Sut mentioned he has begun this book about the Genesis vs SNES console struggle. Thought I might join him in a book club. Anyone else want to hop in?
One comment I saw on Amazon was that the book mostly ignores the technology, but focuses on the marketing and similar business issues. Given the war period includes a CD expansion, backing out of a cd expansion, virtua racer, donkey kong country, and the 32x we'll see how that focus plays out as I read.
Console Wars (book)
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Mario500
- Posts: 44
- Joined: April 22nd, 2015, 9:11 pm
Re: Console Wars (book)
I had read a copy of this book recently (up to page 183 (out of 576 pages) before having it returned to a local library) and did not like the rude language of its narration or its fictional dialogues for actual people.
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Sut
- Posts: 845
- Joined: April 8th, 2015, 4:23 pm
Re: Console Wars (book)
I'm finding the profanity perfectly within context and it's certainly not laden with rude language.
Personally I'm enjoying the style of narration as it brings the protagonists to life. As Scotland mentioned it's more about the marketing, the pivotal decisions, the constant clashes of culture between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, Nintendo's strong but sometimes head in the sand stance. Sony's introduction into the market (where I'm upto presently).
It is fascinating how brilliant Sega's team was at this point in time. They gave Nintendo the 'kiddie' tag and it's something Nintendo still cannot shrug off even today.
Personally I'm enjoying the style of narration as it brings the protagonists to life. As Scotland mentioned it's more about the marketing, the pivotal decisions, the constant clashes of culture between Sega of America and Sega of Japan, Nintendo's strong but sometimes head in the sand stance. Sony's introduction into the market (where I'm upto presently).
It is fascinating how brilliant Sega's team was at this point in time. They gave Nintendo the 'kiddie' tag and it's something Nintendo still cannot shrug off even today.
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Sut
- Posts: 845
- Joined: April 8th, 2015, 4:23 pm
Re: Console Wars (book)
Just finished this book and must say I'm disappointed with the final few chapters.
The book does a great job of telling the story of how Sega went from 5% market share to 55%.
The other side of the tale (ie Sega's fall) is skimmed over. I know the book is based around Tom Kalinski's time there but he was there for the 32x and Saturn. In a nutshell apparently Tom knew these where going to be disasters and it's all Japan's fault but for me it didn't go as deep into this part of the story as it did with the upsurge.
The book does a great job of telling the story of how Sega went from 5% market share to 55%.
The other side of the tale (ie Sega's fall) is skimmed over. I know the book is based around Tom Kalinski's time there but he was there for the 32x and Saturn. In a nutshell apparently Tom knew these where going to be disasters and it's all Japan's fault but for me it didn't go as deep into this part of the story as it did with the upsurge.