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First PAX Held In Washingtom
On August 28, 2004 the authors of the popular webcomic Penny Arcade hosted a gaming expo called PAX. Jerry Holins and Mike Krahulik wanted a place for gamers to play games
and companies to show off upcoming products and demos.
It has been an annual event since then, with a growing
audience. The first one in 2004 set the precedent with Microsoft in attendance showing off a new Splinter Cell game, nerdcore rapper MC Frontalot performing, and an entire section devoted to tabletop games. -
Nintendo Releases Virtual Console
On November 19, 2006, Nintendo opened up its Virtual Console
for download on the Wii. This was a way for gamers to download
older games from different consoles, including non-Nintendo
systems like the Sega Genesis and the Turbo-Grafx 16. The
focus, of course, was on big name classics from the NES, like
The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. Gamers could
use the WiiMote Controller like the original NES controller
by turning it on its side. -
Texas A&M Prof. Produces Study On Violent Games
On December 1, 2007, a professor of psychology at
Texas A&M University released a study about the effects
of violent games on human behavior. The study concluded
that playing violent video games did not contribute to subsequent aggression, unlike most popular beliefs. Not only that, but he concluded that it helped people develop hand-eye
coordination for things like surgical procedures. -
Games Gross More Than Films
By December 31, 2007, Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4 helped the gaming industry to gross more money than the entire film industry. Consoles did figure into the the $18.8 billion dollars the games industry saw that year, but games made up for about half that number. Not only that, but sales were nearly doubled from 2006. -
Google Adds Cloud Support For Games
On May 15, 2013, Google announced that Google Play Games
was live. This included cloud saves for Android games,
Google Plus sharing, achievements, and leaderboards. The
bigger reveal was that these services were going to go
cross-platform. This means that they were slyly announcing
direct competition with Apple’s iOS Game Center by integrating
these features into participating games on the iOS platform.
One of the first games to become compatible was the indie
hit World of Goo.