The launch of the new generation of consoles and the rapid growth of the PC in the media was overshadowed, and in reality it is only crucified by the next turn of the “folk” hysteria on the topic “Video games kill children”. The first entry on this topic was back in 1993, when the debates around the rating system unfolded in the US Senate, but if at that time serious people with great money solved their issues, and in the end everyone became better, then it was in 1999 that it became a good tradition. If back in 1993, the arguments of the fighters for the younger generation looked sucked out of the finger, then this time the passage was slightly different. This whole story gained strength after the release of Xbox and PS2, but to better understand the context of the development of the new generation of consoles and the PC, I will begin this particular proceedings.

The reason for indignation was just violence, and then mass executions committed by adolescents. So, on October 1, 1997, 16-year Luke Woodham, Armed with a bat and knife, killed his mother, and then took a rifle, went to school and shot three more students. December 1 of the same year, 14-year Michael Karnel stole a pistol at the neighbor, went to school and killed 3 and wounded another 8 schoolchildren. April 20, 1998 18-year Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Clibold Armed with a submachine gun, guns, explosives visited their native school and killed 12 students, 1 teachers, injuring another 23. And this I listed only the most bloody incidents that were immediately linked with games.

Newsweek about this (Harris and Clibold) wrote: “These two were obsessed with a brutal video game – doom [by that time the soldiers of the first two parts were calculated by millions], in which the players should kill as much as possible and played it every day”. Two months later, a video showing these two surfaced, where they said literally the following, lowering the words “Fuck”: “I hope that I will kill at least 250 of you … I can’t wait for it and I’m trembling. It will be like in Doom. This shotgun is straight from Doom ".

And then it rushed. The initiator of the trial was the prosecutor from Oregon. At first it was a question of a ban on several arcade games, but social activists joined the case and the noise reached Washington. There is already a senator Sam Braunbek, who was just preparing a report on violence in the media. And in the Senate, hearings on the last shooting at school were approaching. And then such excellent circumstances opened up that the hearings even decided to transfer to early. Two other senators contributed to this – John McCain And Orin Hats. And on May 4, 1999, a meeting started. Which, by the way, were carried out at the request of the US president himself – Bill Clinton.

This time they decided to deal with all the media, where the games were only a logical element. It was about the effect of screen violence on the teenage psyche. A completely sound thought – to follow the fact that the TV tells children very important. In the end, social being forms public consciousness. And by that time it was reliably known that 70% of the content with the rating “M” (17+) were aimed at adolescents under 17 years of age and 83% of this content was consumed by adolescents 13-16 years old. The essence of the claim is that on the motives of games with the rating “M” are toys for children. Senator Orin Hatch, noticed that the Resident Evil 2 was sold in stores with toys for children. And in general, distributors did not care much about observing age -related restrictions. But, as you know, the main quality of the Knock Poles of all countries is an inexhaustible talent for the outline of any sensible undertaking.

The arguments sounded well to us familiar. Senator Sam Braunbek: “Video -game violence causes much more anxiety, because the player does not just observe violence, but takes an active part in it”. Okay, if there is no adequate data on the influence of video games on the human psyche and specialized education, then this is logic. But Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hatchinson went much further: “I think we must find a connection between our cruel art and our cruel culture. Modern video games are more cruel and realistic than ever. Young children can penetrate the network and try on a virtual person, showing incredible cruelty. With one click of the button, they tear out hearts and spine … One of the witnesses claims that video games use techniques that are used to train soldiers ". Without unnecessary thought, video games fastened to recent shooting at school, convincing others that it was the games that are guilty of the murders. It should be noted that this is a very dubious argument. After all, only from 2001 to 2013, 406.496 people died from firearms in the United States.

Moreover, according to studies permitted by order of the Central Code in 1998, the level of teenage violence is 2 times higher than similar indicators in 25 European countries combined. This is also the fact that the level of violence has decreased for the past 10 years.

Such data clearly showed that not everything is in order with American society and many wanted to deal with the sources of the problem. So, such initiatives did not arise from scratch.

As you can see, everything was always all right with mass killings in the United States, even before the advent of video games. Of course, the peak occurred in the 1990s, but the executions in schools and universities were recorded back in the 18th century and since then they have never stopped.

Already in the introductory word, politicians showed a fantastic misunderstanding of what was happening. For example, one of the senators – Charles Chaput confused the film "Matrix" with the game Doom and Boyko demanded to ban the games, because they cause aggression as films, music, etc.D.

A former military man, a graduate of the West Pontus, and now a college teacher, was invited as an expert- Dave Grossman. He began his speech by how during the war they taught a soldier to shoot at targets, and when they came to the battlefield, they did not find targets. A completely different matter – video games. He ended a rhetorical question “How can you sell armies and children the same games and say that they are safe?". It was a hint of, never existing, a military simulator from Nintendo, which was allegedly developed by order of the US Army. “Congratulations, citizen!". Under the curtain, he announced video games "Simulators of mass killers". "Everyone who gives children the games of such criminals as those who give children weapons". Grossman later stated that violence among children grew 7 times since 1957 and … led to proof of the statistics of a completely different country. And in general, if you look at the record of the hearing, the next picture is obtained.

At first, senators are in a calm voice in a calm voice “What should we do for the benefit of the United States and our nation? What to do with this violence on TV?". Silence, everyone is waiting for an answer to heartbreaking questions. And then it jumps out of some kind of grossman, behaving like a violent psycho and a mesh of saliva demands to ban everything, and video games and rock to recognize the fascination of hell.

Representatives of the gaming, cinema and musical industries were responsible for all these attacks with unshakable confidence. Lumbering the “arguments” of the accusation and pointing out the obvious subliles that I noted above and noting the banal absence of evidence. Given the degree of constructive criticism, only the proud owner of the 47 chromosome could hardly answer it.

But, for example, Jack Valenti, the creator of the MPAA rating system, also said other things: “There are three pillars on which the upbringing of children – family, school and church”, “Fathers, mothers, teachers, priests must put high moral principles in their hearts and protect them from the influence of the street and other things … I believe that the protection of moral standards should not be carried out in manual regime. It is necessary to develop laws for a comprehensive solution to these problems ".

“You play your bloody video games again!?"
"No … I watch the news"

Normal scientists raised the question much wider, simply claiming the influence of video games on the human psyche and their behavior. Speech at these hearings, which, incidentally, took more than one year, was conducted about quite serious things – about the formation of behavioral cliches. Politicians and, not to the best of violent, activists quickly attached their words to massacres. Thus, they deliberately or not beat for a pre -trial, discrediting all subsequent research, bringing any statements for the line of common sense.

Really serious people were involved as experts. For example, President of the US Pediatrician Association, Donald Cook – A doctor with 40 year old experience. He argued that almost all persons over 18 were much less susceptible to any type of information. Virtual violence presents a special threat to children under 8 years of age, since they do not distinguish their fantasies from reality. And if parents do not pay due attention to education, then such children have increased aggressiveness and the desire to resolve the conflict by force. It is important that all the wine was not entrusted to cruel video games and films. Also indicated the culture of violence, which is associated with the availability of weapons. Cook also recognized the most powerful possibilities for the formation of consciousness for the entertainment industry. Although he expressed it softer.

He was echoed by the doctor Henry Jenkins: “Children are extremely far from being victims of the video game”, “Eric Harris and Dylan Clibold belonged to a whole complex of directions of mass culture … We are concerned about the influence of media on children, but we cannot avoid it. The charge of the video game will not bring us anywhere, like the ban on black coats [Harris and Clibold constantly wore black coats]" and more importantly, he noted that "In such a terrible atmosphere, it is impossible to build a normal discussion".

Absolutely fair remarks, but in the context of the farce, completely depreciated. In general, all these hearings turned into a circus very quickly.

Guess which of these citizens the most authoritative media cited enthusiastically? You can not even mount anything. Such serious resources as CNN and Gamespot broadcast mainly the position of industry representatives, For example, Vice President Paramount – Rob Friedman and Douglas Lowenstein – president Interactive Digital Software Association. They spoke mainly abstract words that games are the same art as cinema, music and literature: “Of course, not every film is a masterpiece, like not every book receives a Pulitzer Prize, but you need to appreciate them …” Well, t.D. In addition, as I noticed, many studies of the gaming industry were pressed precisely on demonstrating the inferiority of the most crazy characters like Grossman, I completely ignore the existence of the position of Henry Jenkins.

The oils still survived after the shooting of Clibold and Harris were added to the fire. They probably saw on the TV a glow of the struggle against video games, they quickly hired a collective lawsuit of $ 5 billion. 25 companies – manufacturers of video games, including Nintendo, Sega, Sony, ID Software, Acclaim, Activision, Capcom, Interplay, Eidos, etc.D.

And what about the hearing itself? Yes, in general, nothing. Is it true Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) On December 8, she released a press release in which she pledged to apply measures to prevent sales of games with the rating “M” to children.

Even if all these proceedings are taken out of the brackets, the logical question arises “since no one denies the harmful effects of pornography on fragile children’s minds, it is possible with screen violence is also harmful to the younger generation, especially if this generation is less than 10 years old?

Over the next years, there were several more “wonderful” initiatives to limit video games. I will only call Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2003 (2003 act on protecting children from video games, sex and violence) authorship of Congressman Joe Baki. This was accompanied by such vivid words as “you really want your children to try on the role of mass killers or auto-attentors while you are at work”. We do not know the answer to this question, since studies of this orientation are in no hurry to finance, and those that are carried out do not leave the highly specialized circle of doctors. Unlike various freaks, like Jack Thompson and the odious military, who if only to prohibit and more.

As a result, all this hype only filed interest in the new generation of consoles. And in my opinion, the success that Sonya was later trumped with a hundred millions of sold Play Station 2 triggered. Without this wave that the federal authorities driven, success would not be possible Postal 2 (2003). After all, the first part (1997) was spoke precisely after the success of the second, otherwise it would have remained unnecessary for anyone, as well as Thrill Kill (1998) from Electronic Arts and Paradox.

As the authors of Gamespot aptly noticed – "This is the most controversial game of those in which you have never played".

Without all this, it would hardly be born Manhunt (2003) from the creators of GTA – Rockstar North. It was a primitive stealth, which was remembered exclusively by scenes of cruel executions. The developers were not alien to cheap popularity and by the time Manhunt had already successfully fought off from attacks on GTA: Vice City.

After all, very soon it became clear that no matter how aggressive the rhetoric of politicians and “experts” was, no prohibitive measures would follow, and all the claims, including Rockstar, included all those “arguments” from the first meetings in the Senate. It is clear that any court sent the far away to weld on the success of the next hit.

Even if the game is banned, nothing threatens the developers and the publisher, and the hype around their scandalous game will eventually only turn into high popularity and support from users simply for evil to these bureaucrats. Not surprising, because as I already mentioned, the game and other industries were exhibited by victims of the repressive apparatus of the state.

And on this note, I will finally move on to the very gaming industry itself and begin with the deceased, at least in the same form, Sega.

Back in 1997 – a year after the launch of N64 SEGA Saturn sales. By August 1997, Bolshaya N controlled 40% of the console market, Sony 47%, but about 12% remained behind the Sega. Immediately after Christmas sales, 1997 Sega turned ads on TV. And so, on March 14, 1998, the last 3 games for Saturn in the United States were announced – House of the Dead, Shining Force III and Burning Ranges. After their release, the console along with Sega began to slowly roll into the hole of history. In general, it is funny that all these sad changes happened immediately after the Executive Director of Sega of America sat in the chair of the Executive Director Bernie Stolar, who had recently been the vice president of Sony of America.

Only 2 million Saturn were sold in the United States, against almost 11 million PlayStation. Losses amounted to over $ 450 million. But SEGA did not despair and on May 21, 1998 announced DreamCast as the first 128-bit console.

In Japan, it was supposed to be released on November 27, and in the USA only September 9, 1999. This was due to the simple strategy of Sega, the essence of which was the absence of money. And all their forces threw the position in the Japanese market to strengthen, setting the price of only $ 199, which was much lower than the cost, which means that the corporation traded at a loss. About how their epic was defeated, I described in detail here.

The only hope was the games. Given the complete absence of competitors and the year of Fora, the launch was extremely successful, and so much that the plants did not manage to produce new parties of the consoles. The truth "success" this was only relative to other Sega consoles. 225 was sold in the first day.132 devices, And by February 1999 they sold about 1 million. But not a small part of even this circulation, disappointed users returned to stores or exchanged for something from Sony.

After such a sudden turn of events, all meager forces were redirected to the United States. In addition, on March 2, 1999, Sony in the Tokyo National Theater announced PlayStation 2 and announced that the console would be released already in 2000.

An interesting fact: when Sony launched the first PlayStation, it was perceived by a secondary project, but by 1998 the brand brought 40% of corporate income.

After this presentation Bernie Stolar gave a press conference at which he stated the following: “On paper, the Sony console looks impressive, but it is still only on paper, and Dreamcast is already there. Honestly, all these demonstrated characteristics and the game line that come out in a year will be a serious test for us. And while Sony is only developing its DreamCast console will already be on sale. With a finished base of developers and an impressive game library ".

During the next months, Sony threw into the press pieces of information that step by step revealed her plan to turn PS2 into a multifunctional entertainment center, which, in addition to games, allowed to watch films, listen to music and go on the Internet.

Sega, launching the console in the United States, took into account the mistakes of Japanese colleagues and corrected the strategy. Actively collaborating with Midway Games and others expected to get at least 15 games in the starting line, against 4 in Japan. Only Midway out of these 15 released 4 games, among which there was a boxing simulator Ready 2 Rumble. Shortly before the launch of the console, Bernie Stolar left the corporation, and all responsibility fell on the shoulders of Peter Moore, who since 2007 worked in Electronic Arts and was responsible for everything sports, and then in 1999 he was a senior vice president of marketing.

“You must draw a line on the sand and say“ enough ”. We have 15 confirmed projects and we are still discussing some games with third -party developers who show up on the nearest E3 … Honestly, I believe that 15 is enough. During my short career in the industry, I never saw that the new platform would be launched with such a vast list of games ”

Sega of America generally had much better positions than Sega of Japan. The Americans remembered and loved Genesis well, providing a tangible audience, even despite the failure of Saturn.

August 4, 1999 was announced "The SEGA and At & T & T network gaming alliance. During the television conference, Bernie Stolar said: “AT&T WorldNET will be the main Internet provider for Sega DreamCast, providing Internet access to one button”. Among the services provided by AT&T were: chat, e-mail, browser and, starting since 2000, multiplayer. Bernie also added that “Sega Dreamcast Network will be the world’s largest game community. This will allow people to communicate and interact, and the games will be a kind of portal. ". Now it certainly sounds primitive, but then such speeches were a revelation.

According to the executive director of https://spinsino-casino.co.uk/bonus/ SEGA Enterprises, Ltd., Isao Okava The Union with AT&T was only a prologue to partnerships with Microsoft Nec in the USA, British Telecom in Europe and further everywhere. The program maximum was the creation of infrastructure and deployment DreamCast Network around the world. "We will expand the existing infrastructure including cable and broadband connection to create a central place among the Internet services of a new generation ”. More mundane things like a subscription fee were discussed. The tariffs were as follows: $ 9.95 in 10 hours a month, $ 19.95 in 150 hours a month and unlimited access for $ 21.95 per month. Promised the support of the keyboard and mouse and a lot more for trifles.

Six weeks before the release, September 9, Sega said that the number of pre -orders exceeded 200,000. On the first day, DreamCast could be bought at 15.000 stores throughout the country. By the end of the month, Sega hoped to sell at least 400.000 consoles. At a price of $ 199, there was a 56 kb/s modem. I repeat, 15 games were available at the start, and by the end of the year they should have become 30.

1 million consoles were in advance to retail chains. But the expectations were again very high. Here the truth was ruined by Midway, in whose game the bug crept, which turned off the music in the game. The press did not slow down about it to tell.

However, taking into account Christmas holidays, DreamCast was still sold in the amount of 1.2 million (that is, it took about 4 months). But after this, the sales went down sharply and the tendency was preserved the whole spring. I will not load you with detailed statistics, but I will say, then By September 2000, 3 were sold in the United States.475.763 consoles and by 2007 4.064.000 out of 9.013.000 all over the world.

During her non -long life, DreamCast left an extensive library of high -class games among which Crazy Taxi, Power Stone 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Soul Calibur And, of course, the cult diology of Shenmue (for which, after a 15 -year pause, finally announced the third part).

Sales situation aggravated by the PlayStation Festival 2000, conducted by Sony in February. 19 new games were shown there. Soon there were rumors about the difficulties of developing on a new console from Sony. For example, u Shinji Mikami There were problems with new Resident Evil And Dino crisis And he complained about the lack of normal tools. Developing hits for DreamCast, Saturn, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation Mikami claimed that PlayStation 2 The most difficult console with which he had to work.

Despite the sluggish presentation, many future hits were announced, among which was Onimusha: Warlords from Caidie Inafune.

“To this day, due to technological restrictions when I asked the programmer, if it was possible to do something now, he answered“ no ”. In the case of PS2, programmers answer: “Yes, perhaps, but it will take a lot of time” and they do not know how much. And now, as a producer, I must decide to launch a concept into the work, not knowing how much time will take its implementation. ".

– Caeji Inafune, capcom

In Konami, meanwhile Hideo Kajima He worked on Metal Gear Solid 2. He, as an avid filmmaker, was not tired of saying that PS2 is not powerful enough. He took up the work, knowing that he would get not what he expected. First of all, because the graphics was a "bottom".

Nintendo, for now, was comfortable and without a new home console. Game Boy Color, published in Japan on October 21, 1998, reached the United States in November. It was then that America fully felt the phenomenon of Pokemon, which appeared in Japan in 1996, became “phenomenally successful” and they had to be urgently exported. In 1998, the animated series, card game, etc.D. Originally released on the aging Game Boy, she was soon ported to the fresh Game Boy Color, which worked for 10-12 hours on two AA batteries and supported 32.000 colors.

Before the release of Pokemon, income from the sale of games for portable consoles amounted to $ 294 million, and by the end of 1998 (just a couple of months after the release Pokémon Red and Blue jumped up to $ 466 million, And Pokémon became the best -selling game (as a result, sold out by circulation 31.4 million copies). In 1999, Portaty Games were already brought by $ 1.26 billion, which was approximately 18% of the total market. And it is the Game Boy that owes all its growth from 1998 to 1999. For example, Sony shortly before PS2 was released in a financial report, a 13% fall in revenues noted. And Game Boy Color himself by 2009 exceeded 118 million devices sold.

Sale of PlayStation 2 in Japan began on March 4, and in the USA – October 26, 2000. By the end of the 2000 financial year, on March 31, 1 had already been sold.41 million consoles. After Sony dared all her competitors in Japan, especially Sega, she came to the United States.

The day before the exit, people throughout the country lined up in front of the shops. Electronic Gaming Monthly News editor Chris Johnston wrote: “I was then a news editor in EGM and went to Chicago next to Best Buy and watched the queues even at night. It was just madness. I had seen the starts of sales of consoles before, but this is the first time people set up small camps next to shopping centers ".

And the wait was worth it. At the start were available Armored Core 2, Dead or Alive 2, Dynasty Warriors 2, Tekken Tag Tournament, Midnight Club: Street Racing, NHL 2001, Street Fighter Ex3 and t.D. As you can see, this is either the continuation of the most cunning games of the past generation, or games from already promoted developers/publishers like Rockstar.

The function of the DVD player only gave the popularity of the console, so that the Sony calculation was true. Journalists noted that PlayStation 2 will be an excellent Christmas gift for the whole family.

Interesting fact: On these alarming days after the launch and lack of goods, various speculators were activated, offering a console of $ 500, $ 700 and even $ 1300.

At the start of the PS2 cost $ 300 and if the Sega boasted $ 97 million. On the first day of sales at DreamCast for $ 200, Sony could already enter $ 250 million. More specifically, then 500 was sold.000 consoles for $ 149 million. (Sega took 2 weeks to exceed 514.000 sold consoles). And the remaining $ 100 million. fell on games and various peripherals. Sony expected to sell 100.000 consoles per week and bring sales to 3 million by the end of the financial year on March 31, 2001. The Japanese successfully exceeded this plan, selling only in the United States by the beginning of 2003 21.48 million consoles of 50 million around the world.

The success of the PS2 in 2000 not only ensured the Sega major financial problems, but also forced it to turn off DreamCast support in March 2001, only 18 months after its successful launch and PS2 remained the only 6 -year console for another six months.

Reviewers competed in the laudatory oms of the new console and at the same time anticipated the rivalry of Nintendo GameCube with Microsoft Xbox.

The reasons for the refusal of further struggle SEGA were well summed up by the Vice President of Sega of America Charles Bellfield: “When you are aware of the power of the PlayStation 2, the marketing budget of the console in the United States … When you understand that Microsoft has declared a marketing budget for Xbox $ 500 million, that Nintendo is covered with revenues of $ 5 billion and takes second place after PlayStation – Sega simply does not have the opportunity to compete with such whales ". In addition, George Lucas said that PlayStation 2 is more powerful than computers on which they worked on "Star Wars: Ghostly threat".

“And we had several guys in Microsoft, who simply came and said – we“ must make our console ”.

March 10, 2000, just a week after the launch of PlayStation 2 in Japan, Bill Gates Speaking at San Jose at the GDC, he said: “It is very exciting to be here here and be able to announce a new platform, the platform that you cannot even imagine”. This vague announcement was preceded by a whole year of rumors and speculation.

Interesting fact: Before engaged in its own console, the Sega under the Microsoft agreement released the DreamCast version based on Windows CE. And he was supposed to become a new OS for DreamCast, but the Sega made a choice in favor of his. But the developers continued to release DC games for Windows CE. By 2001, there were as much as 50 pieces. Among them were Tomb Raider: Chronicles and Rainbow Six.

Work on the console began in 1998-1999 and MS carefully monitored competitors, the Sega strategy looked outdated excluding the potential of network functions, but an attempt to turn the console into a multimedia center, what Sony saw it to my liking. Which is actually clearly visible by Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

To work on the console, such industry veterans as a former Atari engineer were involved Joe Dex, Howard Phillips from Nintendo and others. If the Sony and Nintendo consoles have always had a unique architecture, then Microsoft created XBOX in the image and likeness of a conventional PC. The authors of this move were Saymus Blackley, Kevin Bakus, Ted Hayce And Otto Berks. Initially, the console had a name Directxbox, in honor of the DirectX team, which created the console. When the console was first announced, the company did not like the name and, using an Internet questioning among users, 20 options for a new name were formed, among which it won "Xbox". The similarity of the architecture with the PC was not at all accidental and met the strategic plans of MS.

A trimmed version of the Windows 2000 nucleus was installed on it with all the ensuing like DirectX. And despite the fact that the console was announced in March before the end of the year, official specifications were never announced. A little later, Bill Gates himself raised the veil of secrets on CES in Las Vegas January 3, 2001. NVIDIA graphic chip exceeded its competitor in PS2, and 8 GB of memory was 2 times more than in the same PS2. Intel 733 mhz beat in the heart of the console. That’s just the RAM was critically few, only 64 MB, which forced the developers to save on everything that could.

And the price and date of the exit was announced only at E3 2001 in May. The entire starting line in the person of Halo: Combat Evolved, Dead Or Alive 3, Madden NFL 2002, Project Gotham Racing, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2x were also shown there. There were 22 games at the start.

As we recall, PS2 was very difficult to master, so in this regard the Xbox had a serious advantage that attracted many small studios. One of the leaders of Microsoft Saymus Blakley said: "One of the main goals of Xbox is to put all power in the hands of the creators". He later added that "developers will be able to achieve the level of schedule of the history of toys".

At the start – November 15, the console went at a price of $ 299, at a cost of $ 323 and 550 was sold in the first week.000 consoles, and after another 2 weeks already more than 1 million. PC with such characteristics cost about $ 500 at that time – $ 700.

Interesting fact: All multimedia functions about which the officials of the corporation said so much, in the first months after the launch they realized the pirates allowing the music and video of all conceivable formats, and soon expanded the potential to the level of conventional Windows by unlocking all the hidden functions of the formats. Whereas the original firmware allowed only to run the DVD with the game and remove the conservation.

In many ways, the console owes such a success at the start of Halo: Combat Evolved – one of the first good shooters on the consoles (before that there were only a lot of good things could be said about Golden Eye 007 (1997) for N64).

Sales of Halo beat all possible records, exceeding 1 million in just a few months. By April 2002, Halo had half of the owners of Xbox. In addition to dozens of enthusiastic reviews of the largest publications and 97/100 on Metacritic She was awarded the title "Games of the year" From Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, British Academy of Film and Television Arts recognized her "The best console game", And Rolling Stone noted "Best original soundtrack" And these are only the most important awards from 48.

Indeed, the influence of the game on the genre of shooters is difficult to overestimate. In addition to the first sensible sandbox with all possible types of technology and challenging artificial intelligence, the authors were worried about history and characters. True, the whole concept of the heavenly ring-Halo was borrowed from the novels of the Mir-Rings series Larry Niven. The games of the series stood out by an extensive and thought out universe, coupled with interesting plots and of course a multipleor that provided a breakthrough service – Xbox Live. True, he was launched only in November 2002. A similar service on PS2 has been operating since August 2002. But MC had both free and paid versions.

The developer studio itself – Bungie was founded in May 1991 called Bungie Software Products Corporation by two students of Chicago University Alex Seropyan and Jason Jones. For the first 9 years of its existence, I released 2 games – Marathon (1994) and Myth (1997). The first was a mediocre shooter, and the second is also mediocre, but with a strategy. But in 2000, Microsoft noticed them and bought them together with the development of Halo. Soon it will become the locomotive of the corporation in the console market, creating one of the most popular series in the gaming industry.

Sony is sensitively following competitors, organized her answer to Chamberlain and in 2004 released Killzone – also a shooter in a fantastic setting, but turned out to be a rather pale copy against the backdrop of the same year Halo 2. In the arena of the console FPS with Halo, only the ingenious could compare Black (2006) from Criterion Games, which really went to PS2 and Xbox. And this was the first game with, almost total destruction. Due to technical restrictions, the developers simply crept out every corner and the world spoke to any shot by a hail of broken glasses and plaster. Similar was reproduced only in 2007 in StrangleHold using HAVOK and in Battlefield: Bad Company (2008) using scripts, albeit on a larger scale.

During the year, the circulation of the console has grown up to 3.5 million, and by December 2003 another 1 million in the United States was added. For 3 years, the circulation reached 10 million out of 22 million around the world.

Simultaneously with the Xbox, GameCube was launched. It was announced on August 24, 2000 in Japan under the code name Dolphin. Dolphin was supposed to leave in the same 2000 and openly compete with the PlayStation 2, What proudly stated by Howard Lincoln. As is usually the case with Nintendo, the announcement was accompanied by crumbs of information sufficient only to make the journalists create the image of the coming console. For the sake of the new console, two new unions were concluded. The development of the processor was assigned to IBM, which was at the basis of having an IBM PowerPc architecture. DVD drive, which is not a fact that the films can lose Panasonic.

Gamecube Dolphin has already turned into E3 2001 a day before the exhibition. Specific specifications were announced there. The most terrible fears were confirmed. Unlike PS2 and Xbox, only mini-DVDs were supported and GC was not positioned as a DVD player. This was perceived as a sign of true hardcore and fidelity to traditions. Devoted fans applauded the courage of Nintendo.

However, in addition to GameCube, in June 2001 Game Boy Advance was published in the United States – the third console in the ruler. And part of the forces, and very serious, was distracted by the promotion of a new portable console. She had reverse compatibility with Game Boy and Game Boy Color. The resolution was 240 × 160 versus 160 × 144 in old models. Console supported 2D 32-bit graphics. In short, iron in power is comparable to Super Nes (1990).

The starting line consisted of, well, who would doubt, Super Mario Having received the subtitles of Advance. The same thing with Army Men Advance. In general, there were a huge number of games and, as a result, by 2006 in the United States 33 were sold.6 million devices out of 81.51 million around the world.

Nintendo senior console was supposed to be released on November 5, 2001, but because of problems with logistics and the inability to put the declared 700.000 consoles to stores were transferred to November 18. Nintendo of America Vice President for Marketing George Garison He called it "The start of the marathon". The corporation clearly felt a serious threat from Sony and Microsoft, and therefore at the start the console was released for only $ 200.

Already by the starting line, one can judge the degree of importance of the American market. 13 Games versus 3 in Japan, including Crazy Taxi, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, Madden NFL 2002, Batman: Vengeance and others. That’s just the majority of the games were multi -platform.

But the main success of 2001 did not come from the ranks of Nintendo or Microsoft. In November, Konami reported that their main hit is exclusive for PlayStation 2 Metal Gear Solid 2 (2001), for a month shipped 1.8 million. copies. In success with MGS, only July could compete Gran Turismo 3 (2001) – also exclusive Sony. This, in general, predicted the outcome of the 6th generation race.

At the start of Nintendo threatened to sell 50 million consoles by 2005, but everything turned out somewhat different. Although More than 500 were sold in the first week.000 consoles, and by the end of the year it was planned to sell 1.3 million consoles. As a result, by April 2007, when it was officially announced the termination of support, 11 were sold in the United States.7 million consoles out of 21.6 million around the world. She was not even very helped by the bet on games with the rating "E" – for all. Approximately 75-80% of the entire library.

As we all know – the console makes games and service. If we have already talked about the service, now let’s go through exclusives and bestsellers.

Nintendo, which was once again on its wave, trying to please hardcores, but at the same time bet on the whole family and the rating of “E” received a logical final.

1) Super Smash Bros. Melee – 7.41
2) Mario Kart: Double Dash‼ – 6.88
3) Super Mario Sunshine – 5.91
4) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker – 4.43
5) Luigi’s Mansion – 3.33
6) Mario Party 4 – 2.29
7) Metroid Prime -1.87
8) Star Fox Adventures – 1.69
9) Mario Party 5 – 1.64
10) Pikmin – 1.52

Here I have nothing to comment on. Everywhere old and proven Mario and other ghosts of the 80s.

Like it or not, but in 3D everyone has already crossed and invented new genres in the 1990s, but they all evolved greatly. New ones came out Need for Speed And Gran Turismo, But new episodes like Burnout and Project Gotham Racing were also launched – they all quickly hilled multiplayer. In response to Metal Gear Solid, the genre of "Stealth" Ubisoft launched a series Splinter Cell (2002), which was primarily distinguished by a full-fledged camera from the 3rd person, while in MGS 2-3 it was fixed above the head, and the entire gameplay was built on other principles. The difference in the AI ​​of opponents and their abilities to detect the player can be noted immediately. The bottom line is that in all directions the creation of franchises, alternative to Japanese, continued. According to the results of the 6th generation of consoles, almost all, not oriented to the West, were removed from the mileage, except the most-most top-ends, like Final FNTASY. But even she lost positions. Success Final Fantasy X (2001), the sales of which were divided in half between Japan and the USA remained the peak of its popularity. And in the future, almost everything is screaming, Japanese brought ¾ profit at home, and most games did not get to the USA. The Americans were not at all upset about this.

And before moving on to the PC industry, you should deal with the history of the game iron. This brief excursion in the iron workshop will allow you to correctly understand the pcs of the PC – as a powerful alternative to consoles in the period 1999 – 2006. It was then that the most fierce struggle unfolded not only in the field of processors and video cards, but also the PC development strategies.

At the turn of millennia, the market was attended by 3DFX, ATI, NVIDIA and MATROX.
All competition developed around the transition from sprites and 2D to full 3D. Intensive movement towards progress began as early as 1996. Before that, everything remained at the level of research and prototypes. But everything passed into the practical area when the progressive Canadian company – Matrox released its first game crankcase – Matrox Mystique and decided to move the lazy competitors, which their annual financial reports could not be taken out. Mistique offered a very weak 3D but was very cheap. Of course, before his main competitor represented by 3DFX and her Voodoo Rush, which came out in August 1997, was far but which she forced to move. Already in 1998, 3DFX proposed her heiress Voodoo2, which issued the solid 800×600 and unattainable stability for most manufacturers, and in SLI resolution increased to 1024×768. In parallel with this, 3DFX actively worked on iron for DreamCast. In 1999, Voodoo3 also came out, with which the strategy changed and the company reoriented to business and office components. And already in 2000, almost all 3DFX technologies and developments were purchased by NVIDIA, after receiving $ 300 million. under a contract with Microsoft, and after the release of Voodoo4 3DFX went bankrupt.

But instead of one powerful player in the market – NVIDIA, there were still 2 remained, because just in 2000 ATI launched its line of video cards (then it has not absorbed AMD yet), although it has worked on graphic chips since 1996. So in the early 2000s, the 3D problem in games has not gone anywhere. The question of how exactly to make it gave rise to many answers. 3DFX had an advanced API Glide, and Nvidia had something similar called "Edge 3D". These were the times when MSDOS was alive, well, which Nvidia focused on. Whereas ATI and Intel relied on Microsoft, with its Direct Draw and Direct 3D for Windows (1996).

Microsoft, without expecting it, created the traditional PC Gaming market based on Windows and provided solutions to create gaming products through DirectX technology. Without imposing any restrictions on the distribution process, the market developed spontaneously and almost independently of Microsoft and billions flowed out of her hands.

But all these Microsoft cooperations with ATI and other turned out to be a false. The developers felt him in all their splendor. John Karmak, for example, called Direct 3D the most flawed API for 3D programming and stated that from now on it would work only with Open GL. Other developers did not respond much better. Although over time, Direct 3D has improved markedly and even nvidia switched to it.

There is always a period, in the last year of the life of a generation, after they announced the next one and lured the user with juicy interruptions when players want to step into the future right now. And most important they are ready to pay for it.

For the first time, such an opportunity introduced himself at the flow of the 20th century. And the developers also decided not to rush with unconditional support of new consoles, the success of which (except PS2) was not predetermined. In addition, everything except the internal studios Sony, Microsoft and T.D. should have expelled a solid piece of profit. According to not official data, Microsoft took $ 7-9 with each copy sold.

It was at this point in time that the population could afford to spend $ 1000 on a PC, especially on credit. For these 5 years, PC has become a real alternative to consoles. It is from the beginning of the 2000s that iron manufacturers are activated, calling for updating their car every year. And for this period all the most significant games are happening. Here, ask the avid PKShnik “What can he be proud of?"And, for sure, you will hear Deus Ex (2000), Max Payne (2001), Doom 3 (2003), Half-Life 2 (2004), Diablo 2 (2000), System Shock 2 (1999), Battlefield 1942 (2002)-2(2005). All games from Monolith, among which a genius deserve a separate mention F.E.A.R (2005) and Condemned (2005) (the latter, however, first came out on the Xbox 360, and reached the PC only a year later). And this is only FPS and TPS, but there were still legendary quests from Tim Shaifer. It is impossible not to note the experimental sandbox from EA – The Sims (2000).

An interesting fact: I cannot but note the activity of the US Department of Defense, which decided to lure potential contractors. This attempt was called American’s Army. The concept of this FPS Semi-Simulator Back in 1999, Colonel Kasei Wardinski, senior economist of the US Military Academy of Armed Forces. His idea, in general, anticipated a whole genre, which laid the start Operation Flashpoint (2001), although America’s Army itself was released in 2002.

Strategies have actively developed at this holiday of life. What is one worth only Warcraft 3 (2003) (from which Dota then grown), Age of Empires 2 (1999), and then and Age of Empires 3 (2005), Disciples 2 (2002), we will not forget about the Total War series that began in 2000 with Shogun: Total War and continued in 2002 Medieval: Total War, and many other beautiful games are still released. In addition, economic strategies continued to develop successfully, the flagship of which – Simcity, does not need an idea. In 2003, 4 part of the series was released. Well, in 2004, society was shaken, and to this day, the most popular MMORPG – World of Warcraft.

The RPG genre deserves a separate mention, which blossomed during this period at least thanks to Bioware C Baldur’s Gate (1998), Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000),Neverwinter Nights (2002), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Kotor) (2003) and Bethesda c The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002). There were still Gothic (2001), Gothic II (2002), from Piranha bytes and dozens of others for every taste and color. With its unique – Western RPG PCs, it was favorably different from the consoles, which were still mainly offered by classic Japanese series like Final Fantasy or Persona C Legend of Zelda. Sony even organized an American slasher – God of War. Before that, the whole genre was firmly kept with them the Japanese, and Xbox marked a very original Fable. Do not forget and Black & White from the same Peter Muline.

And in general, the Japanese industry gradually closed to itself, giving way to Americans or brands initially oriented to the western market like Silent Hill, Resident Evil and t.D. And then and now the fans of the whole Japanese made up a negligible part of the total mass of players for whom the same Fallout was hundreds of times closer. And the PC gave all this with excess. Here FPS and original quests are all that consoles could not provide in the early 2000s.

Interesting fact: In the early 200s, dozens of visual novels of various contents including 18, including 18+. It is funny that all localization was carried out by caring fans, while working at the official level with publishers and developers. Instead of somehow interfering with fans, publishers actively interacted with them, and after negotiations and some approvals they released a version of the game with a fan translation. An example of this approach is Steins; Gate and EF: A Fairy Tale of the Two.

In the case of the Umineko series: whether the authorship of Ryukishi07 (which, incidentally, was inspired by the “witch from Blair”), translators from ideological enthusiasts have become professionals, and are now engaged in localization at a professional level. Read more here

I had to pay flexibility for this, because the time when AAA could be developed by a bunch of enthusiasts forever in the 1990s. The consoles committed amateur performances back in the 1980s.
And rapidly developing NVIDIA, having received 300 million under a contract with Microsoft. and 3DFX purchases began to work not only on iron for PCs, but also with developers directly.

The company not only provided its technologies and provided PR support. This was the time when large developers did not know that all the technical work could be given to the nameless Chinese to outsources working for a rice bowl (this is what Eden Games C did Test Drive Unlimited (2006)). Then NVIDIA experts and other companies themselves participated in the development of games and did not hesitate to invest in them. An effective symbiosis of developers, publishers and manufacturers of components and on.

NVIDIA experts worked on lighting and all the shadows in the same f.E.A.R., In general, hundreds of games passed through their hands.

Interesting fact: In 2004, 70% of all players had game PCs, and 60% of players were over 18 years old.

The second successful course of NVIDIA was buying up small, but promising companies engaged in developments in the field of 3D. Buying 3DFX was, although the largest, but not the only. It is not difficult to guess this not only removed potential competitors, but also provided access to progressive and innovative solutions.

For example, When we see the Physx by Nvidia inscription, we need to understand that the Ageia Technologies developed and successfully introduced Physx technology based on Ageia Physx PPU, And NVIDIA engineers and programmers have nothing to do with it. This is a completely normal practice for all corporations including Google, Micron and Cisco.

The financial reports suggested ATI that the competitor’s strategy is stronger, because only in 2003 they were able to go out in a plus. From income $ 342 million. In net profit, only $ 12 could be recorded.4 million., And in 2002 she closed with losses of $ 34 million. This is also taking into account the fact that GameCube stood chips from ATI. While Nvidia for 2003 had an income of $ 583 million. and $ 27 million. net profit, which is 142% more than in 2002, and in 2004 the income still doubled. It was then that ATI followed the example of nvidia.

The Microsoft and ATI with Radeon Alliance made a mistake, deciding that it was enough to supply the tools to everyone, while NVIDIA worked directly with the developers, putting them their specialists, relying on an individual approach.

But, as soon as the gap between the ATI and NVIDIA became too dramatic in favor of the second, then direct support for the developers began to end. Well, what, the market has already been conquered, why strain once again and spend huge resources on the development of games, if you can build a crookedly working superstructure and release a colorful video on YouTube.

As a result, the universal and optimized platform from the PC from Microsoft did not work out, and after 5 years NVIDIA began to sink in dozens of her video cards. There were no financial, and human resources to optimize even the most cunning games.

It seemed, naturally inevitable, cooperation between developers and NVIDIA several years ago, in 2006 units could boast. An exception can be considered Epic Games in whose engine – Unreal Engine was in due time NVIDIA, and then the employees constantly circulated between Epic Games and Nvidia. Soon, such cooperation turned more into a PR action, and all nanotechnologies were designed to show the feasibility of buying a new video card.

Such close relationships were not destined to last forever, more and more companies began to enter the market, for example AMD. At the moment when the effectiveness of working with a PC had the potential approaches the consoles (given the miracle architecture of the PS3, which was already about to be about).

Soon the shelves began to swell from all kinds of video cards and processors, who competed primarily among themselves in the numbers and characteristics abstract for an ordinary user, while forgetting about the final performance on a variety of configurations. If in the early 2000s the same relevant video cards were only a few pieces, under which everything was sharpened, that already in 2006 these were dozens of items, not to mention processors, memory and periphery.

In addition to this, the PC has provided a new generation service. Today, about 65% of the PC games are being implemented through Steam, which is very close to a monopoly with many billions. It all started in the distant 2002, when March 22 the new system was presented on the GDC Valve, it was necessary to solve the problem with the timely release of updates for Counter-Strike and other games. In addition, the question of the fight against piracy and cheaters was acutely. And already in 2003 a new platform went to the people, so far only in the form of beta. At that time, more than 80% of users had access to high -speed Internet. About 300 took part in testing.000 people. And then it was called World Opponent Network. The development and support of which was engaged in Sierra Entertainment – one of the most influential publishers at that time. And only in 2004 did he become Steam-exactly the Half-Life 2 exit.

An interesting fact: Half-Life 2 was already attached to Steam to the release and demanded its installation even for the disk version of the game. The service was still far from stable work and the game simply refused to start. The BBC even published the “Motor Half-Life 2” article, which described the misadventures of journalists who tried to join the adventures of Gordon Freeman on the release day.

Early interface version.

After the success of HL 2 Valve, they decided to expand and if 2005 all began with the sale of whatever Rag Doll Kung Fu and Darwinia, then the first agreement was concluded on the provision of their site to such large publishers as ID Software, Eidos Interactive and Capcom. And after a couple of years, users became about 13 million, and the number of games was measured by hundreds. Steam could become the same universal network platform as PSN and Xbox Live, but did not work out. For the same reason as the manufacturers of iron. The openness of the PC played a cruel joke with him – each company wanted to sell more processors and video cards, and video games for them became nothing more than advertising. On the other hand, the publishers did not see the reasons to pay Valve if you can organize your Steam, only with preference and harlots.

The most visual indicator of the success of a particular platform is the sales of exclusives. On the part of the PC, one can be considered Half-Life 2 with its 2.2 million copies in the USA, excluding Steam, and on the side of the PS2 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty C 2.45 million copies are the same, only in the USA. Well, on the Xbox, in addition to the detailed Halo and significant projects, there were at least Fable with 2 million copies, and so on: Deus Ex – 1.1 million, Devil May Cry – 1.36 million … there could be much more examples, but there were no clear data on the exact sales of most games in the PC in the first years of life. For example, Todd Holleshed From ID Software says only what she "The most successful game in the history of the company".

Summing up, I want to indicate the main trends and strategic disposition of the main players. In addition to high -quality exclusives, powerful iron and marketing, the outcome was determined by both multiplayer and network service. It was perfectly understood by both console manufacturers and PC manufacturers. Speaking of the latter, the corporations diligently displayed it into one weight category with PS2 and Xbox. Though Microsoft with ATI and NVIDIA went in different ways. And both brought them to a strategic impasse, only if the second, due to an individual approach, managed to earn and clean potential competitors, then the first to lose their positions on the PC Red, concluded chips production for Xbox 360, and then for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

All, without exception, made global plans, but not everyone was destined to bring them to life. SEGA finally dropped out in 2001, due to the lack of money. Nintendo is confused in the audience and format. What was expressed in the rapid change of strategy in the person of Nintendo WII. Well, the desire to play along with virtual violence fighters, as in 1993, but something went wrong. PC showing a vigorous start and the potential began to translate quality into quantity, without unnecessary concern for consumers. And he would not have taken place without consumer readiness to pay all these experiments. Only Sony Microsoft remained. If the first one was just wonderful, and they could afford to hit the portable, then Microsoft first pancake came out lumpy and the original Xbox was remembered by Halo and Xbox Live. It was on them that the rate was placed when the Xbox 360 was released in 2005 (a year earlier than PS3). At the same time, the mobile sector began to develop, which spurred the output of the iPhone in 2007. You will learn about this and much more in the next – the final part.