5 generation
In the history of computer and video games, the 32-bit / 64-bit era was the fifth generation of video game consoles. It featured both 32-bit and 64-bit consoles, and the market was dominated by three consoles, the Sony PlayStation (1995), Sega Saturn (1994) and the Nintendo 64 (1996), with the PlayStation eventually ending up the most successful. Demographics in console sales varied overall, but these consoles defined the System wars of this era (see section below). The 3DO and Atari Jaguar were also part of this era, but their marketing was poor and they failed to make an impact. This era also saw two updated versions of Nintendo's Game Boy: Game Boy Color and Game Boy Light (Japan only).
Bit ratings for consoles largely fell by the wayside during this era, with the notable exception of the Nintendo 64. The number of "bits" cited in console names referred to the CPU word size and had been used by hardware marketers as a "show of power"; however there was little to be gained from increasing the word size much beyond 32 or 64 bits - performance depended on more varied factors, such as processor clock speed, bandwidth, and memory size.
The 32-bit / 64-bit era also saw the rise of emulation. It was during this time that not only were commonly available PCs powerful enough to emulate the 8 and 16bit systems of the previous 5 or more years, but the internet made it possible to store and download tape and rom images of older games, eventually leading 7th generation consoles (such as Xbox 360 and Wii) to make such older games availbale for purchase or download