Any gamer who lived through the 1990s can tell you about the horrors they experienced during the Console Wars. For a good chunk of the decade, video games were dominated by Nintendo, the Japanese industry giants who brought us the Mario games, Pokemon, and countless more. But for several years, gamers were torn between loyalty to their Nintendo overlords and the shiny new games they could only get by swearing fealty to Sega. It was a savage time when brother turned against brother, parent against child.
Now, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are revisiting that dark age in the upcoming movie “Console Wars,” which they will co-write and direct. Based on over 200 interviews from the book of the same name by Blake J. Harris, the movie will chronicle the efforts made by Tom Kalinske, who became Sega of America President in 1991. Since this is the same team that brought us Superbad and Knocked Up and will soon adapt the hit comic series Preacher for AMC, you can bet it’ll be a darkly comic film full of quality nerd humor; the fact that Scott Rudin (producer of The Social Network) has signed on to the project as well is just icing on the biographical cake.
Of course, this is 2014; we know how this story begins and ends. Sega won the hearts and minds of (half) a nation with its Genesis system and mascot Sonic the Hedgehog; by the end of the decade, though, the company had backed out of the business of selling video game hardware altogether, leaving the market to Nintendo and its next opponent, Sony. But even though the battle is long since fought, reliving it is a chance to contemplate old wounds, mend broken friendships, and chuckle over some raunchy Rogen humor, so we can’t wait to see what he and Goldberg produce. In the meantime, you can pick up Harris’s book in August (or pre-order now on Amazon at the link above).
What are some of your memories of the legendary Console Wars? Tell us a story in the comments!
Featured image via TheWrap; Genesis commericial still via IGN
