sales peaked in 1982, the producth's fourth year on the market, after cumulative sales had reached about 15 million units. Software sales peaked the following year, and total retail sales plunged from over $2.2 billion in 1983 to about $120 million in 1985. Since then, the video game industry had seen the introduction of four new generations of technology: 8-bit systems (NES), 16-bit systems (Genesis and SNES), portables (Game Boy and Game Gear), and 32/64 bit systems (Play Station, Saturn and N-64).the 8-bit and 16-bit generations followed Atari's pattern: Hardware sales peaked in the fourth full year of distribution, software sales peaked the following year, and total retail sales plunged in the sixth year.