You are probably wondering why I am starting at the 5th Generation as part 1 of this series. The main reason for this is not only am I very familiar with this generation but more importantly you (the reader) will (hopefully) be familiar with this genetation too...

So, shall we begin?

As with any console generation, to determine which is 'the best' the only place to look are the sales figures. But what are the factors that drive the sales figures up? Well there are many, some more important than others, but I will list a few of the important ones:

• Console hardware specs
• Console software
• Release Date of a console
• Hardware and Software price

These are the most important things to consider as we continue on to:

The 5th Generation - 32/64 bit Consoles

One and a half generations ago the Nintendo 64 was looking to follow up the Super Nintendo Entertainment System's (SNES) domination over the Sega Genesis (known as the Sega Mega Drive elsewhere) by besting the Sega Saturn, whilst holding off the surprising new entry into the console market - the Sony Playstation. The 5th generation brought us things we now take for granted in gaming such as 3D graphics, FMVs and analog sticks; while also sparking off the now rife trend of pirating in gaming.

Other lesser known consoles were also involved in the 5th generation: the 3DO and Atari Jaguar, both of which were released in 1993 before the three main competitors. However, because of sky-high prices and lack of quality games these seemed to remain in the realm of collectors, die-hard gamers and of course the rich and spoilt. The 3DO and Jaguar both sold around the 5 million consoles, with the lack of support for both causing the respective companies to drop out of the console hardware market and focus on game software.

As a side note, Atari is still publishing great games to this day including the extremely popular Dragonball Z: Budokai and Neverwinter Nights series...the 3DO company produced such 'notable' games as the Army Men series...the comany went bankrupt in 2003.

Sega was 'first out of the blocks' with the more affordable Saturn in November 1994 in Japan (early 1995 elsewhere). However, Sega rushed final development to beat the Sony Playstation to the shelves. Not only did this leave them with very few release titles, but the rushed release also caused problems with developers who found it difficult to use 100% of the complicated hardware's processing power.

The Sony Playstation was on shelves a few weeks later in December of 1994 in Japan and could be found in the US and Europe in September of 1995. Sony knew it had to start off with a bang, and launched the PS with awesome titles some of which are still reeling off sequels to this day including Twisted Metal, Toshinden, Wipeout and Ridge Racer, and a price tag $100 less than that of the Saturn.

Because of the rampaging success of the SNES the Nintendo 64 wasn't released until 1996 in both Japan and the US. Surprisingly only two titles were available at launch. Nintendo's saving grace was one of the launch titles being Super Mario 64. The N64 sold over half a million units in its first week, destroying the PS1's opening week figures. Super Mario 64 went on to move 11 million copies in its own right. 

Sony decided on an interesting strategy regarding their advertising campaign and aimed for a 'more mature audience'. While some scoffed and commented that no person that plays video games is mature, Sony focused on the fact that at the time both Mario and Sonic had TV incarnations in the form of Saturday morning cartoons and promised a great gaming experience for (in particular) young men. The older target audience bought the bait, and during its run the PlayStation saw the release of many games with Mature content from the original GTA to Silent Hill and Resident Evil. While the Saturn and in particular the N64 saw relatively few Mature rated (ESRB rating) games.

A big difference for the 5th generation was the introduction of the CDROM as a cheap media format. Sega and newcomers Sony decided to go with CDs as the media to hold their games, while Nintendo stuck with its tried and true cartridge formula. Cartridges were known for their speedy loading times but CD media offered greater storage space. All three companies produced quality titles on their respective media, but CDs opened the door for innovations unthought of in gaming. Metal Gear Solid was the first big title to use voice overs, and Final Fantasy VII used Full Motion Video (FMV) to breathtaking effect. Features like these often caused people to forget about CDROMs' horrendous loading times.

Unfortunately for Sega being in first (slightly) wasn't enough to recover from the Genesis/Mega Drive loss to the SNES and despite being the most technologically powerful of the three major consoles of the 5th generation most third party publishers chose to work with the proven history of Nintendo or the ease of developing games at a lower cost for the PS. As a result of a higher price and the small quantity of high quality games (NiGHTS into Dreams and Panzer Dragoon being a couple of the best) the Saturn never seriously took off outside Japan and sold under 15 million units worldwide holding less than 10% of market share. Sega quickly started working on their next console the Dreamcast. More unfortunately for Sega, the Dreamcast also flopped.

Long lasting series like Mario and Zelda ensured that the Nintendo 64 didn't go down without a fight. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Mario Party, Turok and Smash Bros all sold well and have produced sequels. Perhaps the lack of a Metroid title caused a dent in N64 sales, but enough great games were available that most people other than Metroid fanatics probably didn't notice. However, choosing to stick with cartridges hurt publishers' pockets, since producing a cartridge could easily cost 10 times the amount it takes to produce a CD. These expenses were passed onto the consumer with some N64 games costing around $70 while even 4 disc PlayStation games remained around the $50 mark.

The PlayStation had more than its fair share of great games too, Final Fantasy VII started the RPG rush outside of Japan and many Squaresoft games all sold well, while racing fans were glued to Gran Turismo. Crash Bandicoot was a passable answer to Mario and Sonic, and the 'gifted' Lara Croft was the fantasy of many a young man.

The Nintendo 64 ceased production in 2002 when the 6th generation had just found a strong foothold in the marketplace. It sold around 40 million units, a great success it would seem as the SNES had similar figures in the generation before...

But the PlayStation proved to be too popular worldwide, and didn't cease production of units until March of 2006 (thats right...PSones were still being built up until the start of this year). Sony obliterated Nintendo by more than doubling the amount of N64s sold. Over 100 Million PS1, PSX or PSone units were sold.

It was a combination of many factors that lead to Sony 'winning' the 5th Generation of gaming in the 32/64 bit era. Earlier release and many more available games as well as targetting the previously untapped 'older' market. Another interesting ingredient to add to this is the fact that although Sony tried to implement anti-piracy with their black-backed CDs, eventually the piracy trade on PS games boomed - did this have an impact on the number of consoles sold? One can only assume yes, but surely not the 60 million extra units over the N64.

The Saturn was first available but failed due to a lack of quality games and high price, while the N64 couldn't seem to compete with CDROM media and the idea that it was a 'kiddy company' - a problem that Nintendo carried over to the Gamecube.

In the 5th generation Sony overtook Nintendo as the leading company in video games giving it an advantage leading into the 6th generation, while Sega continued in its downward spiral, and Atari finally dropped out of the home console game.

I hope you learned something from this long (man it really turned out to be long huh...) yet in some ways far too short summary of the 5th generation in video games. Stay tuned to my blog for the rest of this series...if it turns out to get some people reading it, so if you are still here reading this COMMENT!!!...otherwise stay tuned for a rant on how people never read my blog...come on people!!!

I'd like to close with my personal disclaimer that in my eyes all video game consoles are equal, it is the the games themselves that are important.

Its GAME ON!!! ... BABY!