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Nintendo Is founded
Fusajiro Yamauchi founds Nintendo Co. in Japan, but the company doesn't sell video games yet. Instead, for decades, it creates playing cards and later, in the 1960s, it experiments with a few extremely eclectic business ventures -
The First Computer Game
Noughts and Crosses -- a tic-tac-toe game that runs on a computer -
Space Wars
First computer-based video game called Space wars, but the game can't be distributed because the hardware is too expensive to mass-produce. -
First commercial arcade game
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, who would later found Atari, create Computer Space, an arcade game which is the first commercially sold video game. -
Pac-Man chomps into arcades and home consoles
Pac-Man is a mega-hit. It sells 100,000 arcade units and generates $1 billion in revenue -
Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis
Nintendo releases the 16-bit Super NES to compete with Sega's Genesis and wins out thanks to popular in-house titles like Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Donkey Kong. -
PlayStation 2 sends shock waves with stunning graphics
Sony releases the PlayStation 2. At 128 bits, it has better graphics than a computer, as well as DVD technology. Grand Theft Auto is native to the PS2 and becomes a massive hit. -
The Nintendo Wii
Nintendo markets the console to active, outdoorsy people who don't normally describe themselves as gamers. The Wii becomes a worldwide hit. By 2009, it has sold almost two times the number of consoles as Sony with the PS3 -
Apple opens the App Store
Apple's app store opens up many opportunities in mobile gaming for both developers and consumers. The next year, Mobile, social games like Angry Birds for the iPhone and FarmVille for Facebook burst onto the scene. -
The Xbox One, the third Xbox
Xbox releases Xbox One with cloud integration and ability to overlay live TV. The console also has voice integration and an improved Kinect sensor.
