Key Messages
The Epic Battle Between Sega And Nintendo: How The Blue Hedgehog Changed The Video Games Industry
The Console Wars Book provides a comprehensive look at the corporate rivalry between Nintendo and Sega and how it launched the modern video game industry.
It looks at what it took for Sega to challenge Nintendo’s market dominance, from its shock marketing strategies to its introduction of intensely violent and edgy characters such as their iconic blue hedgehog.
Through this story, you can learn why gamers prefer their characters to bleed red instead of gray and how Sega blundered and helped create the Sony Playstation.
You can also learn how this blue hedgehog with an attitude challenged the polite Italian Mario who now stars in some of the world’s most beloved video games.
All in all, this book provides a captivating narrative of how these two legendary companies launched an industry that changed gaming forever.
Nintendo Had Market Dominance But Its Rigid Policies Created Weaknesses That Ultimately Led To Its Undoing
Nintendo’s rapacious strategies earned it a huge amount of market dominance in the United States, but they also left them vulnerable in the long run.
By having such strict control over who could create games for its console and setting high prices that ensured they would collect profits on any game released, Nintendo was able to keep competing companies at bay and maintain their 90% market share.
However, this policy came with consequences, as developers were afraid of displeasing Nintendo or being completely cut off from the market.
This allowed Nintendo to get away with releasing products of low quality and making mistakes such as making 16-bit consoles incompatible with games from their previous console.
Such missteps created an opening for another company – Sega – which took advantage of Nintendo’s weaknesses to set up shop and present a real challenge to the gaming juggernaut.
How Sega Used Sharp Marketing And A Lovable Mascot To Take On The Gaming Giant Nintendo
Sega strove to position itself as the punk-rebel in the face of Nintendo’s more boring, paternalistic image.
In order to achieve this, Sega focused on one of Nintendo’s biggest weaknesses: its underrepresentation of adult-level games.
This provided a huge market opportunity for Sega to fill, and gave developers much more freedom than they had under Nintendo.
Furthermore, they also created a mascot to stand out from Mario: Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sonic was cool and edgy while Mario was clean-cut – it sent a message that Sega was not just another family-friendly gaming company.
Finally, when they released the 16bit console ironically named ‘Genesis’ (known as Mega Drive outside US), they packaged Sonic the Hedgehog in with each console.
This move led to an incredible success for Sonic as gamers and non-gamers alike loved his rebellious attitude portraying the decade’s speed and zaniness perfectly well.
How Sega Used Creative Strategies To Compete Against Nintendo
When Nintendo released their 16-bit Super Nintendo, Sega responded by taking the Genesis on a nationwide tour that they called the Sega World Tour.
It was specifically designed to poach customers away from the new SNES, and it was a huge success.
The tour promoted Sonic the Hedgehog and made it very clear to everyone that Sega was very different from Nintendo – making sure people knew of Sega’s many advantages.
Not only did Sega have awesome marketing strategies to get people excited about Sonic, but they also employed tactics to make sure people didn’t focus on Mario anymore.
When both companies released Mortal Kombat, for example, instead of censoring it like Nintendo chose to do, Sega went all in with an uncensored version featuring full-on red blood!
This made Sega’s release much more popular; and even though Nintendo had more money than Sega did, they still couldn’t compete with the innovative ideas coming out of the latter company.
The final nail in the coffin was when Sonic 2 came out.
To give it PR exposure, Sega declared it “Sonic 2 Day” and held launch events around the world.
It worked too, as these clever tactics boosted public awareness of not just Sonic 2 but also of the console and company itself!
All this showed that you don’t need a big budget or media empire – at least not if you want to be creative enough like how Sega pulled off theirs!
How Tom Kalinske Unite Sega And Helped It To Successfully Combat Its Biggest Obstacles
Sega’s success in the video game console wars was due not just to clever marketing and advertising, but also to having a well-oiled corporate machine.
The key reason for this was Tom Kalinske’s leadership at Sega.
He first had to bridge mistrust between team members at the company and created a team spirit that encouraged creativity and positivity.
This unified the company and helped them tackle their most difficult challenge – distribution.
Sega had to work hard to persuade retailers, like Wal-Mart, that stocking their products would not mean losing Nintendo as a customer.
Their top brass met with Wal-Mart executives regularly and Sega’s marketing department worked overtime to come up with effective campaigns.
Timing was another part of Sega’s success; they were experts at knowing when to launch ads or drop new products, so customers would think each move was original rather than calculated.
On one occasion in particular, Sega got wind of an upcoming Nintendo price cut and managed to drop their own prices the night before!
That day, it appeared that Nintendo was copying Sega’s move.
When Mortal Kombat launched, Sega firmly eclipsed their competitor as the dominant market leader – unfortunately however this would turn out to be the company’s peak moment, after which point Sega consoles became more memory than modern product – yet its success cannot be denied given these powerful facts!
Sega’S Risky Decision For Growth Caused Its Rapid Decline In The Gaming Industry
When Sega stepped into the console gaming world, they were determined to make an impact.
Thus, they took the risky route of investing in new hardware instead of focusing their efforts on creating new software.
During this period, Nintendo and Sega had two different paths for growth: hardware and software.
Sega opted for the hardware route by investing in the Genesis and SNES consoles.
But when it came time to upgrade both consoles, Sega used a vastly different strategy from Nintendo.
Whilst Nintendo went with a simple upgrade by using a Super FX chip, Sega chose something revolutionary – the Sega CD.
Unfortunately for them, the technological superiority of their machine wasn’t enough to combat its higher cost – especially compared to Nintendo’s more affordable option.
This confusion caused some people to stay away from buying either console.
In addition to its costly failure with the Genesis and Saturn, there was another factor that worked against Sega’s growth: its sudden release of too many devices (Game Gear being one of them).
Game developers simply couldn’t keep up with creating titles fast enough for so many technologies which resulted in not enough good titles being available on all platforms.
Furthermore, since they were having trouble producing and distributing enough consoles to satisfy customers demand, they were losing fans very quickly.
The final nail in the coffin came in 1994 when Donkey Kong Country was released by Nintendo who was now once again ahead of the game in sales – effectively toppling Sega from their short reign at the top.
The Difference Between Taking Big Risks And Playing It Safe: How Sega Of Japan’s Reluctance To Take Chances Led To A Big Financial Loss
When it comes to the success of Sega in the United States, it had been doing well thanks to the independence given to its branch in the US, Sega of America (SOA).
Tom Kalinske was able to manage SOA very successfully with this freedom.
However, as time went on, Sega of Japan (SOJ) began to take more control over its American counterpart.
Al Nilsen,SOA’s global marketing director working for SOA found out about how different their approaches were when he visited a restaurant in Japan with his colleagues – while he tried the potentially poisonous fugu fish, they refused.
This showed him how SOJ liked to play it safe.
In addition, SOJ did not always heed the advice of SOA or even listen much to what it said; gradually overriding any decision that would have been taken by their American counterpart.
One example was with regards to their Genesis console: while SOA thought they knew what would be best for its life-cycle and longevity, SOJ chose its own calculation and pulled it from shelves while sales were still good – ultimately leading them straight out of being market leaders in the console world in America.
Sega’S Refusal To Cooperate Resulted In Huge Losses In The Competitive Video Games Market
according to the Console Wars book summary, Sega’s eclipse was almost complete due to its parent company SOJ’s refusal to partner with other firms.
This meant that Sega had its hands tied and thus unable to work together with other companies, even when a potentially lucrative deal emerged.
For example, Sony was keen to enter the video games market but needed software development help which would have made for a great partnership.
However, SOJ flatly turned the offer down and instead created their own console called PlayStation which ended up blowing Sega’s Saturn out of the water in terms of competitive advantage.
The two companies could not collaborate and so Sony went ahead on their own instead.
Similarly, they had talks with Silicon Graphics (SGI) but again these negotiations broke down at an advanced stage due to SOJ’s unwillingness to work together.
How Sega’S Rise To Prominence Changed The Video Games Industry Forever
When Tom Kalinske took the helm at Sega, it seemed like a formidable task ahead of him.
Not only was Nintendo dominating the gaming industry but the industry itself was very young and its future uncertain.
But those fears were soon put to rest.
Under Kalinske’s leadership, Sega revolutionized not just the gaming industry but also set new norms in terms of technology, marketing, and gameplay.
In a mere four-year period from 1990 to 1994, Sega had gone from managing 3 billion dollars to 15 billion dollars worldwide and 6 billion dollars in the United States alone – taking control of about 90% of the US market share away from Nintendo.
This growth inspired changes in other areas as well.
Whereas prior to this, video games were something only for children, lawmakers and politicians now began to view them seriously.
In fact after Sega released Mortal Kombat there were hearings held in Congress about violence and video games – leading to stricter regulations on who could access certain games due to their content themes or levels of violence.
Simultaneously with this increase in public awareness came an even bigger leap forward in game itself; improvements in graphics and speed helped make video games look and feel more like regular films – leading modern gamers to take great pleasure out of playing them today.
Ultimately though, Sega’s success was only short-lived – they may have revolutionized gaming forever but their battle with Nintendo was lost by 1994 & beyond that point their legacy lives on through the experience they created for players both then & now.
Wrap Up
The Console Wars book is all about the history of the rivalry between Nintendo and Sega, two of the biggest gaming companies in history.
This book examines how their duel for supremacy in the 1980s and early 1990s shaped the gaming landscape we see today.
It also provides insight into how both parties approached their respective strategies to become market leaders, especially Sega who managed to achieve a brief moment of success.
The key message from this telling of history is that while Sega’s dominance didn’t last very long, its influence and innovative methods changed the industry significantly.
The competition between Nintendo and Sega has had lasting implications on today’s gaming space, making this story an important one to be shared.
