So, what the topic says: a brief (3m) video of a moving bar graph
plotting the yearly sales of all video game consoles over the past 50
years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYHcHwhsdPU

I'm always a sucker for these sorts of videos since its moving picture
gives you a better idea of what the industry was like than purely
static graphs and numbers. It's impressive to see how the industry has
grown over the decades; the Magnavox Odyssey's success (over 300,000
units sold!) must have seemed incredible in 1975, but it was quickly
dwarfed by the Atari 2600, which went on to sell 27 MILLION units
before it ceased production in 1992. Meanwhile, the original Nintendo
NES - first released in 1983 and with total sales of 61 million units
- held on to the #1 position until 1999, when it was finally
superseded by the PS1. Even 23 years later still held a respectable
8th place.

But Sony absolutely dominated the market after that; even if Nintendo
Switch and Wii temporarily preempted it, it was the Playstations - in
all its various iterations - that was the best selling platforms
overall (with the PS2 in 1st place overall, the PS4 in second place,
the PS1 holding firm at third place, and the PS3 in 5th place).

Of course, as a PC gamer I can't help but wonder how all these numbers
would compare if the chart included the sales of IBM/PC compatibles,
first released in 1981. Windows 95 alone sold 40 million copies in its
first year; add to that years of DOS sales and even more NT-era
computing and the PS2's 160 million would look paltry next to that.

Of course, that really wouldn't be a fair comparison; after all, a
modern PC with an Intel i9 and a GeForce 3800GTX is a far cry from the
original IBM XT (even if their underlying architectures are
compatible) but by doing so it would ensure the PC the top-spot on any
list of gaming devices...

... at least until you took into account ARM-powered mobile devices,
which would dwarf even the PCs stranglehold (it is estimated that
Apple alone has sold more than 2 billion iPhones, and that's not
including its iPad sales. And Android phones dwarf even that). So
maybe it is better to keep consoles, PCs and mobile on separate charts
;-)

Anyway, it's a fun and short video and if you like numbers maybe
you'll enjoy it too.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

An interesting video and I find it fascinating how the video industry in
all it's guises turned into such a giant that is pretty much anywhere
and everywhere. When I got into home computing (yes Dad of course it's
for educational purposes and not playing games) it was still for the
most part a cottage industry and the idea of a couple of people in their bedrooms writing games was a real thing.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 1 Jun 2022 09:37:57 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

An interesting video and I find it fascinating how the video industry in
all it's guises turned into such a giant that is pretty much anywhere
and everywhere. When I got into home computing (yes Dad of course it's
for educational purposes and not playing games) it was still for the
most part a cottage industry and the idea of a couple of people in their >bedrooms writing games was a real thing.

In fairness, that's become a thing again, thanks to the nostalgic
'retro-craze' where smaller games with old-school graphics have become acceptable, and licensed game engines and easy availability of game
assets. The AAA titles still dominate the news, of course (thanks to
their huge marketing budgets), but these smaller games can still
achieve surprising success and reach (e.g., "Undertale", which was
almost entirely designed by one person). It's also much easier for solo/small-team developers to get their games out to market, thanks to
things like Itch.io and Steam; they no longer have to beg the few
local shops to stock their ziplock-bagged games next to all the Atari
and Magnavox cartridges.

In fact, although I haven't any numbers to prove it, I wouldn't be at
all surprised if there are /more/ 'bedroom coders' making a living (or
at least supplementing their income) writing games than ever there
were in the 70s and 80s.



But, back to the charts... I was more surprised at how long the Atari
2600 lasted, both in terms of its production and its dominance in the marketplace. Similarly, I was surprised at how successful the original
NES was; I always thought it was an also-ran to its more powerful
successor, the SNES, but the sold 20% more units in total even as the
overall market was growing. And the comparative lack of success of the
Xbox line compared to the Playstations was shocking; the total sales
of the original XBox, the 360 and the XBox One barely match the sales
of the PS2, much less the combined success of PS1+PS2+PS3+PS4. Just...
wow.

Of course, the numbers don't tell the whole story, since they are
cumulative world-wide sales. The huge numbers of Sony & Nintendo owe a
lot to their absolute dominance in Japan, where any non-native console
goes to die. If you subtract the Japanese sales (about 50 million per platform), other platforms - while still lagging behind - don't look
so absolutely trounced.

Numbers... always so interesting.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 01/06/2022 16:57, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Wed, 1 Jun 2022 09:37:57 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

An interesting video and I find it fascinating how the video industry in
all it's guises turned into such a giant that is pretty much anywhere
and everywhere. When I got into home computing (yes Dad of course it's
for educational purposes and not playing games) it was still for the
most part a cottage industry and the idea of a couple of people in their
bedrooms writing games was a real thing.

In fairness, that's become a thing again, thanks to the nostalgic 'retro-craze' where smaller games with old-school graphics have become acceptable, and licensed game engines and easy availability of game
assets. The AAA titles still dominate the news, of course (thanks to
their huge marketing budgets), but these smaller games can still
achieve surprising success and reach (e.g., "Undertale", which was
almost entirely designed by one person). It's also much easier for solo/small-team developers to get their games out to market, thanks to
things like Itch.io and Steam; they no longer have to beg the few
local shops to stock their ziplock-bagged games next to all the Atari
and Magnavox cartridges.

In fact, although I haven't any numbers to prove it, I wouldn't be at
all surprised if there are /more/ 'bedroom coders' making a living (or
at least supplementing their income) writing games than ever there
were in the 70s and 80s.

I think that's entirely possibly just due to the sheer size of the
industry now compared to then. My comment was more how quaint the
industry seemed then and what it's turned into.

But, back to the charts... I was more surprised at how long the Atari
2600 lasted, both in terms of its production and its dominance in the marketplace. Similarly, I was surprised at how successful the original
NES was; I always thought it was an also-ran to its more powerful
successor, the SNES, but the sold 20% more units in total even as the
overall market was growing. And the comparative lack of success of the
Xbox line compared to the Playstations was shocking; the total sales
of the original XBox, the 360 and the XBox One barely match the sales
of the PS2, much less the combined success of PS1+PS2+PS3+PS4. Just...
wow.

Of course, the numbers don't tell the whole story, since they are
cumulative world-wide sales. The huge numbers of Sony & Nintendo owe a
lot to their absolute dominance in Japan, where any non-native console
goes to die. If you subtract the Japanese sales (about 50 million per platform), other platforms - while still lagging behind - don't look
so absolutely trounced.

Numbers... always so interesting.

I was surprised about the Atari 2600 numbers although that's probably as
I don't remember it being particular big in the UK. Whereas I knew lots
of people who had a Speccky 48k or C64, I knew only one person who had
an Atari 2600. Then again they also had a laserdisc player!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Thu, 2 Jun 2022 10:40:09 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I was surprised about the Atari 2600 numbers although that's probably as
I don't remember it being particular big in the UK. Whereas I knew lots
of people who had a Speccky 48k or C64, I knew only one person who had
an Atari 2600. Then again they also had a laserdisc player!

The Atari 2600 was HUGE in the USA. It made Atari what they were. The
speccky flopped in the USA. The C64 was the most successful 8-bit
machine here.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jun 2022 10:40:09 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I was surprised about the Atari 2600 numbers although that's probably as
I don't remember it being particular big in the UK. Whereas I knew lots
of people who had a Speccky 48k or C64, I knew only one person who had
an Atari 2600. Then again they also had a laserdisc player!

The Atari 2600 was HUGE in the USA. It made Atari what they were. The
speccky flopped in the USA. The C64 was the most successful 8-bit
machine here.

I had one! I even had the big hard case to take it with me. Haha!
--
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 02/06/2022 13:54, Mike S. wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jun 2022 10:40:09 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I was surprised about the Atari 2600 numbers although that's probably as
I don't remember it being particular big in the UK. Whereas I knew lots
of people who had a Speccky 48k or C64, I knew only one person who had
an Atari 2600. Then again they also had a laserdisc player!

The Atari 2600 was HUGE in the USA. It made Atari what they were. The
speccky flopped in the USA. The C64 was the most successful 8-bit
machine here.

In the UK it was the Speccky and C64 that dominated the computer market. Unfortunately Sinclair then went down the route of a business type
machine with the QL (followed by the even bigger flop of the C5) whereas Commodore seemed to get the idea that of lot of home computers where
bought for games even if the parents didn't realise it!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Fri, 3 Jun 2022 11:12:00 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 02/06/2022 13:54, Mike S. wrote:

On Thu, 2 Jun 2022 10:40:09 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

I was surprised about the Atari 2600 numbers although that's probably as >>> I don't remember it being particular big in the UK. Whereas I knew lots
of people who had a Speccky 48k or C64, I knew only one person who had
an Atari 2600. Then again they also had a laserdisc player!

The Atari 2600 was HUGE in the USA. It made Atari what they were. The
speccky flopped in the USA. The C64 was the most successful 8-bit
machine here.

In the UK it was the Speccky and C64 that dominated the computer market. >Unfortunately Sinclair then went down the route of a business type
machine with the QL (followed by the even bigger flop of the C5) whereas >Commodore seemed to get the idea that of lot of home computers where
bought for games even if the parents didn't realise it!

I didn't have much love for the Atari line. I mean, sure, in the
beginning they seemed magic, but I hadn't enough interest in
video-games at the time to invest in one. Pong and Space Invaders were
neato to play with in the arcade but just not something I could see
myself investing enough time in to make it worth the price of a home
console. And by the time I was bit by the video game bug, the Atari
2600 seemed behind the curve when compared to 8-bit computers

(When thinking of those days, I am always reminded of those spoof
adverts in Grand Theft Auto 3 for the fake video-game console, the 'Degenatron'. "Save the green dots with your fantastic flying red
square! Smash the green dots deep inside the mysterious red square!
Save the green dots with your fantastic flying red square!" That's how
I viewed the 'obsolete' Atari as a member of the 8-bit PC master race
;-)

Still, I think its amazing the console continued to be sold up through
1992. Sure, a lot of those sales probably went either to so-called 'third-world' countries, or to unwitting grandmothers who only knew
that their grandson loved video-games but had no idea how or why the
SNES was better than an Atari 2600, but still... that's some
impressive longevity.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 03/06/2022 20:18, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

Still, I think its amazing the console continued to be sold up through
1992. Sure, a lot of those sales probably went either to so-called 'third-world' countries, or to unwitting grandmothers who only knew
that their grandson loved video-games but had no idea how or why the
SNES was better than an Atari 2600, but still... that's some
impressive longevity.

That date did surprise me especially considering the Atari ST was
discontinued only a year later.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)