Who doesn’t enjoy sitting down with a good video game? These days, you’ve got endless options on consoles and phones to keep you entertained for hours. But it wasn’t always this way. Let’s delve into the history of video games and see just how far they’ve come.
Arcade machines and early consoles
Flares, the Bee Gees and the birth of video games – it must be the 1970s! This decade saw the video game industry begin to become a serious player in the wide world of entertainment.
Pong was the first big sensation when it was released in 1972. This low-quality, repetitive game would have kids today aghast, but back then, people were glued to arcade machines, bouncing a square ball back and forward.
Gaming arcades boomed in popularity through the 70s and 80s but when home consoles arrived, the game well and truly changed. The Atari 2600 was the first of its kind, introducing titles such as Combat, Indy 500 and Video Olympics. While these games were state of the art for 1977, decades later, they wouldn’t exactly have players lining up for a turn.
The rise of home consoles
Things started well in the 80s for video games as Space Invaders was released. It went on to become the first game to sell a million copies but there was trouble afoot.
In 1983, the entire video game industry crashed. A mixture of poor consoles trying to compete with Atari and awful games rushed out as quantity trumped quality led to players abandoning video games at home completely. Something had to change, very quickly.
And change it did, in 1985, when Nintendo brought out the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This console single-handedly saved a dying video game industry and for the first time introduced the world to classic games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda.
If Nintendo thought it was a one-horse race in the video game world, they were wrong. The Kyoto-based company was soon joined by Japanese rivals Sega, who had their own designs on success. The Sega Master System was soon followed up by the Sega Mega Drive – known as the Sega Genesis in the United States – and a rivalry that is still fought today was born.
Arcades still thrived in this era as well. Classic titles such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Street Fighter II had gamers of all ages spending their loose change on the quest for that elusive high score. With nostalgia alive and well in the video game industry, games like these are still worth a replay in 2025.
Console wars and online multiplayer
Nintendo might have had Mario as the company’s mascot, but when Sega introduced their own in Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991, they were laying down a marker for dominance – but that was short-lived.
The mid-90s brought the arrival of the console wars, as the Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 were joined by a new player, the Sony PlayStation. The Saturn was a disaster, while the Nintendo 64 is still fondly remembered by misty-eyed millennials longing for a couple of hours on GoldenEye. But Sony was the winner, as the PlayStation has gone on to sell over 100 million units, blowing its rivals out of the water.
However, the biggest shift in the industry in this decade came thanks to the rise of home internet connections.
We might all laugh at memories of dial-up internet, but it truly was groundbreaking. It led to new possibilities and online multiplayer gaming became huge. Doom and Warcraft II had players all over the world gaming together through the wonders of technology as gaming went global in new and uncharted ways.
Online thrives and mobile gaming’s rise
Video games joined films and music as part of entertainment’s pop culture in the 2000s. A new console war erupted but Sega had no part of it this time around. Nintendo’s GameCube was the big loser as it struggled to compete with Sony’s imaginatively titled PlayStation 2. A new player literally joined the game as Microsoft branched out from PCs and entered the video game world with the Xbox.
Online gaming really came into its own in this era. Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network changed video gaming forever as players were now able to interact and compete in a much easier way.
The next big development in gaming didn’t come from another console. Instead, it came from Apple, which launched the iPhone in 2007. Smartphones became a billion-dollar industry overnight and video game developers smelt a new opportunity.
Games could now be played anywhere. Angry Birds became one of the first mobile gaming titles to go nuclear in popularity. But it wasn’t long until it was joined by other casual gaming classics, such as Candy Crush Saga.
Mobile casinos also took root as gaming seemed more accessible than ever. This world of gaming is huge, with thousands of platforms for players to choose from. While players of classic video games might have to wait months or years, or in the case of GTA 6, an actual decade, new online casinos are popping up all the time. In a crowded market, you can make sense of exactly what’s on offer through resources such as NewCasinos. Staples in this genre include poker, which can be played online with friends, but slots remain the biggest winner, offering big prizes but more importantly, hours of gaming fun.
Streaming, virtual reality, and the dominance of indie games
By now, gaming wasn’t something teenage boys did alone in their bedroom, it was something for the whole family to enjoy. And for some, it wasn’t even about playing games themselves anymore.
2011 saw the launch of Twitch. It soon became a destination for video game fans who could watch others stream their gameplay online. This gave rise to the streamer phenomenon, with different personalities offering their own strategies and commentary on different games. For the first time, it seemed more people were watching others play games rather than playing themselves.
Virtual reality saw an upturn in fortune as the Oculus Rift dominated the market. The headset lets players enjoy VR games in fully immersive worlds. Since then, plenty of other VR headsets have entered the market. However, it was a brief time in the sun for VR, as the video game industry still hasn’t quite nailed how to use the technology in the best way.
Platforms like Steam also came to prominence, allowing players to download a whole new world of games. Indie titles such as Minecraft and Stardew Valley became phenomena in their own right as small studios benefitted from the democratisation of the industry.
The future
What’s next for video games? The answer might be artificial intelligence. AI is breaking through to the mainstream and it seems likely AI will have a huge say in the video game industry as developers experiment with what is possible.
AI could see more advanced, non-playable characters emerge and drive more complex narratives to keep players engaged in a title for far longer. There might also be the possibility for more personalised gaming as AI helps to learn what each player wants and adjusts the game accordingly.
One thing is for sure, from the early days of black and white, low-quality graphics to the sprawling online landscape of today, the evolution of video games shows no sign of slowing down.