In the fall of 1976, I was introduced to the world of console gaming, the Coleco Telstar. When the Telstar was released it played only three games with three difficulty levels, it was a success and sold over a million units. On Christmas day 1977, Santa Claus delivered my Atari 2600. The initial launch library was 9 titles, and this kept me captivated and engaged for almost 3 years until toy manufacturer Mattel released the Intellivision. Armed with twelve games, better graphics and sound than its competitors, and the promise of a keyboard that would turn it into a home computer (never arrived), I was hooked until my sister broke the hardwired game controller that essentially scrapped the game system.
The next major technology age was that of the personal home computer, Radio Shack, Commodore, Apple and IBM initially ruled the market. My first personal computer (TRS-80) had 4k of ram, which I later maxed the memory out to 32k, and utilized “basic” language computing power. I was content with the ability to entertain myself until the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) arrived in 1985. The NES 8 bit system took the market by storm and became the best selling gaming console of all time up to that point in history (1990). With game titles such as: 10-Yard Fight, Baseball, Excitebike, Golf, Gyromite, Hogan’s Alley, Ice Climber, Kung Fu, Pinball, Soccer, Stack-Up, and the blockbuster Super Mario Bros. These games were only available on the NES system, but who cares? What system could possibly compete with Duck Hunt?
Welcome Sega Genesis 16bit.
This system was widely considered the 1st of the 4th generation gaming consoles, and the start of the video game console wars. From the fall of 1976 up until the launch of the Sega Genesis system, game developers were categorized 2 ways (1) First Party – which is a developer that is part of the company that actually manufactures the game console. (2) Second Party -which is a subsidiary of the console manufacturing company. Games up until that point were device specific, meaning you could only play Donkey Kong on a Nintendo gaming system. Once the Sega Genesis launched, another developer class was added (3) Third Party – which according to Wikipedia is “a developer not directly tied to the primary product that a consumer is using.” The opening of the gaming device platforms to Third Party Developers created many of today’s most popular gaming companies as Electronic Arts, Activision, Neversoft and Ubisoft.
Since the launch of the Sega Genesis we have seen the following game console platform launched:
- 1990 SNK NEO-GEO
- 1991 Super Nintendo (SNES)
- 1992 NEC TurboDuo
- 1992 Sega CD for Genesis
- 1993 Panasonic 3DO
- 1993 Atari Jaguar
- 1993 NES model 2
- 1994 Sega Genesis 2
- 1994 Sega Genesis 32x
- 1994 SNK NEO-GEO CD
- 1994 Sega CDX
- 1995 Atari Jaguar CD
- 1995 Sony Playstation
- 1995 Panasonic 3DO FZ-10
- 1995 Sega Saturn
- 1996 Nintendo 64
- 1997 SNES model 2
- 1998 Sega Genesis 3
- 1999 Sega Dreamcast
- 2000 Sony Playstation PS1
- 2000 Sony Playstation 2
- 2001 Nintendo Game Cube
- 2001 Microsoft X-Box
- 2004 Sony Playstation 2 SLIM
- 2004 XaviXPORT
- 2005 Microsoft X-Box 360
- 2006 Sony Playstation 3
- 2006 Nintendo Wii
- 2009 Sony Playstation Move
- 2009 Microsoft X-Box Kinect
Third Party developers rule the game space right now. They have created popular titles that have become bigger than Hollywood box office movies in sales. Many game titles have become billion dollar franchises.
EA Sports has sold more than 85 Million copies of Madden NFL since 1988 translating to more that $3 billion in total sales. They have had success by improving their product every year since launch and making it more engaging and interactive than the previous version. Also, more importantly, they have made it available on ALL game console platforms. To date. Madden NFL football has been developed for Apple II, Macintosh, SNES, Sega Genesis, 3DO, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Game Cube, Nintendo 64, Windows PC, DOS, Playstation, Xbox, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Sega Saturn, Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation Portable,iOs, Nintendo 3DS. This is a prime example of how the development and deployment of a successful game franchise mirrors our SKURA SFX Sales Enablement solution. Successful software must be available for all computing platforms, if you are targeting one specific device and claiming it is the victor, you will be irrelevant before you launch.
Computing hardware has changed dramatically over the last 12 month. More computing devices are now on the market than ever before. This past Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas saw the launch of over 80 new tablet devices to compete with Apple’s iPad. Each device having its own feature set and benefits for a targeted group of customers, new OS languages, better graphics, better sound, better battery, etc…(Sound familiar? Think Sega Genesis).
Latching onto one hardware platform is wrong and history has already proven this to be disasterous for companies. If you want to be a successful/relevant software company you must have the ability to get your product running on all current and more importantly all future hardware platforms. Being truly device agnostic is the only way to future proof your application to the hardware improvements that are INEVITABLE.
Although Nintendo’s Duck Hunt brings back fond memories of my youth I still cannot get the game cartridge to plug into my Samsung Galaxy.
