Sony enters the scene of Video Gaming consoles

The PlayStation quickly entered the scene as Sony's debut into the gaming industry market, and just as rapidly snatched a huge share of the market.

What a lot of people probably didn't know was that Sony began its design for Nintendo, prior to the release of the Super Nintendo system. Nintendo began looking into CD-ROM capabilities and its vast superior memory capacity as an option, but due to contractual failings, Nintendo gave up on the idea.

Sony didn't, however, and continued development of CD technology with video gaming.

The original design of the "PlayStation" would have included both a slot for Nintendo's cartridges as well as a processor for CD-rendered game software. (How Stuff Works, How PlayStation Works by Jeff Tyson)

This new technology allowed for game storage on disks to climb to 650 megabytes, which was incredible at the time. The capacity was so great in fact that most games designed on the PlayStation never reached the full-capacity of the technology.

Sony released the PSX (PlayStation) in Japan Dec. 3, 1994, in North America Sept. 9, 1995 and Europe and Australia in Nov. 15, 1995.

Nintendo and Sega tried to answer with releases of the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast, which did provide some competition, the Dreamcast also utilizing CD-technology, which Nintendo continued using cartridges, but Sony kept the stranglehold.

Sony estimated throughout its lifespan that 1 in 4 households in the U.S. owned a PSX, I'd supposed including the 2 that I owned. (One stayed at home with my parents, and I bought another one for when I moved out)

That part that I find most amusing is Nintendo had the opportunity to work alongside Sony to develop this technology that pretty much knocked Nintendo out of the in-home video game console market for several years (after releasing another bid with the GameCube, then several years later with their current Wii system), but because of contract issues, they signed their own downfall, and allowed Sony to get involved in the industry and swallow Nintendo's market hold.

Sony PSX had a game library consists of over 2,400 games!

here's a link to the article by Jeff Tyson with in depth specifications of the system

Female gamers in the video game industry.

As promised, here's a little tidbit about the female gamer, and how the video game industry is finally starting to see this sector that makes up slightly over half the U.S. population as a potential market share base.

The gaming industry even 6 years ago was seen predominantly as a male-based sector, but lately video game producers are beginning to finally target and be concerned with female gamers.  For the longest time, the female gamer did not "exist", although I am certain there were girls out there who did play and enjoy video games. Society as a whole did not fathom a girl playing video games, that would just be weird after all.

But lately, the emergence of the female gamer has been a very real and tangible thing, with girls and women openly starting to "come out of the box" so to speak, and embracing that which used to be hidden behind closed doors.

As far as me, being a guy, I think this new revelation is a very good thing for the industry.  It forces video game developers to broaden their spectrum when it comes to producing concepts to video games to try to capture this "new" market.

You are beginning to see stronger female protagonists, and, in certain cases, antagonists.  Another benefit women are tending to see is female characters which are a bit more clothed. There are not as many female characters who you'd be more likely to see in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar, but now they can be a character girls can look up to.  Also in some cases, they are characters even guy gamers can respect too.

I believe the video game industry has got their mind heading in the right direction, developing more games for girls to play with their significant other in multiplayer mode.  Not only shooters that have always been seen predominantly as a "guy thing", but now even RPGs (Role-Playing Games) are taking on more of a multiplayer aspect, and not simply in the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) spectrum, but on console games.  This is very successful, and was mostly apparent in the Tales series by Bandai Namco who has been developing 4-player potential RPGs for years now.

Even the recent release of Diablo III has a multiplayer function where you can play with your family or as a couple.  No more are the days where the girl is a spectator role as their male counterpart plays their way through a game.