Console Wars

In one sentence: Blake J. Harris's account of Sega's run at Nintendo, read by both hosts — Ben argues the drama of that Genesis-era story is, for its brief moment, even more compelling than Nintendo's own.

Overview

The book reconstructs the scene of Tom Kalinske getting recruited by Sega's chairman on a Hawaii beach during a family vacation ("Tom Kalinske?") — a toy-industry outsider freshly ousted as Mattel's CEO, who then flew to Tokyo and pitched Sega's board a four-point plan to take on the entrenched incumbent Nintendo head-on.

Why It's Worth Reading

Ben says on the show: "David and I both read this book, Console Wars, which is really fun if you want the whole blow by blow on this." He then ranks its drama above Nintendo's own story: "For as compelling as the Nintendo story is, it's compelling because they won long term. For this brief moment of time, the Genesis era, I think Sega probably has an even more impressive narrative and hero's journey with Tom Kalinske."

Source

Referenced in Acquired's Nintendo: The Console Wars episode (2023-04-11) — the source for the Hawaii-beach recruitment scene and Sega's four-point plan.