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October 1958
The first video game is widely considered to be "Tennis for Two," created by William Higinbotham in October 1958. This simple tennis simulation was played on an oscilloscope at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. However, some sources also recognize OXO, created in 1952 by Alexander Douglas, as an early video game. -
1971 Computer Space: First commercial arcade video game. 1972 Pong (Atari): Massive success; popularized gaming. 1972 Magnavox Odyssey: First home video game console. Arcades become social hotspots. -
Early 1980s Arcade Golden Age Pac-Man (1980) Donkey Kong (1981) – Introduced Mario Space Invaders -
Market flooded with low-quality games. Many companies collapse. -
1985 – Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) revives the industry. Iconic franchises: Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Metroid -
SNES vs Sega Genesis rivalry. 1994 – Sony PlayStation enters the market. Transition from 2D to 3D graphics. Major games: Doom, Final Fantasy VII, Pokémon, Tomb Raider PC gaming grows (strategy, shooters). -
PlayStation 2 becomes best-selling console ever. Xbox (2001) introduces Xbox Live (online console gaming). MMOs rise: World of Warcraft. Motion controls: Nintendo Wii (2006). Indie games start gaining attention. -
Smartphones create massive mobile gaming market. Indie hits: Minecraft, Undertale, Celeste. Esports goes mainstream. Game streaming content creators grow (YouTube, Twitch). VR becomes commercially availabl -
PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S Cross-play becomes common. Cloud gaming (no console needed). AI, procedural generation, and realism improve. Games seen as social spaces (Fortnite, Roblox). -
From simple experiments to global entertainment industry Graphics: pixels to 3D to realism Gaming expands from arcades to homes to phones to cloud Players become creators, streamers, competitors