4

Four player games, where four players are supported on a single system. In some early cases this may be playing in turns and not simultaneously. Four players became the benchmark for a full multiplayer experience, as technology evolved to provide enough processing power to display four separate perspectives simultaneously. Multi-player gaming often required the purchase of a multitap adapter to allow more than two controller inputs simultaneously. Nintendo particularly dominated this market segment by providing four controller inputs as standard on their Nintendo 64 and later consoles. The Sega Dreamcast and original Xbox joined this trend, but the PlayStation 2 remained relegated with two inputs. Later generations moved to wireless controllers but the overall trend was toward one player per system and multi-player experiences using online connectivity.