The Complete History Of Console Gaming Part 4: The 2000's

The Complete History of Console Gaming Part 4 - The 2000s

Welcome to MojoPlays, and welcome to part 4 of our journey through gaming time. Over the coming weeks we’re gonna be looking at the complete history of console gaming, and after our breakdown of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s in part 1, 2, and 3, we’re ready to jump straight into the 2000s. No time to catch ya’ll up, so if you missed the other parts, make sure to check them out, links in the description below! If I miss anything important, let me know in the comments.

The 2000s: It’s Officially ON.

By the end of the 1990s, gaming barely resembled what it had been ten years earlier. 3D graphics were the norm. CDs had replaced cartridges for most systems. Stories were deeper, characters were more realistic, the medium had grown up alongside its audience. And then in the year 2000, Sony dropped the PlayStation 2.

Look, I don’t care if you’re an Xbox gamer, a Nintendo gamer, or a PC gamer, you CANNOT deny the importance and the BRILLIANCE of the Sony PlayStation 2. This console would go on to sell over 155 million units, making it the best-selling console of all time, with no other home console getting even within 40 million of its record until 17 years later. It didn’t hurt that it also played DVDs, which turned it into an entertainment powerhouse in living rooms everywhere, so it was easier for parents to justify, they would say to themsevles: “I could spend a few hundred on a DVD player, or I could spend a few hundred bucks on a PS2, and pretend it was a selfless gift for the kids. Ahhh, Steven, you’ve done it again”… My dad’s name was Steven.

Sega had made one last push with the console I mentioned in the previous video: The Dreamcast. It was bold and ahead of its time. Built-in modem. Online play. Creative games. Arguably ahead of its time... Unfortunately, it was released a year before the PS2, and by 2001, Sega pulled the plug and exited the console race for good, becoming a third-party publisher instead. It was a dark day for Sega, but a fatality that needed to happen. A new era had begun, and in 2001 a new competitor came to the arena.

Just as the smoke faded on Sega, a large glowing X could be seen through the fog. What is that? It’s green, it’s glowing with power, it’s almost alien, oh god, Microsoft entered the gaming arena with the Xbox. And as a Sony fanboy, I don’t say this lightly: the Xbox packed some SERIOUS hardware.

It included a built-in hard drive, and launched with “Halo: Combat Evolved,” a title that instantly made the system relevant. Suddenly, the console war had three major players: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, and Microsoft seemed like they’d been there from the start; they were confident, and they’d earned that confidence. But still, each console of the time had its benefits.

Sony’s PS2 led with a massive library.

Microsoft targeted hardcore gamers.

And Nintendo launched the GameCube in 2001.

The GameCube was compact, affordable, and powered by exclusives like “Super Smash Bros. Melee” and “The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.” It didn’t outsell its rivals, but it kept Nintendo firmly in the fight, cementing it for the cozy gamer, and marketing it to younger players, families, and to the then-silent but dedicated fanbase: the gamer girl. But one of the biggest game-changers of the 2000s? Online play on consoles: In 2002, Microsoft introduced Xbox Live, bringing structured online multiplayer (complete with voice chat) to living rooms. It worked. “Halo 2” became a multiplayer phenomenon, and Sony and Nintendo soon followed with their own online services, though never to the level of Xbox. Xbox changed one important thing, and taught all three studios that moving forward, online gaming wasn’t just a bonus feature. It was expected. And with that knowledge, we entered the era of high definition.

2005: The Seventh Generation

The seventh console generation was when gaming started to look like what we recognize today. Wireless controllers became standard. Digital downloads grew. Motion controls went mainstream. And unless you owned a Wii, high-definition graphics were front and center. That’s not a slam on Nintendo, just an observation: People were starting to comment on how games were looking like real life, and my Mii guy didn’t have fingers, so it was hard to not notice the difference.

Microsoft kicked things off in 2005 with the Xbox 360, beating Sony and Nintendo to market by a full year. It was powerful, sleek, and clearly built to blur the line between consoles and PC. Early titles like “Call of Duty 2” and “Project Gotham Racing 3” showed off crisp HD visuals that made previous consoles look ancient, and for many players with new flat-screen TVs, the leap in graphics was impossible to ignore. I have a weird core memory of my best mate’s dad calling us in to look at what he’d been installing all day, and it was a cabinet unit against a wall, and when he pressed a button a TV and Xbox 360 would rise out of it. I want to say he was a douche, but it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen. The Xbox 360 converted a lot of gamers fast. Sony fanboys like myself started losing friends to the enemy. Defectors went by the boatload, and PS2 fans were starting to feel left out. But for Xbox, that power came with problems.

Early hardware failures were widespread, most notoriously the dreaded Red Ring of Death, a title given due to the lights of the Xbox looking like, well, a red ring. When this appeared, this almost always meant the console was useless until serviced, and for a reliable console, it actually appeared a whole bunch. Nobody alive has a friend who DIDN’T see the infamous ring. It became famous enough to earn its own acronym: RROD. Microsoft eventually fixed the issue, but the damage to its reputation lingered. And while these consoles were being repaired, Sony players were still playing “Final Fantasy X” and loving it.

Nintendo, meanwhile, took a completely different path. Instead of competing on raw specs, it released the Wii in 2006. It wasn’t HD. It wasn’t the most powerful machine. But it had motion controls, and that changed everything. “Wii Sports,” bundled with the console, was instantly accessible. You didn’t need to learn complex button layouts. You just swung your arm like a tennis racket, and suddenly, non-gamers were playing. Families were playing, grandparents were bowling in their living rooms, and the Wii became a cultural sensation, outselling both competitors by a wide margin. It was literally called “Wii”, a name that should have tanked it in the west, somehow it only suffered a few weeks of giggles, and now we all seem to collectively ignore that the console name was another word for “piss.” It ignored competitive gaming and brought games simply from the house to the home, prioritizing group enjoyment rather than solo aggression. But, with the sweet you always need the salty, with the pee, you always need to poo, and the Wii’s lower hardware power meant many big third-party titles skipped the platform entirely. It thrived on accessibility, not multi-platform muscle.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 launched in 2006 and had a tougher road. It followed two of the best-selling consoles ever made, and its high price, which was driven by Blu-ray support and the complex Cell processor, slowed early momentum. The price made sense, but the difference between it and Xbox wasn’t noticeable enough for the average consumer to justify that price difference. Many multi-platform games were built with the more developer-friendly Xbox 360 in mind, and then ported to PS3, so even if Sony wanted to flex their hardware advantage, they didn’t really have anything to flex with. Over time, though, Sony found its footing. A price drop helped, but more importantly: strong exclusives did the heavy lifting. Titles like “Uncharted” and “The Last of Us” proved what the PS3 could really do. Sony clawed back, even if the PS3 never quite matched the runaway success of its predecessors. By the end of the era, each system was clearly defined.

Microsoft delivered power and online dominance.Sony leaned into premium hardware and cinematic exclusives.Nintendo changed how people played.

Gaming had changed, and gamers now came in all shapes and sizes. And with the eighth generation just around the corner, we were about to see every company go in totally different directions, cementing themselves for better, and for worse.

And that is the end of part 4. Next time, we’re gonna dive into 2012 onwards, and see how Sony managed to claw their way back and around the dominating Xbox 360. Make sure you’re subscribed if you’re not already, and I’ll see you VERY soon.