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Below I have purposefully left out alot of lesser known consoles at it would have made a long post even longer and none of them made a lasting impact or have even been heard of by most people. The exception being the Neo Geo which had a huge Arcade market but due to cost couldnt compete in the Home market.
If you look at the rise and fall of Consoles over the years it's easy to see a pattern. Almost predictable patterns.
When Atari Corp released the 2600 it had great initial success. However due to the limited nature of the technology programmers could'nt really do much to differentiate one title from another. Coleco released the Colecovision and Mattel the Intellevision and although these machines were more powerful then the 2600. Limited colors and nonexistent graphical capabilites quickly bored the consumers.
Games became a seen one seen them all fad to the consumer. This combined with crooked game reviewers and a huge lack of innovation resulted in the video game crash of the 80's.
Enter Nintendo, and the release of the Nintendo NES. 8 bit capabilities allowing more innovative and graphical game designs reopened the home gaming market with a vengeance. Games were longer, richer, more graphical, more detailed, and had better sound to top it all off.
Sega who wanted a piece of the American market released the Sega Master System to compete with Nintendo. However Nintendo had lucrative publishing contracts with it's third party developers and Sega could'nt get enough support from developers to make much of a dent.
Next we have NEC releasing the Turbo Graphix 16. This machine although truly a 8 bit machine and marketed as 16 bit was actually a pretty nice system. But Nec who had 0 experience as a console maker just could'nt grasp how to successfully manage a console company. Plus Sega who was eager to finally get some market share relased the SEGA GENESIS.
The Genesis being a true next gen 16 bit system quickly began making leaps and bounds over the competition. Next Gen graphics and some decent titles combined with aggressive marketing and a mascot named Sonic the hedgehog actually pushed Sega ahead of Nintendo in market share.
However with the release of Nintendos 16 bit Super Nintendo and Sega dropping the marketing ball and a rash of poor games saw Nintendo recover the lead.
Now comes along the Atari Jaguar, This sytem was extremely powerful compared to the consoles of the day. However this system had 5 processors and developers just werent prepared to sink the kind of resources(money) into the machine it would require to make titles for it. It quickly fail by the wayside.
Next to bat is the Sega Saturn a 32 bit CD-rom based system. This system utilizied duel processors and could have been a great system. However programmers at the time had no expereince with duel processors and only utilized one on the majority of the games written for it. It never gained much ground in the console market.
Sony launched the playstation during this time period which was also 32 bits, but was cheap to produce and easy to code for. Also by using Cd's instead of cartridges they had ample media space for more detailed graphics and music. They quickly gobbled up market share from Nintendo.
Nintendo countered with the release of the Nintendo 64. This was a really nice system with superb grapical capabilites and fast load times thanks to the continued use of cartidges as there game medium, But cartidges would be the deathnell for Nintendo's market dominance.
Cartridges although great for load times were and still are expensive to produce. This drove the cost of Nintendo's premier titles to over $70.00. Compared to $45.00 - $50.00 for playstation titles. Not to mention they could'nt cram as much content into a cartidge as they could a CD, so the games suffered as well.
Enter the Sega Dreamcast another great system that suffered from poor management and failed. The Sega dreamcast was technically a great system and still is even by todays standards. But Sega had manufacturing problems that would'nt allow it to be sold at a cheap enough price to gain enough market share for the system to be profitable.
Plus Sony had many loyal Gamers who simply would'nt switch over cause the Dreamcast just didnt have any titles that could sway them. Sony eventually pulled this sytem form the market and now just makes games.
Then along comes the Playstation 2 a very nice console which is quickly adopted by it's previous fanbase and takes more market share from Nintendo who had released it's new console the Nintendo Gamecube.
The Gamecube which is more powerful then the Playstation 2 cannot play Dvd's like the Playstation 2 due to a custom storage media size Nintendo has adopted. Nintendo continues to lose market share.
Next a newcomer to the console market Microsoft releases the Xbox. Borrowing heavily from it's Os and developers this system is 3 times as powerful as the PS2 and twice as the gamecube. Microsoft who had zero experience in the console market actually makes inroads at Sony's market share.
But lack of experience, no previous fanbase to draw on, poor manufacturing contracts which prevent them from lowering the Xbox to a lower price and several other issues keep the Xbox in a distant Second place to Sony.
Now were up to present day with the release of the Xbox 360. A beast of a console compared to any previous console it is powerful, fast, and easy to program for. We also see Microsoft with a previous fanbase to draw off of. Some backwards compatibility with the Xbox titles. And a huge wow factor.
Soon well see the launch of Sony's Playstation 3. It will be very powerful as well and has Sonys huge fanbase to draw off of. But theres one large problem for sony.
It is going to be much more difficult to program for then the Xbox 360. that combined with the huge budgets of millions of dollars being allocated to develop games on a time table. It's going to hurt Sony. Sony will see alot of developers pass on releasing titles for it's console and going to the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo revolution which is extremely easy to program for.
It will take less time and less money for devs to get a title on the shelves with either the 360 or Revolution. Also you will be seeing alot less of Multi Console luanches with this generation. The 360 and revolution will be seeing many more big name title launches simply because it will be easier to port one title from one system to the other. The Playstation 3 on the other hand will require significant coding to achieve the same performance.
The main problem is the Cell processor in the PS3. this 9 core processor looks so sweet on paper and has the potential to be. But to get some power out of this thing is going to require some serious programming. People, are generation of programmers are used to one processor machines.
Now what you will see happen is programmers trying to utilize the main chip of the core which is a 64 bit power pc chip. But without the use of its helper cores its not going to stand up so well against the xbox 360's duel core design. Which is much easier to program for since its cores are equal in terms of performance. And core for core should easily outperform the Cell.
We will no doubt see some great looking games from the PS3, but at what cost? How long will it take to code these games and at how much money comapred to the 360 or revolution.
Sony had initially released a statement claiming there system was more easy to program for then the 360, but lack of developer comment and common sense dictates otherwise. It will always be easier to devide something as complicated as computer code into 2 then 9.
Sony should have looked at the history of video game consoles and learned from other company's mistakes. (jaguar, saturn)
At the end of the day for gamers the quality and play factor will dictate which console they choose. But for developers its going to be market share and the amount of money it takes to release a title.
My guess two years from now will see the Xbox 360 with 65% of the market sony with 25% and Nintendo with %10.
Nintendo's system will be the easiest to program for, however lack of horspower under the hood will dictate that the games will look better on other consoles, and Developers will have more headroom to playwith releasing for the Xbox 360.
If you look at the rise and fall of Consoles over the years it's easy to see a pattern. Almost predictable patterns.
When Atari Corp released the 2600 it had great initial success. However due to the limited nature of the technology programmers could'nt really do much to differentiate one title from another. Coleco released the Colecovision and Mattel the Intellevision and although these machines were more powerful then the 2600. Limited colors and nonexistent graphical capabilites quickly bored the consumers.
Games became a seen one seen them all fad to the consumer. This combined with crooked game reviewers and a huge lack of innovation resulted in the video game crash of the 80's.
Enter Nintendo, and the release of the Nintendo NES. 8 bit capabilities allowing more innovative and graphical game designs reopened the home gaming market with a vengeance. Games were longer, richer, more graphical, more detailed, and had better sound to top it all off.
Sega who wanted a piece of the American market released the Sega Master System to compete with Nintendo. However Nintendo had lucrative publishing contracts with it's third party developers and Sega could'nt get enough support from developers to make much of a dent.
Next we have NEC releasing the Turbo Graphix 16. This machine although truly a 8 bit machine and marketed as 16 bit was actually a pretty nice system. But Nec who had 0 experience as a console maker just could'nt grasp how to successfully manage a console company. Plus Sega who was eager to finally get some market share relased the SEGA GENESIS.
The Genesis being a true next gen 16 bit system quickly began making leaps and bounds over the competition. Next Gen graphics and some decent titles combined with aggressive marketing and a mascot named Sonic the hedgehog actually pushed Sega ahead of Nintendo in market share.
However with the release of Nintendos 16 bit Super Nintendo and Sega dropping the marketing ball and a rash of poor games saw Nintendo recover the lead.
Now comes along the Atari Jaguar, This sytem was extremely powerful compared to the consoles of the day. However this system had 5 processors and developers just werent prepared to sink the kind of resources(money) into the machine it would require to make titles for it. It quickly fail by the wayside.
Next to bat is the Sega Saturn a 32 bit CD-rom based system. This system utilizied duel processors and could have been a great system. However programmers at the time had no expereince with duel processors and only utilized one on the majority of the games written for it. It never gained much ground in the console market.
Sony launched the playstation during this time period which was also 32 bits, but was cheap to produce and easy to code for. Also by using Cd's instead of cartridges they had ample media space for more detailed graphics and music. They quickly gobbled up market share from Nintendo.
Nintendo countered with the release of the Nintendo 64. This was a really nice system with superb grapical capabilites and fast load times thanks to the continued use of cartidges as there game medium, But cartidges would be the deathnell for Nintendo's market dominance.
Cartridges although great for load times were and still are expensive to produce. This drove the cost of Nintendo's premier titles to over $70.00. Compared to $45.00 - $50.00 for playstation titles. Not to mention they could'nt cram as much content into a cartidge as they could a CD, so the games suffered as well.
Enter the Sega Dreamcast another great system that suffered from poor management and failed. The Sega dreamcast was technically a great system and still is even by todays standards. But Sega had manufacturing problems that would'nt allow it to be sold at a cheap enough price to gain enough market share for the system to be profitable.
Plus Sony had many loyal Gamers who simply would'nt switch over cause the Dreamcast just didnt have any titles that could sway them. Sony eventually pulled this sytem form the market and now just makes games.
Then along comes the Playstation 2 a very nice console which is quickly adopted by it's previous fanbase and takes more market share from Nintendo who had released it's new console the Nintendo Gamecube.
The Gamecube which is more powerful then the Playstation 2 cannot play Dvd's like the Playstation 2 due to a custom storage media size Nintendo has adopted. Nintendo continues to lose market share.
Next a newcomer to the console market Microsoft releases the Xbox. Borrowing heavily from it's Os and developers this system is 3 times as powerful as the PS2 and twice as the gamecube. Microsoft who had zero experience in the console market actually makes inroads at Sony's market share.
But lack of experience, no previous fanbase to draw on, poor manufacturing contracts which prevent them from lowering the Xbox to a lower price and several other issues keep the Xbox in a distant Second place to Sony.
Now were up to present day with the release of the Xbox 360. A beast of a console compared to any previous console it is powerful, fast, and easy to program for. We also see Microsoft with a previous fanbase to draw off of. Some backwards compatibility with the Xbox titles. And a huge wow factor.
Soon well see the launch of Sony's Playstation 3. It will be very powerful as well and has Sonys huge fanbase to draw off of. But theres one large problem for sony.
It is going to be much more difficult to program for then the Xbox 360. that combined with the huge budgets of millions of dollars being allocated to develop games on a time table. It's going to hurt Sony. Sony will see alot of developers pass on releasing titles for it's console and going to the Xbox 360 or the Nintendo revolution which is extremely easy to program for.
It will take less time and less money for devs to get a title on the shelves with either the 360 or Revolution. Also you will be seeing alot less of Multi Console luanches with this generation. The 360 and revolution will be seeing many more big name title launches simply because it will be easier to port one title from one system to the other. The Playstation 3 on the other hand will require significant coding to achieve the same performance.
The main problem is the Cell processor in the PS3. this 9 core processor looks so sweet on paper and has the potential to be. But to get some power out of this thing is going to require some serious programming. People, are generation of programmers are used to one processor machines.
Now what you will see happen is programmers trying to utilize the main chip of the core which is a 64 bit power pc chip. But without the use of its helper cores its not going to stand up so well against the xbox 360's duel core design. Which is much easier to program for since its cores are equal in terms of performance. And core for core should easily outperform the Cell.
We will no doubt see some great looking games from the PS3, but at what cost? How long will it take to code these games and at how much money comapred to the 360 or revolution.
Sony had initially released a statement claiming there system was more easy to program for then the 360, but lack of developer comment and common sense dictates otherwise. It will always be easier to devide something as complicated as computer code into 2 then 9.
Sony should have looked at the history of video game consoles and learned from other company's mistakes. (jaguar, saturn)
At the end of the day for gamers the quality and play factor will dictate which console they choose. But for developers its going to be market share and the amount of money it takes to release a title.
My guess two years from now will see the Xbox 360 with 65% of the market sony with 25% and Nintendo with %10.
Nintendo's system will be the easiest to program for, however lack of horspower under the hood will dictate that the games will look better on other consoles, and Developers will have more headroom to playwith releasing for the Xbox 360.
