The 00's to Now

While the 00’s kick off with new releases and new players in the console market it also marks Sega’s withdrawal from the game. After the release of the Dreamcast in 1998 by 2001 they had discontinued it (not before I got my hands on one). As Sony released the Playstation 2 and Nintendo released the humble and wonderful Gamecube and new challenger quickly stepped forward to fill Sega’s void in the form of Microsoft with the Xbox. These companies would stand as the console market giants of the coming decade and which would spawn the infamous rivalry between Sony and Microsoft, a rivalry would probably account for around 20% of the name calling that goes on across the internet.  

The Playstation 2 would go onto to be the best selling console of all time and even in the face of the new gen still holds that record high. Xbox would gain it's success from the release of the first Halo game and unfortunately for Nintendo the Gamecube had the misfortune to be branded a 'kids console' so fell into third place behind it's rivals mostly thanks to the hardware's colourscheme and the rather cartoon like graphics the system tended to utilised which was now losing it's place as the world moved out of low-poly resolutions and towards high definition.  

With what Dreamcast started Xbox finished as consoles in 2002 begin to enter the PC gaming world of multiplayer with the commercial launch of Xbox Live. Which this and the ever improving graphical quality of the console interest in PC began to decline but as it proved during all the industry crashes the PC is not easy to deter as Blizzard proved in 2004 with the release of World of Warcraft and that most successful MMO in the industry. PC gaming also received a big boost in China in 2000 with a ban on foreign consoles coming into action for the fear of harmful effects violent video games had on youths. This allowed PC to hold nearly two thirds of the gaming market in China. A ban that has very recently been lifted (Campbell, 2014). 

This brings us to the seventh generation and in 2005/2006 the console wars deployed the new troops. Each sporting high definition, wireless controllers, internal harddrives and online multiplayer and services, Sony and Microsoft continued to fight it out and Nintendo seemed to share the curse of the Gamecube and was branded a 'kids and family' console but this time, they made it work. Backwards compatible with the soon to be axed Gamecube the Nintendo Wii actually out sold the Xbox 360 and the PS3.

Internal memory and compatibility to the internet by this point has moved us long on from the days of blocky cartridges with the ability to download digital copies straight onto your system and providing a useful outlet for indie games to reach the audience. Internal memory also removed the hassle of locating which one of your many memory cards the save file you're looking for it on

No memory card?
Your hardware has improved

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So we're finally back in 2014 and standing at the start of the next console generation with the Xbox One, PS4 and the Wii U where these corporate giants face the first real bit of upheaval they have in over a decade. The Xbox One was at the heart of a huge controversy regarding it's original 'Always on' policy that the console must be connected to the internet to function and is also limited with a DRM restriction in an attempt to combat piracy but also effects the use of used games on the system. Bad fan reactions lost many customers over to Sony despite the retraction on the always on policy.
Along side all the in fighting between the consoles they face new competition from smart phone and tablet gaming. With versions of the games attracting audiences not normally interested in games via social networking and free to play apps these independent and app based games are drawing in a large market casual market while the cost of console games continue to rise and PC offers players cheap access to games via programs such as Origin and Steam.


While the hardware continues to improve the past few years the games side has seen very little innovation. Call of Duty has made few changes to it's design with every new release, sticking close to their tried and proved design. New titles have been very same and generic.  Developers are hoping to take their games to the next level by utilising the power of next gen such as Bioware with the release of Dragon Age Inquisition offering a map 5-times the size of their first Dragon Age map and a possible 40 unique endings (Ligman, 2014). Hopefully with new and ever improving technology the game market with start to pick up again.




https://web.archive.org/web/20071103122615/http://www.games-fusion.net/press/content/blizzard_entertainment_announc.php

Campbell, Scott (2014) China lifts 14 year ban on foreign games consoles [Online] The Telegraph. Availble at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/video-game-news/10555370/China-lifts-14-year-ban-on-foreign-games-consoles.html

Ligman, Kris (2014)  Xbox the official magazine. Issue 111. P..51

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_computer_and_video_games#2000s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_video_gaming