Video gaming is one of the most successful and popular businesses in the world. Video gaming has also evolved to become a sport. How did it all happen? Here’s my take on the history of sports video games.
1958: Tennis For Two: In 1958, physicist William Higinbotham made the first sports video game and the first video game ever made all in one sitting in the form of Tennis For Two. According to Insider.Com, this pioneering game was played on an oscilloscope and would be Chapter One of the sports video game genre.
1967-1972: The Sega Sports Game Era: In 1967, Sega, a game company that originally made vending machines, created Crown Soccer Special, a pinball-style soccer game. Two years later, Sega created the first racing arcade game, Grand Prix, which would be the prototype of many racing games today.
1972: Pong: Who would’ve thought that the first commercially successful sports game would be Pong? Created by Allan Acorn as a training exercise at Atari, the game was a version of tennis.
1973-1979: Taito steps in: In 1973, Taito released their own sports game, Davis Cup, the first multi-player sports game to hit the markets. They would release games such as Soccer and Speed Race, while Sega would release Moto-Cross in 1976, two years after Taito’s Speed Race.
1980-1985: The Console Wars: The Console Wars of the ’80s would also be the sports video game wars. Atari and Mattel released their won sports game around this time, while Namco released the first sports game to feature artificial intelligence, Pole Position.
1987: Electronic Arts: In 1987, Electronic Arts, known today as EA Sports, would release Earl Weaver Baseball, the first imposing collection of sports video games.
1988-1995: Madden: In 1988, John Madden Football debuted on Apple Computers worldwide and would go on to become one of the most iconic sports franchises in the world, Madden. This game would also propel EA Sports into a successful game.
1997-2004: The Golden Era: This period of sports video games would bring some of the best sports games in the world, several of which are still popular today. Among those titles are Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Matt Hoffman BMX, and SSX.
2004: EA Sports becomes the main sports game company: The NFL signed an exclusive deal with EA Sports On December 13th, 2004 making the Madden series the only football game series on the market. Meanwhile, another company, 2K, signed a third-party deal to prevent EA from making another baseball game in the future unless they pay for the license to make the game.
Today: We have multiple sports video games on the market, including Madden and NBA 2K. We are also seeing competitive e-sports in the sports world, and I see e-sports soon becoming an Olympic sport.
For now, let’s embrace the sports video games we know and love.
