Industry summary
The industry I have chosen to conduct my research on for this assignment is the “home console” industry. The home console industry is reported to be worth an estimated £2.7 billion in the year 2008 (up £0.3 billion on 2007) with the industry estimated to rise to the £3 billion mark by the time the “next generation” of consoles hit the shelves.
The history of the industry is broken down into stages called “generations”, with a “new generation” being born with the arrival of a newer and usually more powerful machine. The first “generation” of home consoles began in the early 1970’s with the Magnavox Odyssey. This first generation of home gaming lasted up until 1976 which saw the launch of the “second generation” with the arrival of the Fairchild Channel F and Radofin 1292 Advanced Programmable Video System. This generation’s dominant console was the Atari 2600 which was released in 1977 and had an estimated 30 million units sold as of 2004.
The second generation of gaming end in 1984 after the industry endured a crash, which almost resulted in bankruptcy for many companies producing home consoles.
It was in the third generation that home video consoles began to sell in massive numbers. It also saw the arrival of two of the industry’s most powerful companies (SEGA/Nintendo). Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES/Famicom) in 1986, while SEGA launched the Master System in 1987.
The rivalry of Nintendo and SEGA continued into the fourth generation as they both battled for supremacy within the industry. SEGA launched the Sega Mega Drive in 1990 with Nintendo launching their Super Nintendo Entertainment system (SNES/Super Famicom) in 1992.
This generation also saw a trend appear, which has continued to this ...