A brief history of the console wars in pictures
by Blake Snow 
{ Oct 20th 2006 at 11:25AM }
Business Week gives a brief history in pictures of the 30-year old console war from the Magnavox Odyssey to Nintendo's Wii spanning a total of 21 notable platforms. Regarding one casualty of war -- the Sega Saturn released in April of 1995 for $400 -- the article reminisces: "The powerful, but complex multiprocessor design made it difficult for developers to make quality games for the Saturn. Even so, several memorable titles were developed for the system, including Panzer Dragoon, Virtual-On, and Virtua Fighter 2 ... Despite its merits, the Saturn sold a dismal 1.4 million units in the U.S. during its short lifespan."
NiGHTS was where it's at.
[via Slashdot]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
unimental @ Oct 20th 2006 11:35AM
Neat article. No TurboGraphx or 3DO, though? The 3D0 was my single greatest gaming mistake of all time, although Road Rash was SUPERB on it.
It's great to have been a part of gaming history since the Atari 2600 days, and I can't wait to see where we end up in 10+ years.
EnderAl @ Oct 20th 2006 11:38AM
I loved my Saturn and hated the PS for stealing away games. Virtua Fighter 2, Sega Rally, and all of the Panzer Dragoon games were incredible. I also remember really getting into Tomb Raider on the Saturn.
idesignit36 @ Oct 20th 2006 11:44AM
Wha, no Atari Jaguar?
Pedro Van Faulk @ Oct 20th 2006 11:46AM
And yet again the mainstrem media uses shipped data rather than sold data.
DS selling "a million units more than the PSP" my ass. More like 7-10 million.
Jake Barnett @ Oct 20th 2006 11:57AM
The DS has shipped a million more units than the PSP. The sell through on the DS has been much better. The PSP is piled up on the shelf at most retail stores.
qbix @ Oct 20th 2006 11:49AM
"Microsoft is gearing up to release their killer app, a first-person-shooter game called Gears of War."
I love how business magazines/sites always get so many things wrong when it comes to gaming.
crono141 @ Oct 20th 2006 1:13PM
We needa a panzer dragoon on Wii.
So awesome.
maximus @ Oct 20th 2006 11:51AM
I was just thinking that myself, though what are the actual sold figures?
Jake Barnett @ Oct 20th 2006 11:58AM
The lifetime-to-date figures for both iterations of the Nintendo DS hardware are now put at 9,240,000 in Japan, 6,130,000 in Europe and 5,900,000 in North America. This adds up to a worldwide title of 21,270,000 units after around a year and a half on sale. If accurate, these figures suggest that Nintendo’s aim to sell a total of 17 million units of the Nintendo DS worldwide during the company's current financial year are entirely plausible.
Source: http://www.neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=34269
Just by doing a quick Google search I wasn't able to come up with an actual sales number for the PSP, but monthly the DS has pretty much doubled PSP sales, so I'd put it somewhere in the mark of 10-12 million.
shirizaki @ Oct 20th 2006 12:02PM
The Dreamcast fallout was my biggest disappointment. I loved that system. I used to play NIGHTS at demo kiosks, and the fact that I never owned that game makes me sad :(
I still have yet to get a DS. My wallet will ache in the coming months to hemmorage out cash.
> @ Oct 20th 2006 12:07PM
SEGA should release Saturn games on VC, XBL, or that sony online thingy. Awlthough, writing an emulator for it would be a bitch.
ill trooper @ Oct 20th 2006 12:10PM
Burning Rangers!
nightwng2000 @ Oct 20th 2006 12:14PM
Replying to #1:
Holodeck. Holodeck. Holodeck. :)
Hmmmm....
2384, introduction of old console and PC titles on the Holodeck:
Black & White
Various Tycoon series
Neverwinter Nights
Life & Death
Worlds of Warcraft
Star Trek Bridge Commander
Endless titles enjoyed by the ancestors, now brought to vivid life in your own persoanl Holodeck.
(You'll notice I didn't mention AO titles, but that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about them. :) )
nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Nick @ Oct 20th 2006 7:28PM
"10. SEGA should release Saturn games on VC, XBL, or that sony online thingy. Awlthough, writing an emulator for it would be a bitch."
They made an emulator for the pc over in japan, sadly it never came here :( and that sucks because i've always wanted to play nights. But anyway they could just use that emulator.
Watership @ Oct 20th 2006 12:19PM
Wow. I had no idea the Saturn sold so badly. It's such a shame about the Dreamcast. Still my favourite console.
Dan @ Oct 20th 2006 12:19PM
Saturn is still one of my favorite console, better than under powered PlayStation, it had Virtua Fighter 2, Nights, Panzer Dragoon series, Capcom 2D fighting (way better than PS) and games import from Japan are X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Vs. Street Fighter, Samurai Shodown 3 & 4 which load 10 times faster than PlayStation counterpart.
james f. @ Oct 20th 2006 12:30PM
That article reminded me how badass the ps2 box was in the begining. No pics on the front just a gorgeous deep electric blue with the silver print. I don't think any system box has ever been slicker before or since.
Sean D. @ Oct 20th 2006 12:44PM
haha... not many of my consoles on there... Intellivision, Colecovision, Atari 5200, Atari Jaguar, Magnavox Odessey 2000, Atari Linx, PSTwo, DS Lite.
In fact, the only ones they do have on there are the NES, SNES, and Dreamcast...
FredTheCat @ Oct 20th 2006 12:44PM
No ColecoVision?!?!
Camperton @ Oct 20th 2006 1:09PM
Correct me if I'm wrong, but in that picture of the Atari 2600 isn't that an Intellivision "Tron Deadly Discs" cartridge jammed into it?
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/10/game_consoles/image/slide2.jpg
Jeff @ Oct 20th 2006 1:13PM
"No pics on the front just a gorgeous deep electric blue with the silver print."
I don't recall it being silver - my box is packed away but I have one of these. I believe it's just light grey.
Anyway, it was the Japanese box that they just carried over here. Japanese system boxes are usually like this. The Dreamcast box, for example, was just white with an orange DC logo - same concept as the PS2 box, basically. The Saturn and PS1 boxes were also simple; just the system's branding colors and a logo. (Some Saturn boxes had more to them than that, but IIRC the early ones just had the logo.)
Not that it makes any real difference, but I also prefer this style to the loud and in-your-face style of most American boxes. Simple and clean is almost always better. I also think even branding-wise, it seems to make a lot more sense to just have a big and easily recognized logo on a box rather than a lot of busy graphics and photos that just look the same as what everybody else is doing.
Camperton @ Oct 20th 2006 1:18PM
Without Coleco and Intellivision represented this "history" is basically a joke.
Jeff @ Oct 20th 2006 1:18PM
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but in that picture of the Atari 2600 isn't that an Intellivision "Tron Deadly Discs" cartridge jammed into it?"
You are wrong - it's an Atari 2600 "Tron Deadly Discs" :)
Mattel also made carts for the 2600. They looked just like the Intellivision carts (and in fact *were* Intellivision cart casings) with what amounts to an extra piece of plastic slapped on the business end to act as sort of a physical adapter.
Here's some info: http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareLabelID=752
Colin @ Oct 20th 2006 1:20PM
camperton.
Mattel did make some A2600 games. This is one of them.
As for the cartridge I think Matell kept the sloped look rather than the squared off look of Atari games.
Still have my Intellivsion downstairs though a controller is busted.
BTW the list didn't mention Vectrex or Virtual Boy.
Camperton @ Oct 20th 2006 1:27PM
@ Jeff and Colin
Fascinating. I don't recall ever seeing one of those.
CJC @ Oct 20th 2006 1:54PM
Ah, consoles. I miss the days when me and my neighbor traded our SNES and Genesis every so often. I loved my SNES a lot more, but it was good to play some Sonic and Phantasy Star every now and then. After all, Genesis does what NintenDON'T.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVeGRS0c5-0
Lutraphobic @ Oct 20th 2006 1:53PM
SIGH. I miss my DC.
seighton @ Oct 20th 2006 2:31PM
I remember researching the handhelds as a kid for my birthday present and finally going with the one that had the best graphics, the most "bits" and the smallest game carts; it was technically superior to the competition. Sadly, I was one of the 20 people that bought an Atari Lynx.
Th best tech specs don't matter when the games suck.
Oh, and constantly looking for 6 AA batteries to put in a handheld doesn't help either.
Rayek @ Oct 20th 2006 2:43PM
Wow. What an 'unbiased' report...
"It was, in fact, almost the same system as Nintendo's, with a similar gamepad and 8-bit processor." Talking about the Master System? Bah! the SMS was WAY superior to the NES. I doubt the jackasses who wrote this actually even played any of the consoles they pretend to know so much about. One look at an SMS game side-by-side with an NES game, it's very apparent which is technically superior. Plus, the 3D glasses? Puhleeze.
They also didn't talk about Nintendo being cocks about their licensing at the time, and lost a court case declaring them an illegal monopoly because they locked their developers into a contract that would force them to produce games ONLY for the NES. Just by virtue of the NES being out first and the contracts that everyone HAD to sign, they came out on top. Failed to mention that SMALL detail.
Just read the PSP load of bullocks... Yeah, I said it, these guys know nothing about gaming history, sorry.
Hugh Jeffner @ Oct 20th 2006 3:06PM
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but in that picture of the Atari 2600 isn't that an Intellivision "Tron Deadly Discs" cartridge jammed into it?"
I thought the exact same thing when I saw that, I was never aware of those carts. I did however have a Coleco version of Donkey Kong that was supposed to work on Intellivision II. I think I only got it to work once for a very short time.
Atari 2600 had nothing on Intellivision II, I remember spending hours playing Snafu and the 2 D&D games. In fact I played it so much it got so hot it burnt out something in the mainboard.
shouryuuken @ Oct 20th 2006 3:31PM
heck yeah to all you dreamcast/saturn/sms fans. i still have all 3 of those bad boys in my room with 30+ saturn games and 35+ dreamcast games. and yes it was true.. the sms was much more powerful than the nes.. if u dont believe me.. google screenshots of rampage for both systems.. and see which one looks like the arcade. sms was like comparing the xbox to the dreamcast.. although both are similar.. the dreamcasts release in 1998 (japan) of course is going to hinder it from being as advanced as 2001's xbox. and yeah.. the only reason the snes eventually outsold the genesis was because sega stopped support for their console earlier. that was the closest race in history.. we need another sega/nintendo war. anyways.. yeah.. nights.. vf2, virtua cop 2, panzer dragoon..capcom fighting games etc.. all good stuff.. but nobody said GUARDIAN HEROES! that was THE game man. and although it would be really dope to see a new panzer dragoon on the wii.. how perfect would nights fit on there though? man...
John Lucas @ Oct 20th 2006 3:40PM
Not complete & a little erroneous on a few details but it STILL provides a nice snapshot of 34 years of console gaming history.
I hope the people out here trying to be marketwatchers use some of what's said here as reference.
The younger game fans need to pay heed to this as well.
It pays to know a little of what you're talking about when you discuss things.
John Lucas
SquashedYoshi @ Oct 20th 2006 4:06PM
They have the DS launch price listed as $199.
Heh heh, allllriiiiight.
Ohgami @ Oct 23rd 2006 1:08AM
Brief history is an understatment. I usually reference the museum on Classicgaming.com very thorough.
Karen @ Oct 23rd 2006 12:53AM
i wish that their was a place to get the contrllers for sega saturn
Peet @ Oct 23rd 2006 3:53AM
FTA: "Microsoft's Xbox marked the software company's debut in producing hardware of any kind"
Except, of course, for all the mice and keyboards they've been making for years...
GlockNinja @ Oct 24th 2006 12:20PM
Nintendo sucks. Mario sucks (Glorified PitFall). Gameboy sucked (with no color and cheap games), SuperNES sucked with bad games. The only reason NES was successful was because the public was starved for "new" technology in video gaming.
Sega was ok but they made the mistake of creating new systems without improving what they already had on the market by supporting it with better and more games.
Sony is video gaming GOD. The PS was simply awsome. The system had more games within a year than a christmas tree with candy canes. And forget all the rest of the lame games mentioned for the PS in this article. Just remember "Resident Evil". ok? And Sony's PSP Blows the Nintendo DS out of the water. It has better screen and graphics, it can play video, store music like MP3, browse the internet, and play movies..and more. Sony's PS3 will rock.
Xbox? ha. Microsoft made the same mistake as Sega. They created a new system before they showed real support for Xbox. Xbox 360 has been a disappointment with rehashed old xbox games with just better graphics. Where is the fun?
GlockNinja @ Oct 24th 2006 12:28PM
Lets face it Microsoft does not know what it is doing. They are not looking out gamers they are looking out for their business. And in the process they are not even making a profit. The only way Microsoft could have eatin Sony alive was if they made the 360 so that it could browse the internet like Web TV and play PC games with a keyboard and mouse (without it having Windows XP applications), and play Xbox 360 and Xbox games. But I don't think the dog with a bone in his mouth (bill gates) would allow that.