On November 19, Rockstar Games releases Grand Theft Auto VI, ending a 13-year wait for the sequel to one of the best-selling games ever made.
asserted
Games → release → games
Few games have arrived with more riding on them.
asserted
more → arrive → them
Its first trailer drew more than 90 million YouTube views in 24 hours in December 2023, a record for a game reveal.
asserted
trailer → draw → reveal
It arrives in an industry that generated $201.6bn in revenue in 2025, according to market research firm Newzoo.
uncertain
that → arrive → Newzoo
That business started with two paddles and a square of light.
asserted
business → start → light
Using AI tools, Al Jazeera built six short levels inspired by the games that defined each decade, from Pong to GTA VI.
asserted
that → use → VI
Video games were not invented in 1972, but that was the year they began reaching a much wider public.
asserted
they → invent → public
In 1958, physicist William Higinbotham wired a tennis game to an oscilloscope for visitors at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
asserted
Higinbotham → wire → York
People queued to play Tennis for Two, but it was never sold.
asserted
it → queue → Two
In 1972, two machines brought video games to the public.
asserted
machines → bring → public
The Magnavox Odyssey became the first home console, plugging into the family television.
asserted
Odyssey → become → television
Months later, a young California company called Atari put a test version of Pong in Andy Capp's Tavern, a bar in Sunnyvale.
asserted
company → call → Sunnyvale
Within days, it stopped working. The coin box was too full of quarters.
asserted
box → work → quarters
Pong, with its two paddles, square ball and scoreboard, became an early commercial sensation, helping establish the arcade video game business.
By the end of the decade, arcades were packed with cabinets.
asserted
arcades → become → cabinets
Atari's 2600 console, launched in 1977, helped popularise interchangeable game cartridges, allowing players to buy new games without buying a new machine.
asserted
players → launch → machine
The boom did not last.
asserted
boom → last → ?
Flooded with rushed games and too many consoles, the US video game market collapsed in 1983.
asserted
market → flood → 1983
Atari buried thousands of unsold cartridges in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in 1983.
asserted
Atari → bury → 1983
Among them was E.T., a rushed film tie-in that became notorious as one of the worst games ever made.
asserted
that → become → games
Japan revived the industry.
asserted
Japan → revive → industry
Nintendo launched its Famicom in Japan in 1983 and brought it to the US in 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
asserted
Nintendo → launch → System
To persuade wary retailers to stock it, Nintendo marketed the console as an entertainment system and included a toy robot, R.O.B., in one of its launch bundles.
asserted
Nintendo → persuade → bundles
Instead of a single screen, the world scrolled sideways, past the edge of the television, with secret pipes, hidden blocks and a hero with a personality.
asserted
world → scroll → personality
In 1989, Nintendo launched the handheld Game Boy in Japan and North America, packaged with Tetris, a puzzle game created by Soviet programmer Alexey Pajitnov.
asserted
Nintendo → launch → Pajitnov
It reached Europe in 1990.
asserted
It → reach → 1990
The 1990s brought a console war and a third dimension.
asserted
1990s → bring → war
Sega's Mega Drive, sold as the Genesis in North America, took on Nintendo with faster games and edgier advertisements.
asserted
Drive → sell → games
Then Sony entered the market with the PlayStation, launched in Japan in 1994 and elsewhere in 1995.
asserted
Sony → enter → 1995
Its use of CDs, which held far more data than conventional cartridges and were cheaper to manufacture, helped transform console gaming.
asserted
which → hold → gaming
On PCs, a small Texas studio called id Software released Doom in December 1993.
asserted
studio → call → December
Its first episode was given away as shareware, copied onto floppy disks and passed around offices and campuses before most people were online.
asserted
people → give → offices
Doom transformed flat maps into immersive, fast-moving 3D-like corridors.
asserted
Doom → transform → corridors
Players could also connect computers over networks to fight one another.
uncertain
Players → connect → one
Violence came with the realism.
asserted
Violence → come → realism
In 1993, US senators, including Joe Lieberman, held hearings on games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap.
asserted
senators → include → Kombat
The industry responded by setting up its own age-rating body, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, in 1994.
asserted
industry → respond → 1994
In 1997, a Scottish studio called DMA Design released a top-down crime game.
asserted
studio → call → game
It was called Grand Theft Auto.
asserted
It → call → ?
In the 2000s, games went mainstream.
asserted
games → go → 2000s
Sony's PlayStation 2, launched in 2000, doubled as a DVD player and became the best-selling console ever, at about 160 million units.
asserted
PlayStation → launch → units
…and 27 more, not listed.
The Aporia
