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Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation Hardcover – May 13, 2014
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NOW A CBS ALL ACCESS FILM, PRODUCED BY SETH ROGEN AND EVAN GOLDBERG
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Slate, Publishers Weekly, Goodreads
Following the success of The Accidental Billionaires and Moneyball comes Console Wars—a mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how Sega, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary and a team of rebels, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the video game industry.
In 1990, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the video game industry. Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But that would all change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a man who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat and bold ideas of his renegade employees, transformed Sega and eventually led to a ruthless David-and-Goliath showdown with rival Nintendo.
The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and schoolyards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the US against Japan.
Based on over two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the underdog tale of how Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punchline into a market leader. It’s the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, birth a $60 billion dollar industry.
- Print length576 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherIt Books
- Publication dateMay 13, 2014
- Dimensions6 x 1.7 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100062276697
- ISBN-13978-0062276698
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Review
A riveting story full of colorful characters… a fascinating, illuminating history… an essential read. — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
A highly entertaining behind-the-scenes thriller. — Kirkus Reviews
It’s far and away one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. — Forbes
Like the pixels that together create a larger picture, Harris presents the various elements of the business in vivid color...remarkably detailed and fast paced. — Booklist
Fast, fluid, and startingly accessible. — Entertainment Weekly
A fast-paced page-turner...it’s exciting to finally get a no-holds-barred account of a history that has largely been kept secret from the public eye. — Wired
A must-read. Period. — IGN
From the Back Cover
A mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how Sega, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary and a team of rebels, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the videogame industry—in development as a feature film from Sony Pictures
In 1990, Nintendo had a virtual monopoly on the videogame industry. Sega, on the other hand, was just a faltering arcade company with big aspirations and even bigger personalities. But all that would change with the arrival of Tom Kalinske, a former Mattel executive who knew nothing about videogames and everything about fighting uphill battles. His unconventional tactics, combined with the blood, sweat, and bold ideas of his renegade employees, completely transformed Sega and led to a ruthless, David-and-Goliath showdown with Nintendo. Little did he realize that Sega's success would create many new enemies and, most important, make Nintendo stronger than ever.
The battle was vicious, relentless, and highly profitable, eventually sparking a global corporate war that would be fought on several fronts: from living rooms and school yards to boardrooms and Congress. It was a once-in-a-lifetime, no-holds-barred conflict that pitted brother against brother, kid against adult, Sonic against Mario, and the United States against Japan.
Based on more than two hundred interviews with former Sega and Nintendo employees, Console Wars is the tale of how Tom Kalinske miraculously turned an industry punch line into a market leader. Blake J. Harris brings into focus the warriors, the strategies, and the battles and explores how they transformed popular culture forever. Ultimately, Console Wars is the story of how a humble family man, with an extraordinary imagination and a gift for turning problems into competitive advantages, inspired a team of underdogs to slay a giant and, as a result, give birth to a sixty-billion-dollar industry.
About the Author
Blake J. Harris is the bestselling author of History of the Future and Console Wars, which is now a CBS All Access feature film by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. He has written for ESPN, IGN, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, /Film and The AV Club. He is also a regular guest on Paul Scheer’s How Did This Get Made? podcast, where every week he interviews some the biggest names responsible for some of the worst movies ever made. Harris lives in New York with his wife.
Product details
- Publisher : It Books (May 13, 2014)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 576 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0062276697
- ISBN-13 : 978-0062276698
- Item Weight : 1.65 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.7 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #653,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #133 in Entertainment Industry
- #543 in Social Aspects of Technology
- #1,042 in Company Business Profiles (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Blake J. Harris is the two-time bestselling author of Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation (2014) and The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook and the Revolution that Swept Virtual Reality(2019). His first book, Console Wars, is currently being adapted for television by Legendary Entertainment, and producers Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg and Scott Rudin; in addition to serving as an executive producer on the adaptation, Harris also co-directed the CONSOLE WARS documentary (2020).
Harris has written pieces for Fast Company, ESPN, /Film, Complex and a variety of other publications.
He is currently working on his third book right now: a biography about the great Larry David.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on January 12, 2018
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What I wasn't expecting was the story of the people involved, and what a small world the industry was at the time. The author interviewed most of the original people in the book, which lends stories a lot of us were already aware of (like Nintendo being the unintentional catalyst for the Sony Playstation) a lot more depth and detail. Some of the themes of the book are still very relevant and visible today, like the cultural gulf between Japan and the US. One of the best examples was the shocking peek into what the original Japanese concept for Sonic the Hedgehog would have been without the intervention of Sega America. Also, we get a peek into some of the first attempts to use DRM-like technical controls to exercise control over a market. Then, of course, we see the first attempts to break or get around DRM.
I'm really looking forward to the documentary and dramatized movie, as the one thing you really crave while reading this book are some images and video to go along with the descriptions. It would be great for someone to put together a YouTube playlist of the old commercials and footage of the gameplay mentioned in the book - at least, until the documentary comes out, which I'm sure will scratch this particular itch.
A must read for any console gamers like myself that feverishly read Nintendo Power and Electronic Gaming Monthly cover-to-cover back in the late 80's and early 90's. Perhaps they are out there and I'm just not aware of them, but I'd really love to see more of these books. I'm sure there's at least a book of this size in telling Atari's story; Nintendo's constant battle for market share with much larger & well funded foes (Sony and eventually Microsoft); how the Dreamcast came to be the end of Sega's console business; how Resident Evil 4 killed the Gamecube and flooded the market with $30 used consoles; Microsoft's decision to jump into the market; How Nintendo reshaped the market again by reinventing the game controller; how the Indie market and smartphones impacted the gaming markets; and so on. So many stories to tell...
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 subject or other observers to have been said, or something very close to it. This gave Sheff's book a journalistic crackle, keeping the pace moving, the flow of information constant, and the level of authorial distance removed enough that the reader always maintained a panoramic view of the bigger picture, and didn't get bogged down in superfluous, artificial detail.
In contrast, Harris's book is written like a screenplay, with full "scenes" that progress via elaborate, lengthy dialogues between "characters", while novel-esque, detailed stage directions record their precise movements and interior thoughts, all of which can only have been manufactured by the author (as he himself loosely admits in his author's note) based on the factual framework of an interaction that did occur. Where Game Over was a documentary, this book is much more a historical re-enactment. It's obvious that Harris already had a film in mind when he was writing, and the cinematically styled sharp, pithy dialogue (or at least, attempts at such), and conversational set-ups and payoffs were designed to translate easily to the eventual film. This may make the book more engaging than Sheff's reserved style for some, but I found it distracting and a little gratuitous. Irrelevant detail often gets in the way of what's interesting and entertaining about the information.
That said, the information and voluminous research this book does contain is incredibly valuable, and makes for a truly rewarding read. The saga of the Sega and Nintendo battle in the US is as fascinating and provoking as any story the business world has to offer, and there's more than a little tragedy in seeing how Tom Kalinske and Sega of America were able to achieve a brilliant and improbable success, only to be cut off at their knees, in the end, by Sega of Japan. The often clumsily overwritten "reconstructed" dialogue by Harris makes me doubt I'd be interested in any fiction of his, but this particular subject matter is rich enough that my issue with his authorial indulgences is just a quibble. This is by all means a book worth reading.
Top reviews from other countries
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 most events described it is accurate.
Also the book is very US centric to the point of Xenophobia, the Sega of Japan are portrayed as bumbling idiots and one time explained as all cowards unlike the Sega of Amerca who must all wear capes with S emblazed upon their chests such is there flawless and constant heroic decision making. I can't vouch either way personally how Sega of Japan were, but I strongly believe they were far better than this book portrays them. It basically reeks of egotistical people recounting a story where nostalgia and hindsight makes them all into flawless heroes.
The book has mistakes in it and the mistakes and ommissions seem bizarre until you realise that Blake has mostly interviewed the suits in marketing and so you are dealing with those peoples mistaken knowledge... examples such as Nintendo going from Hanafuda cards straight to electric console (missing the all important toys) , bizarre statements like Mario was built as a Joust clone, to unforgivable mistakes in the book like Mario Kart was the first game to shock the world with Mode 7... or Rare software chose the ZX Spectrum as it was the most powerful system available.
Reading the above you probably are wondering why I have given it four stars? Well despite its mistakes I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and for the most part the events described are very accurate and bang on (i would say 95% right), and when combined with a writer able to make the story both interesting and compelling.
At its heart its a David and Golliath story, with Sega thwarting the giant that was Nintendo. Treat the book as Hollywood war film blockbuster, that is expect it to have a slant from reality about the importance of America and to be willing to bend the truth and occasionally break it, all to ensure that the central story arc isn't diminished. Accept that as I did and you will find much to enjoy and love with this book.
I just hope Blake Harris considers releasing the transcripts of all his interviews as I would love to be able determine the reality from the Hollywood in the book.
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 as stuffy and controlling, where Sega tend to be presented as bright, breezy, and faultless. It’s clear from the book that Sega made mistakes too, but these are always excused - and nearly always attributed to Sega Japan - whereas any Nintendo mistakes are picked apart. The book largely ignores markets outside North America (understandable perhaps when this is where the author hails from).
I don’t want to be too down on the book as overall it was a decent read. Take the cringeworthy conversations out and you are left with a very well-researched book with interesting input of the big hitters from the time, and the facts and figures to back things up where necessary.
As anyone who was into their 8 and 16-bit consoles in the UK will know, Nintendo treated Europe very much as a 2nd class society (long delays for game releases - if they were released at all - which were unoptimised for the region and very high prices) and sadly the book doesn't touch on this market, focussing on the the US market. From my memory of the time, the SNES was clearly the better console although the Mega Drive had some fantastic games but as the book shows - it's not always how good something is, it's about how it is marketed.
Never knew that they had been so close to an alliance with Sony, how different things could have been if the PlayStation had been a joint venture!
Great read for 30 something's that had any of the big 2s consoles and love video games.
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 all time underdog upsets when Sega USA pushed Nintendo in the second place spot, the book is guilty of being a bit of a rose tinted love letter (The author even name checks him as a “Great guy” in the acknowledgements).
Most of the achievements of Sega are attributed to him and his team while seemingly blaming anything bad that happened on Japan. This is especially jarring with the 32X which is portrayed as something that was foisted on him when most sources agree that it was largely Sega USA’s baby and developed by a team under his control.
Perhaps worst of all the book asks the question why Sega Japan was so hard on Sega USA and comes to the conclusion “No one knows, probably jealousy” without acknowledging that Sega USAs overspending and price slashing saddled Sega with large debts that restricted their ability to compete with the Playstation.
Despite all these complaints it’s an entertaining book as long as you take it with a substantial pinch of salt and I’m sure most gamers of the early 90’s will enjoy the warm glow of nostalgia.













