Ok gamers, we all know that new game consoles are developed after every few years.
There was the NES, the SNES, and then N64, Gamecube and Wii... so on and so forth. Game development is not random. Because of the fierce competition between video game companies, new video games usually come out in batches.
The tycoons: Nintendo, SEGA, Microsoft and Sony compete with each other that when one company produces a new console, others will too.
This has been going on since this first video game console was marketed. So many companies have competed, and so many have lost in the race, even when they were so successful when they started. Such examples would be Atari who once dominated the console industry with its 2600 model, and SEGA with its Mega Drive / Genesis model, a powerful rival to the Nintendo, now no longer producing any consoles... lost in the console war.
I present to you the table of each generation and time period, with the companies involved and their respective model. I got it from Wikipedia, and I find it really useful if you want to understand roughly about video game history.
(Click on the image for a larger version)
Just to be clear, the timeline of each generation is as follow, (rough estimate):
1st Generation: 1972 -1975
2nd Generation: 1976 - 1983 (ended with the historic video game crash of 1983)
3rd Generation: 1983 - 1989
4th Generation: 1990 - 1993
5th Generation: 1994 - 1997
6th Generation: 1998 - 2006
7th Generation: 2007 - 2009
8th Generation: 2010 - 2016 (Ended with the birth of Nintendo Switch)
For better understanding of all the companies and consoles involved in each generation, here's a useful link:
So after this, when people say 3rd Generation or 4th Generation, you have an idea which consoles are involved. If you look into the table above, you'll notice SEGA stopped producing console after the Dreamcast, and ATARI much earlier than that (retro reproduction doesn't count).
It's sad that SEGA and ATARI dropped out because I honestly think they are really good manufacturers, and the SEGA Dreamcast and the ATARI Jaguar are really good consoles.
I hope one day, they can rise from the ashes of defeat, and come up with consoles to rival the others.
Game Doc, signing out.
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