The Dominance of Microsoft’s Xbox 360
The video game market has slowly and steadily created a larger presence for itself in the entertainment industry. The largest part of the market’s recent growth (from 2005 to the present) is undeniably due in part to the video game console created by Microsoft called the Xbox 360. Microsoft was the first company to release what is called the “current generation” console, and successfully beat Sony out of the gate. Prior to the release of the Xbox 360, Sony had dominated the market with their console, the PlayStation 2. It is because of Microsoft’s ongoing innovations to enhance player interactivity and large game catalogue (especially those with record breaking sales) is why they are the dominant company in the industry.
As of 2011, “there [is] an estimated 211.5 million gamers in the U.S. that play video games of some type,”(Miller, 172) Ninety five million of which are hard core gamers who play online against friends over a specialized online service. Hard core gamers are the fanatics and hobbyists that use a dedicated machine for gaming. Casual gamers are people who play small and simple games, like Angry Birds on a smart phone or Farmville on Facebook. The majority of all sales in the gaming industry come from hardcore gamers. Money brought into the entertainment industry in 2011 was a whopping $16.6 billion. (Miller, 173).
To fully understand the full extent of Microsoft’s influence on the current market, it is important to understand the events before the release of the Xbox 360. During the late 1990’s, Sony held a grip on the video game market with its first console, the Sony PlayStation. In 2000, Sony announced the release of the PlayStation 2 and it was a major success due in part to the integration of a DVD drive and backwards compatibility, which allowed players to play games from the previous console. With a