Video game

First-generation Pong console at the Computerspielemuseum Berlin

A video game is an electronic game played on a video screen (normally a television, computer monitor, or built-in screen when played on a handheld machine).

There are many types, or genres, of video games: role-playing games; shooters, first-person shooters, side-scrollers, and platformers.

Video games usually come on CDs, DVDs or downloaded digitally. Many games used to come inside of acartridge. A specialized device used to play video games at home is called a console. There have been many types of consoles and home computers used to play video games. Some of the first consoles made were the Atari 2600 in the 1970s and the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s. The newest line of video game consoles are Microsoft's Xbox Series X or Series S Sony's PlayStation 5 and Nintendo's Nintendo Switch 2. The best-selling video game console to date is the PlayStation 2, made by Sony.

People can also use computers to play games, which are sometimes called PC games. Older gaming consoles do not get many games after a while, but in recent years newer consoles rarely get the older games. A lot of the time console games which are unplayable or are on older hardware are ported or emulated on PCs (see emulator). This means that new computers can play many old console games along with games made just for new computers. Older games are emulated because of the ease of downloading them as opposed to having to use older hardware. Additionally, emulating games usually provides better performance as opposed to using the older hardware to access the games.

People can play portable video games anywhere. Mobile devices (running operating systems such as iOS or Android) also can download games, making them a popular choice for gaming out and about. Mobile phones have many games, and some games on console are accessible by using a mobile emulator. Not all PC or console games are on mobile or iPad/ iPod/Tablet without an emulator.

Competitions of video game players are called electronic sports, also known as e-sports.

A kid plays a video game on a GameCube video game console.

Current generation consoles

• The current Xbox models are the Xbox Series X and Series S, which came out in November 2020. The console before it, the Xbox One came out in November 2013 followed by the Xbox One S in November 2016, and then by the Xbox One X, originally named, in November 2017.The Xbox line of products were made by the American company Microsoft. It replaced the Xbox 360, offering a similar online experience and controller layout, but with improved graphics, hardware, and accessibility. Like the original and 360 versions, it also allows people to put music from an MP3 player or other sources onto the system. It was the last of the 8th generation consoles to come out.
• The PlayStation 5, which came out in November 2020, is currently the newest console from the PlayStation series of game consoles from Sony Computer Entertainment, a division of the Japanese company Sony. It has two versions; one can play disc games, and one cannot. It can play many of the games from the console that came before it, the PlayStation 4.
• Nintendo, another Japanese company, has made many video game consoles over the years. The most recent is the Nintendo Switch 2, which came out in June 2025. The standard version of the console can be used as both a handheld console or can be connected to a television and used like a standard console. It is a console from the ninth generation of video games. It is much more powerful than the previous console, the Nintendo Switch.

People play on video game arcade cabinets.

Current handheld consoles

One handheld console that is supported today is the Switch, which looks like a tablet computer but can also be plugged into a TV. It is the first example of a "hybrid console" that can be used as both as a TV-based model and a handheld device. It was released in March 2017.

Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) came out in 2004. A new version, the PlayStation Vita, first came out in 2012. Additionally, Sony released the PlayStation Portal in 2023, but it requires an active PS5.

Also, in 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen), which has two separate screens, where one of which is a touchscreen. New versions came out in later years, such as the Nintendo DSi in 2008 and the Nintendo DSi XL. The Nintendo 3DS, the first handheld console with 3D graphics, came out in 2011. The 2DS followed in 2013. The New 3DS XL, which is similar to the 3DS but with updated graphical capabilities, was released in 2015. The latest entry into the DS lineup is the "New 2DS XL", released on the 28th of July 2017.

Valve released the Steam Deck in Feb 2022 in the North America region. The Steam Deck is a handheld console that can play games made for personal computers.

Asus released the ROG Ally in June 2023.

History

The first video game is believed to be Tennis for Two, a rudimentary tennis game to be played with two people developed in 1958. Another early example is Spacewar!, developed in 1962.

In the 1950s, when the first computers began creation, three people had some ideas to create the basis of video games. In 1951, Ralph Baer, an American engineer of Loral Electronics, tried to create "the best television", proposing to add a gaming module, but his employer did not like his idea. Even though his idea was never agreed on, he is the first man to have thought about creating video games. Later, Ralph made the first video game console, the Odyssey. Later, in 1952, A.S Douglas, of the University of Cambridge in the UK, made a video game on a computer in order to illustrate one of his speeches. The game, called OXO, was a tic-tac-toe game, with two players (the person itself and the opponent, the computer). In 1953, Willy Higinbotham made a game called Tennis For Two, similar to the later Pong, to entertain visitors to Brookhaven National Laboratory. Another early video game is a version of checkers, but this is largely overlooked.

One of the most famous and one of the earliest video games ever is called Space Invaders. Space Invaders Keplerians was made in 1978 as a coin operated arcade game, but a version has been made for most game consoles and home computers available.