Fifth generation of video game consoles

The fifth generation era (also known as the 32-bit era, the 64-bit era, or the 3D era) refers to computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming consoles dating from approximately October 4, 1993, to March 23, 2006. The best-selling home console was the Sony PlayStation, followed by the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn. The PlayStation also had a redesigned version, the PSone, which was launched on July 7, 2000.

Some features that distinguished fifth generation consoles from previous fourth generation consoles include:

This era is known for its pivotal role in the video game industry's leap from 2D to 3D computer graphics, as well as the shift in home console games from being stored on ROM cartridges to optical discs. This was also the first generation to feature internet connectivity: some systems had additional hardware which provided connectivity to an existing device, like the Sega Net Link for the Sega Saturn. The Apple Pippin, a commercial flop, was the first system to feature on-board internet capabilities.

For handhelds, this era was characterized by significant fragmentation, because the first handheld of the generation, the Sega Nomad, had a lifespan of just two years, and the Nintendo Virtual Boy had a lifespan of less than one. Both of them were discontinued before the other handhelds made their debut. The Neo Geo Pocket was released on October 28, 1998, but was dropped by SNK in favor of the fully backward compatible Neo Geo Pocket Color just a year later. Nintendo's Game Boy Color (1998) was the most successful handheld by a large margin. There were also two minor updates of the original Game Boy: the Game Boy Light (released in Japan only) and the Game Boy Pocket.

There was considerable time overlap between this generation and the next, the sixth generation of consoles, which began with the launch of the Dreamcast in Japan on November 27, 1998. The fifth generation ended with the discontinuation of the PlayStation (specifically its re-engineered form, the "PSOne") on March 23, 2006, a year after the launch of the seventh generation.

The 32-bit/64-bit era is most noted for the rise of fully 3D polygon games. While there were games prior that had used three-dimensional polygon environments, such as Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter in the arcades and Star Fox on the Super NES, it was in this era that many game designers began to move traditionally 2D and pseudo-3D genres into 3D on video game consoles. Early efforts from then-industry leaders Sega and Nintendo saw the introduction of the 32X and Super FX, which provided rudimentary 3D capabilities to the 16-bit Genesis and Super NES. Starting in 1996, 3D video games began to take off with releases such as Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn, Tomb Raider on the PlayStation and Saturn, Tekken 2 and Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation, and Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64. Their 3D environments were widely marketed and they steered the industry's focus away from side-scrolling and rail-style titles, as well as opening doors to more complex games and genres. 3D became the main focus in this era as well as a slow decline of cartridges in favor of CDs, due to the ability to produce games less expensively and the media's high storage capabilities.

After allowing Sony to develop a CD-based prototype console for them and a similar failed partnership with Philips, Nintendo decided to make the Nintendo 64 a cartridge-based system like its predecessors. Publicly, Nintendo defended this decision on the grounds that it would give games shorter load times than a compact disc (and would decrease piracy due to a certain chip in the ROM cartridge). However, it also had the dubious benefit of allowing Nintendo to charge higher licensing fees, as cartridge production was considerably more expensive than CD production. Many third-party developers like EA Sports viewed this as an underhanded attempt to raise more money for Nintendo and many of them became more reluctant to release games on the N64.^{[citation needed]}

Nintendo's decision to use a cartridge based system sparked a debate in the video game magazines as to which was better. The chief advantages of the CD-ROM format were (1) larger storage capacity, allowing for a much greater amount of game content; (2) considerably lower manufacturing costs, making them much less risky for game publishers; (3) lower retail prices due to the reduced need to compensate for manufacturing costs; and (4) shorter production times, which greatly reduced the need for publishers to predict the demand for a game. Its disadvantages compared to cartridge were (1) considerable load times; (2) their inability to load data "on the fly", making them reliant on the console RAM; and (3) the greater manufacturing costs of CD-ROM drives compared to cartridge slots, resulting in generally higher retail prices for CD-based consoles. A Nintendo Power ad placed a Space Shuttle (representing cartridges) next to a snail (representing a CD), as an analogy for their respective speeds, stating that "the future doesn't belong to snails".