Blake J. Harris
Console Wars
ISBN: 978-0-06-227670-4
If I’ve learned anything over the course of the last few years neck-deep in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it’s that any time companies begin to think less like a scrappy startup and more like a stodgy, conservative corporation, the quality of the company declines. Inversely, if a traditional company down on its luck is willing to think and behave more like a startup, a turnaround in fortunes is much more likely. The rise and fall of Sega of America as told in Console Wars by Blake J. Harris illustrates these points quite clearly.
Console Wars tells the story of Tom Kalinske, who led Sega of America through its most memorable phase in the early to mid-1990s, during the Sega Genesis console era. He was picked for the job by the head of Sega of Japan due to his success turning around Mattel in the 1980s. When Kalinske arrived at Sega, he found a ragtag team who were just barely hanging on after a series of flops. After butting heads with Sega of Japan, the team at Sega of America received permission to market the new 16-bit console on their own terms, and began to defeat their biggest rival, Nintendo of America. However, after a series of missteps and blunders by Sega and the introduction of the Sony Playstation in the mid 1990s, Sega of America faded back into obscurity.
Sega of America was in a precarious position when Kalinske took over, and according to the book, inflexibility at Sega of Japan was the main cause for their problems. Sega of Japan was a much older company, and the business environment in Japan at the time was very conservative – essentially the opposite of everything you think of when discussing startups in America. Kalinske was able to buy a bit of time and revive the brand in America, but the head office across the Pacific was not happy that the American office was becoming the dominant part of the partnership.
While the book is surprisingly detailed and lengthy, clocking in at well over 500 pages, it was a fast-paced read. I think this was due to the amount of nostalgia throughout the book, and the fun of reading about that period from a different angle. I personally remember the video game commercials of the early 1990s, where many of us at school imitated the “Sega Scream” from the ads when we were at recess, and the differences between the Sega displays at Toys ‘R’ Us and the Nintendo displays. The Nintendo stuff in the first part of the 1990s was aimed more at my age demographic – I turned 10 in 1993 – while the Sega games seemed to be meant for older kids and teenagers.
This isn’t the type of book I usually review. Most of the books I review are more straightforward business books, usually around 200-250 pages. I thought that this book fit the category because it demonstrates the differences between agile startup thinking and the rot that sets in when established companies because complacent. You see this time and again, when startups mature through multiple rounds of funding and an IPO. Runway is no longer a problem for these companies, and many of these companies are just floating along waiting to be acquired by someone larger. Only the companies that continue thinking like startups survive and become the largest players in their markets.
Overall, 10/10, would highly recommend as a great look into an amazing period of time in the world of video games, and a fantastic tale of the push and pull that can happen in companies where one portion of the company wants to move one direction and the other wants to move in another. The Kalinske reign at Sega of America felt like the type of ride teams go on when forming a fast-scaling startup – lots of ups and downs, lots of late nights, victories and defeats. Like any roller coaster, it’s not for anyone. However, it makes for a great story looking back three decades.