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A console manufacturer is a company that manufactures and distributes video game consoles. It is also known as a first-party video game publisher. Historically, some of the most recognized console manufacturers include:

• Atari - First console market leader; now a third-party publisher.
• Microsoft - the newest player in the market, releasing the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.
• Nintendo - historically the best known console manufacturer; also the longest running company in the market, and long-time dominant market leader of the handheld console market.
• Sega - A dominant leader during the 16-bit era, now a third-party publisher.
• Sony Computer Entertainment - became the console market leader with its first console, the Sony PlayStation.

The fact that out of the list above only three remain as console manufacturers demonstrates the volatility of this industry. Each new console generation, which typically lasts 5-7 years, experiences significant changes in the market share. For example although the Nintendo NES enjoyed a 90% market share during the 8-bit era, this dropped to approximately 60% after the 16-bit era, with Sega being responsible for the majority of this change with their Sega Mega Drive/Sega Genesis. Likewise, during the 32/64-bit era, Sega's market share plummeted with the Sega Saturn, and Sony — a newcomer in the industry became the market leader (Nintendo took second place with their Nintendo 64). As of 2005, the most significant console manufacturers in the industry during the 128-bit era are Sony (PlayStation 2), Nintendo (Nintendo GameCube), and Microsoft (Xbox). Out of the three, Sony is the current market leader with Nintendo and Microsoft equally in second place. The seventh generation era has just begun with the release of the Xbox 360 in North America on November 22, 2005, the release of the PlayStation 3 in North America on November 17, 2006, and Wii in North America on November 19, 2006.

An interesting strategy that many console manufacturers take is to sell their console at a low price (respective to the production costs) with the hopes that this will entice more consumers to purchase the hardware, which in turn will generate additional profit through extra software sales. For example, although a bit extreme in terms of "normal" pricing strategies within the industry, it has been reported that Microsoft was losing nearly 275 USD with the sale of each Xbox unit. (See: Razor and blades business model). Sony is also expected to lose several hundred dollars per system sold. However, unlike its two competitors, Nintendo will be making a profit on each system sold, despite already being several hundred dollars cheaper than Xbox 360 and PS3.

Recently console manufacturers have began considering backward compatibility as an important feature in their future consoles. Nintendo has had much success making their Game Boy Advance compatible with the regular Game Boy and Game Boy Color handhelds, as well as their new handheld Nintendo DS which is compatible with the Game Boy Advance. Nintendo has also stated that their next-generation console, the Wii, will be compatible with all four of its previous consoles, in that it will be able to play games from its predecessor, the Nintendo GameCube, as well as download games from all of its previous systems using its Virtual Console. Sony did the same making its PlayStation 2 backward-compatible with its PlayStation. Sony has mentioned that it will continue with this strategy and make their PlayStation 3 backward-compatible with PlayStation 2 and PlayStation games, although not with as many games as once promised. The Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with Xbox games, though not entirely.

The first-mover advantage that certain console manufacturers experience on the other hand is a somewhat risky strategy. While there have been cases of consoles becoming successful partly because they were the first ones released within a specific era (most notably Sega with their Megadrive during the 16-bit era), success from being the "first-mover" is not always guaranteed. Sega tried once again but failed to reap benefits by being the first-mover during the 128-bit era with their Dreamcast. Unfortunately for Sega, many consumers decided that they would rather wait for the PlayStation 2 to be released instead. Other console manufacturers have also attempted this strategy, such as the 3DO and Jaguar, all failed miserably. Nearly every console manufacturer who released their console first to the market permanently exited out of it. Despite this trend, in releasing the Xbox 360 before its competitors' products are released, Microsoft is hoping to benefit greatly from the first-mover advantage.

It has often been said that when it comes to a console's success: "It's all about the games", and this is certainly true. A console manufacturer needs to have ample third-party developer support in order to have a steady stream of quality video games being released throughout the year. Although brand loyalty, technical capabilities and price certainly plays their part, people tend to purchase the console that offers the games that they enjoy most. Without games, there is no reason to buy a console. It is the very reason why people doomed the Nokia N-Gage to failure before it was even released. Therefore console manufacturers need to establish good relationships with third-party developers, otherwise they risk losing the support that they need to another competitor. A lot of this revolves around management, business decisions and partnerships, however a console manufacturer can also help promote third-party support by making their console easy to develop on. Part of the reason for the success of the Sony PlayStation against the Sega Saturn was that the PlayStation was considered an easy platform to develop games, while the Sega Saturn, with its dual processors and overall complexity, frustrated developers instead. Nintendo is perceived to be comparatively lacking in 3rd-party support, and rely somewhat on their own 1st-party games, a situation since the Nintendo 64, since at the time, many third party developers opted for the PlayStation due to the ease in making games for it. In the current seventh-generation, this is reversed: the PlayStation 3 is perhaps the most difficult (and the Wii the easiest) to develop for. It should be noted that many Nintendo games are critical franchises that are well recognized in the video game industry, like The Legend of Zelda, Mario and Metroid.

• Coleco - defunct
• Commodore - revived and now Commodore Gaming [1]
• Emerson
• Magnavox
• Mattel
• Milton Bradley Company
• NEC
• Philips
• RCA
• Sega - abandoned console manufacturing and is now a third-party software publisher
• SNK - revived and now a third-party game publisher

• Aiwa - licensee of Sega
• Bandai - licensee of Apple Computer (Pippin)
• JVC - licensee of Sega
• LG Electronics (fka Goldstar) - licensee of 3DO
• Panasonic - licensee of 3DO and Nintendo
• Sanyo - licensee of 3DO (Japan only)
• Sharp Corporation - licensee of Nintendo