The gaming sphere has managed to become one of the most prominent industries in the world. Many tech companies out there are starting to branch out into gaming in order to compete with a bunch of other companies that have already been in the gaming scene for quite some time now. The gaming industry can generally be divided into a few different categories, namely console, PC and mobile, with cloud based gaming and VR games also forming a small but significant portion of the industry.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that while these are the categories that currently represent the priorities of the gaming industry, the manner in which this industry started involved a category that no one really thinks about anymore: arcade games. They made their debut back in 1972 with the creation of Pong, and over the course of the next decade a lot of other games were released until in 1980 PacMan was put out which cemented the boom in this industry and brought a peak revenue of $39 billion shortly after which is comparable to the numbers that console games see today.
In 1985, a crash in the market occurred due to the prevalence of fake and defective games as well as an over saturation in the market. This hurt a lot of gaming categories but consoles were hit worst of all. In around the 2000s, arcades started to go out of fashion and console and PC games became the main way in which people tended to play games on a regular basis. However, the boom of mobile games has ended up making it more valuable than both PC and console games combined. PC and consoles earn $40 billion and $33 billion respectively. Mobile games, on the other hand, earned $80 billion last year.
Another historical gaming platform that has faded away is the hand held console. This is because of the fact that mobile gaming fulfills the same function while also providing a lot of other features as well. It still formed an important component of the industry, though, with Nintendo’s GameBoy being one of the most amazing products ever released in the industry and it had a really widespread impact on how other companies went about their business practices as well to a really large extent.
Take a look at this graphic for more insights.
H/T: VC.
Read next: How Society Creates Entrepreneurs (infographic)
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that while these are the categories that currently represent the priorities of the gaming industry, the manner in which this industry started involved a category that no one really thinks about anymore: arcade games. They made their debut back in 1972 with the creation of Pong, and over the course of the next decade a lot of other games were released until in 1980 PacMan was put out which cemented the boom in this industry and brought a peak revenue of $39 billion shortly after which is comparable to the numbers that console games see today.
In 1985, a crash in the market occurred due to the prevalence of fake and defective games as well as an over saturation in the market. This hurt a lot of gaming categories but consoles were hit worst of all. In around the 2000s, arcades started to go out of fashion and console and PC games became the main way in which people tended to play games on a regular basis. However, the boom of mobile games has ended up making it more valuable than both PC and console games combined. PC and consoles earn $40 billion and $33 billion respectively. Mobile games, on the other hand, earned $80 billion last year.
Another historical gaming platform that has faded away is the hand held console. This is because of the fact that mobile gaming fulfills the same function while also providing a lot of other features as well. It still formed an important component of the industry, though, with Nintendo’s GameBoy being one of the most amazing products ever released in the industry and it had a really widespread impact on how other companies went about their business practices as well to a really large extent.
Take a look at this graphic for more insights.
H/T: VC.
Read next: How Society Creates Entrepreneurs (infographic)
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