1. An Insider's Perspective
on the Video Game Industry
Rich Moran
Partner
Venrock

2. From the Beginning of Time
Until Today

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Microsoft Solitaire on Windows XP
is the #1 opened application on Windows XP
with an install base of over 400 million.

10. 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.

11. PopCap launches Bejeweled in 2001; 350 million
downloads and $100 million of consumer spending.
76% of PopCap gamers are women.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.