Something lighthearted for today.
A number of weeks ago David Butler posted a very interesting piece on the football video game market for those interested in the ongoing battle among the main game producers. Here's another trip down memory lane, as we consider market concentration in the same market since 1994.
For those familiar with football video games, the market today is dominated by two game producers; EA Sports' FIFA and Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer. This was not always the case. The graphs below presents data from Sony's PlayStation 1 (PS1), PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the number of football video game titles during the lifespan of each console.
Back in the days of the PS1 one could choose from a plethora of football games. Sixty-four different titles and title updates were available for sale in Europe during the days of the PS1. Once-off titles made up almost a quarter of all games released, with EA's FIFA the single biggest game in terms of the number of titles released (see below). Games such as Actua Soccer (4 titles), Addias Power Soccer (4 titles) and This Is Football (2 titles) were commonplace.