Origin of Video Games

The origin of video games dates to the late 1940s, though most early games can be traced to the 1950's and 1960's and where simple games developed mostly on mainframe computers, gradually increasing in sophistication and complexity.[n 1] Following this period, video games diverged into different platforms: arcade, mainframe, console, personal computer and later handheld games.

The first commercially viable video game was Computer Space in 1971, which laid the foundation for a new entertainment industry in the late 1970s within the United States, Japan, and Europe. The first major crash in 1977 occurred when companies were forced to sell their older obsolete systems flooding the market. Six years later a second, greater crash occurred. This crash—brought on largely by a flood of video games coming to the market—resulted in a total collapse of the console gaming industry worldwide, ultimately shifting dominance of the market from North America to Japan. While the crash killed the console gaming market, the computer gaming market was largely unaffected. Subsequent generations of console video games would continue to be dominated by Japanese corporations. Though several attempts would be made by North American and European companies, fourth generation of consoles, their ventures would ultimately fail. Not until the sixth generation of video game consoles would a non-Japanese company release a commercially successful console system. The handheld gaming market has followed a similar path with several unsuccessful attempts made by American companies all of which failed outside some limited successes in the handheld electronic games early on. Currently only Japanese companies have any major successful handheld gaming consoles, although in recent years handheld games have come to devices like cellphones and PDAs as technology continues to converge.

Video Game Market Statistics


The Entertainment Software Association provides a wealth of data,
statistics and information regarding the Video Game Market.


?The U.S. computer and video game software sales grew four percent in
2004 to $7.3 billion -- a more than doubling of industry software
sales since 1996.?

?Seventy-five percent of American heads of households play computer
and video games.?

?In 2004, more than 248 million computer and video games were sold,
almost two games for every household in America?

?The average game player is 30 years old and has been playing games for 9.5 years?

?The average game buyer is 37 years old. In 2005, 95 percent of
computer game buyers and 84 percent of console game buyers were over
the age of 18.?

? Eighty-three percent of all games sold in 2004 were rated "E" for
Everyone or "T" for Teen.?

? Eighty-seven percent of game players under the age of 18 report that
they get their parents? permission when renting or buying games, and
92 percent say their parents are present when they buy games.?

? Forty-three percent of all game players are women. In fact, women
over the age of 18 represent a greater portion of the game-playing
population (28 percent) than boys from ages 6 to 17 (21 percent).?

? In 2004, 19 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video
games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.?

? Forty-two percent of game players say they play games online one or
more hours per week. In addition, 34 percent of heads of households
play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from
20 percent in 2002.?