INDEX

Aim

Introduction

Methodology

Findings

Conclusion

Appendix

Pictures

AIM

Aim of this project is to ascertain volume of sale of video gaming console

INTRODUCTION

Avideo game consoleis aninteractive entertainment computer or modified computer systemthat produces avideo display signalwhich can be used with a display device (atelevision,monitor, etc.) to display avideo game. The term "video game console" is used to distinguish amachinedesigned forconsumersto buy and use solely for playing video games from apersonal computer, which has many other functions, orarcade machines, which are designed for businesses that buy them and then charge others to play.

  • History

The origin ofvideo gameslies in earlycathode ray tube-basedmissile defensesystems in the late 1940s. These programs were later adapted into other simple games during the 1950s. By the late 1950s and through the 1960s, more computer games were developed (mostly onmainframe computers), gradually increasing in sophistication and complexity.Following this period, video games diverged into different platforms:arcade, mainframe,console,personal computerand laterhandheld games.

The first commercially viable video game wasComputer Spacein1971, which laid the foundation for a new entertainment industry in the late 1970s within theUnited States,Japan, andEurope. The first major crash in1977occurred when companies were forced to sell their older obsolete systems flooding the market. Six years later asecond, greater crashoccurred. This crash—brought on largely by a flood of video games coming to the market—resulted in a total collapse of the console gaming industry worldwide, ultimately shifting dominance of the market fromNorth Americato Japan. While the crash killed the console gaming market, the computer gaming market was largely unaffected. Subsequent generations of console video games would continue to be dominated by Japanese corporations. Though several attempts would be made by North American and European companies,fourth generation of consoles, their ventures would ultimately fail. Not until thesixth generation of video game consoleswould a non-Japanese company release a commercially successful console system. Thehandheld gamingmarket has followed a similar path with several unsuccessful attempts made by American companies all of which failed outside some limited successes in thehandheld electronic gamesearly on. Currently only Japanese companies have any major successful handheld gaming consoles, although in recent years handheld games have come to devices likecellphonesandPDAsas technology continues to converge.

Following are the game console from first generation to seventh generation:

First Generation(1972–1977)

Although the firstcomputer gamesappeared in the 1950s,[1]they were based aroundvector displays, notanalog video. It was not until 1972 thatMagnavoxreleased the first homevideo game consolewhich could be connected to a TV set—theMagnavox Odyssey, invented byRalph H. Baer. The Odyssey was initially only moderately successful, and it was not until Atari's arcade gamePongpopularized video games, that the public began to take more notice of the emerging industry. By the autumn of 1975 Magnavox, bowing to the popularity of Pong, cancelled the Odyssey and released a scaled down console that only played Pong and hockey, theOdyssey 100. A second "higher end" console, theOdyssey 200, was released with the 100 and added onscreen scoring, up to four players, and a third game—Smash. Almost simultaneously released with Atari's own home Pong console throughSears, these consoles jump-started the consumer market. As with the arcade market, the home market was soon flooded bydedicated consolesthat played simple pong and pong-derived games.

Second Generation(1976–1984)

Fairchild released theFairchild Video Entertainment System(VES) in 1976. While there had been previous game consoles that used cartridges, either the cartridges had no information and served the same function as flipping switches (the Odyssey) or the console itself was empty and the cartridge contained all of the game components. The VES, however, contained a programmable microprocessor so its cartridges only needed a single ROM chip to store microprocessor instructions.

RCA and Atari soon released their own cartridge-based consoles

Third Generation(1983–1992)

In 1983 , Nintendo released theFamily Computer(or Famicom) in Japan. Like theColecoVision, the Famicom supported high-resolution sprites and tiled backgrounds, but with more colors. This allowed Famicom games to be longer and have more detailed graphics. Nintendo brought their Famicom over to the US in the form of theNintendo Entertainment System(NES) in 1985. In the US, video games were seen as a fad that had already passed. To distinguish its product from older video game consoles, Nintendo used a front-loading cartridge port similar to a VCR on the NES, packaged the NES with a Super Mario Brothers game and alight gun(the Zapper), and originally advertised it as a toy. The plastic "robot" (R.O.B.) was also sold as an individual purchase item and in some cases packaged with the NES system.

LikeSpace Invadersfor the 2600, Nintendo found its breakout hit game inSuper Mario Bros.Nintendo's success revived the video game industry and new consoles were soon introduced in the following years to compete with the NES.

Sega'sMaster Systemwas intended to compete with the NES, but never gained any significant market share in the US and was barely profitable. It fared notably better in PAL territories, especially Brazil.

Fourth Generation(1987–1996)

Sega regained market share by releasing its next-generation console, theMega Drive/Genesis, which was released in Japan on October 29, 1988, in the U.S. in August 1989 (renamed as the Sega Genesis) and in Europe in 1990, two years before Nintendo could release theSuper Nintendo Entertainment System(SNES).

Sega extended the Mega Drive with theMega CD/Sega CD, to provide increased storage space for multimedia-based games that were then in vogue among the development community. Later, Sega released the32X, which added some of the polygon-processing functionality common in fifth-generation machines. However, the peripheral was a commercial failure due to lack of software support, with developers more keen to concentrate on more powerful machines, with a wider user base, such as the Saturn that followed shortly after.

Other consoles included in the fourth generation areNEC'sTurboGrafx-16andSNK Playmore'sNeo Geo.

Fifth Generation

The first fifth generation consoles were theAtari Jaguarand the3DO. Both of these systems were much more powerful than the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) or Mega Drive (known as Genesis in North America); they were better at rendering polygons, could display more onscreen colors, and the 3DO used discs that contained far more information than cartridges and were cheaper to produce. Neither of these consoles were serious threats toSegaorNintendo, though. The 3DO cost more than the SNES and Genesis combined, and the Jaguar was extremely difficult to program for, leading to a lack of games that used its extra power. Both consoles would be discontinued in 1996.Bandaiintroduced anAppleMacintoshbased console called thePippinthat was more like a low cost computer than a high end console, but did poorly in the market.

Sixth Generation

This generation saw a move towards PC-like architectures in gaming consoles, as well as a shift towards usingDVDsfor game media. This brought games that were both longer and more visually appealing. Furthermore, this generation also saw experimentation with online console gaming and implementing both flash and hard drive storage for game data.

  • Sega'sDreamcastreleased in North America on September 9, 1999 was the company's last video game console, and was the first of the generation's consoles to be discontinued. Sega implemented a special type of optical media called theGD-ROM. These discs were created in order to preventsoftware piracy, which had been more easily done with consoles of the previous generation; however, this format was soon cracked as well. It was discontinued in 2002, and Sega transitioned to software developing/publishing only. It also sported a 33.6Kb or 56k modem which could be used to access the internet or play some of the games, likePhantasy Star Online, online.
  • Sony'sPlayStation 2was released in North America on October 26, 2000 as the follow-up to its highly successful PlayStation, and was also the first home game console to be able to playDVDs. As was done with the original PlayStation in 2000, Sony redesigned the console in 2004 into a smaller version. As of July 2008, 140 million PlayStation 2 units have been sold.[2][3]This makes it the best selling console of all time to date.
  • TheNintendo GameCube, released November 18, 2001 in North America, was Nintendo's fourth home video game console and the first console by the company to use optical media instead of cartridges. The Nintendo GameCube did not play standard 12cm DVDs, insteademploying smaller 8cm optical discs.
  • Microsoft'sXbox, released on November 15, 2001 in North America, was the company's first video game console. The first console to employ a hard drive right out of the box to save games, and had similar hardware specifications to a low-end desktop computer at the time of its release. Though criticized for its bulky size, which was easily twice that of the competition, as well as for the awkwardness of the original controller that shipped with it, it eventually gained popularity due in part to the success of theHalofranchise. The Xbox was the first console to include a Ethernet port and offered high speed online gaming through theXbox LIVEservice.

Seventh Generation

The features introduced in this generation include the support of new disc formats:Blu-ray Disc, utilized by the PlayStation 3, andHD DVDsupported by the Xbox 360 via an optional accessory, that was later discontinued as the format war closed. Another new technology is the use of motion as input, and IR tracking (as implemented on the Wii, and demonstrated by the PS3). Also, all seventh generation consoles support standard wireless controllers.

  • MicrosoftXbox 360was released on November 5th, 2005. AHD DVDdrive was later available as an accessory; however, with thetermination of the HD DVD format, this accessory's production has been ceased by Microsoft.[4]TheXbox Liveservice allows the Xbox 360 to connect to the internet via a built-inEthernetport or a wireless accessory. The Xbox 360 is currently available in two versions, an "Arcade", a regular Xbox360 "Elite" version. The biggest difference between these versions is the addition of a 120 GB hard drive in the "Elite" edition. The regular has a 60/20GB hard drive. The "Arcade" version is not packaged with a hard drive. The Xbox 360 is capable of outputting 1080p through HDMI and component. On June 15, 2010, Microsoft released a new, slimmer version of the Xbox 360 containing built in connectivity features, a quieter cooling system and a 250 GB hard drive.[5]
  • SonyPlayStation 3was released in Japan on November 11, 2006, in North America on November 17, 2006 and in Europe on March 23, 2007. All PlayStation 3s come with a hard drive and are able to playBlu-ray Discmovies and games out of the box. The PlayStation 3 was the first video game console to support HDMI output of the box, utilizing full 1080p resolution. Up to seven devices (including controllers, with tilt-sensing capabilities) connect to the console usingBluetooth. Five versions of the PS3 currently exist; a 20 GB HDD version (discontinued in North America and Japan, and was never released in PAL territories), a 60 GB HDD version (discontinued in North America, Japan and PAL territories), a 40 GB HDD version, 80 GB HDD version (only in some NTSC territories and PAL territories) and a 160 GB HDD in addition, as well as a 120 GB "slim" and 250 GB "slim" version. The hard drive can be replaced with any standard 2.5"Serial ATAdrive and the system has support forMemory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo,USB,SD,MiniSD, andCompactFlash(CF) digital media.[6]
  • NintendoWiiwas released in North America on November 19, 2006, in Japan on December 2, 2006, in Australia on December 7, 2006, and in Europe on December 8, 2006. It is bundled withWii Sportsin all regions except for Japan. Unlike the other systems of the seventh generation, the Wii does not support an internal hard drive, but instead uses 512 MB of internal Flash memory and includes support for removableSD cardstorage. It also has a maximum resolution output of 480p, making it the only seventh generation console not able to output high-definition graphics. Along with its lower price, the Wii is notable for its unique controller, theWii Remote, which resembles a TV remote. The system utilizes a "sensor bar" that emitsinfraredlight that is detected by an infrared camera in the Wii Remote to determine orientation relative to the source of the light. Like Nintendo's hand-held systems, it is also backwards compatible with previous Nintendo consoles, as it is capable of playing Nintendo GameCube games and supports up to four Nintendo GameCube controllers and two memory cards. It also includesVirtual Console, which allows the purchase and downloading of games from older systems, including those of former competitors. The latest addition to the Wii is the 'Wii Motion Plus', which uses the same technology as the console previously used, but with enhanced motion tracking and sensing to improve gameplay quality.

METHODOLOGY

To find the demand of the selected video game console (only six and seventh generation).A questionnaire consisting of 5 questions was tailored for this purpose. We request 10 males and 10 females of different nationalities.

Source Of Information

Primary: - Family, Friends, Teachers, Lucky Stores (Manager and Staff).

Secondary: -Wikipedia.

Findings

Conclusion

In terms of graphics, people prefer PlayStation 3 (Sony)

In terms of money, people prefer XBOX 360 (Microsoft)

In terms of enjoyment, people prefer Wii (Nintendo)


Appendix

  • Please select your Gender.

Male: ___Female: ___

  • Please select your Nationality.

American: ___Asian: ___ European: ___Others: ___

  • Please select the company which you prefer to buy this product

Sony: ___Microsoft: ___Nintendo: ___Others: ___

  • Please select the reasons that made you to purchase this product.

Graphics: ___Style: ___Games: ___ Others: ___

  • Please rate the value for money aspect of the product.

Excellent: ___Good: ___Average: ___Poor: ___

Pictures