Video games have now been around for 50 years, and, throughout the decades, they have changed culture, influenced trends, and brought the same electrifying experiences to gamers around the world. But how exactly have things changed from the very first steps of gaming to today?

In the beginning was Pong. The table tennis simulator, which has become a symbol of the earliest video game era, was released by Atari in 1972 and put in bars that had previously hosted pinball machines. The success of this first wave of games was so massive that by the end of the decade, entire arcades had been filled with dozens of what today we would define classics of retro-gaming, like Space Invaders and Asteroids.

The first massive shock to the gaming system came in the early 80s, when the first home consoles were released: the competition was stiff between the first consoles like, Magnavox, Colecovision or Fairchild, but the first console to really hit it out of the park was without a doubt the Atari 2600. Making the most of their arcade experience, Atari released game cartridges like Space Invaders and Pac Man, which soon became staple names in the gaming industry.

Atari’s success was short lived, though, as a giant was looming in the Far East: through the use of newer microchips, higher quality graphics and a relatively lower price, Nintendo launched its first home entertainment system (NES) in 1984 to universal acclaim. Released with the system was Super Mario Brothers, one of the pinnacles of 2D side-scrolling arcade-style games and a landmark product in gaming history.

With Super Mario Brothers, Nintendo has created the first video game franchise, through the development of a recurring cast of characters and an iconic and easily recognizable fantasy world. The first batch of games created by Nintendo included other games that would in time become massive franchises up to this day, like The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Bubble Bobble.

If the 80s had been dominated by Nintendo (by 1989 one in three US households possessed a NES), the 90s saw the rise of SEGA, which began targeting a different demographic: while Nintendo had aimed at the 4–14 bracket, SEGA aimed at 15–18 year-olds, with a more mature content than Nintendo. A good point of comparison that can better illustrate the different styles of game manufacturers can be seen by contrasting the cartoony Street Fighter on Super Nintendo and the more gory Mortal Combat for Mega Drive.

The need for games dedicated to a more mature audience can also be seen by the rise in popularity of 2 key factors. Firstly, the explosion of FPS games on personal computers: games like Doom and Quake offered graphics and gameplay on PC that consoles simply could not keep up with, and opened up gaming as a whole to a much older demographic. Secondly, in 1995, Sony entered the video gaming arena with the launch of its 32 bit Playstation: the console took the gaming world by storm, and released iconic titles, which would become amazing franchises in the future, like Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo, and Resident Evil.

Towards the end of the 90s another revolution completely flipped the gaming world on its head: the ability to play online. This brought games like Doom and other FPSs to the next level and facilitated the rise of shared worlds of MMORPGs, where thousands of players could meet, trade items, and battle enemies in co-op mode. This massive change came to the console world too, when Microsoft launched its Xbox, which sported an ethernet port for online play. Gaming ascended to a new level.

Online gaming witnessed the rise of gaming communities, groups of people that would regularly meet up in-game to live the experience in the company of online and real-life friends: games like World of Warcraft or Call of Duty thrived on the community aspect of gaming, and the coordination possibilities provided by online communication. The ability to compete in teams of friends attracted an even wider demographics and led to enhanced means of social communication.

Online gaming also allowed for a competitive side of gaming to emerge, under the umbrella term of Esports: massive quantities of people began to follow esports tournaments, where teams of professional gamers battled in games like World of Warcraft, FPS games like Overwatch and Fortnite and Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) titles such as League of Legends and DOTA2.

Esports do not show any sign of slowing down, and, in 2022, global investors, brands and consumers are paying more and more attention to the rise in interest and popularity of these events. It is predicted that there will be 29.6 million monthly eSports viewers in the US alone, and gaming streaming platforms such as Twitch are thriving, with 30 million active users on the platform daily and 71 million hours of content viewed every day.

The last 5 years have seen another seismic shift in the world of gaming: the birth of games that live on the blockchain and are connected to both crypto and NFTs. These titles, often referred to as Play to Earn because of the tangible rewards the player is bestowed, have been developed since 2017 and the first wave of titles failed to reach the high standards imposed by off-chain gaming.

The evolution of Metaverse and blockchain gaming with user-friendly mechanics, are the signature Play to Immerse style experiences that are fostered by Gamestarter. Including complete social submersion that will bring on-chain gaming up to par with its off-chain counterparts. In the meanwhile, Atari has purchased land in the Sandbox metaverse, and plans to bring its classic titles and dawning a new generation of gamers, bringing this fantastic 50 year old story full-circle.