Fifth Generation of Video Consoles

This era featured both 32-bit and 64-bit consoles, with the market dominated by three consoles: the Sony PlayStation (1994), the Sega Saturn (1994) and the Nintendo 64 (1996). The period is most notable for its use of fully 3D games, with titles such as Tomb Raider on the Saturn (then later on the Playstation) and Super Mario 64 on the N64. This began to steer the industry away from the more traditional side-scrolling and rail-style titles.

Other consoles released during this period included the 3DO and Atari Jaguar in 1993; however, due to high pricing and limited software titles, their sales were poor and they failed to make a significant impact on the market. Although the Saturn was successful in Japan, it was a failure in Europe and North America, leaving Sega outside of the main competition.

Nintendo's choice to use cartridges for the Nintendo 64 instead of the CD-ROMs used by the Playstation and the Saturn proved to have negative consequences. In particular, SquareSoft (now Square Enix), the publisher of the Final Fantasy series, had released all their previous games for Nintendo consoles. However, they chose to use the new CD-ROM technology and released their newest title, Final Fantasy VII, for the Playstation in 1997. This became a huge success, establishing the popularity of role-playing games in the North America and Europe and making the PlayStation the primary console for the genre.

The Playstation had also been marketed as a lifestyle accessory for the 20-somethings, in contrast to the Saturn and Nintendo 64, whose cartoon character mascots were seen to be more appealing to children. The securing of this new market is widely credited as the key to the system's success, and the PlayStation eventually became the most successful console, ending Nintendo's longstanding domination over the market.

Games

Milestone titles of the era for the Playstation include Final Fantasy VII (see above), Metal Gear Solid (1998), which established stealth-based games as a popular genre and Gran Turismo, which broke away from the traditional arcade style racing games by offering realistic physics and handling along with a huge number of licensed vehicles. Resident Evil (1996) helped to popularise the Survival Horror genre and went on to produce many successful sequels. Although PaRappa the Rapper (1996) was only a modest success at its time of release, it was highly influential in creating the music video game genre, which would go on to grow throughout the fifth and sixth generations.

Tomb Raider, a game that followed the exploits of Lara Croft, a British female archaeologist in search of ancient treasures, was released in 1996 for PlayStation and Sega Saturn. The game was critically acclaimed and widely influential, spawning a number of sequels and a franchise of related media.

Notable Nintendo 64 titles include GoldenEye 007 (1997), which was critically acclaimed for popularising first-person shooter games on consoles, as well as being an excellent example of a movie-licensed game. Nintendo's 3D debut for the Legend of Zelda adventure game series in 1998 (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), is often regarded as the greatest game of all-time by various critics.

You can find out more about the 32-bit and 64-bit consoles that were released during the fifth generation (1994-1998) by selecting an item from the list below.