Console Wars (film)

Console Wars
Film poster
Directed by	Jonah Tulis Blake J. Harris
Based on	Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle That Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris
Produced by	Jonah Tulis Blake J. Harris Seth Rogen Evan Goldberg
Music by	Jeff Beal
Production companies	Legendary Television CBS Television Studios Point Grey Pictures
Distributed by	CBS All Access
Release date	September 23, 2020 (2020-09-23)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States

Console Wars is a 2020 documentary directed by Jonah Tulis and Blake J. Harris. The film is about the 1990s console wars between Nintendo and Sega in the 16-bit era and the rise and fall of Sega in the home console market. It is based on Harris's 2014 book and is the first original film for CBS All Access, now Paramount+.

Premise

The documentary is based over the popular novel console war by Blake J Harris and covers the console wars during the late 1990”s, the documentary explores the histories of gaming behemoths Sega and Nintendo and how both rivaled one another during the 1990s, The documentary focuses on Sega’s strategies as well as Nintendo’s during their campaigns to beat out one another, the events in the documentary eventually bottle up which leads to the fall of Sega during the late 90s.

Summary

The documentary console war covers the topic of the infamous console war's of the late 1990's and how two giant gaming icons rivaled one another to claim the title as top game seller during the late 1990's. The documentary covers the strategies Sega and Nintendo implemented during their campaigns to best one another and covers how their unique takes towards the market lead to the influence the console war has on modern gaming. The documentary explores the outcomes of both gaming behemoths and how both market strategies lead to the success and fall of both companies, the documentary contains neutrality for both sides portrayed in the film and clarifies the major events that transpired between rivals Sega and Nintendo.

Development

The idea for the development of Console Wars first came about in 2010, when author Blake J Harris was gifted a retro Sega Genesis console. He found great sense of nostalgia playing the retro console, and renewed curiosity about the iconic Console Wars between Sega and Nintendo in the 90s. He was surprised by how little movies and books existed about the console wars between Sega and Nintendo, so he decided to conduct his own research. Harris was still deciding upon the exact story he wanted to talk about for Sega and Nintendo, and ideas started to come to fruition when he and his business partner, Jacob Tulis, managed to get a meeting with producers and game enthusiasts Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg in 2012. Rogen and Goldberg loved the idea so much that they agreed to help get a book published and a documentary made. Producer Scott Rudin also wanted in and helped with financing the documentary through a book auction to Harper Collins Publishing Company and was able to influence Sony to gain rights to the documentary.

In 2014, a hack tied to North Korea saw millions of Sony emails and media get leaked, including Sony's plans to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The attack was thought to be in response to Kim Jon Un’s depiction in Seth Rogen's comedy, The Interview. This incident threatened The Console Wars documentary's development. In the end, Sony switched the rights to the documentary over to Legendary studios in 2018, and it was released as a CBS All Access Documentary in 2020.

Old video footage for the documentary, showing the dynamic between Nintendo and Sega, was obtained through Harris’s VHD-to-DVD converter.

Reception

The documentary's structure has been contested, with some critics believing that Nintendo's introduction came too late. Some feel that it is unfocused, and while intriguing, focuses too heavily on Sega. Others feel that the interviews in the film do proper justice to showcasing the idea that the employees at Sega America were a part of something special. The documentary has been perceived as a "nostalgic trip" telling a David and Goliath-type story.

The documentary received a score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Credibility

The documentary console war’s was first introduced to the public during March 2020, previous to the film being published Author Blake J Harris was the original creator of the novel console wars the novel was considered marginally successful but the credibility of Blake J. Harris was questioned. Blake J Harris's writing style put off critics as his writing could be viewed as bias but not in the way one would expect it, author Blake J Harris would portray both sides as some kind of hero, heroically battling their rival for the top. This portrayal persists within the novel up until the section where Blake J Harris would break this and reach nuance when exploring Sega’s first major success, Harris also never goes into depth why the Sega /Nintendo rivalry was important. This alongside Harris’s closeness to his sources reduces his credibility as an author, the issues with the novel could be overlooked if the narrative of corporate espionage was better written as the novel could also be boring at times as Harris's take on the admittedly dramatic era in the video-game industry would become boring at times, Harris’s overuse of clichés and linguistic playfulness causes many issues within the novel’s credibility and readability.

See also

• GameStop: Rise of the Players – 2022 film directed by Jonah TulisPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback

External links

• Console Wars at IMDb