Video games have been around for nearly a century. The narrative begins in the 1950s when Ralph Baer, the real creator of video games, saw an opportunity to introduce the notion of television consoles as televisions became more popular and affordable. He created a unique brown box that launched the Magnavox Odyssey game, which sold 130,000 units in its first year.
Later in the early 1970s, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney developed the first arcade game Computer Space, based on an earlier game by Steve Russell called Spacewar and then founded Atari the same year. Early video game prototypes were created in laboratories in the 1960s, but it was Atari's introduction of Pong in 1972 that helped to jumpstart the industry. Since then, the gaming industry has continued to develop.
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A technical race began at the turn of the century, and Nintendo debuted the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) home system in 1985, prioritizing high-quality games and constant marketing to reclaim the hesitant market. The huge success of the NES revived the console business thanks to games like Duck Hunt, Excitebike, and the introduction of Mario in Super Mario Bros.
In 1994, Sony introduced the PlayStation, which used CD-ROMs instead of cartridges to increase storage space for individual games. It was the first console to sell over 100 million copies in history but it was the emergence of the internet that propelled this business from millions to billions in revenue.
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Microsoft released the Xbox Live online gaming network in 2001 for a monthly subscription fee, providing gamers with multiplayer matchmaking and voice chat capabilities, which immediately became a consumer must-have. Meanwhile, Blizzard joined the Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) subscription sector on PCs with the release of World of Warcraft in 2004. MTV Games launched Rock Band in 2007. Two years later, Angry Bird took over the internet. Since then, there has been no evidence of the gaming industry slowing down.
Cut to the present day, where Virtual Reality is sweeping the globe as it becomes more realistic and entertaining. Games like Hitman 3 and Jurassic World: Aftermath are getting increasingly popular, and they are transforming the gaming industry.
With the surge in popularity of NFTs and crypto, a new concept is arising in which certain play-to-earn gaming platforms are using NFT tokens as rewards. Oneto11, is the world's first blockchain gaming ecosystem is one such example.
“OneTo11 has been able to expand and attract millions of members without any expensive marketing campaigns by providing users with a reward scheme and a sense of playing as part of a community with their peers. We also want to use the power of blockchain decentralization to create a crypto game economy” said Manasvi Singh, co-founder of Oneto11.
Finally, when it comes to the gaming industry's future, gaming will only continue to grow more mainstream. Cloud gaming, augmented reality, and the metaverse will all be on the rise. Gamers should brace themselves, as the industry's future is bright. We should expect some fantastic ideas in the next few years as new technologies are developed and more individuals enter the virtual gaming realm.
