The E3 2009 Gaming “Fest” has come and gone and has been doing so each year. There has never been any shortage of good games to be nominated for any category, which shows the healthy state of the industry.

The word ‘gaming’ doesn’t need any introduction for any user from any place. Teens,kids, and even some older generation people all around the world are attracted toward gaming whether it be console, PC, or handheld gaming. This article has been written to show the status of the gaming industry in these trying times when the world is facing an economic crisis.

       

Image via Wikipedia

   First, lets take a look at the software part of gaming. Games, ever since they were first created, have been created a rage in the world. Companies started to come up and a continuous struggle for gaming supremacy began. Companies like Microsoft, Electronic Arts (now known as EA) and Blizzard were among the first major gaming software companies. In the 1990s games like Fallout and Diablo transformed the gaming industry and established a base for a whole new genre called the Role-Playing Games. Microsoft receded to the backgraoud in PC gaming but then came the Microsoft XBOX and games like Halo and Ninja Gaiden blew competition apart. New consoles came up and more and more companies came to the fore-front never to be deterred by any crisis.

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           In this year’s E3 2009 Expo, Bioware and Lucas Art’s Star Wars: The Old Republic won the best PC game award. This is good news for a whole legion of gamers who are sick of World of Warcraft(WOW), one of the world’s most addictive game. The Old Republic is also a Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) and is set to take on the likes of WOW and Guild Wars. This is all about the PC gaming industry, so now I begin to wonder if I’ll be able to write all about the other sections like Playstation, XBOX 360, PSP, Nintendo Wii, and the DS. On second thought, I think I should move on.

           So many games have come out this year and this is only Q2. I begin to wonder what will happen when 2010 comes by. Recession would have to be a bit more creative if it wants to be able to hit the gaming industry hard. Until now I’ve been talking about the gaming software industry, so I shall now move onto the hardware part.

          

Image by Garrett Albright via Flickr

The first game came out on the computer systems and it only had a vector display. So the people came up with the brilliant idea of making a proper gaming system and Magnavox Odyssey was made. Atari established itself well in the beginning, but then Nintendo came up with the NES and the SNES, which ruled the video game industry all through to the late 1980s. The Sega came up with the Saturn and Sony made the PlayStation. To tackle competition Nintendo made the Nintendo64. All of these were successes. Then Microsoft built XBOX which created a revolution in console gaming.

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

          

Image via Wikipedia

The sixth generation gaming consoles came to light in the 1990s and the line up was Sega’s Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Nintendo Gamecube, and the Xbox, which revolutionarized console gaming. The video quality was improved very much. People were willingly shelling out money to buy the game systems and their games. The latest consoles, although very expensive have got their share of revenue. The PS3, XBOX 360 and the Nintendo Wii are currently ruling the gaming industry. So too are handhelds like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.