The Numbers Mason, What Do They Mean?!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
While Mason may\nnot have remembered what the numbers meant, we do. The numbers we refer to are\nobviously the statistics related to the console gaming industry in general. In\nthis section, we will look at the financial statistics related to the industry,\nand then some numbers you may not expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BEGIN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. The third-generation\nconsole, Sega Master System, is the longest selling console of all time:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The third generation of consoles were\nmainly 8-bit consoles with 4Hz CPUs and 8Kb of RAM and ROM. These technical\nspecifics might seem like absolutely nothing compared to all the power and\nspeed that modern consoles can boast of. Despite its power and speed being non\n\u2013 existent when putting up against current consoles, the Sega Master System is\nthe longest selling console of all time. This console has been continuously\nsold since 1985 and is manufactured by the same manufacturer for 35 years. The primary\nmarket for this old console is the country of Brazil. Nearly 8 million Master\nSystems were sold 2016 in Brazil, with the number jumping higher in the\nfollowing years. Keep in mind that the Master System saw two successors, which\nboth failed. Experts suggest that this is because of the system\u2019s low price,\n$225, and a wide variety of games, with new releases no less, which are readily\navailable in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Start)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Microsoft\nspent over $1.15 billion on fixing the red ring of death issues in the OG Xbox:<\/strong> Microsoft\u2019s answer to Sony\u2019s PlayStation 3 was the Xbox 360, which\nwas released in 2005. The console was highly anticipated and suffered from a shortage\nof stocks in many regions of the world. This led to the design and\nmanufacturing of the console to be rushed, which led to a host of issues. The\nmost well-known of these issues was the famous Red Ring of Death (or RRoD).\nThese issues plagued the first iteration of the Xbox 360, which was also the\nmost famous iteration of the console. An unbelievably large number of Xbox\u2019s\nsuffered from the RRoD with some estimations stating that nearly 34% of all\nXbox 360s died due to the RRoD. Microsoft, upon realizing the issue, issued a\nmassive recall and replacement effort that cost the company nearly 1.15 billion\ndollars overall. The Xbox 360\u2019s project leader stated that despite the enormous\ncost, they made the decision for the recall to protect the brand\u2019s integrity.\nThis move turned out to be the right one as the Xbox brand is valued at nearly\n4.5 billion dollars today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bonus Fact:<\/strong>\nA popular, but not Microsoft endorsed, method for fixing the RRoD error was to\nwrap the console in a warm towel for 20 minutes, which would revive the console\nfor around 3 to 4 hours, allowing files to be recovered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Gamespot, Wikihow)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. The PlayStation\n2 is the most successful console till date, with over 156 million units sold: <\/strong>In the eternal argument between Sony\u2019s PlayStation and Microsoft\u2019s\nXbox, the PlayStation’s supporters always tend to bring the PlayStation 2\u2019s\nsuccess as one of the significant reasons the former brand is better. This\nseventh-generation console enjoyed immense success. It saw a slew of games\nthat, to this date, feature heavily in almost all \u2018Best Games of All Times\u2019\nlists. The console was so popular that it sold nearly 156 million units worldwide,\na feat that is yet to be bested. Even PlayStation’s big brother PlayStation 4\nhasn\u2019t achieved this milestone. As of 2020, the PlayStation 4 has managed to\nsell only 102.8 million units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: SA Gamer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. The\nPlayStation 2\u2019s younger brother was the first console to sell over 100 million\nunits: <\/strong>The PlayStation 1 was the first console that\nSony released in their PlayStation line of products. This was a fifth-generation\nconsole and was competing with industry leaders like Nintendo and Sony, who had\nbeen making the console war for literal generations. Hence it was widely\nbelieved that Sony releasing their console was a mistake since they were up\nagainst veterans. However, owing to the fact that the PlayStation 1 had a CD\nROM disc drive, it managed to be very successful, with tons of AAA developers\nmaking exclusive games for the platform. This catapulted the PlayStation 1 into\nthe limelight like no console before it, making it the first console ever to\nsell over 100 million units. Buy the end of its lifetime the PlayStation had\nsold nearly 102.6 million total units. Even the PlayStation 4 barely managed to\nreach this height, as seen in the previous fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: News Hub)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. The\nconsole gaming industry is now worth well over $33.3 billion: <\/strong>As the popularity of gaming rises, as does the revenue that the\nindustry brings in. Console gaming is a market that caters to the casual gaming\naudience, the kind of gamers who don’t want to invest thousands of dollars into\na dedicated gaming PC. The overall gaming industry is worth nearly 130 billion\ndollars, of which the console manufacturers earn almost 33.3 billion dollars.\nIt is much harder to pin the revenue that the game manufacturers make of off\ngame sales, but the ballpark figure of 30 billion dollars has been made. The income\nearned by the console manufacturers is expected to rise to as much as 80.1\nbillion dollars by the end of 2021. This includes the expected revenue from the\nninth generation of consoles, due to be released by the end of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Venture Beat)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Free games\nbeing in the most revenue for publishers, ironically: <\/strong>Free to Play games are all the rage right now in the gaming\nindustry. These games include the likes of Destiny, DOTA 2, League of Legends,\nand the most famous one being Fortnite. The model of pricing that these games\nuse depends on the gamers purchasing post game items. These are mainly cosmetic\nitems which change nothing but the appearance of the player character, although\nthere are some games which allow for gamers to buy weapons and other playable\nitems. Free to Play games bring in nearly 13.7 billion dollars in revenue for\nconsoles, with Fortnite, the industry leader, brining in nearly 2.5 billion\ndollars alone. This model has been blamed for a lot of issues surrounding the\ngaming industry in general, to the point where the European Union even banned\nloot boxes outright. This doesn\u2019t prevent the Free to Play games from being\nincredibly popular, with DOTA 2 being the most financially successful game of\nall time, and Fortnite being the biggest game of all time with regards to its\nplayer base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Tech Crunch)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. There are\nan approximate 661.6 million console gamers in the world: <\/strong>To get an idea of how big the console gaming market is, understand\nthe fact that there are nearly 662 million console gamers in the world. For\nsome context, there are 331 million people living in the United States of\nAmerica. That is the third biggest country by population in the world, with\nIndia coming in second with 1.3 billion residents. The total number of gamers\nin the world is expected to be around 2.5 billion, more than one \u2013 third of the\nentire human population. These gamers are divided between the PlayStation, Xbox\nand Nintendo camps. The PlayStation camp seems to be their most successful of\nthem all, but Xbox Series X seems to be poised to take over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Statista)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8. The\nNintendo Switch has outsold the Xbox One, claiming 25% of the console gaming\nmarket: <\/strong>Let\u2019s take a look at the console gaming\nmarket share that the various major companies hold. Sony is the dominant leader\nin the market, with the PS4 holding 51% of the market, having sold 102.8\nmillion units. The Nintendo Switch has been sold 50 million times, holding 25%\nof the console market, and has eclipsed the Xbox One, which has sold about 48\nmillion units, and holds 24% of the market share. These statistics only refer\nto the eighth generation of consoles. If we take an overall look at the market,\nthen the PlayStation holds 68% of the market, the Xbox has 31% and the Nintendo\nSwitch holds 1% of the entire console market share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Forbes)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 9. 80% of all\nrevenue for consoles comes from software sales: <\/strong>Software\nsales account for a large percentage of all revenue earned by console games\nmanufacturers. These sales are in the form of digital downloads and add-on DLCs\nfor physical games. According to industry reports, nearly 80% of al profits\nearned by games manufactures comes in the form of software sales, with as much\nas 53% of these profits being from after sale services, like DLCs and\ncosmetics. The kind of games that rely on after sale services are usually the\nFree to play kind, for example Fortnite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Research and Markets)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that we are\nfamiliar with the numbers behind the screens of console gaming let’s take a\nlook at some fun facts that console peasants use to entertain themselves with.\nWe kid of course, the console gaming industry, has become a strong contender\nfor games in general, with some of the best-reviewed games on the decade being\nconsole exclusives, whether permanently or for its first few months. Here you\nwill find some facts about consoles that you may not have known about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 10. The\nFamicom and SNES\u2019s eject button did absolutely nothing:<\/strong> The Famicom was famous as being the only console to have a\ndedicated cartridge eject lever (a button in later iterations). The lever was\nbelieved to prevent the cartridge from getting corrupted and being removed\nprematurely. However, in an interview after the system\u2019s second iteration, the\nFamicom\u2019s creator Masayuki Uemura stated that the eject lever did absolutely\nnothing. Its only purpose was, to quote, \u201cMaking a satisfying click sound.\u201d\nMasayuki said that he fled the console could entertain children even after the\nconsole has been powered off. This idea was adopted by the Super Famicom and\nthe Super Nintendo Entertainment System as well. This knowledge did not ever\nbecome common in the lifetime of these consoles, with small scale conflicts\nerupting in living rooms across the world. The issue of conflict was usually\nabout whether or not the cartridge was broken after you pulled it out without\nejecting, the answer to which, however, is no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Glitterberri)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 11. The first\ngame to be played in space was\u2026.. Tetris and not space invaders sadly: <\/strong>Aleksandr Serebrov was a Russian cosmonaut and was one of the few\ncosmonauts who flew for both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation that\nfollowed it. Aleksandr Serebrov many missions for the ROSCOSMOS and flew over\nto four different space stations. However, he is most well known for being the\nfirst-ever human to play a video game in space. He took his Gameboy up to the\nspace station on one of his visits and played the first video game in space.\nThis man played a game in space, and it was NOT space invaders. It was Tetris.\nIn space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: New York Times)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 12. The\nPlayStation 1 controller was 10% bigger in the United States of America, to\naccount for bigger hands: <\/strong>The PlayStation is\noriginally a Japanese product, manufactured by Sony for the Japanese market, to\ncompete with Nintendo.When the PlayStation become popular in Japan,Sony\nreleased for the American market as well, but with a minor redesign. The\ncontroller for the PS1 was made approximately 10% bigger. This was to account\nfor the larger size of the average American hands. This design pattern wasn\u2019t\nrepeated for the later iterations of the PlayStation, nor was present in any of\nthe other major consoles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Electronic Gaming Monthly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 13. The\nPlayStation 2 enjoyed the longest life for any major console, 13 years to be\nprecise:<\/strong> The PlayStation 2 is the most successful\nconsole of all time. This was reflected in its unusually long lifetime, which\nsaw the PlayStation 2 getting new game releases as soon as a month before the\nrelease of the PlayStation 4. This added up to nearly 13 years, which is much\nless than the Sega Master System, but the PlayStation 2 saw games being\ndeveloped by AAA publishers even by the end of its lifetime. According to most\nindustry experts, this long life will never be replicated by any other console\nin the future, owing to the rapid shift in technology and the fact that gamers\nlook forward to a hardware upgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: SA Gamer)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 14. Since the\nSNES wasn\u2019t powerful to emulate a Gameboy in software so it had the all of the\nhardware of the Gameboy in it: <\/strong>The Super Nintendo\nEntertainment System (SNES) was Nintendo\u2019s first major console after the\nNintendo Entertainment System (NES) which wasn\u2019t a handheld. Nintendo had long\nsince announced that the SNES would be able to play Gameboy game that came\nbefore and after the SNES\u2019s release. To achieve this, they initially wanted to\nmake the SNES emulate the Gameboy\u2019s hardware via software. However, they found\nout that the SNES wasn\u2019t powerful enough to achieve this, so instead of reneging\non their promise, they include the entire hardware of a Gameboy in the system,\nwithout the screen and inputs. This allowed for the SNES to play all Gameboy\ngames without needing to get more powerful hardware. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: The Verge)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 15. Nintendo\nSwitch out-sold its predecessor in just 10 months: <\/strong>For\nyears, Nintendo had fallen from grace, after the failure of its sixth and\nseventh-generation consoles, the Wii and the Wii U. These consoles saw Nintendo\nfall from the throne of the king of gaming console, and the PlayStation and\nXbox take over as the reigning champions. After the release of Wii in 2006, it\nbecame a success and saw a multitude of AAA support. However, soon the\npublishers moved to the other two consoles, and the Wii was declared as a\nfailure by the industry. Since then, Nintendo lost all markets as hardware manufacturers,\nand the utter failure of the Wii U just contributed to the decline. However,\neverything changed with the launch of Nintendo\u2019s eight-generation console, the\nSwitch. The switch outsold the Wii U within just 10 months. By the end of 2020,\nNintendo has sold nearly 50 million Switches worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: The Verge)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 16. Apple\nwanted to become a gaming company, releasing a \u201cpremier\u201d console, which failed:\n<\/strong>Apple has cemented its reputation in the tech world\nas the producer of premium hardware and software, which also cost a premium\namount. However, when Apple tried the same approach with game consoles, by\nreleasing the console named \u2018The Pippin.\u2019 The Pippin was the result of a\npartnership between Apple and Sega, the veteran console manufacturer. It was\npriced at a very high rate of $599, which was extremely high compared to the\nother consoles on the market, which were priced around the $399 range. This approach\nmay have worked for Apple in the tech market but did not work in the console\nmarket. The Pippin was a horrible failure and was discontinued within months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Gameological)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 17. The\ngaming companies Sony and Nintendo tried and failed at a partnership:<\/strong> Sony and Nintendo were and still are a major force in gaming\ndevelopment. For most of the lifetimes of these companies, they have been competitors,\nwith the PlayStation dethroning the Wii and the Switch dethroning the PS Vita.\nHowever, it may surprise you that these companies actually tried to make a\npartnership work. The first iteration of the PlayStation was in fact, created\nby Nintendo. It was called the Nintendo PlayStation and featured both a\ncartridge-based and a CD-based media. According to the partnership, Sony would\nhave claimed all the money from CD sales, and Nintendo would only make money\nfrom royalties. The partnership failed incredibly quickly, with only 200\nprototypes ever being produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Engadget)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 18. The PS1\nwas the first major console to run CD ROM discs, making it the winner of the\nFifth Generation: <\/strong>Before the massive popularity of\nCD ROM discs, the primary way for games to be stored and sold were cartridges.\nThese cartridges only had about 12 MBs of space as compared to CD ROM discs\nhaving nearly 600 MBs of space. The massive boost in storage space meant that\ndevelopers decided to develop for CD ROMS exclusively. The first major console\nwhich could run CD ROM discs was the PlayStation 1. This console was not as\npowerful as its counterparts among the Sega and Nintendo, but they only ran\ncartridges, which developers abandoned quickly. This made the PS1 the king of\nthe gaming hardware throne. As we saw earlier, the PlayStation 1 was the first\nconsole to sell over 100 million units. Only two other consoles tried CD ROMs\nbefore the PlayStation 1, however without a major company like Sony backing\nthem and creating first-party games, they failed quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Old School Gamer Magazine)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 19. Sega\nSaturn the first major console to enable online multiplayer games: <\/strong>Todays gaming market is saturated with huge scale multiplayer games,\nwith thousands of players playing together. This wasn\u2019t always the case. Fellow\nKids, let me tell you about the games in our age. If we wanted to play with our\nfriends, we had to physically, yes physically, go to that friend\u2019s house, with\nour own feet, and use controllers on the same console. While this may seem like\na social nightmare to you modern gamers of today, we had to physically interact\nwith people if we wanted to play with them. This trend has been replaced by\nonline multiplayer now, where one can play with anyone, anywhere across the\nglobe instantly. This was first pioneered by Sega in their Sega Saturn console\nsystem, which had an additional piece of hardware, called the NetLink Internet\nModem. This let users connect their consoles to other consoles, without the\nneed for servers, which Sega didn\u2019t have. This was the first time a major\nsystem let users do this, allowing cross console play. The Sega Saturn saw a\nlot of success after the launch of the NetLink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Sega)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20. Nokia\u2019s\nfailed handheld console, the N \u2013 Gage, was declared a commercial failure within\nmonths after its launch: <\/strong>Nokia has been a long-time\nphone manufacturer and hence has excelled in creating amazing handheld devices.\nIn 2003, they decided to take this expertise and build a device called the N \u2013\nGage, which was a combination of a handheld console and a mobile phone. The\nsystem had a number pad on the right-hand side of the screen and a D Pad and\nother buttons on the left hand side. The console\/mobile phone (Con-Phone?\nMobsole?) was released to compete with the dominating success of Nintendo\u2019s\nGameboy. However, within just the few weeks of its release, the Gameboy outsold\nthe N \u2013 Gage nearly 100 \u2013 1. Within just 17 days of its release some major\nretailers like Radio Shack, Walmart, and GameStop started to offer large\ndiscounts for the Con-Phone. By the end of its commercial life, the Mobsole was\ndeclared a failure as it failed to meet even a third of the total projected\nunits sold. This was attributed to many reasons, such as a small games library,\na poor battery life, and an awkward shape which earned it the nickname\n\u2018Taco-Phone\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Medium)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having looked at consoles and figures about\nthem, the only things left to examine are the various games that can be played\non them. In this section we will look at some facts and figures about console\ngames. Here you will find the revered names like Grand Theft Auto, Halo or even\nDuck Hunt!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 21. Uncharted\n4 was the best-selling PlayStation 4 game of all time with 16 million units\nsold: <\/strong>Uncharted 4: A Thief\u2019s End was the fourth\ninstallment in PlayStation\u2019s long standing exclusive series which revolves\naround the fabled thief and treasure hunter Nathan Drake. Uncharted 4: A\nThief\u2019s End was released for the PlayStation 4 (quite aptly) following in the tradition\nof each Uncharted installment being released for each of the PlayStation\nconsoles. When it comes to console exclusive titles, Uncharted 4 holds the\nhonour of being the most successful PlayStation 4 game of all times, and the\nUncharted Series as being one of the most successful series of console games.\nNaughty Dog, the publisher of the Uncharted games, sold nearly 16 million units\nof Uncharted 4 by the end of 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: PlayStation Lifestyle Net)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 22. Halo 5:\nGuardians was the best-selling Xbox One game of all time with 8.72 million\nunits sold: <\/strong>Halo is one of the most popular games\non the planet, with many people having fond memories of driving Warthogs over\ntheir friends and then tea-bagging over their corpse. The series\u2019 popularity\ncomes from the fact that it used to be a Windows exclusive, which means it was\navailable for Xbox and PC both. The Halo 5: Guardians is the latest installment\nin the revered Halo series and was released amidst must pomp and show. The fact\nthat it was an Xbox One exclusive and not available on PC was not well received\nby gamers across the world. Despite this fact, the game broke the record for\nthe most sold Xbox One game of all time, with more than 8.72 million units\nhaving been sold for the Xbox One. The game itself was badly reviewed by the\ncritics and gamers alike, but still sold well due to having the name Halo in\nthe title. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Research and Markets)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 23. Overall\nthe most successful game which was console exclusive was Wii Play for the\nNintendo Wii, selling over 28 million units: <\/strong>The\nNintendo Wii was Nintendo\u2019s seventh generation console, which pioneered the\nadoption of motion control technology in game consoles. The Wii had a bunch of\ngames of bundled with it, which utilized its motion control technology for\nplaying a variety of games. One of these games was the Wii Play, which was a\ncollection of 9 mini games, which included archery, golf, skeet shooting etc.\nThese games were some of the first games that used motion control technology to\nits fullest extent, which skyrocketed its popularity among gamers. Wii Play\nended its long lifetime after having sold nearly 28 million units. The games\nwere extremely popular due to their simplicity and novelty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Nintendo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 24. The\nrarest console game of all time is the Nintendo World Championship Gold\ncartridge, selling for as much as $100,000: <\/strong>The\nNintendo World Championship was Nintendo\u2019s event where they were looking for\n\u2018The Greatest NES Player of All Time\u2019. To this effect, they sent out 40 teams,\nwith a specially made cartridge containing single levels from the games in the\nchampionship. There winners of these tournaments were then invited to a bigger\ntournament, where the games were played on a Gold colored cartridge with the\nsame levels. There were only 26 of these gold cartridges made, which were then\ngiven to the winners of the various games. These cartridges have since not been\nsold very many times, with the last time one selling for an astounding amount\nof money, $100,000 for the gold cartridge, and nearly $70,000 for the grey\nvariant of the cartridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: HowChoo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 25. Ducks can\nonly be hunted on a CRT monitor: <\/strong>Duck Hunt is one\nof the most well-recognized games of all time. It was one of the first video\ngames ever sold which required a special peripheral to play the game. This\nperipheral was a gun with a working trigger attached to it, which the players\nhad to shoot at the duck on the screen. The game would then register the\ngunshot and would only work if the gun was pointed accurately. One of the\nbiggest gripes people had about the gun was the fact that the gun was VERY\naccurate. This was due to how the console registered the gunshot. The gun had a\ncamera which would only register a change in color from white to black. When\nthe gun\u2019s trigger was pulled, the CRT screen would flash all black for one\nframe, with the ducks in white color. Then the screen would flash white for one\nframe with the ducks in black color. The gun\u2019s camera would then register the\nchange in the pixels and send the console a confirmation of the shot. The issue\nwas that the gun would only register a change in a tiny area, only a few pixels\nwide. This feature would only work on CRT TVs, which used a cathode ray for\nevery pixel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Mary Sue)<\/p>\n\n\n\n 26. Six of\nthe top ten games of the decade are console exclusives: <\/strong>A lot of gamers consider consoles to be inferior to PCs when it\ncomes to gaming. This propensity of gamers to disregard console games is so\nwell known that the term for PC gamers is the \u201cPC Master Race.\u201d The phrase was\ncoined by Yahtzee Croshaw of Zero Punctuation, who also coined the term Console\nPeasant. Despite the disdain that the console industry faces from the so-called\nmaster race, it produces amazing games, the likes of which aren\u2019t seen on PC.\nIn fact, of the top ten games in the last decade, according to Forbes, six of\nthem were console exclusives, or first released on consoles. According to a\nlarge number of game reviewers, the best games of the decade seem to be God of\nWar for the PS4, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo\nSwitch and Wii U, or the Red Dead Redemption 2 for the PS4 and Xbox One, or\neven Grand Theft Auto V, which was originally released only for PS3 and PS4 but\nwas ported to the PC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: Forbes)<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Console Peasants Make Themselves Happy (JK)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Games<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sources and References:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n