Forty years before 2015, there was Pong.

Judge as of February 2015. The claim uses a round figure ("40 years ago"), so the test is whether Pong was the leading, representative state of the art in video games around 1975, give or take about five years. True: Pong (arcade release 1972 or home version around 1975) was released and was the flagship or representative video game of that period. Mostly true: Pong was released and widely played in that era, but its release falls just outside the ±5-year window (6–8 years from 1975), or it was one of several comparable leading games rather than the clear state of the art. Mixed: Pong existed then but games of that era were clearly more advanced than Pong. Mostly false: Pong's release is far from 1975 (more than 8 years away) but it still belongs to early video gaming. False: Pong did not exist in or near that era.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Pong - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “Pong is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. for arcades.”

2. E2 Pong - Wikipedia Wikipedia

   “During the 1975 Christmas season, Atari released a home version of Pong exclusively through Sears retail stores.”

3. E3 Pong at 50: the video game that ‘changed the world’ The Week · 29 November 2022

   “The “real game changer” for Pong came in 1975, said IEEE Spectrum, when Home Pong was released.”

4. E4 Mobile Navigation Bar LG Canada

   “• Gran Trak 10 (1974)”

E1 dates Pong's arcade release to 1972, and E2 dates its home version to the 1975 Christmas season. Both dates fall within five years of 1975, the year the claim's "40 years ago" points to. E3 calls the 1975 Home Pong release the game's turning point, which supports Pong as a representative game of that period. E4 lists Gran Trak 10 (1974) as another early game but does not show that games of the time were clearly more advanced than Pong.