1988. Nintendo dominates the home console market in Japan and the US with its NES/Famicom. However, the success of NEC’s PC-Engine and SEGA’s Mega Drive/Genesis made the big N move.

Development of Super Famicom/NES has begun. The bosses appoint Masayuki Uemura as the chief engineer of the console in the Japan region, and Lance Baer came up with the design for North America. It was important for the company to make the console better than its competitors in terms of hardware and design. And if there were no problems with the second one, then there were difficulties with the internals. Later development allowed for the introduction of more advanced technologies, including sound.

Masayuki invited his good friend from Sony, Ken Kutaragi, to design the sound chip for the console. Ken had been working at Sony for over ten years and was a regular employee. In 1988, he noticed his daughter playing Famicom, which led him to believe that the home console market was the future, but he could not convince the company to enter this market. Sony did well in the audio and video equipment market.

The finished chip in the end was simply magnificent, so much so that Sony management did not fire Kutaragi for such an impudent action. He, in turn, convinced the directors to collaborate with Nintendo on the “Play Station” CD add-on. The addon was supposed to run games from CDs, but due to legal disagreements, Big N, in secret from its partner, began development with Sony’s direct competitor – Philips. Sony took all the developments for themselves; later, they offered Sega to make hardware for their new Saturn console, but the latter refused, citing the company’s inexperience.

Then, rejected and abandoned by two titans of the console market, Sony did the incredible. Made their Playstation console the best-selling of the fifth generation.

It was impossible to stop there. By the end of the same fifth generation, the Japanese began developing a successor to the successful Playstation. We followed the path of least resistance: We do everything the same, but more powerful, more convenient and versatile.

And in 1999 the company announced PlayStation 2.

Meanwhile in a completely different world

The PC video game market has existed as long as the console market. However, they did not compete with each other in any way. The first ones were more powerful, more expensive and more difficult to use; games could use more advanced technologies. The latter were cheaper, more convenient, but more limited in functionality and hardware.

The main problem with PCs in those years was the large amount of different hardware for which games and programs had to be adjusted, and the lack of a user-friendly interface. Microsoft decided to fight this inconvenience and make some money at the same time. We started with Windows, which brought in millions, then took up DirectX, which makes it easier to create programs and games.

This approach made them a monopoly on the computer software market. However, it was Windows’ gaming focus that made it popular.

Until 1997, the company did not interact with consoles in any way. During the development of the Dreamcast, Sega went for the convenience of developers and players, asking the Mikes to develop an OS for the console; they also made a special version of Windows CE with support for the DirectX API.

With such experience, Bill Gates personally proposed to Sony to develop an OS for their upcoming console, but was refused because.To. the platform holder saw the PC as a direct competitor.

And in 1999 the company announced PlayStation 2. Beautiful, aesthetic, powerful, convenient multimedia combine, hinting that the console will replace the computer.

Microsoft started to panic. Nobody knew what to do, after all, they are just a software company and nothing more. Then, recently hired by Gates personally, newcomer Seamus Blackley suggested the obvious: We need to make our own console, especially since the Mikes have enough money for it.

A small group led by Seamus thought of everything something like this: Let’s take regular PC hardware, put it in a box, use Windows as the basis for the OS, and DirectX for development. Then we went to the authorities to promote the idea. Those, having heard the treasured word “Windows”, gave the go-ahead, almost without hesitation. Everyone wanted their software to go out of the deep nerd rooms and into the family living rooms.

Windows will be in every home.

Monopoly killer and others

Together with Microsoft, Sega also tensed up. The Saturn, released in the last generation, crashed, the company lost its position in the market, although by the end of the generation the management corrected the situation as best as they could.

The platform holder admitted the mistakes, so the Dreamcast performed much better. Gradually Sega began to regain lost market share, it seemed that Sony had been put in its place.

And in 1999 the company announced PlayStation 2. With incredible graphics, DVDs and multimedia features.

Sales of the Dreamcast immediately fell, even despite Sega’s statements that their console is here, here and now, and the PlayStation 2 is somewhere out there, not on paper and not a fact that it will be good.

But, unfortunately for many, the new Sony console destroyed the Dreamcast, which no one wanted to play with anymore. Sega accepted the inevitable and announced its exit from the console market with sales of just over 10 and a half million consoles.

“What did not work out for a once powerful competitor, we must succeed in.”." – Thought Nintendo. She still continued to live in her own world, hoping to regain lost ground from the N64 days, focusing on long-known and beloved franchises, family audiences and distinctive games.

Development proceeded without any https://crazybetcasino.co.uk/ problems, the main focus for the last time for the company was on powerful hardware, not forgetting about the interesting features of the gamepad.

September 2001. PlayStation 2 has been the market leader for a year now. Big N decides to act, unveils both its own and other people’s franchises, exclusively for the console and. Loses.

Many praised the GameCube for its gamepad and library of games, but the design of the console turned out to be meager, nondescript and toy-like, in addition, there were no multimedia functions. The advertising campaign may have been excellent, but it was not enough. And as a result, Nintendo did not fall flat on its face like Sega, but took an honorable third place in sales in the generation – more than 21 million consoles sold.

American power versus Japanese aesthetics

PlayStation 2 broke all sales records. Aesthetically pleasing design, excellent hardware both in terms of graphics and development, multimedia features that turn it into the cheapest DVD player. Add to this advertising aimed at 17-year-olds, a lot of amazing games and you have the best-selling console in history.

Sony had a plan from the start and stuck to it. Such sales made it possible, a year after the console’s release, to begin designing a new one.

Microsoft, meanwhile, first entered the console market with its Xbox in November 2001, sparing no expense. The advertising company emphasized that their console was the most powerful, which was true. The Xbox was almost a generation higher than the second PlayStation, such power cost a pretty penny, and until the end of sales the entire production was at a loss.

But as they say: It’s good with games, but without games there’s no need. And here Mikey didn’t let us down by purchasing several studios. It’s funny that at some point they wanted to buy all of Nintendo, they were given a price tag of 25 billion dollars. After this, even Bill thought it was too much and abandoned the idea.

The release of the Xbox was a wild hype thanks to, of course, Halo . The first ever truly controller-friendly first-person shooter with an epic storyline. Before this, projects on the N64 were considered the standard console shooters. But there was a different type of control, to which the level design was adjusted. Regeneration appeared for the first time in Halo, but not in the form that is, for example, in Call of duty. Xbox was that serious platform where the main exclusive was not a JRPG or a platformer, but a serious and rather hardcore first-person shooter, after completing which the player remained in multiplayer.

Xbox also had console online. Yes, before that it was on the Dreamcast, but it was on Xbox Live that clans and friends lists first appeared. You could find out about new releases and later download small games to your hard drive. All the online that is now on consoles was built by Mike in the early 2000s.

In addition to the space shooter, the platform also released a multiplatform, which was many times better than its competitors, many ports from PC, thanks to the familiar architecture.

But, despite all the efforts, the company had only one problem – PlayStation 2. Due to ports and one powerful exclusive, Xbox had a reputation for catching up with the console and HaloPlayer. While it released two good games a year, Ploika released five of them a year.

Over time, even more games were released. The Halo sequel became one of the most hyped games in history, advertising for which was even played in cinemas before the films were shown. The second part is considered to be the first video game blockbuster in history, which made many people become gamers. Sega, wanting revenge on Sony, released exclusives on Xbox.

Such pressure from Microsoft allowed the console to take second place in sales in the generation – more than 24 million. When did Sony reach sales of more than 150 million PlayStation 2s sold?.

How the seventh generation of consoles was developed.

The year 2001 marked not only the release of the Xbox, but also the beginning of the creation of the revolutionary CELL chip by the STI alliance (Sony, Toshiba IBM) for the PlayStation 3. Sony wanted to make a processor that could not only be responsible for calculations, but also process 3D graphics. And I won’t go into detail about the technical side of CELL now. All you need to know: Sony wanted to make a powerful processor and patent it as its own development, without mentioning the alliance members. The latter learned about the trick of the “ally” and, thanks to lawyers, IBM gained the opportunity to make changes to the development, which they soon took advantage of, introducing technologies that Sony did not need. The company as a whole wanted to go beyond gaming, making the new PlayStation a multi-media combine, attracting an audience not interested in video games.

Microsoft, thanks to industrial espionage, found out that a competitor plans to release a new console by the end of 2005, right under the kids’ Christmas tree. And not having time to get up to speed with the original Xbox, they are taking on the design of a new generation, ridding it of all the disadvantages of its parent.

First of all, we took on the design of the console itself, because of which no one bought it in Japan, making it more aesthetically pleasing. For the same reasons, they redesigned the gamepad, which was huge for children and the Japanese, later recognized as the best in history.

Then we set about creating hardware, with the idea of ​​a simple and understandable architecture. We went to Intel, where we got a refusal, the same thing happened with AMD. While negotiations were going on, 2003 came, the Mikes had nothing ready, and then they learned about IBM’s revolutionary development and turned to them. The latter could easily refuse and leak information to Sony that their competitor has nothing, i.e.To. It was Microsoft that tried in the past to get IBM to leave the PC market. But instead they agreed to cooperate, taking all the developments from the CELL project.

Mikey abandoned all the incredible technologies in the field of graphics and complex architecture. That is why IBM introduced technologies unnecessary for Sony into CELL. The result was a breakthrough clock frequency of 3.3 MHz with a simple architecture.

The curlers learned about the betrayal, but did not do anything, because.To. According to the laws, IBM did not violate anything. A year later, Sony realized that the revolutionary processor could not handle graphics processing, so they ran to Nvidia so that they could give at least something. We ended up with a stripped down and outdated GPU based on the G71 architecture. Thus, the platform holder postponed the release of the PlayStation 3 to the fall of 2006.

Microsoft, in turn, went to ATI, resulting in a simple but productive architecture for the entire console. Which was supposed to be released in November 2005, with one goal – Destroy the PlayStation.

The Big N, meanwhile, having accepted poor GameCube sales, has chosen a different path for its own consoles. Based on the interesting experience of players interacting with games on the DS portable, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested taking inspiration from the unique Dance Dance Revolution game controllers. The new director, Satoro Iwato, listened to his outstanding employee. Nintendo’s new console will break out of the hardware race, rely on player interaction with the game, and be designed for all age groups.

How the seventh generation of consoles burned

November 22, 2005. Launch of Xbox 360, the first console of a new technology generation. The hype is so high that you can take it with a spoon in the air and spread it on bread. And so the man stood in a long line and picked up his Xbox, his favorite brand, by the way. He comes home, connects it to the TV, presses the juicy round button and. A few days later it lights up with three red lights of death. Can’t play anymore.

Xboxes started burning like matches. The problem was that they first designed the console into which they stuck hardware without any design changes. The air did not move well inside the console, causing it to burn out. But Microsoft didn’t want to admit the problem until recently, blaming everything on a standard factory defect.

And maybe some players were unhappy, but the Xbox still remained a desired toy for millions, received tons of praise for its design, powerful hardware and gamepad, and consistently released good games. What was the hype around the first Gears of war? ! The trailer for the song Mad World is still considered one of the best in history.

The same trailer

PlayStation 3 and Wii appear in the fall of 2006. Both consoles were presented at last year’s E3. The Sony presentation was remembered as a pre-rend show.

Nintendo then only showed the console, controllers and storage media.

PlayStation 3 comes out on November 11, when the overseas guy with glowing green eyes was already squeezing the market under his control. It was. almost failure. Don’t get me wrong. A huge number of people and Sony fans lined up, so that after leaving the camera lenses, the happy owner of the console lost his purchase. And later another lucky person on eBay became the owner of the console. Only after a few days it became clear that everything was bad: low performance, weightless toy gamepads, few games, creepy advertising, and the yellow fire of death.

Yes, the first revisions of the PlayStation 3 also burned. Only in the case of the Ploykodelov there was a steam cooling system consisting of a small turbine, copper tubes and thermal pastes, which were simply not enough. The situation became especially worse if the thermal paste dried out, causing the heating to go even worse.

And Sony had nothing to level the scales with. The same Mikes had more games, a lower price tag, better performance and online service, a more convenient gamepad (yes, it was a matter of taste, but it felt better than the first sixaxis and there was vibration). And despite this situation, the father of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, criticized Microsoft and Xbox for the lack of bold ideas and excessive simplicity.

Wii launched on November 19th to incredible success. With a focus on casual audiences and fun games, they hit the jackpot. The console will become the best-selling of the generation.

This situation made Microsoft almost a monopoly for the next two years. Not only did the direct competitor come out later, it was even worse, and Nintendo, with its Wii, generally lived in a different universe.

How everything changed in the seventh generation

Since 2007, the situation began to gradually change. Sony set about correcting their own mistakes: developing exclusives, designing and releasing a slim version, new advertising, new gamepads with vibration. All this will bear fruit in 2009.

The Mikes got a new manager, Don Metric. For the first two years, he went with the flow, launched Xbox Live online, announced the Arcade and Elite versions, which were no longer on fire, while simultaneously declaring that they were ready to replace all the burned-out X-boxes. Fortunately, Microsoft has a code for endless money – Windows.

It’s just that they, that Sony was haunted by the casual Wii audience. Therefore, E3 2009 was the last good exhibition for the green camp, when the usual gaming gradually became more casual. It was there that “Project Natal”, aka Kinect, was first presented. The curling makers, in turn, presented PS Move. Another year later, both gadgets are released, Kinect enters the Guinness Book of Records as the best-selling addition to the main console. Such success turned Don’s head, deciding to give up on the classic audience, focusing on the new device and casuals. So the ranks in the green camp began to thin out towards the competitor.

Sony didn’t stand still. New revisions and versions of the PlayStation 3 have become much better and no longer burned. High-profile exclusives began to be released, and everything was fine until April 2011, when the PS Network was overtaken by hacking.

Previously, the platform holder actively fought against hacking of the console, filing lawsuits against all hackers and burglars. There was a major scandal that resulted in the hacking of Sony networks; online was unavailable for several months, but the company recommended changing passwords and account and credit card codes. Just in case.

The new generation and the main problem of Microsoft

The seventh generation was coming to its logical end, becoming one of the longest. The carnage between corporations resulted in the following sales:

Sony decided to abandon ambitions and revolutionary solutions. They took standard hardware, redesigned the gamepad and became leaders throughout the entire generation.

Nintendo, after the success of the Wii, released a failed receiver, with not the best solutions and bad advertising. After conducting a survey among users, the big N will release the next best-selling console of the generation – Switch.

Microsoft, under the leadership of Metric, will release the Xbox One, wanting to attract not only gamers, but also people far from video games. Doesn’t remind me of anything?

But neither the gaming part of the console worked 100%, there were no high-profile exclusives (Almost all the studios were disbanded), the games had poor performance, and, suddenly, the TV broadcast due to the too high price, which finally became the final nail in the coffin of the yet unreleased platform.

In the future, Mikey will correct the situation, but she will only be able to become a leader or a worthy competitor towards the end of the generation.

Afterword

I see no point in talking about the eighth generation. Firstly, Stopgame has already released a full chronicle. Secondly, there were no such interesting events in it.

Thanks for reading. All the best.
P.S. Special thanks to my friend Olya for the cover.