I also bought some more balls today — look out for a full post on that.

Sega jumped into the fray with its sleek Genesis system.

Apparently the author is not aware of Sega’s first home video game system. A Google search for sega consoles gives you some 600,000 results, the first of which for me is entitled, Console Passion Retro Games – Sega Megadrive Consoles. In the US, of course, the Megadrive was known as the Master System. I vividly remember commercials for it featuring a Zapper-like gun, some sort of (VR?) visor, and an attractive young woman.

Microsoft’s announcement that it would develop its own game machine touched off an arms race … The result: advanced graphics capabilities and games with price tags topping $70.

In the current era of video games, including the Playstation 2, the Gamecube, and the Xbox, 99.9% of games sell for $49.99 or less. Some initially sell for $39.99, some $19.99.

I can remember NES games costing as much as $60, but I don’t recall ever asking my parents to get me one that cost more than that. On the Nintendo 64, both Zelda games and Perfect Dark retailed in the $70 range. The unifying characteristic here is that all of these games were released on cartridge-based systems. As we all know from the “record companies rob us blind because CDs are dirt-cheap to mass-produce” argument, optical media is very inexpensive. I would venture a guess that profit margins are now higher on $50 DVD games than $70 cartridge games.

Next, the author chose to define the current era as “Enter the Xbox”? Just look at that chart … Sony clearly won this round.

Finally, there is no mention of handheld systems, but based on the scope of the graphic and what I think was the author’s intent, I will let it slide.

Have you seen this?