History of Computer Games 2000s+

As the millennium arrived, a new generation of consoles were released.  Sony began to lead in the industry with the release of its Playstation 2 in 2000. This was the best selling console at the time, and also still has games produced for it to this day. Sega fell behind, with their last console being the Dreamcast, which suffered from their damaged reputation and pirating. Nintendo also became less popular, with their first disk based console, the Nintendo GameCube, selling less units than the Playstation 2. Although it was about the same technically, it did not have as many third party games produced for it and gained a reputation as a kids console. In 2001, Microsoft released the X-box, which was based on its computer technology.

It was also around this time that games became more mature, with more higher rated games being produced. Games that used the internet also became more prominent, due to it becoming more widespread and more affordable. There were quite a few Massively multiplayer online role-playing games at this time, such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft. Consoles started to have internet connection as well, starting with the Dreamcast and including the Playstation 2 and the X-box. The X-box used its system X-box live. This was very successful and was used in their next console.

In 2005, Microsoft released the X-box 360, and in 2006, Sony released the Playstation 3. Both had high definition graphics and an online system (X-box live and Playstation Network). They were almost as powerful as computers at the time of launch, but were relatively cheaper. However, for consoles they were considerably expensive. Nintendo released the Wii in 2006. This console had lower technical specifications, but had new motion controls and a strong appeal to casual gamers with games such as Wii sports. It became the fastest selling game console.

Games also cost more to develop that in the 90s and 80s. This was due to a increase in budgets. Earlier in time, developers often funded the games themselves, then looked for a publisher to distribute their games. Later on, publishers began to fund games directly, and this led to an increase of budget, as publishers had a more money to spend than developers.  However, this can limit the amount of original and innovative games released, as publishers are more likely to choose to invest money in a game that has mass market appeal, and is likely to give them a profit. For example, in 2005 'Out of the top 100 games in terms of sales, only 13 were neither sequels nor movie/TV licenses (source: USA; TRSTS)'  and in the same year EA published only one original game out of the  twenty five it published. There has also been more cross platform releases recently, allowing the product to reach a larger market. The increase in budget and advances technology mean that a larger amount of people are employed as staff for developing games compared to in previous times where only a small team was employed and many hobbyists created their own games.