Console Game Diversity by Generation

[brunoafh]

22% of Genesis games being sports games is interesting. 27% of N64 games surprises me.

I'm sure that counts all the awesome wrestling games that were considered must have titles for the N64.

Actually the wrestling games got filed under "fighters", same with all the consoles.

[isiolia]

Handhelds would be interesting to do. PC is weirder because there aren't really "generations" once the Apple II stopped being relevant. So you can see what PC trends are for a given console era but that feels somewhat arbitrary to me.

I think actually finding even "mostly complete" data for the PC would be a challenge considering how much of the market is direct download now, and those numbers aren't consistently shared.

Are talking market share and sales? Or number of titles per genre?

True, the charts are more about titles per genre, which still might be a lot, but not as dependent on sales data.

While sales data is spotty, VGChartz does seem to at least have a good database of releases. Most of what I haven't found in it are indie games.

[BoneSnapDeez]

As far as computers go, I've always considered the Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Atari 400/800, and Amstrad CPC to be part of the 8-bit generation (3rd gen), and the Atari ST and Amiga to be part of the 16-bit generation (4th gen). Though comparing computers to consoles is kinda apples to oranges. IBM PC/DOS games are all over the place, of course.

Anyway, nice charts brunoafh.

As far as diversity goes, I think it's easier to pigeonhole retro games, as different genres generally had their own very distinct art, graphical, and gameplay style. Even just looking at screenshots of, say, Contra and Dragon Warrior you can clearly identify the RPG from the platformer. Things are a little more muddled these days.

[noiseredux]

As far as diversity goes, I think it's easier to pigeonhole retro games, as different genres generally had their own very distinct art, graphical, and gameplay style. Even just looking at screenshots of, say, Contra and Dragon Warrior you can clearly identify the RPG from the platformer. Things are a little more muddled these days.

haha, translation: when people today say there's no diversity really it's because they have no idea what genre most games are so they just assume it's an FPS. (Right? )

[retrosportsgamer]

22% of Genesis games being sports games is interesting. 27% of N64 games surprises me.

Not to me, N64 library was smaller than the Genesis. They pumped out a bunch of sports titles.

True - thinking more on it, definitely makes sense, just really jumped out at me.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

Interesting graphs. Surprised to see there were more RPGs than racers on PS2, that's pretty strange. But...where's GameCube?

[brunoafh]

Interesting graphs. Surprised to see there were more RPGs than racers on PS2, that's pretty strange. But...where's GameCube?

I forgot it existed when I was making the charts I guess haha, oops. Had my mind set on the "three major consoles" thing and must have thought DC before GameCube.

[Jrecee]

I'd be interested to see fps separated on there though. It seems like every other game that comes out these days is one, and I'd be interested to see how true that is.

[Menegrothx]

Those graphs dont really tell anything about diversity though. There are tiny subgenres (cinematic platformers for example) and games that are just unique and hard to classify. You'll get a much better view on things when you ignore all the shovelware games and focus on succesful and defining games (both games that sell well and respected, well made games, even if they sold poorly). In that regard Deadly Premonition is just as vital part of the 360 game library as Halo Reach and Gears of War are and so on.

As far as computers go, I've always considered the Commodore 64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Atari 400/800, and Amstrad CPC to be part of the 8-bit generation (3rd gen), and the Atari ST and Amiga to be part of the 16-bit generation (4th gen). Though comparing computers to consoles is kinda apples to oranges. IBM PC/DOS games are all over the place, of course.

I think the same way. When I compare the late 1990s/early 2000 with the current generation, I also add PC games into the equation on both sides.

[Breetai]

Did you include games from multiple regions for some generations/consoles, but not for others?