Console game

[6] These hardware limitations, such as the lack of any audio capability, meant that developers didn't have freedom in the type of games they could create.

Controllers were beginning to include more buttons giving developers more freedom in the type of interactions they could provide to the player.

[20] In the years following the crash, console development was significantly reduced in the North American and European markets.

The release of new consoles from Nintendo, Sega and Atari signified the start of the third (and fourth) generations, which also saw the introduction of notable franchises such as The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear and Metroid.

Both companies never released another backward compatible console, with the partial exception that Master System games can be played on the Sega Genesis using a separately sold peripheral.

[27] Gran Turismo and Sega Rally Championship popularised realism in the racing genre with different surfaces and realistic features such as tire grip.

[34] They usually include a method to move the player character (joystick, d-pad or analogue stick) and a variation of buttons to perform other in-game actions such as jumping or interacting with the game world.

The limitation of input keys can allow developers to create a more refined and succinct control scheme that can be learned by the player more easily.

Consoles commonly use a television as their visual output device: optimal for viewing at a greater distance by a larger audience.

[42] Discs became popular as the storage medium for console games during the fifth generation due to the ability to store large amounts of data and be produced cheaply.

[43] The increase in space provided developers with a medium to store higher quality assets, the downside being that progress could not be saved directly to the disc as it could with a cartridge.

Specialist hardware is not usually required to access these services and can be run from most modern PC operating systems, negating the need for a dedicated device for console gaming.

Pac-Man for the Atari 2600 was already a well known arcade game and was expected to help the sales of 2600 devices[53] due to its popularity despite it being heavily criticized.

[54] A strong mascot can come organically from a game and can play a large part of a console's marketing strategy.

However, video game mascots became increasingly unimportant to console sales during the mid-1990s, as the gaming industry's main demographic grew older and thus less likely to find mascots appealing, with consoles' increased performance as well as cross-licensing demonstrating higher selling power.

[57] A number of once-successful mascots such as Bonk, Gex, Bubsy, and Zool were dropped from usage in both marketing and software releases during this time.

[58] The core development process for a console game is very similar to its counterparts and primarily differs in the high level concept due to demographics[59] and the technical back-end.

Arcade games are ultimately developed to try to get a continuous stream of revenue from the player and to keep them playing over the life of the machine.

[64] By comparison, console games have a high cost up front, meaning they have to guarantee a different experience for the player, primarily more content.

[60] Handheld games, on the other hand, need to be accessible and enjoyable on a portable device, and should usually playable within a shorter time frame.

This grew into a benefit for PC games, as there is a more open environment for hobbyists to create and modify content even without developer support.

Arcade games effectively had to be remade for consoles, which usually meant lowering the quality in some way to make up for any hardware limitations.

As technology improved and arcades reduced in popularity, it became console original games that would start to be ported to other devices.

High definition remakes offer an additional revenue stream for a console game that was potentially at the end of its life.

Some, like the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are composed of members of the industry themselves, while others, like Pan European Game Information (PEGI), are government-backed.

It is particularly disturbing to some that some video games allow children to act out crimes (for example, the Grand Theft Auto series), and reward them for doing so.

Studies have shown that most parents who complain about their young children acting increasingly aggressive and violent on the school playground due to video games[81] do not follow the ESRB and PEGI rating systems.

Many parents complain about their children, as young as 8, acting out violence depicted in Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto, even though their ratings indicate the recommended age as 18 and above.

This was the conclusion of a 1999 study by the United States government, prompting Surgeon General David Satcher to say, "[...] we clearly associate media violence to aggressive behavior, but the impact was very small compared to other things.

"[83] This was also the conclusion of a meta-analysis by psychologist Jonathan Freedman, who reviewed over 200 published studies and found that the majority did not find a causal link between violent tendencies and violence depicted in entertainment.