The History of the First-Person Shooter Video Game

In 2004, the release of one product broke records as the largest entertainment launch in history, besting the previous record. But it wasn't another movie, or a new album. It was the release of a video game-Bungie's Halo 2, an Xbox console exclusive, making more than $125 million in sales on opening day (1).

While the biggest entertainment properties are still generally blockbuster films when all is said and done-James Cameron's Dances With Wolves / Smurfs sci-fi epic Avatar has grossed a staggering 2.6+ billion dollars (2), video games are on a whole surpassing the film industry as a massive entertainment moneymaker.

These days, modern AAA titles cost as much as middle-ground Hollywood features to produce; Halo 3 was rumored to cost $55 million to make, while Grand Theft Auto 4 may have cost as much as $100 million (3). The days of a few guys in a basement making a game are no longer realities beyond the independent scene, with modern games being completed by dozens or hundreds of in-house developers (not including scores of non-affiliated playtesters, quality assurance personnel and localization teams.)

The followup to Halo 2, Halo 3 (2007), broke the franchise's own record and became the biggest entertainment launch in history-again-with $170 in first day sales (4). That launch has now been surpassed by Modern Warfare 2, with boasted sales of $310 million in its first day (5). Together, those two games have sold tens of millions of copies; Halo 3 was the best-selling title in the United States on release, while 2007's biggest-selling title was Modern Warfare 2's predecessor, Call of Duty 4 (6).

Notice something here? The Halo series, with the exception of the real-time strategy spinoff Halo Wars (2009), is a realm of highly-successful first-person shooters. Modern Warfare 2 is a first-person shooter, as is the enormously popular Call of Duty franchise it spawned from. Collecting the top ten best-selling games in the United States for 2007, 2008, and 2009, 7 out of 30 of the titles, or 23%, were first-person shooters. Discounting Nintendo titles, that percentage jumps to 44% (7). It's not a surprise to see that first-person shooters are one of the most popular game genres around. How'd this happen?

Despite their dominance, first-person shooters or FPS are one of the younger game genres, only made possible by graphical leaps in the early 1990s, but their origins begin years before. In the 1970s, games like Maze War and Spasim featured first-person perspectives. In 1987, MIDI Maze not only pioneered first-person shooter gameplay, but it allowed multiplayer through the Atari ST's MIDI interface-a feature not seen again for years. The main problems with these games, however, was that the graphics simply weren't good enough for creating a three-dimensional world for players to inhabit. That limitation slowly began to erode.

In 1992, along came Wolfenstein 3D by id Software, the company that would pretty much define and dominate the early FPS. While Wolfenstein wasn't the first FPS by a long shot, it established many conventions of the genre that are still applicable today (8). Wolfenstein was followed a year later by another id FPS, Doom, which improved on its predecessor in every respect-level design, lighting, graphics, and the ability to compete against other players in "deathmatches", making it the first successful multiplayer game (9). id and its publisher, Apogee, also came up with the idea of game shareware--giving players part of the game for free, in the hopes they would pony up the money for the rest of the game. This business model led to the game's popularity and rapid distribution. For the rest of the early to mid 1990s, myriad sprite-based first-person shooters would appear. A small Macintosh gaming company made a name for itself with the FPS Pathways Into Darkness and Marathon; that company was called Bungie. Apogee decided to get into the game business themselves, and created the humorous and wise-cracking Duke Nukem 3D.

Once again, id changed the genre with the introduction of true three-dimensional graphics with Quake in 1996. Once again, its multiplayer was largely unparalleled, and it allowed for modifications and player communities called clans (10). Soon after came Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, unrivaled in its graphics at the time, then GoldenEye 007; not only regarded as one of the few movie-to-game tie-ins that was actually worth the money, GoldenEye featured one-hit-kill headshots and co-operative play. Turok and GoldenEye were both released on consoles; they helped pave the way for the FPS to come to roost on television screens after years of being a PC-only genre.

As it would turn out, that small Mac company Bungie would take the final steps into legitimizing the FPS on consoles. After turning their real-time strategy game Halo into an FPS, Microsoft acquired the company and made Halo into a Microsoft Xbox console exclusive. The result? Halo: Combat Evolved was a massive critical and commercial success. Its sequels not only turned the series into a billion-dollar franchise, but they innovated and perfected console matchmaking and multiplayer.

Since then, FPS have splintered into many different subgenres and types. Games like Call of Duty and Modern Warfare 2 are primarily linear, with players moving from point A to B, mowing down everything in their path. At the same time, games like Crysis, Far Cry, and BioShock allow greater player choice and interaction. It's no wonder that by 2006, FPS were the most attractive game genre for publishers (11). What, then, is the future of these games? While FPS have long been condemned as contributing to or even causing violence, they remain a popular game type of choice. It seems likely that the general trend will continue towards giving players greater freedom in their worlds... and a variety of interesting enemies to shoot at.

More Info:
Read the Wikipedia pages for the FPS discussed in this article: Wolfenstein 3D (1992) / Doom (1993) / Duke Nukem 3D (1996) / Pathways Into Darkness (1993) / Marathon (1994) / Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) / Halo 2 (2004) / Halo 3 (2007) / Call of Duty 4 (2007) / Modern Warfare 2 (2009) / BioShock (2007) / Crysis (2007)

References
* (1) Thorsen, Tor (2004-11-10). "Microsoft Raises Estimated First-Day Halo 2 Sales". Gamespot. Accessed March 15, 2010.
* (2) Staff (2010-03-15). "Rupert Murdoch Could Have Made Way More Money From Avatar". New York Magazine. Accessed March 15, 2010.
* (3) Staff (2010-02-20). "Top 10 Most Expensive Video Game Budgets". Digital Battle. Accessed March 15, 2010.
* (4) Thorsen, Tor (2007-09-27). "Halo 3's First-Day US Haul = $170 Million". Gamespot. Accessed March 10, 2010.
* (5) Johnson, Robert (2009-11-13). "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Destroys Records in First Day Sales Rampage". New York Daily News. Accessed March 14, 2010.
* (6) Thorsen, Tor (2009-01-17). "NPD: 2007 Earnings Nearly $18 Bil". Gamespot. Accessed March 13, 2010.
* (7) Sources for this info are US NPD charts from years 2007, 2008, and 2009.
* (8) Garmon, Jay (2005-05-24). "Geek Trivia: First Shots Fired". TechRepublic. Accessed March 15, 2010.
* (9) Staff (2006-01-31). "The Greatest Games of All Time: Doom". Gamespot UK. Accessed March 15, 2010.
* (10) Staff (2006). "The Gamasutra Quantum Leap Awards". Gamasutra. Accessed March 14, 2010.
* (11) Cifaldi, Frank (2006-02-21). "Analysts: FPS 'Most Attractive' Genre for Publishers". Gamasutra. Accessed February 27, 2010.