Review: Console Wars

I grew up a diehard Sega fanboy. Like most kids who grew up in the early days of gaming, I did own a Atari 2600 and an NES (and eventually a Super NES). But I bled Sega blue the moment I experienced the 16-bit Sega Genesis. And this was before Sonic even came out. Sure, SNES had some of my favorites of all time like Legend of Zelda & Chrono Trigger. But Genesis not only had Sonic but also Aladdin, Streets of Rage, ToeJam & Earl (which I still play all the time), Shining Force, Mutant League Football, etc.

That loyalty pretty lasted up until Sega exited the console race. I had a Game Gear, I owned a Sega CD. I tried to own a 32x but couldn’t get the damn thing to work. When the Saturn came out, I had to have one for Christmas. And of course I had to own a Dreamcast the minute that came out. I actually rented it through Hollywood Video before it even came out. I had no idea about sales numbers. Sega was awesome and made cool games. That was it.

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Then suddenly, it was over. In early 2001, Sega announced they would stop making consoles and focus on software. I was crushed, as were many of the Sega faithful. It was over. The upstart Sega, that had once taken on and briefly beaten the mighty Nintendo in the 16-bit days, was gone and would never be the same again.

Console Wars, by Blake J. Harris, isn’t the entire story of Sega. It is however, the story of the most important period of the company’s life. The 16-bit wars. How a company that by all rights should not have stood a chance against the mighty Nintendo, which owned over 90% of the video game business. The video game industry at that time was really just Nintendo. How could anybody break their stranglehold?

Console Wars is also about the war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan. How their philosophies differed to the point that while Sega was enjoying immense success in America, in Japan they did not reap nearly the same rewards, and it caused resentment and animosity between the two branches.

Console Wars is a story about people. The ragtag wild and risk-taking group that Tom Kalinske, who made his name off making Barbie big again when the doll was fading from the public consciousness, put together with nothing to lose. With far less money and virtually no mind share, he set out to make Sega a name and prove that someone actually could topple Nintendo.

Finally, Console Wars is at the same time about wars between competing companies. Sure, there’s the war between Sega & Nintendo, that’s the one everybody is well aware of. Then there was the quiet war between two companies that should’ve worked together, but were at odds at just about every turn. Console Wars is also about the war between Sega of America and Sega of Japan. How their philosophies differed to the point that while Sega was enjoying immense success in America, in Japan they did not reap nearly the same rewards, and it caused resentment and animosity between the two branches.

To go into to much more detail would be spoiling a lot of the book, because Console Wars really is about the battles on all these fronts and more. Harris does an excellent job characterizing and personalizing the events. There are some scenes and dialogue that seem at best unlikely, and some dramatic liberties seem to have been taken in order to up the drama and paint people certain ways, but it works far better than just presenting it as cold hard facts.

It’s kind of amazing that the story takes place over the span of just a few short years (roughly 6) because Console Wars makes both the battle between Nintendo & Sega as well as the battle between Sega of America and Sega of Japan seem like an eternal, never-ending struggle right up til the end.

As someone whose true formative gaming years were in this era, I can heartily recommend Console Wars as a must read for pretty much anyone who played video games in the 16-bit days. It’s a fascinating look into the corporate practices and culture of both Sega and Nintendo (and Sony a little bit as well) and how everything went down from the inside.

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