Name: Patrick Book's review of Console Wars by Blake J. Harris
Item: Console Wars
Rating: 4
Author: Patrick Book

Blake J. Harris

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.

Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

Console Wars

Ryan Lane

Patrick Book

A wonderfully compelling narrative and an insightful look at how much misery goes into creating an instrument of joy!

Colton Ray

This book started off interesting, but quickly slipped down to mediocre. It's just way too long. I say that about a lot of the books I read because I think it's true. I love concise, well-told stories as much as I love long, sprawling epics, but not everything has to be so drawn out.

This book looks at video games from a business perspective, and it succeeds at that. I skimmed the parts talking about market shares and board meetings and Japanese business practices, but that's just because I found the most interesting part of the book was what was least focused on - the games.

The main problem that most reviewers have had with this book is the way this true story was fictionalized. The author claims to have done interviews with most of the major movers and shakers in the story and credits them at the end, but I would have loved to hear their story in their own words. Including even just bits and pieces of these interviews would have done wonders for both the clarity and the authenticity of this book. As it is, Harris is mostly just fabricating conversations, which is a shame because the dialogue he chooses is pretty stilted and ham-handed. It also seems there was more than a little manufactured drama, which is understandable given that it is a fictionalization. 

I loved when he dug into the details of how certain games were made and their impact on pop culture - the Sonic games obviously receive the most praise, and rightfully so. However, mentions of Altered Beast and Ecco the Dolphin made my heart happy.

This really does not feel like an objective book, as Harris comes off as a Sega fanboy. I don't mind this as I'm a Sega fanboy myself, but he does tend to paint Nintendo as this obstinate, controlling corporate entity, which I'm sure wasn't always the case.

I really would have enjoyed this better if it was shorter. For such a long book, it really only covers a few years in general overview. A book that could have been a definitive look into the minds of two opposing companies in their fight for console domination ends up being a mediocre paraphrase that barely skims the top of a fascinating conflict and leaves you wanting more.

I loved Console Wars! It's long, but to cover everything, I can understand why. I couldn't put it down. I didn't imagine it to be this fascinating. Considering that growing up, I always preferred Sega over Nintendo, this was a great read as it focuses mainly on Sega's side of the story. Even though the Sega Saturn failed, and Sega didn't end up working with Sony to build a new console and knowing how things ended up for Sega before reading the book, I was rooting for them and the Megadrive/Genesis the whole way. Nintendo ultimately won the Console Wars, but for the short period in which Tom Kalinske worked for Sega, they had a real shot at dethroning the reigning king. If you have any interest in video games and would like to know some of the histories, this, in my opinion, is a great read.

"Console Wars" is a book about the 1990s battle between Sega and Nintendo for video game dominance. It covers their strategies, highlights, and failures. It gives an inside look at the cutthroat world of video game production—a little long but interesting glimpse into 16-bit video game history.

Frank Enns

I loved Console Wars! It's long, but to cover everything, I can understand why. I couldn't put it down. I didn't imagine it to be this fascinating. Considering that growing up, I always preferred Sega over Nintendo, this was a great read as it focuses mainly on Sega's side of the story. Even though the Sega Saturn failed, and Sega didn't end up working with Sony to build a new console and knowing how things ended up for Sega before reading the book, I was rooting for them and the Megadrive/Genesis the whole way. Nintendo ultimately won the Console Wars, but for the short period in which Tom Kalinske worked for Sega, they had a real shot at dethroning the reigning king. If you have any interest in video games and would like to know some of the histories, this, in my opinion, is a great read.

"Console Wars" is a book about the 1990s battle between Sega and Nintendo for video game dominance. It covers their strategies, highlights, and failures. It gives an inside look at the cutthroat world of video game production—a little long but interesting glimpse into 16-bit video game history.

Jowanza Joseph

One of the best books I've read in a long time. I'm not a gamer by any real stretch but this story is fascinating form a business prospective and a historical one. I would recommend it to anyone, especially anyone who had a Sega Genesis / SuperNES and wanted to know the backstory of the companies.

Nico J

It's sitting between a 3.5 and a 4, but I'll round it up maybe just out of exasperation reading the reviews that were highly critical of their opinion of a book that never billed itself as such a narrative to begin with. The beginning made it clear there were going to be parts that were a bit fictionalized and it seemed that, considering those almost endearingly-corny details, it was almost . . . told like a video game narrative would play out. The more I muse on it, the more I think it's exactly the point. We always remember our nostalgia and history fondly and in our favor, and it's been discussed in studies that we mis-remember our own memories of things, so it's not surprising that if people were being interviewed on events that happened several years before, they would look back on that time fondly and fiercely, and edit the emotions and feelings in the moment.

I would wager it's slightly less about facts and figures and more about the marketing that was cobbled together, the pain points, the story of the scrappy underdog (common in forms of media and I think Americans in particular gobble these up; it's not a bad thing), and Tom and his vision and journey. He's an incredibly lucky person as well, getting to put his hands on something so vast and shape it to his vision, and I ended the book wanting to know more about his career as well as that of all the other players involved in the rise and fall / flattening of Sega. It occupies a weird space between fact and fiction, novelization, corny video game narrative, character studies, and grains of truth, though none of this makes it a bad book.

It makes sense that it was a Sega-focused book; previously I read "Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America" and noted in that review that so many details are hard to get at with Nintendo. They keep details and secrets close to the chest and even in this book, we get the same impression. Also in that review I admit that I was a Nintendo kid, so this focus on a different part of the market and type of audience is interesting to me.

Curious to research where all of these executives ended up or what they've had their hand in. One thing that I did take away was that breaking into the higher echelons of talent is a difficult process and they all seem to dominate the top floors of companies because of who they know and their great track records.

Adam

I remember getting a Nintendo for Christmas in the late 80s and it shaping my entire childhood. Later on I'd go onto to get a Super Nintendo, a Genesis and a Playstation before heading to college and eventually buying any system I wanted. The systems that truely shaped my gaming experience were, without a doubt NES, SNES and PSX.

Console Wars goes into the history of Nintendo, Sega and Sony with the rise of the console industry in America. Having been a kid at the time, I did't know show much of an underdog Sega was at the time -- and how badly managed Sega was in Japan. Nintendo had it's problems as well. The story behind the creation of Donkey Kong Country was amazing and made me surprised the game even got made -- better yet that it was (possibly) the best game for that system.

Rachel

THIS BOOK. I want to find my older brothers Sega and Nintendo systems and games and have a decent crack at them. Console Wars is such a great read. I grew up during this era, but I had no idea what was going on. All I know for certain now is my brother was spoiled, he had both systems (as well as all the others I think minus the portables) and so many games and he did not like for me to play on them often. Spoiled. That didn’t stop me from playing them when he wasn’t at home though :X.

Console Wars tells the great story of how Sega went head to head with Nintendo in the early 1990s. Nintendo was dominating the video game industry and Sega was some little company trying to get in the game in Japan and America. Tom Kalinske made that dream a reality, he is the reason people know of Sega and Sonic in America. The book goes into great deal of who the main players area and the events that built both Sega and Nintendo and the eventual downfall of Sega. It flows wells, there is a warning about the conversations being fabricated but based on what people remember and with the point of getting the main true points across. You know going in what the ending is going to be, but I kept somehow hoping that there was some way Sega and Tom turned it around and were still in the industry in a different sense, but ya just read it. I really hope Blake Harris does a Xbox vs Playstation book!

Pete Petrash

Fun read. Sega and Nintendo and the conflict between the two were a huge part of my childhood. Getting to read about what was happening behind the scenes is fascinating, especially as I'm now involved in product development. My favorite pieces of the story were the origin stories of game-changing games like Sonic and Mario. While it was really interesting to see the contrast in each company's marketing strategy, I found myself wishing there were more anecdotes from the hardware/software development side of things. After all, based on the narrative presented, Sonic was largely responsible for Sega's early traction in the US -- while the book does briefly touch on the development of Sonic, I was a bit disappointed the book is so heavily skewed toward the marketing side of the story. Still, this was a worthwhile read and Blake Harris is awesome for 1. recognizing it was a story worth telling and 2. connecting with many of the people involved and weaving a compelling story from their anecdotes.

Michael Hessling

An OK book. Fine history, although I confess that I knew 0 people with a Sega Genesis. For me, there was no war between Nintendo and Sega: it was all Nintendo. And I stopped playing video games by the time the Playstation came out, so I missed that war, too. But the book is about the real war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, and it's too bad SOA never had a real chance.

Mario all the way, though.

Ryan Lane &
Console Wars by Blake J. Harris

Reviews

Join the club

Ryan Lane &Console Wars by Blake J. Harris

Reviews

Join the club

Ryan Lane &
Console Wars by Blake J. Harris