Customer Reviews

Game Over Press Start To Continue

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...I'd be worth almost as much as M. Arakawa. This book has been referenced many, many times in various articles. If some reporter needs a "secret" fact about Nintendo, they'll turn to this book. "Did you know the president of Nintendo of America has a tendency to fall asleep?" and so on. Of course, this book is worthy of all that referencing, as it is one interesting tale of a pretty interesting, if not secretive, company. If you're interested in knowing a little more about what *really* was the cause of some of the biggest video games in history, this is one source of knowledge. The best part about the book is, if you're a fan of Nintendo (or video games in general) , this book will grab your attention and not let go. For as much of the book is spent on Tetris, it's all that more interesting. Hearing about secret meetings in Communist-run facilities, with these guys from little video game companies running back and forth and deceiving these Russians who don't know what kind of hit they have on their hands... it's James Bond-level stuff! A great read!

How Sheff (and Eddy) got this kind of info may never be fully revealed, but this book is positively required reading for anybody even remotely interested in how the game business really works. At times, it reads like a spy novel--the intrigue revealed in the battle over the rights to Tetris could stand as its own adventure--and reveals many personal details about how Nintendo went from a humble family-owned playing card company (!) to one of the most powerful digital entertainment brands in the world. The book doubles as a brief history of video gaming in general, making it absolutely indispensable.

I was caught up in the Pokemon craze for a while and when I came across this book about Nintendo, the game company that distributed the game, I just had to read it. I was not to regret it.

The author had an easy style, one that merged dry facts with a fair amount of story telling. He also managed to throw in suspense at regular intervals, just like a novel. But that is what makes this book, in my opinion, an excellent one. There are serious lessons in business to be learned from this book, yet the author managed to tell it in a easily digestible style. Perhaps, it has got to do with his extensive experience in writing articles for magazines.

While it detailed the history of Nintendo and how it rose from a humble card-making operation to the dominant player in the world of video-games, I was more impressed with the management lessons that could be learned from the marketing genius of the company. Yamauchi, the person behind Nintendo, was clearly an astute businessman in his own right. While not as famous as the late Morita, he clearly has a place among the very best of Japanese businessmen in the 1980s.

The book also revealed the legal and social environment of the 1980s and early 1990s. In a country like America where litigation can be considered a profit centre of a large corporation, Nintendo was faced with several legal suits that could potentially cost it millions of dollars, including the possibility of bankruptcy. Coupled with the fact that America at that time was also faced with one of the largest trade deficits with Japan and Japan-bashing was the call of the day, how Nintendo managed to survive those years was another interesting sub-plot in the book.

My favourite sub-plot must have been how Atari managed to illegally get access of Nintendo's technology through the Copyright Office, the department meant to preserve intellectual property in the first place. If nothing else, it showed the fallibility of the legal system and the craftiness and desperation of the video-games companies.

My only complaint is that the author has not come up with a newer edition that charts Nintendo's progress in the last few years especially with phenomenal hits like Pokemon that Nintendo has come up with. Also, the impact of PS2 from Sony on Nintendo will make interesting reading. I would definitely like to know about those developments.

All in, it was a thoroughly enjoyable book. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the industry of video games. I also recommend it to Nintendo fans or managers and entrepreneurs who want to know more about growing new products and companies. I am confident that even picking one tip from the book is worth the time reading it.

A fine history of Nintendo, one of the largest videogame companies operating today, which parlayed its success with the Donkey Kong arcade francise into its replacement of Atari as the company name ubiquitous with videogaming. The original portion was written by David Sheff, obviously someone with a lot of access to the notoriously tightly-knit inner sanctum of Mother N. It is followed up by new chapters by Andy Eddy.

Everything you would expect is here, from Nintendo's humble beginnings as a Hanafuda playing-card company in 1889 to the release of the N64 game console in 1996. During the journey we are introduced to all of the players involved, along with their facinating bios. From Japanese president Hiroshi Yamauchi, to game design wunderkind Sigeru Miyamoto, to Nintendo of America head Minoru Arakawa...we follow the early stumbles of the fledgling company, and its rise to the top of the vicious, cut-throat videogame market with the help of some Western allies. Game Over delivers both a facinating glimpse into the operations of a Japanese conglomerate, as well as a thrill-ride though the volatile games industry. Author of the original book Sheff adopts an easy-going, if somewhat dry, prose style...but it still reads better than your typical business tome.

You know that any company as tight-lipped and controlling as Nintendo is going to try and put the thumb on any would-be biographer looking for privledged access, and while I won't go so far as to call Game Over biased towards Nintendo, it certainly does lean towards the point-of-view of its subject matter. However, saying this, the book does not gloss over the rather ruthless practices that Nintendo has engaged in, both with its facist attitude towards its licencees, as well as with its battery of high-priced, go-for-the-throat lawyers. Of course, no company can rise as quickly to the top as Nintendo and not fall into the sites of hungry barristers, and Game Over sometimes gets bogged down in the morass of litigation fired at the company. Another thing I found lacking was a real in-depth look at the battles Mother N has engaged in with its two chief rivals: Sega and Sony. While the two companies are certainly mentioned, I was looking for a detailed battle-of-the-systems between them, something that unfortunately never materializes. I had hopes that this might be covered in the added-on chapters, but Eddy's entries are little more than reminises from the people involved.

So, in the end we have a perfectly facinating peek behind the pixel curtain, into the company that created the most kid-recognizable icon since Mickey Mouse. Mario, we hardly knew ye.

This book is absolutely fabulous. David Sheff succeeds in giving a vivid history of one of the greatest game companies. It captivates the reader with it's suspense. I especially liked the stories on how Nintendo won various lawsuits, how the different games were developed, how they got their names(especially Mario)and the company's struggle with negative press publicity. Brings out clearly American's obsession with video games and their original apathy towards the same. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Minoru Arakawa and the other founders are not only profiled in their professional capacities but also the struggles in their personal lives are well brought out. The author's quickness to point out when Nintendo was wrong and his sense of humour are uplifting. The book is an absolute must have for anyone interested in the world of business.

I picked this one up in the bargain bin of a local bookstore recently, and figured that it would be an interesting look at the company behind so many hours of my entertainment when I was a kid.

I was surprised to find a very interesting, well written, and in-depth book talking about all the major players in the industry, from the executives of Nintendo to the game designers at the individual software houses.

This book is a great deal of fun and you always want to see what's going happen next. Sheff makes it so dramatic that you wonder whether he's making it all up because its almost too good to be true.

There's no other book like it. I'm in the industry and I read it like a bible.

I am a very big Nintendo fan, and it was very interesting for me to learn about the history of this company. This book is very well written, but is also a little biased against Nintendo. Overall I think all Nintendo fans and video game fans in general will find this book very interesting.

A business book that has a solid narrative is a rarity, and this book, in explaining the history of videogames, is just such a rarity. An exceptionally interesting one at that.

See how ruthless Nintendo could be! See how incompetent Nintendo can be! Watch as the book finishes just as the 16 bit console market begins!

I was a little bit annoyed by Sheff's book-dedication to his child, that although they used to like videogames, they now like reading better. A little bit snobby from a book devoted to videogames: the new leisure pastime of the millennium. Or whatever.

This book rocks! I've been a loyal fan of Nintendo since the NES, have followed and done research for many years, but never did I realize everything that went on in and around Nintendo. From it's humble beginnings in 1889 to the present, this book does an excellent job of portraying the events that have made Nintendo the company it is today. Whether you love Nintendo, love to read, or even if you just need it for a book report (like me), this book is for you. Simply put, I couldn't put it down.