The battleof digital giants

The battleof digital giants

Book recounts the rivalry between and 'groundbreaking' changes to the video game industry made by Sega and Nintendo in the 1990s

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
The battleof digital giants

In the business world, it's generally acknowledged that with competition comes innovation.

This is a common notion — and also the pitch Blake J. Harris's Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, And The Battle That Defined A Generation attempts to sell. The book recounts the tense rivalry between video game companies Sega and Nintendo in North America in the 1990s, leading to groundbreaking changes in the industry and popular culture, the impact of which is still visible today.

The book begins with a screenplay-formatted foreword by Superbad and Pineapple Express creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who quickly come off as a pair of grown-up juveniles — both men discuss at great lengths their video game experiences, past loves and popular culture.

While the dialogue exchanged between Rogen and Goldberg is lighthearted, comical and ridiculous, it does nonetheless capture the significance of the console wars waged by Sega and Nintendo, namely in the impact the two companies had on the industry at the time.

After the crash of industry in North America in 1983, Nintendo emerged as a video game giant on the continent with the successful 1985 release of its eight-bit console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

The NES was unique, rendering game cartridges without specific Nintendo chips useless. Nintendo soon became somewhat of a monopoly — it could take royalties from third-party developers that wanted to make games for the system, as well as determine which games it would release.

Seeing Nintendo's success, Sega began to strategise and stepped up the competition. This led to the enlistment of Tom Kalinske, the president and CEO of Sega of America from 1990-96, who largely serves as Console Wars' protagonist.

Although Kalinske had no industry experience prior to joining Sega — his accomplishments included taking Barbie dolls into the designer market and making vitamins popular by shaping them into characters from The Flintstones.

He nonetheless transformed Sega from a small-time video game company into Nintendo's most fearsome rival by introducing the now-iconic mascot Sonic the Hedgehog (a Mario equivalent), using aggressive marketing tactics and extending the company's reach toward older gamers with Sega's 16-bit video game console, the Sega Genesis.

The rivalry between the two companies led to a division in the video game industry — Sega took the older crowd with titles such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap, while Nintendo's strength was entrenched in the younger, with titles such as Super Mario Bros. The world of video games has since never been the same, only becoming more diverse, interactive and graphic-driven.

While Harris admits, "most of the dialogue in [Console Wars] has been re-created" and that "in certain situations, details of setting and description have been altered, reconstructed, or imagined", his writing style of blended fact and fiction turns dry history into a visual, film-reminiscent story.

There is even a talk of Rogen and Goldberg adapting the book for the silver screen.

In some instances, however, the writing falls flat. At times the free-flowing narrative becomes a double-edged sword — straying from narrative journalism and veering too near the terrain of pure fiction, leaving readers to yearn for the historical accuracy behind each word.

Despite stylistic weaknesses, Console Wars is a captivating read. It's written in an accessible manner and a fine work of video game journalism.

Whether you're a seasoned gamer or general reader, the book's insights into the industry and the marketing behind it provide more than enough fodder for the average game buff.

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