Blake Harris’ newly released ‘Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation’ has been getting a great deal of media coverage in the non-specialist press. As the PR mantle of spin and image control starts to slip with the ravages of time, ‘Console Wars’ provides a wonderful insight into what was happening at Sega. The 90s saw them break Nintendo’s monopoly, promote gaming as a mainstream activity and then throw it all away in a trans-continental, dysfunctional strop between its different divisions. Amongst all this, first hand accounts of how Sega nearly worked with Sony in the post-Mega Drive hardware market, before almost beating Nintendo to the rights for Silicon Graphics technology, give a fascinating insight into what might-have-been. Check out the vast array of articles that have covered the book, and enjoy a little slice of when Sega led, rather than followed.
BBC News – Joystiq – Wired – Kotaku – Marketplace – Games Radar
