Overview
Often "video game" is taken in a narrow sense to mean those games played on consoles for television and similar handhelds. The term "video game" is often not considered to include computer games and coin-operated arcade games, not only because the games in these three categories are historically different, but also because the activity of playing these three types of games is different. See history of the video game for more information. The terms electronic game and interactive entertainment both include video games, computer games, and coin-operated arcade games.
In the present day, however, there is a thin line between computer games and video games in terms of genre. Arcade games are still based upon gameplay that can be quickly learned and most involve progression through levels. Many games intended for computers are now just as prevalent on consoles, both of which have many of the same selections of titles. This is due to the fact that video game consoles have drastically increased in computing power and capabilites over the last few years to the point that they can handle games that were formerly only playable with computers. With the release of Microsoft's Xbox console, which was based on PC architecture, and which was developed with online gameplay in mind, most major computer game releases began coming out on consoles. The Entertainment Software Association reported that console games outsold computer games in the US by about 380% in 2003.
Video games are made by developers, who can be individuals, but are almost always a team consisting of designers, graphic designers and other artists, programmerss, sound designers, musicians, and other technicians. Most video game console development teams number anywhere from 20 to 50 people, with some teams exceeding 100. The average team size as well as the average development time of a game have grown along with the size of the industry and the technology involved in creating games. This has led to regular occurrences of missed deadlines and unfinished products, such as Duke Nukem Forever. See video game industry practices for more information.
From time to time the term interactive is used to describe a video game. This term is often used by people in the movie and television industries who are not comfortable with the idea that they are involved in making video games, due to the video game industry's persistent stereotype of making products targeted solely towards children. A line heard from an executive in such an industry might sound something like, "We're a movie production company, and now we're getting into interactive."
Video game market
Video games are very popular today, and the market has grown almost continuously since the end of the video game crash of 1983. The market research company NPD estimated that video game hardware, software, and accessories sold about US$10.3 billion in 2002. This was a 10% increase over the 2001 figure.
The video game market changes over the years as new video game consoles are introduced. This has happened in cycles of about 5 years or so, in which multiple manufacturers release their consoles usually within about a year of each other. Then, the console producers and the video game publishers enjoy several years of game sales until technology has improved enough for a new generation of consoles. At that point, games for the old consoles generally enjoy some residual sales, but the video game public as a whole moves on to the new generation of machines. The current major consoles are:
Top video games
The ten best selling console video games, according to NPD, ranked by total US units (April 2004'') were:
- Fight Night 2004, Electronic Arts, PS2
- NBA Ballers, Midway, PS2
- Fight Night 2004, Electronic Arts, Xbox
- MVP Baseball 2004, Electronic Arts, PS2
- Pokémon Colosseum, Nintendo, GameCube
- , Capcom, PS2
- , Ubisoft, Xbox
- NBA Ballers, Midway, Xbox
- , MicrosoftBungie, Xbox
- , Eidos Interactive, PS2
The ten best selling console video games, according to NPD, ranked by total US units (annual 2003'') were:
- Madden NFL 2004, Electronic Arts, PS2
- Pokémon Ruby, Nintendo of America, Game Boy Advance
- Pokémon Sapphire, Nintendo of America, Game Boy Advance
- , Electronic Arts, PS2
- , Nintendo of America, GameCube
- , Rockstar Games, PS2
- , Nintendo of America, GameCube
- Tony Hawk's Underground, Activision, PS2
- Enter the Matrix, Atari, PS2
- , Electronic Arts, PS2
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