games console

Computer designed mainly for playing games, which are supplied as cartridges or DVD or CD-ROM disks that slot directly into the console. The best-known console manufacturer in the late 1970s was Atari; Nintendo and Sega dominated the market in the early 1990s with the Sony PlayStation becoming the market leader in 1996.

Usually, the price of the console is quite low, while the price of the game cartridges is high. The disadvantages of consoles include the narrow range of software and the incompatibility of one console with another. By late 2006, about 300 million games consoles had been sold worldwide.

Market leaders The competition between the three major players in the market intensified in the late 1990s, as Sega launched its Dreamcast console. This was not a success, which caused Sega to leave the console market in early 2001, concentrating instead on developing games for other manufacturers' consoles. Sony released the PlayStation2 (PS2) in November 2000. Microsoft entered the games console market in late 2001 with its X-Box, which used the company's Windows operating system technology and was the first console to contain a hard drive. Nintendo also entered the new generation market with its Gamecube, which was launched in 2001, the same year as the company's hand-held GameBoy Advance.

In 2006, Sony launched the PlayStation 3 to compete with Microsoft's X-Box 360, while the most innovative new console was the Nintendo Wii with its wireless controller that responds to physical movement.