The seventh consoles generation brings many new things. Sega disappears and Microsoft and Sony fight for the leadership in the most powerful consoles; Nintendo gets totally differently positioned, focusing a more familiar and casual audience based on its innovating commandment: Wiimote. Wii is a best-seller, but its games catalog is really limited, as it can't show the same detail level in the newest games at a technological level, unlike the rival consoles. These go on with the details increasing towards a higher visual realism and get positioned towards the most traditional and hardcore player. Apart from the power increase, at a technological level we can highlight the visual effects use and the more realistic lighting. Also, the enterprises which are the responsible of the hardware adapt and improve their infrastructures dedicated to the online services. Following Nintendo's model, the other two companies also launch devices for the control through the body motion such as Kinect and Move. We must highlight the fact that most of these games have a 720p resolution. Their contents are very diverse and most of the genres which were linked to the PC, such as shooters, are also integrated in consoles. They look for hyper-realism and they imitate the cinema language. Multimedia content is very important, as well as casual-type games. Also, they incorporate gamification items to build loyalty on their players, such as awards and discounts. At a social level, video games are now totally considered as a mature form of art and a key industry in entertainment. They make a lot of relationships between cinema, TV and video games. The weight of the communities related to video games keeps increasing. In the business model, we have one of the most important changes in the history of video games: digital downloads open the doors to new ways of selling, exploiting and finances which will alter the industry. In this generation, portable consoles make a huge forward leap. Sony tried to imitate the formula which has given it its success in the domestic field looking for the traditional hardcore player, while Nintendo chose innovating and introducing a new tactile screen as well as targeting the childish and casual audience. In this generation, they add multimedia capacities and both options' power and interface differ. Contents reflect this difference, and many titles are imported from the domestic sector. Casual players strongly increase, especially in Nintendo's console. The business model is the same, with the extra deal on all the growing market of non-experienced casual players. During the first decade of 2000, PC consolidates itself as a very rich and variated platform to play video games, as it has the online games pact, digital downloads and the chance of updating the hardware make of this platform a sector of increasing relevance. The genres specialization blurs, simple games coexist with historical franchises such as The Sims, multi-player games such as World of Warcraft and games which use all the available technology, such as Half-Life 2. Computer allows us to be totally up-to-date with technology, and this will allow the integration of real high-definition, 1080p, even before domestic consoles do it. The variety in the catalog is total. Massive online games are a boom. Gradually games for casual players and games in social networks appear. The importance of these networks and online communities is really high, they show that video games provide experiences further than playing the game itself. The business model also gets a lot of changes due to digital distribution. Steam is the clearest digital distributor example, and it bursts into the sector with a great strength. Some new ways of marketing appear, such as the Free-to-Play games, or the free games based on small fees, Freemium. Although games were already played in mobile phones during the first decade of 2000, it's not until the arrival of iPhone and iPad in 2008 and 2010 that they acquire a great impact in the industry. They will be followed by all the Android devices a few time later, both tablets and phones. To begin, we must remark that they are hardwares little powerful compared to PCs or consoles in that period. They are based in specific operative systems from Apple and Google, and they have a touch screen as their only interface. At a technological level, it is also very important the development of the content downloading infrastructures, especially application stores. These games' graphics and playability are really simple, going back to the arcade and 2D games period, and creating affordable games for the less experienced audience. In fact, games in this platform have a great success in the casual gamers sector. The business model is based on the digital download, including demo versions and free or very cheap games. Let's go to the last consoles generation. WiiU tries to repeat Wii's success, betting on an innovating interface on the commandment, and they keep targeting basically their devoted audience as well as young and casual players. Sony and Microsoft keep their battle to lead the market focused on seducing the most hardcore and traditional players. In this generation's games, the graphics' realism is very high. Also, they can run games in real HD at 1080p. The contents are pretty much the same as in the previous generation. We can remark the continuous use of cinematography to give it more realism. This generation's technology also brings an adaptation to the content downloads and online communities. Also, they create a hardware ecosystem connecting many devices. Content intends to be the most transversal it can, including games for traditional players, but also for casual players. They try to create a more social experience by favoring the content share. Hardcore and casual differentiation in the market still exists, but not as noticeable as before. The consumption of products derived from games such as gameplays and tutorials increases. The user becomes more active, with activities such as games broadcastings. In the business model, we find out that digital downloads are totally integrated and they have adopted exploitation models which come from mobile devices, such as small fees. We must also highlight the growth of independent games. Finally, hardware-owner brands also get money from online services. In this current generation, portable consoles have also been renovated. Nintendo keeps in the innovation line with the stereoscopic 3D effect in its console. Sony, on its side, promotes its product keeping its positioning to a more traditional player. These new versions are more powerful and show multimedia capacities as well as a tactile interface. Their content keep in the line of domestic versions although sometimes they try to innovate, either using 3D effect or the use of the camera to create augmented-reality environments. 3DS is targeted for a more childish and casual audience; and Vita, to an older, more traditional one. Digital download gets integrated in the business model. In the last 5 years, mobile devices have consolidated themselves as a video games platform. Hardware has increased its power with each devices iteration, but at a contents level we still see a dominance of the simple or casual games. This platform has helped many independent developers to get into the industry due to the huge users group that have this device and to the fact that it is very affordable to publish content in them. There has also been a video games saturation as there exist a lot of similar games. The starting impact has been stabilized and the different business models have been adapted. Digital download is still the base and there have appeared models with more weight on small fees or purchases from applications, such as Freemium model. In computers, during these last years they have kept the same line as in the last decade. Currently it's the platform in which there is more variety in the video games catalog: social network games, casual games, independent games or the greatest super productions with the newest technology. At a technical level, they offer much higher performance compared to domestic consoles, as they are already over high definition. The offer is wide and it is adapted to various users. Video games almost can't be played without their social component in the web, which is almost a part of the game's own experience. Digital download websites make aggressive pricing policies, with great discounts and compilations, and there are many exploitation models depending on the game's nature. As a summary and conclusions, we can say the following: video games industry goes on mostly motivated by technological innovations. Usually they bring a computational or graphic power increase. Also there are some times when their innovation is focused on the control interface, either if it is the commandment or the player's body. But there are also occasions in which the industry evolution won't validate its power increase. An example is the fact of how mobile devices and other platforms such as computers have given place to video games with technologies and aesthetics which were considered outclassed and old-fashioned, such as 2D games, getting a great commercial success. However, it's true that since the arrival of 3D and polygonal graphics, video games evolution has been more focused on the visual part and less on the playable one. This way, the playable experience's weight has been directed to audiovisual realism and multi-player games. Finally, the great change during the last years has been digital distribution and the new business models which, among others, can alter video games' contents, such as the model of many DLCs or downloadable contents.
