The following are some of the stories, hoping to arouse your memories of the past.
From these stories, maybe we can also predict who will be the ultimate winner of the new generation of game consoles.
First, the era of red and white machines
It is said that the world's first home game machine was born in the 1970s, and it can only display simple square lines, and it is monochrome. At that time, it could not be called "industry". It was Nintendo of Japan that changed history. In the 1980s, Nintendo of Japan opened a brand-new era of red and white machines. At this time, the real home game machine FC began to be popular all over the world, and gradually produced a huge home game machine industry.
Nintendo FC sega MD Nintendo SFC
Release date1July 9831June 51988/June 29/October 990/June kloc-0/654381October 2/kloc-0.
The cumulative sales were 6.29110,000 units, 30.75 million units and 49 1 10,000 units respectively.
Among them, Japan has19.35 million sets, 8.75 million sets and17170,000 sets.
Among them, the United States has 42.56 million units, 22 million units and 3 1.93 million units.
CPU Motorola 6502 Motorola M68000 Motorola 65836
The running frequency of CPU is1.79mhz 7.67mhz 3.58mhz.
Image resolution: 256X240 320X224 5 12X448
Hair color up to 52 colors 5 12 colors 32768
Screen coat number 16 color 64 color 256 color
The maximum number of active blocks is 64 80 128.
Memory 2KB 64KB 128KB
Memory 2KB 64KB 128KB
Software carrier: 32KB cassette, ROM capacity: 4MB cassette, 6MB cassette.
The starting point of Japanese game industry
Nintendo's FC is called Family puter, which is a game machine produced by Nintendo of Japan in 1983. Now many games are derived from FC.
FC has made considerable contributions to the game industry, and it can even be said that FC game consoles are the starting point of the Japanese game industry.
FC was also very popular in Chinese mainland in 1980s, when many people called it red and white machine.
There are many classic games on FC, such as the famous Contra, the Brave Fight the Dragon, Super Mario, Solomon Snake, the legend of zelda, Final Fantasy, Demon City, Rockman and so on. ...
After FC went public, Sega's game console SG- 1000 was completely suppressed.
However, soon after FC went on the market, serious bugs appeared in the hardware design of the first batch of FC, which might lead to the crash.
In order to restore Nintendo's reputation, Yamauchi decided to recycle the mainframe, thus losing 654.38+0.5 billion yen.
However, this incident made Nintendo establish an excellent brand image. The following year, after FC re-listed, the sales volume was 6.5438+0.65 million units within one year.
FC started successfully in the United States.
1985 10 NES was listed in new york for the first time, the first *** 15.
By the end of 1985, NES had sold 50,000 sets in new york.
Then NES began to go public in the United States, and sold 1 10,000 units within one year, which made the once-collapsed American PC market begin to recover.
16-bit host era
The era of 16-bit host began with 16-bit MD(Mega Driver) introduced by SEGA) 1988 in Japan.
For Sega, the American market is the real strategic focus.
1989 September 15 The mainframe was listed in the United States, and the price was 190 USD.
Since the American game market was basically monopolized by Nintendo at that time, Sega decided to explore new players who were older and launched a large number of games for adult players.
After Nintendo's SFC went public, the competition between Sega and Nintendo became fierce.
From 65438 to 0992, Sega occupied 55% market share in North America. From 65438 to 0993, Sega's home computer business reached an unparalleled space peak, accounting for 65% of the market.
2D last dynasty games
From 1987 to 1988, FC's rich income makes Nintendo have no interest in developing the next generation of consoles.
Then, Sega MD's growing market share forced Nintendo to start developing 16-bit consoles.
The biggest feature of SFC design is the adoption of two graphics coprocessors.
The CSRC originally planned to issue 1989 in July, but it was postponed several times.
However, due to Nintendo's large number of third-party support, SFC is the most concerned host for Japanese players, although it came late.
Before the release of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Nintendo had received orders of 6.5438+0.5 million units.
165438+1October 2 1 On that day, the electric stores on the streets of Tokyo were crowded with people waiting in line for SFC. Many parents were absent from work to buy a host for their children, and the huge crowd even seriously affected the traffic in Tokyo.
1991August 13, Nintendo launched the redesigned SNES in the United States.
Unfortunately, the listing time of SNES was too late, when MD had established a large enough mass base in the United States.
SNES was easily defeated by MD in the first year of sales.
The weakening of Nintendo's power provides an opportunity for PS to easily occupy the American market.
However, at this time, Nintendo's good days are coming to an end.
Second, Sony's PS empire
1993, Nintendo and Sony began to cooperate to develop the next generation mainframe. However, during the development period, Nintendo and Sony had a serious conflict on the storage medium of the game. Sony put forward to use CD as the medium of games, because CD has large storage capacity, low cost, convenience and lightness, while Nintendo insists on using cassette, thinking that cassette reading speed is faster.
There was a big argument between the two athletes. In the end, Nintendo unilaterally terminated the cooperation.
This undoubtedly angered Sony. In order to prevent abortion of molded products, Sony decided to carry out the plan alone. Sony may not have thought that this decision will change the development process of the entire home game machine.
1994 is a historic year for game consoles. In this year, Sony released a 32-bit home TV game system based on CD-Sony PlayStation.
Hundreds of people lined up in Akihabara and other places to buy. The first batch of 65,438+10,000 units were snapped up before noon, and even the grandson of Sony President Jing Daole and his husband had to return empty-handed.
Due to the brand appeal of PS, many well-known software manufacturers have joined in, and PS hosts have gradually begun to blossom. Until Square and Enix, two platinum game makers, announced that they would bring their masterpieces Final Fantasy VII and Dragon VII to PS, the avalanche effect caused by them was tantamount to prematurely announcing the end of the war in the 32-console era.
Sega SS Sony PS Nintendo N64
Release date1994165438+1October 22nd1994 65438+February 3rd 65438+June 23rd 0996.
The cumulative sales were 9.26 million units, 65.438+0 billion units and 32.93 million units respectively.
CPU Hitachi 32-bit SH2 32-bit RISC 64-bit MIPS R4300i
The running frequency of CPU is 28.6 MHz, 33.8688 MHz and 94 MHz.
Image resolution: 640X480 640X480 640X480
Most hair colors are16.77 million colors16.77 million colors16.77 million colors.
Polygon processing capacity is 300,000/sec, 360,000/sec,150,000/sec.
Memory 32 megabits 28 megabits 4MB RDRAM
Software carrier 2 times speed CD-ROM CD-ROM 64 MB cassette
The rout of the SS in Sega Saturn.
1994, sega also released its own new generation of game consoles. Sega named the console "SS"-the sixth planet in the solar system, representing the sixth console of Sega.
One month before the launch of the main engine, the first batch of 200,000 Saturn engines were almost sold out, and 6,543,800+5,000 main engines were sold out quickly on the first launch day.
Most players who buy Saturn come for VR soldiers.
At the end of 1994, Saturn sold 500,000 units in Japan, and its sales performance exceeded PS in the same period.
1On May 7th, 995, Sony and Sega announced that the sales of PS and SS had exceeded/kloc-0.00 million units, and the competition between the two 32-bit mainframes became fierce.
However, in the American market, Sega did not inherit the market advantage of MD.
Saturn's price in the United States is higher than PS 100, but its actual performance is not as good as PS.
1995 sega and Sony fought a price war, and Saturn took the lead with a slight advantage. Then, because Saturn's cost is higher than PS, Sega can no longer bear the huge cost pressure after 1996, and Saturn suffered a fiasco in the United States and Japan.
The short-lived Nintendo N64
Although N64 has been on the market for a year and a half compared with SS and PS, Nintendo, which has a solid foundation in Japan, has been widely supported by players. The sales scale of N64 in Japan is much stronger than that of PS and SS, and the first batch of 500,000 hosts were sold out in only 10 days.
1September 30th, 996, N64 was also a great success after it was listed in North America.
People are still full of confidence in Nintendo, which monopolized the game console market for ten years. N64 seems to be more popular than PS and SS.
Then all the third parties were disappointed by using the cassette as a medium.
The manufacturing cost of N64 cassette is as high as $25, while the manufacturing cost of CD-ROM is only 10 cent, so the price of N64 games is generally $20 ~ 25 higher than that of PS.
N64 is the mainstream game machine with the fewest kinds of games in history. There has been a lack of software support for several months after its release, while PS and SS have an unprecedented strong game lineup.
The strong starting momentum of N64 was quickly suppressed by Resident Evil and other masterpieces.
From beginning to end, N64 is basically a stage for Nintendo to show alone.
Sega's doomsday work DC
Due to the defects in the host design, Sega's SS suffered a big loss in the competition with PS.
When developing the next-generation mainframe, Sun, then president of Sega, decided to hire a senior engineer from IBM to set up a separate development team in the United States, while Hideki Sato led the team to design the mainframe at the same time in Japan. 1In July, 1997, the senior management of Sega decided to adopt the plan of the Japanese team and named it Dream, which is a combination of dream and broadcasting.
It means spreading dreams to players.
Before the mainframe went on sale, Sega had received an order for 500,000 units, but its production partner NEC encountered serious production problems.
Because the production speed of graphics chips can't keep up, the first shipment of DC in Japan is only 6.5438+0.5 million units.
1On September 9, 1999, DC went public in the United States and sold 220,000 units that day.
As of February 1999, the total sales volume of DC in Japan was 900,000 vehicles, which failed to reach the original forecast of 1 10,000 vehicles.
Although the performance of DC is much higher than that of PS, under the impact of PS masterpieces such as Final Fantasy VII, DC without software support began to show signs of decline.
In 2000, with the listing of PS2, DC completely collapsed in Japan and America.
In March of 20001year, Sega announced that DC would stop production and completely quit the mainframe market.
Lessons from winners and losers
In this game console war, Sony's PS became the final winner. Sony's PS beat Sega's Saturn for many reasons. Some say that Saturn is more expensive than PS, but its actual performance is not as good as PS.
Although Saturn and PS are supported by masterpieces, there are relatively many masterpieces of PS, which may ultimately determine the fate of PS, such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, metal gear, Final Fantasy and so on.
Nintendo's failure lies in its outdated ideas. Until 1996, the game console N64 launched by Nintendo was mainly based on game cards.
Nintendo paid the price for its stupid decision, and by the time Nintendo woke up in 200 1 year and launched a CD-based NGC(NINTENDO GAME CUBE) game machine, Sony's PS/PS2 had already become the new overlord in the game machine field.
Third, Sony's PS2 empire.
At the beginning of 2000, online booking of PS2 officially started. Unexpectedly, however, the website received more than 65438+ 10,000 orders in the first 1 minute.
The server was overwhelmed and crashed on the spot.
The enthusiastic booking activity lasted until the end of February, and 380,000 copies of PS2 were booked.
On March 4th, 2000, the release of PS2 triggered a new wave of buying.
There was even a long queue of more than 5,000 people at Akihabara Electric Street in Tokyo, and the first few people in the queue had set up their tents four days ago. The enthusiasm is amazing.
Finally, SCEI once again created the myth of the industry: in three days, the total sales of PS2 reached 980,000 units, making it the fastest-selling video game machine in history.
The initial shipment of PS2 in Japan was 1 15000 units, which exceeded the original PS host factory in that year.
However, due to the huge market demand, there was a shortage of supply, and price speculation began to spread on auction websites such as Yi Bei. Many PS2s are auctioned at several times the official retail price. Even so, many players have paid the price.
At the beginning of the launch of PS2 in 2000, the number of games was not small, but there were not many really influential masterpieces. Coupled with the serious shortage of starting, software sales are very low.
However, in the following year, with the steady supply of consoles and the sales of masterpieces, the sales of PS2 began to skyrocket until it finally took the throne of the existing console platform.
Famous game series born on this console include: Ghost Cry, Ghost Warrior, True Three Kingdoms and kingdom hearts.
Sega DC Sony PS2 Nintendo NGC Microsoft Xbox
Release date:1998165438+1October 27, 2000 March 4, 2006 5438+September 014 2006 5438+0/October/kloc-0.
Cumulative sales/kloc-0.045 million units, 165438+ over 100 million units,/kloc-0.85 million units, over 22 million units.
CPU 128-bit SH4 128-bit ee IBM powerpc 750 cxe Intel special Pentium iii.
The running frequencies of CPU are 206 MHz, 295 MHz, 485 MHz and 733 MHz.
GPU PowerVR2 GS, clocked at 147.456MHz ATI Flipper, clocked at 162MHz nVidia NV2A.
The maximum color number is 16.77 million colors (16 color) 16.77 million colors (16 color)16.77 million colors (16 color) 4,294.96 million colors (3,000 colors).
The polygon processing capacity is 3 million/sec, 75 million/sec,12 million/sec,1.16.5 billion/sec.
Memory 16MB 32MB RDRAM 24MB 64MB
Memory 8MB 4MB 16MB for memory * * *
Software carrier GD-ROM 4 times speed DVD-ROM specially made 8 cm DVD-ROM.
Nintendo NGC's counterattack
1March 3, 999, the day after Sony released the PS2, Nintendo and Panasonic held a press conference to announce the development of a new generation of game consoles, and announced that their performance specifications would be higher than the PS2.
Then NGC's first game lineup was too weak. NGC shipped 450,000 units in the first batch, but only 300,000 units were sold in the first week, which is in sharp contrast to the general shortage of other hosts.
NGC's rush not only failed to suppress PS2, but also put Nintendo in a dilemma.
Unfortunately, the American version of NGC met a strong rival Xbox. As a result, its first sales volume in North America was 469,000 units, nearly 65,438+10,000 units less than Xbox.
The game lineup is weak, which is the dilemma that NGC has not escaped from the date of sale.
After the release of Halo 2, NGC was left behind by Xbox in Europe and America.
Challenge of Microsoft XBOX
20065438+0165438+1October 15, Microsoft released the Xbox game console.
Although the global sales of PS2 exceeded 20 million units when Xbox went on sale in the United States, the formidable Xbox was still daunting.
Microsoft held a grand midnight premiere of Xbox in new york and San Francisco. Bill Gates visited Times Square in new york and handed over the first Xbox to enthusiastic players at 0: 01 to experience the charm of Xbox with them.
But compared with the powerful hardware performance of Xbox, the low price of $299 was tantamount to vicious dumping at that time.
At this price, for every Xbox sold, Microsoft will lose 125 USD.
That's true. Although the Xbox with global sales of 20 million units has been firmly in the second place, Microsoft's evaporative expenditure on hardware in recent years is really amazing.
"The first generation is like a game. If you play well, then in the end he will say,' You can play again.
That's it! "Bill Gates said.
Billions of dollars in losses just to "play again"! The patience of the richest man in the world scares everyone.
The success of Sony empire
At this point, Sony's game console empire has begun to take shape, and Sony has also transformed from a layman in the game to the biggest winner in the video game industry.
Although the sudden emergence of 200 1 Microsoft and Nintendo's counterattack have brought some variables to the market, history and facts have proved that the PS2 is the most successful game machine in history.
Fourth, the next generation of game consoles.
Time has passed, and the new generation hosts of the three major manufacturers have been fully listed. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all come up with their own bargaining skills to promote their new products. Who is the winner of this video game war?
With the release of Microsoft XBOX360, Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii, the next generation of game consoles is becoming increasingly fierce.
Since Sony PS series has been leading the game console market, there has been no such fierce "war" for ten years.
Now Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are the top three, and their next-generation game consoles have their own advantages and disadvantages. At present, it seems difficult to predict the final result, and greater competition should be between Sony and Microsoft.
Nintendo wisely chose another road.
Sony PS3 Nintendo Wii Microsoft XBOX360
Release date: 20061October 1 20061October 1 20051October 6/22.
Cumulative sales (as of April 2007) were 6,543.8+0.84 million units, 5.84 million units and 6,543.8+0.00 million units.
CPU Cell processor, 2. 18T floating-point operation per second IBM Broadway 90nm IBM PowerPC.
CPU frequency 3.2Ghz 729MHz 3.2 GHz
Gpu 550mhz rsx (NVIDIA) ATI Hollywood custom ATI graphics processor.
The highest video resolution is1080i; ; HDMI output (60GB version), supporting HDMI 1.3 standard resolution up to 853× 480; The maximum multiple resolution of the output AV is1080i; ; Output terminals: standard AV line and HDAV line.
Memory 5 12MB(256MB XDR main memory; 256MB GDDR3 memory) System memory 650MHz；; 5 12MB flash memory 5 12 MB GDDR3 memory, 700 MHz DDR frequency.
Network function network platform: PlayStation network platform network platform: Wii Connect24 network platform: XBOX Live is the most mature game network platform at present; Service: Live anywhere.
The controller PS3 is equipped with Bluetooth technology, motion sensing technology, 6-axis sensing system and no vibration function.
The wireless handle has an effective distance of 30 feet Wiimote, supports four controllers and Bluetooth, and has an effective signal range of 10 meter.
With vibration function and built-in 3-axis motion sensor.
No motion sensing function; With vibration function; Support up to 4 wireless handles; The effective distance of wireless handle is 10 meter, and the battery life is 40 hours.
Media and other functions USB 2.0× 6;
Backward compatibility PS, PS2；; ;
Blu-ray drive, 5. 1 sound card.
MemoryStickDuo memory card or SD memory card or CF card; 10/100/1000 Mbps broadband Ethernet interface; External 2.5-inch hard disk;
It can be linked with PSP and linked with PSP through WLAN or USB2.0 × 2. ;
Memory expansion slot: 2 SD slots;
Backward compatibility with GameCube, NES, SNES and N64 games;
Optical drive is compatible with 8 cm GameCube CD and 12 cm Wii CD. Wii host GameCube memory card slot 2usb2.0× 3;
2 memory card slots;
The hard disk is detachable and upgradeable;
Support the replacement of personalized host panel;
Removable and upgradeable 20GB hard disk;
12 speed double-layer DVD-ROM；; ;
Memory card capacity from 64 MB;
Corresponding camera
Microsoft's XBOX360 preemptive strike
20051October 22nd, 165438+ Microsoft launched the XBox360 game console. This "Pandora's box" is really full of temptation.
The curtain of the next generation war has been opened by Xbox360.
XBOX360 has many European and American players and users, occupying a favorable position in Europe and America.
In the early release year, it occupied a large number of European and American game markets. However, due to cultural differences, XBOX360 has been difficult to enter the Japanese market.
Sony's PS3 got off to a bad start.
It was not until June 2006 1 65438+1October1that Sony introduced a new generation of PS3 game consoles. Because the cost of CELL processor and Blu-ray DVD used in PS3 is very high, even though the price of PS3 is more than Xbox360 and Wii combined, everyone agrees that Sony is still selling at a loss. If Sony expects, the PS3 will be released.
Nintendo's Wii took a different approach.
The Wii game console released by Nintendo on June165438+1October 6, 2006 has joined the battle of the next generation game console, but the performance of the game console is too different from that of XBOX360 and PS3, so don't expect the game screen on the Wii to reach the level of the first two.
However, the cost of Wii is the lowest among the three, and the power consumption is also very low. The biggest advantage of Wii lies in its unique motion-sensing controller. Wii can recognize the actions made by players, and it will create a brand-new game mode.
The Wii's gamepad is completely different from the previous shape. It uses a motion-sensing controller and is directly connected to the host through wireless Bluetooth.
This new handle highlights the "simulation experience" and senses the player's arm movement through sensors placed in the display device.
This suggested operation of Wii makes many non-traditional players (women and middle-aged and elderly people) happy to play this game. Some people think that Wii can be used for fitness.
Who will have the last laugh?
Who will be the final winner in the current next-generation game console war? In fact, look at the previous generations of game consoles and you will know what the decisive factor is. The success or failure of the host depends largely on the support of third-party software vendors, not the functions of the game machine.
Therefore, the more game developers support, the more game masterpieces appear, which determines who will be the final winner.
In this paper, based on "looking back at TV game consoles for 29 years at the age of 30", the next generation of game consoles was added.
Original author: video game club.