History GenreTurningPoint / VideoGames

* 1986's ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'' was the first console game to use a battery-backup save feature, codified or outright named a huge number of tropes used in ActionAdventure games since, and pioneered non-linear game design that served as an important progenitor to later [[WideOpenSandbox open worlds]]. The complexity of games after this point would never be the same, as it was now possible to make a game that couldn't be beaten in a few hours. While ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' had taken a huge stride towards moving past arcade-based design with its definite structure and ending, ''Zelda'' took things even further by ditching many of the vestigial "arcadeisms" that ''Mario'' had retained, such as the high score, taking video games a step further into becoming not just games, but immersive interactive experiences.

** Its 2002 sequel ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', meanwhile, revolutionized video game soundtracks. Before, music in video games was usually either specifically composed for the game, made up of a handful of more-or-less obscure/underground musicians, or composed of no more than about a dozen licensed tracks, usually from a single genre (such as ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater''[='=]s PunkRock soundtrack).[[note]]''GTA III'' used a mix of all three. The reggae/dub station K-JAH had its playlist consist entirely of songs by the Jamaican musician Scientist, the '80s pop station Flashback FM had all its (five) songs taken from the soundtrack to ''Film/Scarface1983'', the classical station Double Clef FM used music that had been in the UsefulNotes/PublicDomain for decades, the modern pop stations Head Radio and Lips 106 saw Rockstar hire in-house musicians to compose their own music, and Rise FM, Game Radio, and MSX FM respectively featured underground electronic, hip-hop, and drum & bass musicians.[[/note]] The Houser brothers, however, used their connections in the music industry to secure the rights to a soundtrack composed of over a hundred songs from some of the biggest pop and rock icons of TheEighties, contributing to the game's ''Series/MiamiVice''[=/=]''Film/{{Scarface|1983}}'' atmosphere like nothing else. ''Vice City''[='=]s [[CultSoundtrack soundtrack]] is still held up as one of the greatest ever seen in a video game, and it's been the norm for games to use licensed tracks from big-name artists ever since.

** Its 2002 sequel ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', meanwhile, revolutionized video game soundtracks. Before, music in video games was usually either specifically composed for the game, made up of a handful of more-or-less obscure/underground musicians, or composed of no more than about a dozen licensed tracks, usually from a single genre (such as ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater''[='=]s PunkRock soundtrack). The Houser brothers, however, used their connections in the music industry to secure the rights to a soundtrack composed of over a hundred songs from some of the biggest pop and rock icons of TheEighties, contributing to the game's ''Series/MiamiVice''[=/=]''Film/{{Scarface|1983}}'' atmosphere like nothing else. ''Vice City''[='=]s [[CultSoundtrack soundtrack]] is still held up as one of the greatest ever seen in a video game, and it's been the norm for games to use licensed tracks from big-name artists ever since.

* Before 2003's ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedUnderground Underground]]'', arcade-style racers involving licensed vehicles, especially previous ''NFS'' games, were just games that gave the opportunity for players to enjoy the coolest cars in some fantastic environments, occasionally running from police. EA Black Box's ''Underground'', with some thanks to the popularity of ''Film/TheFastAndTheFurious'', brought ''organized'' illegal street racing to the gaming world with [[PimpedOutCar modified tuners decorated in vinyls and custom body kits]], [[NitroBoost nitrous oxide tanks]] providing a means to accelerate quicker, storylines to keep things interesting, drifting as a proper gameplay mechanic with special events revolving around them, and some drag racing events, all to enjoy from the safe, legal comfort of players' homes. 2004's ''Underground 2'' and 2005's ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'' helped reinforce this mindset with {{Wide Open Sandbox}}es and the latter's ''re''introduction of police chases (the two ''Underground'' games took place [[AlwaysNight exclusively at night]], which gave a somewhat unrealistic excuse for why the illegal street racing was not picked up on by police). As a result, street racing became the dominant trend in arcade-style racing games in the 2000s, often to the chagrin of fans of the more exotic-focused older ''NFS'' games who disliked what they saw as a "{{rice burner}}" aesthetic. To this day, visual customization is as much a feature of many "serious" racing games as performance upgrades were after ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'', as is the NitroBoost in the more arcade-leaning examples of the genre, and this game is a big reason why.

** It was the first FPS to offer multiplayer (via LAN or dial-up modem), it codified many of the StandardFPSGuns, it popularized a heightened "extreme" aesthetic inspired by HeavyMetal music and horror movies in the FPS genre that would endure for much of the decade, and its [[GameMod modding]] community demonstrated the strength of user-generated content in extending a game's longevity. So many [[FollowTheLeader copycats and ripoffs]] came out in TheNineties that, for a long time [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Doom_clone_vs_first_person_shooter.png (until 1998)]], most FPS games were referred to as "''Doom'' clones".

** It was not the first console to use [[UsefulNotes/CompactDisc CDs]] as opposed to cartridges for its games. Both the UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer and the UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi predate it, the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar had CD drive peripherals released during their lifetimes, and the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn beat Sony to the punch by one month. It was the [=PlayStation=], however, whose combination of a CD drive and advanced graphical hardware showed just how much optical media could expand what gaming was capable of. Its audio capabilities especially caused the [=PlayStation=] to lead a revolution in sound design in gaming in the late '90s, particularly with the rise of voice acting and music, as it became possible to fit voice lines for every character and music that wasn't compressed into a MIDI format onto a single disc. The smaller size of discs compared to cartridges, when combined with the [=PlayStation=]'s pioneering use of a memory card to store saved game data separately from the game itself, also allowed developers to make games that spanned multiple discs. The epic [[EasternRPG Japanese RPGs]] that the [=PlayStation=] became famous for couldn't have been made on the hardware from just one generation prior, a fact that [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] realized when they ditched Nintendo (which still used cartridges for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and made their games exclusive to Sony's console.

** It was also one of the games that popularized {{shareware}}, a model under which developers gave away part of their program for free, and the user would pay them money for the full thing if they liked it. This was seen as a really stupid idea that could never possibly make money, until Creator/IdSoftware, Apogee Software (later known as Creator/ThreeDRealms), and [[Creator/EpicGames Epic MegaGames]] came along and proved that the model ''could'' be profitable, at least with games, even ''before'' the days of the internet when distributing shareware was made easy. Apogee[=/=]3D Realms made a lot of money selling ''VideoGame/KingdomOfKroz'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'' as shareware, and Epic with ''VideoGame/{{ZZT}}'' and ''VideoGame/JillOfTheJungle'', while "demo discs" that offered limited slices of gameplay from multiple upcoming and newly-released games as a free preview became a hallmark of the UsefulNotes/PlayStation brand in the late '90s and early '00s. Even the free-to-play model that took off in the 2010s, where free content is used to entice players to pay for the rest of the game, can trace its roots back to shareware.

** Beyond just the FPS genre, it also served as a KillerApp for the PC and elevated the prestige of PC gaming compared to home consoles, which were seen as superior until the advent of ''Doom''. It was also one of the games that popularized {{shareware}}, a model under which developers gave away part of their program for free, and the user would pay them money for the full thing if they liked it. This was seen as a really stupid idea that could never possibly make money, until Creator/IdSoftware, Apogee Software (later known as Creator/ThreeDRealms), and [[Creator/EpicGames Epic MegaGames]] came along and proved that the model ''could'' be profitable, at least with games, even ''before'' the days of the internet when distributing shareware was made easy. Apogee[=/=]3D Realms made a lot of money selling ''VideoGame/KingdomOfKroz'' and ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'' as shareware, and Epic with ''VideoGame/{{ZZT}}'' and ''VideoGame/JillOfTheJungle'', while playable demos that offered a limited slice of gameplay as a free preview became a hallmark of gaming in the late '90s and '00s.

** ''[=WoW=]'', as the game was rather appropriately [[FunWithAcronyms initialized]], was the first MMO to become a mainstream hit thanks to Creator/BlizzardEntertainment's numerous quality-of-life innovations, and in doing so, it demonstrated how communities could organically form within online worlds, perhaps the first taste that most people had of something that could be called TheMetaverse. Online games with persistent worlds flourished in the wake of ''[=WoW=]'', from the more immediate [[FromClonesToGenre MMO boom]] of the mid-late '00s to the rise of "live service" games in the 2010s.

* [[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} Jim Sterling]] has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeiiObtCuxA referred]] to 2012's ''VideoGame/ClashOfClans'' as the most influential video game of TheNewTens for the impact, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools both good and ill]], that it had on gaming in the decade, especially [[MobilePhoneGame mobile gaming]]. It popularized an exaggerated, cartoonish art style for mobile games that could look good even on the smaller screens and slower hardware of cell phones, and more importantly, it mainstreamed {{microtransactions}} as a business model for game development, as other companies -- including in the console gaming space -- looked at just how much money Supercell was raking in daily from ''Clash of Clans''.

* Mods like ''Aeon of Strife'' and ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'' pioneered the MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena, or MOBA, an evolution of the RealTimeStrategy genre that kept the scale and core gameplay but put each player in command of a single hero unit instead of a whole army. However, it was 2009's ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', developed as a standalone SpiritualSuccessor to ''[=DotA=]'' by one of its original creators, that perfected the genre and turned it into a juggernaut. In the 2010s as ''League'' grew in popularity, the MOBA quickly displaced the RTS in multiplayer circuits as the many variables and decisions at play, the [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters vast roster of characters]] who all look and play in a unique manner, and gameplay that was [[DifficultButAwesome easy to learn but hard to master]] made it incredibly exciting to not only play but also, more importantly, to watch, fueling the UsefulNotes/ProfessionalGaming boom of the 2010s as ''League'' became one of the first e-sports to become a mainstream phenomenon (especially outside South Korea).

** Furthermore, its online multiplayer, which allowed players to either work together to survive or try to kill each other with no rules restricting PlayerVersusPlayer combat and when or where it could be done, inspired some fans to create mods that removed the zombies and focused ''purely'' on competitive deathmatches in open-world sandbox environments. One of those fans, Brendan "[=PlayerUnknown=]" Greene, drew additional inspiration from ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' and ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' to pioneer the BattleRoyaleGame with his 2013 mod for the game, a genre that reached full flower in 2017 when Greene turned his mod into the pioneering standalone game ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds''.

* 1991's ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' altered the face of the FightingGame, shifting focus from [[BeatEmUp side-scrolling brawlers]] to one-on-one fights, varied character rosters, and competitive two-player modes. It didn't invent competitive multiplayer, but after its release, the main metric for comparing two gamers' skill went from which of them got the high score to having them face off in a head-to-head contest where only one could win. The spectacle of this kind of multiplayer gave arcades a second wind in TheNineties, as people flocked to ''Street Fighter II'' cabinets to watch players duke it out, bringing the arcade back to the forefront of gaming in a manner not seen since the days of ''Space Invaders''. Even after consoles and [=PCs=] took over for good in the 2000s, the competitive scenes around ''Street Fighter II'' and other arcade fighting games that followed laid the groundwork for e-sports. A key part of this appeal was that it boasted a [[GoodBadBugs "bug"]] that let you [[{{Combos}} chain moves together]], which soon became one of the cornerstones of the fighting game genre, helped along by an accurate joystick that made it much easier for a skilled player to pull off these complex moves without relying on dumb luck and ButtonMashing like in older games.

[[folder:2010 to 2012]]

* ''VideoGame/DayZ'', released in 2012.

** It changed the rules of the zombie game, combining SurvivalHorror with the SurvivalSandbox by putting a much greater focus on gritty realism within a vast open world full of dangers. Afterwards, zombie games as a whole moved from the closed, claustrophobic environments and linear progression of ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' to open worlds where the full scale of a ZombieApocalypse could be shown, as seen with games like ''VideoGame/StateOfDecay'', ''VideoGame/DyingLight'', and ''VideoGame/DaysGone''.

** Its influence even stretched beyond gaming, for better or for worse. Vitalik Buterin was inspired to create the decentralized cryptocurrency Ethereum after his preferred spell in the game was {{nerf}}ed in a patch, wishing to create a technology where no one singular entity held such an off switch. The right-wing political strategist Steve Bannon was also inspired to begin targeting gamer culture as an audience (as opposed to [[MurderSimulators a punching bag]] like right-wing pundits before him) after running a gold-farming operation in ''[=WoW=]'' and noticing the "monster power" of [[AngryWhiteMan young, aggrieved white male gamers]] as a potential voting bloc and cultural force.

* The MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame genre had been slowly but surely evolving since the days of [[MultiUserDungeon MUDs]], ''VideoGame/{{Neverwinter Nights|AOL}}'', and ''VideoGame/EverQuest'', but the 2004 release of ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' was the genre's Big Bang.

* 1972's ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}'' was not the first video game, or the first commercially sold video game, or even Nolan Bushnell's first video game; he had produced ''VideoGame/ComputerSpace'' (based on 1962's ''VideoGame/{{Spacewar}}'') the prior year, and ''Pong'' was inspired by one of the games included with the UsefulNotes/MagnavoxOdyssey, to the point where Magnavox sued Bushnell's company Creator/{{Atari}} over it. It ''was'', however, the first ''successful'' video game, breaking electronic games out of an experimental computer-nerd niche and demonstrating to the average person what they were capable of.

* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' revolutionized the WideOpenSandbox game upon its full release in 2011, popularizing ItemCrafting mechanics that, when combined with its vast scope, pioneered the SurvivalSandbox genre. By the decade's end, crafting and construction mechanics had become staples of open-world games, to the point that games that lacked such features were often criticized for it. Its blocky voxel graphics, meanwhile, led to a revival of more lo-fi aesthetics in indie gaming in the 2010s, especially (though not exclusively) in children's games, as they could run easily on low-end computers while their abstraction meant that most content made with them was family-friendly. Its development was also a massive inspiration for smaller indie developers, showing just what a small team (or in this case, just ''one person'') with a small budget could accomplish, especially with crowdfunding platforms like Website/{{Kickstarter}}. Most importantly, it was the first game to seriously take advantage of Website/YouTube for promotion and community engagement, as videos of people playing ''Minecraft'' and uncovering its secrets became as popular as the game itself and led many others to start playing it and getting involved with its community, heralding the start of the streaming revolution in game culture in the '10s. Charlie Hall, [[https://www.polygon.com/2019/11/7/20952214/minecraft-most-important-game-of-the-decade-2010 writing]] for ''Polygon'', called ''Minecraft'' the most important game of the decade for how it changed the medium and its culture.

** Lara Croft, making her debut with [[VideoGame/TombRaiderI the first game in 1996]], was far from the first female protagonist in gaming, or even the first ThirdPersonSeductress. However, she set the template that most of her successors followed: a [[MsFanservice beautiful]], [[BuxomIsBetter busty]], [[ActionGirl athletic]] young woman with [[TheLadette tomboyish sensibilities]], [[DeadpanSnarker sharp wit]], and [[{{Stripperiffic}} skimpy (or at least form-fitting) clothes]]. The success of ''Tomb Raider'' led to a slew of sexy female leads in gaming, including Jill Valentine in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' (whose tube-top-and-miniskirt combo was a drastic shift from her police uniform in the first game), Joanna Dark in ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'', Cate Archer in ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'', and Rayne in ''VideoGame/BloodRayne'', demonstrating that [[MostGamersAreMale male gamers]] would happily play as a woman if she happened to look like a supermodel and carry herself as OneOfTheBoys. To this day, Lara is recognized as gaming's most iconic and influential female protagonist, the image that most people think of when they picture such (as evidenced by ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'', an AffectionateParody of video game tropes made twenty years later in which the [[TheSmurfettePrinciple token female character]] is based on Lara). It wasn't until the 2010s that the paradigm for female protagonists in gaming began to shift away from this archetype...

* [[WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}} Jim Sterling]] has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeiiObtCuxA referred]] to 2012's ''VideoGame/ClashOfClans'' as the most influential video game of TheNewTens for the impact, [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools both good and ill]], that it had on gaming in the decade, especially [[MobilePhoneGame mobile gaming]]. It popularized an exaggerated, cartoonish art style for mobile games that could look good even on the smaller screens and slower hardware of cell phones, and more importantly, it mainstreamed {{microtransactions}} as a business model for game development, as other companies -- including in the console gaming space -- looked at just how much money Supercell was raking in daily from ''Clash of Clans''.

* 1998's ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'' is widely regarded as having saved the WesternRPG genre from slow extinction, setting up a RealTimeWithPause engine to replace the then-standard turn-based mechanics and putting a strong emphasis on story and CharacterDevelopment. Since then, strong writing has been expected of [=WRPGs=], and purely turn-based games are almost never released anymore. Those in the know also credit ''Baldur's Gate'' for saving its parent franchise, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', from [[DorkAge the tar pit that it had been driven into]] in the 1990s.

* Upon its release in 2000, ''VideoGame/TheSims'' massively expanded the definition of what a video game could be. Here was a game with no combat, no puzzles, and not even a clear way to "win" -- you played as an ordinary person living in the suburbs whose goal was to make money, build friendships, fall in love, raise a family, buy a nicer house, and otherwise engage in all the mundanities of American life. While ''The Sims'' was merely the culmination of what Maxis had been doing since ''VideoGame/SimCity'', none of its preceding games left as great an impact or became pop culture touchstones the way that this one did. It pioneered not only the LifeSimulationGame but also, more importantly, the CasualVideoGame, opening up the medium to people who had never considered themselves gamers before. Everything from the [[UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} Nintendo Wii]] to the boom in mobile gaming to the rise of the EnvironmentalNarrativeGame owes something to the path that Will Wright and his team blazed with ''The Sims''.

** It also did this with its controller. While the Super NES controller [[TropeMakers set the standard]] for video game controllers in 1990, in 1997 the new Dual Analog controller for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, and especially its more famous successor the [=DualShock=], [[TropeCodifier perfected it]]. It wasn't the first default gamepad (as in, the one packed in with the console itself, not an add-on) to have full analog control, nor was it the first controller built with ergonomics in mind rather than being shaped like a rectangular brick -- the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 beat it to the punch in both regards. However, by having ''two'' analog sticks, character and camera control in a 3D environment were greatly simplified. Not only has it [[TheWorkhorse remained in basic service]] through five generations of [=PlayStations=] and counting with only minor changes to its basic design[[note]]The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 DualShock 2]] added pressure-sensitive buttons. The UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 initially shipped with a controller called the Sixaxis, which was a [=DualShock=] in all but name that added motion controls, wireless functionality, and a rechargeable battery but took out the rumble feature (the [=DualShock=]'s namesake) due to a legal battle with the Immersion Corporation; once that was settled, Sony came out with a proper [=DualShock=] 3 that was functionally a Sixaxis with rumble. The [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 DualShock 4]] made the [=L2=] and [=R2=] buttons into concave triggers, added a light bar to the top and a speaker to the front, and turned the Select button into a touch pad. The UsefulNotes/PlayStation5's controller, the [=DualSense=], is rounder and more ergonomic and adds haptic feedback, but is otherwise a [=DualShock=] in its button layout and functionality.[[/note]], but every controller since from Creator/{{Microsoft|Studios}} and Creator/{{Nintendo}} (save for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}mote, a throwback to the original [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] controller) has been heavily influenced by its layout of "two analog sticks for each thumb, a D-pad on the left, four face buttons on the right, and two trigger buttons for each index finger".

* Speaking of the Duke, 1996's ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' not only took the "extreme" aesthetic of ''Doom'' to the next level, it marked a shift to more realistic and grounded environments and level design in FPS games, set as it was in city streets, apartments, movie theaters, prisons, subways, and other places that were meant to look and feel like real-world locales rather than the abstract and maze-like maps seen in older games.

** [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil1 The original game]] from 1996, of course, was the big one. There had been antecedents like ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'', ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'', and ''VideoGame/{{Phantasmagoria}}'', but ''Resident Evil'' made the genre into a showcase of what the new UsefulNotes/PlayStation console could do. It embedded a heavy AdventureGame influence in the genre with its key hunts, puzzles, and inventory management, established {{zombie|Apocalypse}}s as the mook of choice for many games, and spawned a wave of imitators and [[Franchise/ResidentEvil a long-running franchise]]. It even gave the genre its name, through the loading screen that came up when a player reloaded a save file.

* 1996's ''Toys/{{Barbie}} Fashion Designer'' was the first commercially successful video game that was marketed primarily to girls, popularizing a field of "girls' games" that would later be built upon by companies like Her Interactive (makers of the ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' point-and-click adventure games) and VideoGame/PurpleMoon. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This had a mixed impact.]] On one hand, its success, outselling even ''VideoGame/Doom1993'' and ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' and selling almost as much as ''VideoGame/DoomII'', demonstrated that girls were a vast, untapped market for video games in a time when the MostGamersAreMale stereotype was rapidly becoming the default mindset among developers and publishers. On the other hand, it's also been blamed for ''entrenching'' that stereotype and bringing the GirlShowGhetto to gaming. Purple Moon founder Brenda Laurel (who was herself not immune from such accusations) envisioned her company as the SpiritualAntithesis to what she felt that ''Barbie Fashion Designer'' represented, saying that it "perpetuated a version of femininity that was fundamentally lame".

* 1996's ''Toys/{{Barbie}} Fashion Designer'' was the first commercially successful video game that was marketed primarily to girls, popularizing a field of "girls' games" that would later be built upon by companies like Her Interactive (makers of the ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' point-and-click adventure games) and VideoGame/PurpleMoon. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This had a mixed impact.]] On one hand, its success, outselling even ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' and ''VideoGame/DoomII'', demonstrated that girls were a vast, untapped market for video games in a time when the MostGamersAreMale stereotype was rapidly becoming the default mindset among developers and publishers. On the other hand, it's also been blamed for ''entrenching'' that stereotype and bringing the GirlShowGhetto to gaming. Purple Moon founder Brenda Laurel (who was herself not immune from such accusations) envisioned her company as the SpiritualAntithesis to what she felt that ''Barbie Fashion Designer'' represented, saying that it "perpetuated a version of femininity that was fundamentally lame".

* ''IGN'', when [[https://www.ign.com/top-25-consoles/2.html listing]] the UsefulNotes/Atari2600 as the second-greatest video game console of all time (behind only the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem), referred to it as "the console that our entire industry is built upon." While the Fairchild Channel F was the first video game console to use removable cartridges for games (before, home consoles like the UsefulNotes/MagnavoxOdyssey had only a few built-in games), the 2600, released the following year in 1977, was far more successful, defining what a video game console would be to this day. Many of America's biggest video game companies, most notably Creator/ElectronicArts and Creator/{{Activision}}, got their start making games for the 2600. Creator/{{Atari}} and the 2600 were also directly connected to UsefulNotes/TheGreatVideoGameCrashOf1983, when Atari's port of ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and their ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' tie-in, which they hoped would be {{killer app}}s, instead served as {{the last straw}}s in an American gaming market [[SturgeonsLaw bloated with subpar products and cash-ins]] -- all of them trying to grab a piece of the pie that Atari had baked -- and leaving the field wide open for Japanese companies led by Creator/{{Nintendo}} to rebuild the American video game industry in the latter half of TheEighties.

** It was also the first console to make a major push for online gaming, with its online service UsefulNotes/XboxLive (now known as simply the Xbox network) becoming central to the console's brand and identity once it went live in 2002. Xbox Live provided three previously rare functions on consoles -- it allowed for easy online multiplayer without having to go through a complicated setup, it allowed for the onset of DownloadableContent expansions and software updates to console games, and it allowed for the download of games directly to a console's hard drive, starting with small titles such as Namco arcade games and later expanding to full games with the 360. At first, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn there were naysayers]] to the idea of online gaming and services becoming central to a home console, but once Sony and Nintendo caught on to the success of Xbox Live and created their own online services for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, it ushered in a new era of independently produced games, which themselves are sometimes deconstructions and reconstructions of classical video-game concepts. While [[ItWillNeverCatchOn there were some naysayers surrounding a console built around online gaming]]. Nowadays, every console has some form of online gameplay and services, and online multiplayer is considered as important a part of gaming as single-player titles. Unfortunately, the rise of software updates also made it more acceptable to release a game [[ObviousBeta unfinished]] and then fix any problems with it through patches afterwards, which has led to a number of debacles with games being released in an outright broken state in the expectation that they'll be patched up later.

** It was also the first console to make a major push for online gaming, with its online service Xbox Live becoming central to the console's brand and identity once it launched the year after the console did. While [[ItWillNeverCatchOn there were some naysayers surrounding a console built around online gaming]], the success of Xbox Live has resulted in every console since having some form of online gameplay or online services, and the skyrocketing popularity of online gaming.
** Finally, as the first home console with a built-in hard drive, it expanded the scope of what was possible with a home console game, much like the UsefulNotes/PlayStation's use of [=CDs=] versus cartridges. Developers could now make games that didn't have to fit onto a single disc, without relying on multiple discs that had to be swapped out during gameplay, enabling far more detailed graphics and bigger worlds than ever before. Ironically, it was the Xbox 360's competitor, the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, that most fully realized the benefits of this arrangement, with every [=PS3=] shipping with a hard drive while the 360 had a budget model without one until 2010 (and even then had a budget model with a paltry 4 GB until the end of its run). By the end of UsefulNotes/{{the Seventh Generation|OfConsoleVideoGames}}, as it became clear that the [=PS3=]'s standard hard drive was giving it the edge as 360 and multiplatform developers couldn't take storage space for granted, Microsoft learned its lesson and made a 500 GB hard drive standard on the UsefulNotes/XboxOne.

* When the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} Live service (and its child service, the UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade) went live in 2002, it provided three previously rare functions on consoles -- it allowed for easy online multiplayer without having to go through a complicated setup, it allowed for the onset of downloadable content expansions to console games, and it allowed for the download of small games directly to a console's hard drive, starting with titles such as Namco arcade games. With the UsefulNotes/Xbox360, this eventually allowed for the download of entire Xbox games, but this and several other download networks ushered in a new era of independently produced games, which themselves are sometimes deconstructions and reconstructions of classical video-game concepts. The industry has essentially come full-circle.

* The UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} brand, whose first namesake console debuted in 2001, became the face of gaming in the 2000s for the changes it brought to the table right from the start, though it wouldn't be until the release of its successor, the UsefulNotes/Xbox360, in 2005 that the effects became truly apparent.

* The UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} brand, which debuted in 2001, became the face of gaming in the 2000s for the changes it brought to the table right from the start, though it wouldn't be until the release of the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 in 2005 that the effects became truly apparent.

** It was not the first console to use [[UsefulNotes/CompactDisc CDs]] as opposed to cartridges for its games. Both the UsefulNotes/ThreeDOInteractiveMultiplayer and the UsefulNotes/PhilipsCDi predate it, the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis and UsefulNotes/AtariJaguar had CD drive peripherals released during their lifetimes, and the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn beat Sony to the punch by one month. It was the [=PlayStation=], however, whose combination of a CD drive and advanced graphical hardware showed just how much optical media could expand what gaming was capable of. Its audio capabilities especially caused the [=PlayStation=] to lead a revolution in sound design in gaming in the late '90s, particularly with the rise of voice acting, as it became possible to fit voice lines for every character onto a single disc. The smaller size of discs compared to cartridges, when combined with the [=PlayStation=]'s pioneering use of a memory card to store saved game data separately from the game itself, also allowed developers to make games that spanned multiple discs. The epic [[EasternRPG Japanese RPGs]] that the [=PlayStation=] became famous for couldn't have been made on the hardware from just one generation prior, a fact that [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] realized when they ditched Nintendo (which still used cartridges for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64) and made their games exclusive to Sony's console.