Comparison of gaming platforms

This article is about comparisons between gaming platforms. For a list of all console gaming platforms, see list of video game consoles.

Table

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Name Availability Processing power in FLOPS Operating System(s) Library Input Backward compatibility Forward compatibility Retail availability Online services Game distribution methods Sales
PC 1970s–present Varies greatly depending on host device form factor and specialization. Windows, OS X, Unix, BSD, Linux-based: Ubuntu, Chrome OS, Android-x86, Steam OS, Other Linux Over 10000[1][lower-alpha 1] Partial[lower-alpha 3] Partial [lower-alpha 4] Global Various. Notably Steam, Origin, Uplay, and Battle.net. 4.187 Billion units[3]
Nintendo 64 1996–2003 100+ MFLOPS[4] 32.93 million units[5]
PlayStation 1994 100+ MFLOPS[6] 104.25 million units[7]
PlayStation 2 2000–2013[8] 6.2 GFLOPS[9] Proprietary OS developed by Sony 3870 Yes No Global Network Play Physical 155 Million Units[10]
GameCube 2001–2007[11] 9.4 GFLOPS[12] Dolphin OS 660 No No Global Limited Physical 21.74 Million Units[13]
Xbox 2001-2009 1045[14] 24+ Million units
Xbox 360 2005–present 240 GFLOPS[15] Xbox OS (Xbox 360) 1125 Partial[lower-alpha 5] No Region-specific Xbox Live 85.49 Million Units[16]
PlayStation 3 2006–present Theoretical maximum of 230.4 GFLOPS in single precision/Up to 100 GFLOPS in double precision[17] XMB 795 Yes, but not available on Slim model No Region-specific PSN 80 Million+ Units[18]
Wii 2006–2013[19] 12 GFLOPS[6] Wii system software 1222 Yes, but not available on Mini model No Global Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, WiiConnect24, Wii Shop Channel
  • Physical
  • Some games distributed through Wii Shop Channel
 101.63 Million Units[13]
iOS devices 2007–present Varies greatly depending on host device form factor and specialization. iOS 729,893[20] Yes, but notably short-term due to frequent OS changes. Partial Region-specific Game Center iOS App Store 1.025 billion[21][22][23]
Android 2008–present Varies greatly depending on host device form factor and specialization. Android 600+ (not accounting for titles available through cloud services)
  • Standard: Touchscreen
  • OEM-specific hardware input methods
  • 3rd-party devices
 Yes, but notably short-term due to frequent OS changes.[24] Partial[25] Global Google Play Games 1.4 billion[26]
Wii U 2012–present[27] 352.0 GFLOPS[28] Updated IOS 774 Yes Unknown Global Nintendo Network
  • Physical
  • Some games also distributed via Nintendo E-Shop
 13.36 Million Units[13]
PlayStation 4 2013–present 1.843 TFLOPS[29] Orbis OS 1222 Partial [lower-alpha 6] Unknown Global PSN 40 Million+ Units[31]
Xbox One 2013–present 1.310 TFLOPS[32] Xbox OS (Xbox One) 850 Xbox One Controller Partial [lower-alpha 7] Unknown Global Xbox Live 3 Million+ Units[36]
PlayStation 4 Pro 2016 4.2 TFLOPS[37] Orbis OS 1222 Partial [lower-alpha 8] Unknown Global PSN 65,194[38]

Note: Most of these platforms support HID-compliant keyboards, but usually only as methods for entering text. Rarely, console games support input from keyboards and mice for gameplay purposes, such as CS:GO on the PS3.[39]

Platforms in Competitive Gaming

All platforms support competition in some form. The Space Invaders Championship held by Atari in 1981 was the earliest large scale video game competition.[40] Players would compete for the highest scores.

The tournaments which emerged in the mid 1990s coincided with the popularity of fighting games, played in both arcade machines and video game consoles. In the late 1990s, broadband internet paved the way for first-person shooters tournaments on PC, the most notable being the Red Annihilation tournament in 1997 where Dennis "Thresh" Fong won John Carmack's Ferrari.[41] In the early 2000s, real-time strategy games on PC became overwhelmingly popular in South Korean internet cafés, with crucial influence on the development of competitive gaming worldwide.

As of August 16, 2014, the largest platform for competitive gaming is PC, with the games Dota 2, League of Legends, StarCraft II, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Over $22 million has been awarded in Dota 2 competitions.[42] Various Nintendo Games (played on Nintendo Consoles with local, LAN or Online Multiplayer) and the latest iteration of the Call of Duty franchise are popular on consoles.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ It is impossible to account fully for all games that existed on the platform due to its' extensive lifespan and open nature.
  2. ↑ Including console controllers, Valve's Steam controller, flight joysticks, and various other peripherals. Modern PCs can essentially use any input device, as long as there's an adapter to convert it to USB, IEEE 1394, Bluetooth, or any other compatible input protocol. However, only software built to intentionally accept any type of input signal will accept this. For example, modern games probably won't work with a USB-adapted NES controller. However, if the adapter makes use of input APIs such as DirectInput then the range of compatible software greatly increases. Emulators (such as Project64), on the other hand, accept input from almost anything (even mixing between several input devices).
  3. ↑ Depends on the operating system and hardware; games incompatible with the host system can be ran using software solutions including ( but not limited to ) DOSBox, virtual machines, Glide wrappers and source ports.
  4. ↑ Newer games may be incompatible if the machine is incapable of handling newer hardware features required by the software, i.e. 64-bit instruction sets, SSE or newer APIs such as DirectX 12
  5. ↑ Via software-based emulation, there is a backwards compatibility rate of 51% of 461 for first-generation Xbox games. Network functionality not emulated.
  6. ↑ Select older titles can be streamed through PlayStation Now.[30]
  7. ↑ Only select games are available. Games need to be manually made compatible with the Xbox One by Microsoft and ran in an emulator.[33][34] Games emulated on the Xbox One may result in lower performance than the original platform, due to the nature of emulators.[35]
  8. ↑ Select older titles can be streamed through PlayStation Now.[30]

References

  1. ↑ "Steam Search". Steam. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "PlayStation Now on PC". playstation.com. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "Computer Sales Statistics". Statistic Brain. 2016-02-18. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  4. ↑ "Nintendo 64 technical specifications - Wikipedia". en.m.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  5. ↑ "Most sold video game consoles worldwide 2016 | Statista". Statista. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  6. 1 2 "Processing Power Compared". pages.experts-exchange.com. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  7. ↑ "Most sold video game consoles worldwide 2016 | Statista". Statista. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  8. ↑ Keith Stuart. "PlayStation 2 manufacture ends after 12 years". the Guardian. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Jon Peddie, President, Jon Peddie Research. "Update: How many FLOPS are in game consoles?". TG Daily. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  10. ↑ "Sony stops shipping PlayStation 2 units in Japan". Rappler. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  11. ↑ Tor Thorsen. "Nintendo officially pulls plug on GameCube?". GameSpot. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "DCTP - Nintendo's Gamecube Technical Overview". Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  13. 1 2 3 "IR Information : Sales Data - Hardware and Software Sales Units". nintendo.co.jp. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  14. ↑ "List of Xbox games". Wikipedia. 2016-11-17.
  15. ↑ Xenos (graphics chip)
  16. ↑ "Most sold video game consoles worldwide 2016 | Statista". Statista. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  17. ↑ PlayStation 3 technical specifications#Central processing unit
  18. ↑ Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. (6 November 2013). "PlayStation®3 Sales Reach 80 Million Units Worldwide". prnewswire.com. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  19. ↑ "Nintendo says sayonara to the original Wii". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  20. ↑ "App Store Metrics | Pocket Gamer.biz | PGbiz". www.pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2016-12-03.
  21. ↑ "How many iPhones have been sold worldwide?". AboutTech. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  22. ↑ "What are iPad sales all time?". AboutTech. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  23. ↑ "Apple sells 100 million iPod touch units". The Loop. Retrieved 19 April 2015.
  24. ↑ "Application backward compatibility". android.com. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Application forward compatibility". android.com. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  26. ↑ "Google says there are now 1.4 billion active Android devices worldwide". Android Central. 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  27. ↑ Tom Powter. "Nintendo reveals new sales figures for Wii U and 3DS". Flickering Myth.
  28. ↑ "AMD Wii U GPU". TechPowerUp. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  29. ↑ "AMD PlayStation 4 GPU". TechPowerUp. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  30. 1 2 "PlayStation Now Game List: Here's Every PS3 Game You Can Stream". cinemablend.com. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  31. ↑ "PlayStation®4 Sales Surpass 40 Million Units Worldwide". Sony. PR Newswire. Retrieved 26 May 2016.
  32. ↑ "AMD Xbox One GPU". TechPowerUp. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  33. ↑ Mary Jo Foley. "Emulation is key to Microsoft's Xbox backward compatibility story". ZDNet.
  34. ↑ "Xbox 360 backward compatibility coming to Xbox One". Ars Technica. Conde Nast Digital. June 15, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015. If users already purchased the games digitally through Xbox Live, they can simply log in and re-download the game on Xbox One without paying any additional cost. If they own the game as a disc, they'll have to download the game to their Xbox One hard drive, and the system will then check for the disc before launching the game
  35. ↑ "Mass Effect: Xbox One Backwards Compatibility vs Xbox 360 Frame-Rate Test". DigitalFoundry. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
  36. ↑ "Thank You for an Epic 2013". xbox.com. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
  37. ↑ "Playstation 4 Pro Tech Specs". playstation.com. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
  38. ↑ "Japanese Sales Chart: PS4 Pro Sells 65,000 Units". PlayStation LifeStyle. 2016-11-16. Retrieved 2016-12-02.
  39. ↑ http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-26-ps3-cs-go-supports-keyboard-and-mouse. Retrieved 2016-05-03
  40. ↑ "Players Guide To Electronic Science Fiction Games". Electronic Games. 1 (2): 35–45 [36]. March 1982. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
  41. ↑ Kushner, David (2003). Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created An Empire And Transformed Pop Culture. Random House. 89. ISBN 0-375-50524-5.
  42. ↑ "Top 50 Games Awarding Prize Money :: e-Sports Earnings". Retrieved October 20, 2014.
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