 That same year saw the release of the Magnavox Odyssey , the first home video game console which could be connected to a television set . The inventor , Ralph H. Baer , had initially had the idea in 1951 to make an interactive game on a television set . Unable to do so with the technological constraints at the time , he began work on a device that would attach to a television set and display games in 1966 , and the " Brown Box " , the last prototype of seven , was licensed to Magnavox to adapt and produce . They announced the console in May 1972 , and it went on sale that September . The console and its games featured numerous innovations beyond being the first video game device for home consumers : it was the first game to use a raster @-@ scan video display , or television set , directly displayed via modification of a video signal ; it was also the first video gaming device to be displayed in a television commercial . It sold for US $ 100 and shipped with several games , including " Table tennis " , which Bushnell had seen a demo of and which Pong had been based on . The Odyssey sold over 100 @,@ 000 units in 1972 , and more than 350 @,@ 000 by the end of 1975 , buoyed by the popularity of the table tennis game , in turn driven by the success of Pong . Pong and the Odyssey kicked off a new era of video gaming , with numerous other competitors starting up in the video game industry as it grew in popularity . 
