Relive the Iconic Console War of the 1990s: Sega vs. Nintendo and the Battle that Changed the Gaming Industry Forever

Pilch: I picked this up for 99p during a Kindle deal, as a gamer myself it sounded like an interesting read. It does a good job of setting the scene, showing where Nintendo and Sega started and how they came to be giants of the industry. There are some great stories in here, especially some of the Expo and store/price war ones, and will take people of a certain age on a nostalgia trip.

The main issue is with the language in the ‘real-life’ conversations between people involved. I know you have to allow some leeway when interviewees are recalling conversations that took place around 25 years before, but Blake Harris is putting words in these people’s mouths and the way he has these people talking to each other is at times laughable and unrealistic. I found myself closing the book during chapters which had large chunks of these conversations to come back to the book another time, they can be too much. It’s like something from a cheesy daytime soap opera.

There is also a strong Sega bias. This book does lift the lid on some questionable business practices from Nintendo, which had a 90%-odd control of the console market at one time, but they always seem to be presented...

United Kingdom on May 25, 2017

Kiran_mk2: As a massive Nintendo fan in the early 90s I approached this book with some trepidation. After all, the book was about how Nintendo's Japanese rivals Sega turned from also-ran into world-leaders during the exciting times at the dwan of the 16-bit era. I needant have worried, however as the book is an increadibly fascinating insight into how the US videogame industry developed at breakneck speed. It tells the story of a collection of American executives pushing back against the conservative nature and cautious approach of Sega Japan (still typical for Japanese companies to this day). While Nintendo attempted to exploit their near monopoloy at the end of the 80s, Sega US grew by spotting the gaps Nintendo left, advertising to make fun of Nintendo and looking to work in partnership with those who also disliked Nintendo's control. From making the most of their new mascot, to guerilla marketing approaches to get the US retail giants such as Toy R Us and Walmart onside. For Nintendo fans such as myself, there is still plenty of information about the history of Nintendo and, indeed, how they came to dominate the 8-bit market and establish such draconian terms on their partners. This was...

United Kingdom on Aug 22, 2016

Adrian: A great account of the Nintendo/Sega wars of the early nineties. Though the actual story of what happened between Nintendo and Sega doesn't take that long to tell, the author provides the history of both companies and the video game industry itself. Some analysis of the video game crash of the early 80's is also provided. This gives some necessary perspective on the business and industry mindsets going into the new generation of gaming kicked off by the NES that continues to this day (including the continued sales of those games in Nintendo's Virtual Console and the Playstation Store). I will note out that the story really follows the story of Tom Kalinske, so when he leaves Sega, the story is pretty much over. This was around the time the Sega Saturn came out, so don't expect this to get into N64 and Dreamcast territory, though I'm sure the interesting industry stories don't end with Kalinske. Some of it is from Nintendo and Sony's point-of-view as well, but this is really the story of how Sega America made the Genesis and Sonic a hit, and turned Sega into a household name.

What I wasn't expecting was the story of the people involved, and what a small world the industry...

United States on Sep 22, 2014

Mr. N. Long: I bought this book because I was very much an 80’s Nintendo kid and there has been quite a bit of buzz about it.

The first thing that must be said about it is that this is a book with a very narrow scope. It’s not a history of the console wars, it’s not even a history of Sega (check out Service Games for a better book on this subject). Instead it is a history of how Tom Kalinske successfully marketed the Mega Drive to become the dominant console in early 90’s America before Sega spectacularly shot themselves in the foot with the Sega CD /32X / Saturn debacle.
Non Americans should be aware that markets outside of the US are largely ignored.

Despite it’s limitations it’s a very detailed and clearly well researched book and even people who’ve read quite a bit on the subject will probably learn something. It’s written in an engaging novel like style and is an enjoyable read (though the imagined dialogue is horrific) For people considering a purchase it’s important to realise that it is at it’s heart a book about marketing not video games, or tech.

Though there is little doubt that Tom Kalinske was a marketing genius and pulled off one of the...

United Kingdom on Jul 26, 2014

Thedrisk: This charts Tom Kalinske career at Sega so from 1991 to 1996 and covering a golden period in gaming history, with the Megadrive, Saturn and Nintendos NES and SNES and N64. Then going into the rise of Sony and the Playstation. The book switches only occasionally to Nintendo and Sony, with almost all from Sega of Americas point of view.

Blake Harris reportedly interviewed 500 people at Sega and Nintendo for this book, but I suspect most were marketing guys and girls and most in Sega. For this book is essentally a marketing story, dont expect to meet the writers of the game beyond the tiniest mention and yet chapters on the latest Sega advert. This isnt a criticism just an observation upon its focus.

It is written in a novelised form, with dialogue to make you cringe, but Blake Hartis does a good job of making a dry topic a great read never the less through this style.

I pride myself on knowing quite a bit on the subject of video game history and this book is generally good and although the research is patchy (particuarly when discussing Nintendo) and the dialogue the characters speak are highly suspect and couldn't exist outside a Mills and Boon novel... still...

United Kingdom on Jun 14, 2014

Yagi: Console Wars largely chronicles the period between 1989 and 1995, when Sega battled Nintendo for dominance in the home console market, ending as Sony displaces Sega in the 32-bit era as Nintendo's main competitor. In a sense, it does serve as a sort of sequel to David Sheff's gold-standard account in "Game Over" of the rise of Nintendo in the 80's, which left off at the point where Sega's Genesis had just started to get a serious foothold in the market. However, the styles in which the two authors approach their subjects are very different, and it's interesting to compare them.
Sheff's Game Over contained very little conversational dialogue. He wrote his book like a reporter: documenting scenes and incidents by describing the people and particulars involved, the content of what they said, and the effect of their interactions. His book was full of individual quotes, but the large majority of them were presented matter-of-factly as accounts made by the subject either directly to the author in interview, or to another source of record which Sheff was citing. In-scene "dialogue" was used sparingly, and mostly limited to short lines that reflected exactly what was known by the...

United States on May 19, 2014

Alexander I.: Ich bin mit diesem Buch etwas zweigespalten, obwohl es mir prinzipiell sehr gut gefallen hat und ich auch ohne weiter nachzudenken 4 Sterne dafür geben kann. Das Buch strotzt vor Informationen, die man vorher noch nicht kannte und eine sehr aufregende Zeit meiner Jugend erhellen. Noch dazu ist es gut, flüssig und unterhaltsam geschrieben. Der Autor hat zweifelos Interviews mit Dutzenden beteiligten Personen und sehr aufwändige Recherchen betrieben.

Wo liegt nun mein Problem? Der Autor hat versucht, das Buch wie einen dramatischen Roman zu schreiben. Hierfür beginnt das Buch mit dem Hinweis, dass Dialoge so nie stattgefunden haben, zeitliche Abfolgen verkürzt und die Geschichte dramatisiert wurde. Auch wenn sich der Autor anschliessend bemüht zu betonen, dass alle inhaltlichen Fakten trotz allem wahr sind, stört mich diese Herangehensweise doch enorm. Es hinterlässt schlicht einen der berühmten "Fake"-Eindrücke, deren man im TV und überall sonst mittlerweile zu Genüge begegnet. Das Thema ist spannend genug, das es auch in der (passenderen) Form eines reinen Sachbuches hätte erzählt werden können. Im Buch kommen schliesslich auch nicht-künstlich-dramatisierte...

Germany on May 16, 2014