In recent years, the open world genre has spread more and more within the video game industry, thanks also to the development of new technologies and game engines that have made it possible to create increasingly vast worlds full of things to do and to see – by the way, do you know what the term open world means in video games?
The birth of this genre, however, goes back over four decades, when a title called Colossal Cave Adventurea text adventure in which, however, the player was allowed to explore a cave in complete freedom, which therefore represented the open world component of the game: it is a first such embryostill not perfected and not fully adhering to its definition, but certainly worthy of mention as the first foundation stone.
Despite the certain importance of Colossal Cave Adventure, what can instead be considered as the first true open world in the history of video games is Elite, a space simulation title released in 1984 by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro, within which players had the option to freely explore, aboard their personal spacecraft, a three-dimensional galaxy made up of 256 different planets, a truly prominence for the time. In addition, the game introduced a rather advanced role-playing component into the formula, which allowed the player to choose which space activity to devote himself to: trade, exploration, or combat, creating the foundation for the sandbox genre taken up over time by many other titles, and of which one of the greatest modern exponents is probably No Man’s Sky.
In case you want to know more about the theme and the aforementioned titles, we refer you to our special dedicated to the history and evolution of open world video games.
