drives similar promises in resolution and frame rate similar backwards compatibility similar disk and digital only variants similar prices although the digital only Xbox is cheaper and less powerful and a similar release date which basically means unless you're a tech Enthusiast a dedicated Fanboy or girl or a paid marketer there isn't anything important separating the two machines at a technical level the real proof of this is in multi-platform performance where once the 360 beat the PS3 and then the PS4 beat the Xbox one now there's no clear difference some games might perform better on one system over the other but even then the differences tend to be small and don't always follow any general rule this doesn't mean the launch of the two systems was uneventful but even here events of notes had nothing to do with the systems a global pandemic combined with a global microchip shortage led to supply issues and stock shortages for both companies which then led to heavy scalping for what it's worth the PlayStation 5 got scalped harder and would eventually sell more with recent figures putting the PS5 at 30 million units sold to the Xbox's 18.5 million although even in 2022 Hardware availability was still a limiting factor regardless even if the console war has turned cold there have still been major developments that will likely shape the future of gaming in the years to follow the first is the emergence of virtual reality headsets which would see a major breakthrough when 18 year old Parma Lucky had the idea to use cheap lenses in place of older expensive lenses and instead tackle the problem of lens Distortion through software creating the potential for much lower cost systems Lockheed was joined by John Carmack of doomfame and together they created the company Oculus VR in 2012 which was then purchased by Facebook two years later Sony and valve would also start development of their own headsets and in 2016 the Oculus Rift the Vive from valve and HCC and Playstation VR all launched to the public and received a mixed reception praise was given to the immersiveness and uniqueness of the experience while criticism focused on the high prices High latency the practicality of space required long-term comfort and the possibility of motion sickness in time second generation headsets arrived that made significant improvements over their predecessors the Oculus Quest 1 and 2 provided Standalone headsets that removed the problem of wires the valve index provided impressive field of view and resolution while making improvements to comfort albeit at an impressively high price and recently the PlayStation VR2 provided a high-end handset with an OLED screen and a strong price to Performance ratio seven years after VR headsets first arrived it's become clear but despite their rather lackluster start VR technology is making impressive strides and still getting better every year that said truly widespread adoption still hasn't happened yet and the experience provided by VR headsets has so far seemed to be more of an adjacent experience to traditional gaming than a replacement as while VR does allow for completely new types of experiences it also has significant disadvantages like the limitations of controls or long-term Comforts that make it a bad fit for some areas of Gaming still when it comes to the console war Sony has established themselves as one of the best manufacturers in the VR industry and are placing more and more focus on VR games while Nintendo have mostly stayed away and Microsoft has made some big moves in the past but have distanced themselves more recently meaning if VR does become a larger part of the industry it's Sony who looks like the one who benefit the most and if the rate at which VR technology is improving remains steady it's easy to imagine the VR industry seeing significant growth over the 2020s as better tech leads to more users which leads to more games which leads to more users as the positive feedback loop kicks in and BR finally becomes a core part of the industry alongside consoles PC and mobiles but while Sony might be winning at VR Microsoft has seen growth in a different area game streaming has been around since the start of the decade with companies like OnLive and gaikai offering forms of cloud gaming a service where you play games on a remote server which is then streamed directly to a user's device this removes costly Hardware requirements but also requires high-speed low latency internet connections and substantial data usage neither on life nor gaikai would turn a profit and both would eventually be acquired by Sony but in time other cloud-based streaming services would appear to take their place meanwhile both Sony and Microsoft launched their own game subscription Services PlayStation now and Xbox game pass which would incorporate cloud gaming as well as provide access to a range of games that can be played for no additional cost of all subscription and streaming Based Services Xbox game passed has reached the most users while seeing substantial uptake amongst PC players it seems clear that the plan is to create something like a Netflix for video games however despite heavy investment from Microsoft they still haven't been able to reach their target numbers and are facing a lot of competition from other companies like Amazon and Nvidia the full impact of game subscriptions and streaming remains to be seen some worry that widespread use of game subscriptions will move games further towards additional monetization methods like microtransactions while widespread use of streaming could have an even more substantial impact as it threatens the existence of traditional console and PC gaming entirely particularly in regions where people may already have less disposable income rumors also currently exist about a cloud gaming handheld device from Sony and it seems possible that cloud gaming will come to play a much greater role in the industry in years to come pass hasn't been Microsoft's only recent investment however the final Trend that seems to be defining the current generation is consolidation when Microsoft announced its acquisition of five smaller Studios at E3 2018 few question the move Sony had been winning the exclusive War for years and showed no signs of stopping so it made sense that Microsoft would look to acquire talented Studios of their own to create dedicated first party titles to help them keep up with the competition Microsoft's Acquisitions didn't end at E3 2018 however first there were more smaller Studios announced then there was the more surprising news of a deal to acquire xenomax in 2020 for 8.1 billion dollars which included Bethesda and big name franchises like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout then other large companies seem to join in with major purchases like EA acquiring Gloom mobile for 2.4 billion Take 2 acquiring Zynga for 12.7 billion and Sony acquiring Bungie for 3.7 billion still the biggest buyer would once again be Microsoft who announced the deal to acquire Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion dollars in 2022 Activision blizzards are the largest third-party publisher in gaming and an acquisition of this size is unprecedented this is different to buying talented Studios which is something large gaming companies have been doing for years Instead This is basically buying a significant chunk of the industry and many including regulatory bodies and Anti-Trust agencies have expressed concern about the potential negative impacts this may have with the deal still currently facing significant challenge particularly from the competition and markets Authority in the United Kingdom whether this deal will ultimately go through though remains to be seen Microsoft has been quietly losing the console war for years and most believe competition between major gaming companies can only benefit consumers yet whether these moves will make the console Market more or less competitive is unclear and this General Trend towards consolidation certainly raises concerns still this is hardly the only thing people have been critical of in recent years [Music] the Romans had a saying that translates to the past is always well remembered and the Romans weren't alone in this belief sometimes however things really do get worse so what about video games everywhere you look online you'll find people telling you about how bad games are now and how much better they were in the past but the internet is also addicted to negativity and people are biased so what evidence is there for this belief and what does Gaming's 50-year history actually tell us well for one thing the future does raise concerns but a worrying future isn't anything new this is an industry of change and change brings uncertainty the gaming industry has crashed more than once the console Market almost died completely the biggest gaming company in the world went bankrupt many other console manufacturers also exited the scene reliable companies have produced spectacular failures established companies have experienced tragic deaths why 2K didn't happen but multiple stock market crashes did the most successful console of all time was followed by the company's greatest failure and soon after this every other major player also suffered their greatest failures motion controls threatened to take over PC gaming threatened to become irrelevant Mobile gaming threatened to take over Indie gaming threatened to become apocalyptic online gaming threatened to take over and now consolidation monetization and subscription Services threaten gaming as we know it and time will tell how things play out but really future concerns are a part of the gaming industry and they always have been so what about the present well one of the biggest Trends in the last 10 years has been a growing abundance of remakes remasters reboots and re-releases on the one hand all games don't always remain accessible and so attempts to bring them to Modern audiences make sense and as the passage of time creates more old games it also makes sense but there might be more attempts to bring back older classics this might also be representative of the changing demographics of Gamers where there's now a large portion of older people nostalgic for the games from their childhood or younger Gamers unwilling or unable to play older games who still want a way to feel included still one thing that is hard to justify is for low quality of some of these newer additions there are many remasters and remakes that could be criticized but perhaps the single one most endemic of a bigger problem is Grand Theft Auto the trilogy The Definitive Edition a compilation of three of the best-selling games of the 2000s that was published by one of the most respected developers in gaming and yet the end result was appalling being buggy inauthentic and an all-round visual downgrade with missing animations sound effects and textures The Definitive Edition received one of the lowest user scores of all time and stands as a testament to just how bad an improved Edition can be with Rockstar making matters even worse by also removing the original games from stores at the same time so various re-releases have given companies a lazy and low-cost way to cash in on past games some remakes do receive considerably more efforts but even these display a deep lack of originality as companies are choosing to finance remakes of still readily accessible and enjoyable games in place of creating something new and this practice seems to be becoming more common so far in 2023 90 of the highest rated games are remasters and remakes this is rather pathetic but the high critical ratings and the fact these games continue to sell is proof that this is what many people want one day attitudes might change but for now gaming companies does seem to be giving the people what they ask for with the quality varying between attempts another trend of modern gaming has been additional monetization methods such as loot boxes and in-game cash flows for the mobile industry and many online games these have been incredibly effective at increasing revenue and this has come to extend to even some more traditional games although some attempts have been met with considerable backlash still much like with remasters and remakes consumers again have a choice here both in whether to play these games and whether to spend money on these services and again many people are making the choices that make additional monetization methods profitable the gaming industry is a business and if consumers allow it companies will do what makes them the most money finally another obvious trend has been a decline in the quality of AAA with games seeming to take longer to release while taking less risks in their design and being more likely to launch unfinished and buggy this is partly because advancements in game technology have slowed over time alongside ever Rising game development costs which has meant graphical upgrades have become less noticeable and impressing Gamers through continually creating more spectacular games has become harder as a result games might be over ambitious or make sacrifices to gameplay or design or take longer to release or make sacrifices to Quality in order to meet deadlines claiming that AAA games have got worse in recent years seems pretty reasonable though the thing is many of the highest rated and best-selling games from recent years have still been the biggest budget and most visually impressive titles critics and consumers alike want and reward AAA games design and amongst these games there will be some that succeed and some that fall short it seems unrealistic to expect every game to meet the highest standards or to criticize the industry for caring too much about budgets and presentation while people continue to praise those same qualities in other games a lot of the problems mentioned here do have some relations agreed and the gaming industry like other Industries can certainly be greedy this also isn't anything new however after the success of pong gaming companies made so many Pawn clones the industry collapsed after the success of Atari game developers made so many low quality third-party games that the industry collapsed again Space Invaders led to too many arcade Space Games NES developers made too many action Platformers Doom led to too many Doom clones Grand Theft Auto led to too many GTA clones Guitar Hero led to too many plastic peripherals the Wii led to too many motion control devices and too many low effort motion control games Call of Duty led to too many Call of Duties Minecraft led to too many Minecraft clones Dark Souls led to too many Souls lights Skyrim and Far Cry 3 led to too many open World Games DayZ led to too many Early Access survival games pubg and fortnite led to too many Battle Royale games Indie Games led to too many Indie Games save the Spire led to too many roguelike deck builders and most recently vampire survivors led to too many whatever the hell genre this is the point is Success often leads to saturation and it's been that way since the very start and yet at the same time the industry has often rewarded those who go against the grain Pac-Man Tetris Pokemon Red and Blue Half-Life The Sims the DS the Wii Minecraft Dark Souls Daisy Battle Royale gaming history is littered with games that did something different and were rewarded for doing so the points that I think everything comes down to in the end is choice people do have a choice in who they support and how they spend their time and sometimes the choices of gaming companies or the general public can be frustrating but it is their choice to make and they do have their reasons and after months of researching thinking and writing about gaming history I have come to the conclusion that nothing defines this present moment in time as much as Choice does it is a strange thing to try to write the history of the present because so much of how we understand the period is shaped by how it looks from the future that said I don't think there is a crisis of modern gaming I don't think the industry is in Decline and I don't think games are getting worse and the reason is because currently right now we all have an abundance of choice the industry has grown wider and become more accessible but this is the result of growth and traditional gaming hasn't been sacrificed to achieve this instead within traditional gaming we've seen a tremendous increase in the number and types of indie games being made while through emulation re-releases Community efforts second-hand purchases and official subscription Services older games have never been more available and with the likes of cloud gaming and Indie Games the barrier of entry into gaming has never been so low the number of games being made has also increased and for most people older games are still out there everyone today has a great amount of choice and that makes us rather lucky I hope this abundance of choice remains in the future in fact I hope we get even more choice in the years to come but this isn't guaranteed one day all old cartridges will stop working CDs will rot and old Hardware will fail one day computers May struggle to be compatible with older software one day emulation might be shut down or strictly regulated one day fees may increase one day competition may disappear one day the Indie markets May collapse one day the console markets May collapse one day the entire industry May collapse it certainly has before the future holds no guarantees and this is an industry of change but right now things aren't as bad as many people might think they are good games are being made every single year and God damn is there a lot of good games already out there video games have come a long way and not every change has been for the better but never before have people had so much choice use it wisely this has been the entire history of video games thank you for watching [Music] I promised myself I'd do a patreon plug here so here it is the video is over I hope you enjoyed it it took a long time to make but I think it was worth it I've been making videos for five years now in fact this will probably be up almost exactly on the Channel's five year anniversary and I am lucky to be in the position I'm in but the channel growth has slowed a lot recently and I'm feeling under a lot of pressure to try to satisfy the algorithm and that's how YouTube goes but I do feel very limited in what videos I can make I'd love to make more time consuming and unique videos like deep dives into certain areas of the gaming industry but it is a consistent worry for me how such videos will perform and whether I can afford to spend hundreds of hours on projects knowing that a bad title or thumbnail could Doom the video for a bad click-through rate and so on for this reason I'm thinking of trying to promote the patreon more to try to get myself a little more creative freedom I've hardly mentioned the patreon for the past year or so but I'm going to start promoting it a bit more often like at the end of videos as I'm doing now that's what this is this is promotion uh I don't have much to offer for patrons but I've revamped the tears a bit for six dollars you get your name in the credits for videos but you can give less than that as well and all patrons get all other benefits which include detailed monthly updates the occasional patreon poll and access to some unlisted videos which includes a few uncensored videos a few older videos not on the channel anymore and a few unique reviews other than that all I can say is I work many hours on these videos I work long hours I rarely take breaks I try my best to maintain a high level of quality and I do everything on my own and you don't need to give anything but it would mean a lot to me if you did anyway thank you for watching regardless and I'll see you in the next video foreign

Channel: NeverKnowsBest

Views: 762,533

Keywords: video game history, gaming history, history of video games, history of nintendo, history of sony, history of microsoft, history of sega, history of pc gaming, gaming in the 90s, gaming in the 2000s, gaming documentary, video game documentary

Id: argpSxB1NQE

Length: 359min 30sec (21570 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023