
Introduction
Video games are not just for kids anymore. The average age of a video game player is the mid-twenties, and the approximately 30 billion dollar video game industry is bigger than Hollywood ticket sales. This is why Microsoft and Sony are spending millions of dollars to position themselves in the latest console wars.
Console Generations
With a multi–billion dollar industry at stake, the Console Wars has been raging on since the mid–80’s. The first console wars started with Nintendo’s NES soundly defeating Sega’s Master System. Battles have been won and lost along the way with Sega and Atari calling retreat. There has also been alliances and betrayals along the way with the most notable story taking place before Console Gen III. Sony and Nintendo formed and alliance to design an optical CD drive for the Super NES. After much of the design was complete, Nintendo felt threatened by Sony and decided to cancel the project. Of course, Sony wasn’t very happy about this, and decided to release their own gaming console called the PlayStation. Sony continues to fight today with their PlayStation 3 battling Microsoft’s Xbox 360, and Nintendo’s Wii in Console Gen V.
Console Gen I |
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Console Gen II |
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Console Gen III |
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Console Gen IV |
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Console Gen V |
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Hand Helds |
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