The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 2: Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and the Billion-Dollar Battle to Shape Modern Gaming

The definitive behind-the-scenes historical past of video video games’ explosion into the twenty-first century and the conflict for trade energy

“A zippy learn via a really deep analysis job. You gained’t wish to put this one down.”—Eddie Adlum, writer, RePlay Journal

As video video games evolve, solely the fittest corporations survive. Making a blockbuster as soon as price hundreds of thousands of {dollars}; now it may price lots of of hundreds of thousands, however with a $160 billion market worldwide, the largest gamers are prepared to wager the financial institution.

Steven L. Kent has been taking part in video video games since Pong and writing concerning the trade because the Nintendo Leisure System. In quantity 1 of The Final Historical past of Video Video games, he chronicled the trade’s first thirty years. In quantity 2, he narrates gaming’s entrance into the twenty-first century, as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft battle to seize the worldwide market.

The house console growth of the ’90s turned pastime corporations like Nintendo and Sega into Hollywood-studio-sized enterprise titans. However by the tip of the last decade, they might face new, extra highly effective opponents. In boardrooms on either side of the Pacific, engineers and executives started, with monumental budgets and complete secrecy, to plan the following evolution of dwelling consoles. The PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Sega Dreamcast all made radically totally different bets on what avid gamers would need. After which, to the shock of the world, Invoice Gates introduced the event of the one console to beat all of them—even when Microsoft needed to burn just a few billion {dollars} to do it. On this e book, you’ll find out about:

The cutthroat setting at Microsoft as rival groups created console systemsThe day the top of Sega of America informed the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog to “f**ok off”How “lateral pondering with withered know-how” put Nintendo again on topAnd way more!

Gripping and complete, The Final Historical past of Video Video games: Quantity 2 explores the origins of contemporary consoles and of the franchises—from Grand Theft Auto and Halo to Name of Responsibility and Guitar Hero—that might outline gaming within the new millennium.