--- title: The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two | TIME description: From the N64 to the Xbox, watch the video game consoles that propelled us into 3D gaming. canonical: https://time.com/video/clSkZK2X/ og:title: The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two og:description: From the N64 to the Xbox, watch the video game consoles that propelled us into 3D gaming. og:url: https://time.com/video/clSkZK2X/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/clSkZK2X/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two twitter:description: From the N64 to the Xbox, watch the video game consoles that propelled us into 3D gaming. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/clSkZK2X/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two [Watch (HLS stream): The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/clSkZK2X.m3u8) (7:41)  _Published 2013-12-26. From the N64 to the Xbox, watch the video game consoles that propelled us into 3D gaming._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:03 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [A History of Video Gaming Consoles](/video/c8bQ37tV/) ### A History of Video Gaming Consoles [The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Three](/video/whCnIbCD/) ### The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Three [The History of Video Game Consoles: Part One](/video/fcRKqJGz/) ### The History of Video Game Consoles: Part One --- ## Transcript >> The 5th generation was [ unk ] show. Can I say [ unk ] show? I have to look at my notes. That's how much of a [ unk ] show was. 3DO in '93, Atari Jaguar in '93, then finally the playstation. There's too many players here. There's too many players in the 5th generation. Some things got to give. >> It really was a fascinating time. So many people found companies like 3DO and Sega all moved to Nintendo or to Sony and both of them just became major powerhouses for the next several years. >> I think history chosen the Nintendo 64 is one of the stranger systems ever created. >> 1964-- >> On the one, it lost. The playstation was far more successful than the N64. On the other hand, it run arguably, the two best video games ever made. Super Mario 64, a launch game for the N64. And then a few years after that, Legend of Zelda, The Ocarina of Time and then you can't forget GoldenEye. And suddenly, you know, the Nintendo 64 is a staple of college dorm rooms and drinking and it's one of these things that you are sitting there with passing the control around playing nonstop. >> But something dramatic happened in the next generation, the 32- bit generation Sony showed up. >> The Walkman people have the nerve to come out with this Playstation. As as a Sega kid talking to my Nintendo enemies suddenly [ unk ] his Playstation I have watched. >> For several years in my career with Sega when we heard a big company like Sony was gonna get into the game in mystery, it was laughable. >> Fly, plaything, fly. You're not ready. >> And then when the Playstation first came out, we were all pretty blown away and quite frankly pretty scared. But what it was? Was Sony making a calculated effort that you know whether you see Microsoft, camera, and DVD exact same thing, then saying we are coming in here. We're seeing with this market isn't worth taking our claim in it. This is kind of an accidental way. They were supposed to just partner with Nintendo and make a CD attachment to the super Nintendo. Relations fell apart. A lot of people historically they blame Nintendo for kind of boggling that, but the bottomline is-- >> The media is much cheaper for groups. One think ss produced cartridges with [ unk ] side. One think is just [ unk ] >> And thus, it was expensive to develop to get those things to test them out to me where you're making your return, you know, I mean, that's the whole problem.- You and me. Booyah, grandma. Booyah! >> The thing that Sony really did that was different is they added to-- that they brought in marketing that first generation of the Playstation. -" Hey plumber boy, mustache man. Your worst nightmare has arrived !" >> But it was this idea that you should be moving on from whatever kiddie games you played before. There were times when I'm, you know, in high school and I'm like, " I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be in this hobby ." This is cool and this is fun and this is distraction, you know, but I want something more and I didn't know-- I didn't know what that was. I didn't know what to say. And then one day, you know, me and a friend went off. We rented some games with this Playstation I just gotten and one of them was Metal Gear Solid and I played Metal Gear Solid and for the second time in my life, video games changed my life. >> Colonel, what's a Russian gunship doing here? >> And one of them is on his knees. His name is Otacon. He's crying over sniper wolf and she's staring up the sky dying. >> Set me free. >> And hearing up with my other high school friend right next to me and you get attach to these characters, that's when you get an experience you can't get anywhere else and the scene, the taste that had it out was Metal Gear and it was like just that moment of like this is it man like this is-- >> The future. >> We have the second Dreamcast that was the last of Sega's Consoles unfortunately. >> Sega should have been in a Dogfight with Nintendo of third generation of the generation. They begin to fade away. >> The dream cast was so far ahead of its time. Nobody knew it to make it. >> And then you had companies like the [ unk ] that basically just said we're a juggernaut and we are pulling support from your console and, you know, eventually, the right down on the Sega Saturn for Sega out of the hardboard business and they became a software publisher which is essentially what we have now. >> I owe you nothing. >> PlayStation 2. You're gonna see that even as today is the most sold video game console. >> And Sony flips the switch, man. They changed the game with the Playstation 2 and it was also-- it was a bit of Trojan horse effect and that it was right around the time when DVDs were becoming the most popular medium of home video. >> It's movie on a disc, the size of a CD. >> The same way it back in the old days Nintendo kinda had every game we needed to play with maybe one or two exceptions. PS2 is the system for sixth generation. >> Your torment is just beginning. >> When you talk about-- Okay, Playstation 2s were God of War shows of. Then, Metal Gear continues to evolve, right? Again, all the games I've just mentioned are exclusive to the Playstation 2. Sony is swinging like Mike Tyson against your grandmother. >> Do you have a problem? Turn off your spaceship. >> And again, there are the young kids on the block and then I mean Déjà Vu comes a knock- in and here Microsoft suddenly announces they're gonna make- they're gonna make this Xbox. The Xbox was not a great console. It was a good first step. >> Microsoft comes out. They know they're gonna take a loss at the Xbox. They talk a horrendous loss and not making money on it. But Microsoft is so in the black here that they can just say, okay, will do. >> Microsoft is the Windows company. It is weird enough when Sony, the people who made your television, are gonna make you a game console, but at least they made a thing. >> And they give you this gigantic black box and this gigantic controller and you're like, what the hell is this? This thing is a bomb. Nobody wants Halo. That was it for them. That's all they needed, what was Halo. >> This is gonna be your lucky day. >> There's the Halo obviously. There's Fable. You're talking about Knights of the Old Republic. Like they're saying we're gonna get you good games and then we'll put on them yellow text only on Xbox. >> Yeah! >> Hello? >> The Nintendo comes out and they said, all right, you guys love N64 so much. Let's give you the Nintendo GameCube. >> If you remember a lot of people laugh at the GameCube. So, there's a purple lunch box with a handle on. I appreciate that because I thought, you know, game consoles previously were meant to be tucked away hidden-- >> But the Nintendo found a software in odd position in the beginning of the sixth generation because of a lot of gamers they want the Nintendo to fight back. They feel like Nintendo had taken its lumps from Sony, from Sega. -[ unk ] >> And again, they had lost before they began on-- Remember, we only have this small group of franchises that we really love. I'm sure other people can program for it. >> They did not. No one decided to come the game plan. >> A lot of that focus had gone on to the Playstation 2. That real is where the industry had shifted over to. But this was the beginning of a change where it wasn't so much just about how good are your graphics or how good are your games, but what else can your console do. -[ unk ] This was the biggest Trojan horse I think anyone ever pulled off. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The History of Video Game Consoles: Part Two","description":"From the N64 to the Xbox, watch the video game consoles that propelled us into 3D gaming.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/clSkZK2X/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2013-12-26T18:52:25.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/clSkZK2X.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/clSkZK2X/","duration":"PT7M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/clSkZK2X/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```