![]() Sega pulled out of the console wars while Microsoft prepared its first foray with the original Xbox. The PlayStation 2 was released in 2000 and, to this day, holds the title for best-selling console of all time. The 2000s saw the last low-res polygonal games entering the market with the advent of high-definition renderings. In 1996, Nintendo released Super Mario 64, cementing polygons over pixels as the new mainstay for video game graphics. While the earliest 3D game to be commercially released came out in 1980 (Atari's Battlezone), that game more closely resembles the oscilloscope renderings of its predecessors. In the ‘90s, a technological arms race between home console manufacturers warped gaming into a new, yet familiar, dimension. Games were overproduced, rushed to market, and had to compete with an emerging PC market. In 1982, the arcade industry in North America pulled in over 8 billion dollars, more than the pop music and movie industry revenues combined (that's 8 billion dollars in quarters, by the way).ĭespite the impact and success of gaming in ‘81 and ‘82, the video game industry would crash hard just one year later, affecting the American market the most. Come 1978, Space Invaders stood out as the peak gaming experience by accidentally implementing progressive difficulty.Įnter the ‘80s, and the golden age of video games. The early ‘70s saw the first home consoles hit the market, the release of arcade staples like Pong, and the PC gaming legend The Oregon Trail (the original text-based predecessor to the 1985 release). Arcades of the ‘60s still resembled the penny arcades of decades prior, but slowly began to feature graphical displays and more sophisticated electronic parts. Of course, electronic gaming would become a sensation. This is the 1950s equivalent of running Doom on a graphing calculator. In this case, an oscilloscope - a type of test instrument once commonly found in electronics labs and TV studios. Tennis for two, like many early games, was rendered on repurposed scientific equipment. ![]() What many call the first true video game, Tennis for Two, was designed in the late ‘50s by physicist William Higinbotham. So let's put on our web3 glasses, hop in the way-back machine and look for some inspiration as we (briefly) recount the evolution of video games. In order to understand the future, on some level, we must know where we've come from. And it's been happening in the video game industry since the 1950s. Web3 in gaming, like any emerging technology, is being poked, prodded, broken, remade, twisted into shapes both ugly and pleasant, and applied in every way imaginable. This kind of functionality is what "true ownership" looks like for digital assets. Trading card games, an almost-too-perfect application of NFT tech, now resemble the real-world experience of visiting a card shop by letting players take their cards (or the proceeds of their sale) off-platform. Today, there are projects funded solely by the royalties earned from secondary market NFT sales of in-game assets (check out Dope Wars). Blockchain technology is already being used to reimagine how games are played, developed, and made to benefit players. Still, the implications of digital ownership open up a world of possibilities for gaming. Many games touting web3 components, while sometimes an overnight success, often lack long-term staying power. Games that pay you to play seem too good to be true. Blockchain gaming's boisterous opening salvo turned the heads of almost every gamer with its most unprecedented feature: earning cryptocurrency. Now is a crucial moment for web3 adoption in the game industry. 11 min read Let's talk about blockchain games
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