An Insider's Perspective on the Video Game Industry

Rich MoranPartnerVenrock

From the Beginning of Time Until Today

Atari ships the Pong stand-alone coin-operated video game in 1972. About 10,000 units are sold, making this

the first commercially-successful video game.

Arcade invasion of the early 80’s…US arcades rake in $5 billion in 1981.

Americans spend more than 75,000 hours playing video games.

Tetris launches in 1985 and quickly became the iconic casual puzzle game. Best selling casual game across all platforms with over

70 million copies sold.

Super Mario Bros. launches in 1987. By 1990, Nintendo ships 60 million game

cartridges in the US and owns 90% marketshare of the $13 billion worldwide

video game Industry.Super Mario Bros. will become the top-

selling franchise of all time with 200 million units sold.

The Sims launches in 1990 and successfully attracts casual gamers and females (estimated 60% female). Sells more than 16 million copies in its first year and becomes the best-selling PC franchise in history with

90+ million units sold worldwide.

1995 launch creates subculture of Pokémon fans immersed the brand and characters in the game, as well as trading cards, toys, books, movies and other media. Becomes 2nd best selling franchise of

all time with 164 million units sold.

Microsoft Solitaire on Windows XPis the #1 opened application on Windows XP

with an install base of over 400 million.

Taking advantage of the rise of the internet, online developers begin appearing around 2000.

In 2000, the global market for online games is estimated at $15 billion.

PopCap launches Bejeweled in 2001; 350 million downloads and $100 million of consumer spending.

76% of PopCap gamers are women.

2003: The Beginning of Madden Mania…Madden NFL 2004 launches and becomes top-selling

game in the US. Franchise goes on to become a top-10 selling franchise with 60 million units sold. Total sales of video game hardware, software and accessories in the

US during 2003 $10 billion.

The launch of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004 spurs controversy about the

game’s promotion and glorification of violence, prostitution and crime.

As of March 2005, the game had sold over 12 million

copies for PlayStation alone. As of September 2007, GTA:

San Andreas had sold 20 million copies worldwide and was the best-selling

game in the US.

Brain Age launched in 2006. Since launch, Brain Age and sequel Brain Age 2 have sold more than 20 million units, underscoring the broad audience for casual games and spurring a “brain training” genre phenomenon with brain

games launching on all platforms.

Snake gets into the hands of consumers on Nokia phones beginning in the late 90’s.

Despite the game’s lackluster graphics and simple game play, Snake becomes a hit with consumers and begins to show the mobile phone’s potential

as a gaming device.

Jamdat Bowling launches in 2003 from Jamdat and becomes the first successful title of the nascent mobile games industry. Bejeweled follows suit and went on to

sell 50 million units on mobile.

Mobile phones and networks quickly evolve to handle graphically-rich games. Worldwide handset penetration

expected to be 4 billion by 2010. Mobile games market is estimated to be $9.6 billion by 2011.

Launched at the end of 2007, Wii’s popularity was hugely underestimated by “core” industry. Wii sold

more units in the US than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined in the first half of 2007. Wii targets a much broader demographic than previous

consoles and focuses on simple gameplay that is fun.