For the past 30 years video games have been a hit with kids and adults alike. Just like sports these games help the competitive ability of a child to grow. Not only does the kid become competitive, but he also learns new tactics and techniques and improves his/her creativity. Video games have been divided into several categories which help develop different aspects of a child’s mentality. The first ever video game console was introduced in 1972.
The Magnavox Odyssey was the first-ever video game console in the world. The invention by Ralph H. Baer was a battery powered analog system. It didn’t have much success as it was overshadowed by the launch of Atari. The ‘pong’ game released by Atari was an instant hit. These games were the only competitors in the market until 1983, when the consoles crashed due to a lack of high quality games and market saturation. Nintendo took over from them in 1985 with their all-time hit game, Super Mario Bros. After Nintendo another Japanese company came along, Sega which took over the market with its high quality 2D games which used ROM cartridges to store games. Sega sold 29 million consoles worldwide.
Next came the era of the modern gaming consoles, started by the Sony Playstation. The first Playstation was released in 1994. It was a great hit with both kids and adults. It was a big jump from Sega and Nintendo in terms of graphics and game play. It had a 12 button joy-pad with analog sticks. The games were released on CDs. The first Playstation sat at top of the market for several years, even with the release of Nintendo 64 and Sega Saturn. In 2000, the Sony Playstation 2 was released which had far superior graphics and a realistic gaming experience. In 2001, Microsoft released its weapon, the XBOX. The XBOX was the only realistic competitor of the Playstation and later it did topple the Playstation in America. Soon classic consoles were forgotten and the battle between graphics and game play had begun. In 2002, the XBOX live arena was launched which helped the console become a fan favorite.
In 2005, the XBOX 360 was launched which took over the world, with its real life high end graphics and out of the world gaming experience, gaming enthusiasts shifted to Microsoft’s console without thinking twice. This created a great unrest at the Sony headquarters, who released the Playstation 3 a year later. Even though it was slightly better than the XBOX 360 in terms of graphics, it did not have enough games at that time and the games were not economical. XBOX 360 took advantage of Microsoft’s XBOX Live center, where XBOX owners from all over the world (having an internet connection) could compete, which was introduced by the Sony Corporation at the end of 2006. The first XBOX and the XBOX 360 along with the PS3 came with wireless joy-pads.
The battle between these two is still on, with the XBOX having a slight edge. Microsoft has also released the XBOX Kinect in November of 2010, which allowed motion sensors to be used as joy pads.
Jack Neils is a father of two lovely kids and is a fan of toys since his childhood days. Today, he has contributed numerous articles on Kids Toys and Educational Toys.
