Console Wars Quotes

“There was no such thing as a magic touch, and it wouldn’t have mattered if there were, because the only thing it takes to sell toys, vitamins, or magazines is the power of story. That was the secret. That was the whole trick: to recognize that the world is nothing but chaos, and the only thing holding it (and us) together are stories. And Kalinske realized this in a way that only people who have been there and done that possibly can: that when you tell memorable, universal, intricate, and heartbreaking stories, anything is possible.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“the Super NES, which would hit stores on August 23, 1991. All systems would come with the groundbreaking new Super Mario World game, while four others would immediately be available for purchase: F-Zero, Pilotwings, Gradius III, and SimCity.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“So after the family moved to New Jersey, she formally became NOA’s first employee and helped select a location for the new company’s office. Arakawa and his wife settled on a small space on the seventeenth floor of a Manhattan high-rise located in the center of the toy district at 25th Street and Broadway.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“By 1990, Nintendo of America had sold nearly thirty million consoles, resulting in an NES in one out of every three homes.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“There’s a way of looking at this where I’m the hero who chops through the bullshit and oppression in order to come out the other end with a spoonful of freedom.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega Vs Nintendo - and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“I’ll just be the guy who was there for the fall. No one will remember anything before that.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“Although Sony would go on to sell ten million PlayStation systems by the end of 1996 (with more than half of those sales occurring in the United States), most of SCEA’s key executives would be fired or let go within a year of the launch.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“Arakawa and his wife settled on a small space on the seventeenth floor of a Manhattan high-rise located in the center of the toy district at 25th Street and Broadway.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“This task was given to Shigeru Miyamoto, a floppy-haired first-time game designer who idealistically believed that videogames should be treated with the same respect given to books, movies, and television shows.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“incredulity”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“they weren’t as interested in winning as they were in not losing.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“commiseration.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“barnacles of dread”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“stratified society,”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“choke on their condescending smiles.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“I don’t know,” Race said, trying to shrink complex frustrations into a”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“pontificating,”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“dragon lady.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“warehouse manager.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“insular,”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“callous.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“levity,”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“Videogames were for everyone; they just didn't realize it yet.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“(like Blanka, a green-skinned beast-like Brazilian man who had been raised in the jungle),”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“Experiences like these led him to believe that the fundamental problem with marketing was its reliance on the past. It looked backward, not forward, and failed to take into account innovation, trends, or cultural shifts in taste.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“The world is full of misconceptions, but perhaps none more fatally fantastical than those involving the lemming. As legend has it, these feisty creatures are prone to combating periods of overpopulation by blindly marching one by one off tall cliffs and unceremoniously plummeting to their deaths. It’s unclear where this global rumor began, but evidence suggests that its popularity spread from Disney’s 1958 Academy Award–winning documentary White Wilderness, which highlighted this unusual and unnatural behavior. Although it was later discovered that the filmmakers had flown in the featured lemmings from Canada and had actually tossed them off the cliffs by hand, it was too late to reverse this morbid misconception.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“By 1990, Nintendo of America had sold nearly thirty million consoles, resulting in an NES in one out of every three homes. Videogames were now a $5 billion industry, and Nintendo owned at least 90 percent of that.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“In July 1988, Nintendo of America shipped out the first issue of Nintendo Power to the 3.4 million members of the Nintendo Fun Club. Over 30 percent of the recipients immediately bought an annual subscription, marking the fastest that a magazine had ever reached one million paid subscribers.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“In the 1980s, there had been a growing fascination with full motion video (FMV) games.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation

“Bottom line,” Kalinske proclaimed, “we can do better. And I have a feeling that Wieden+Kennedy will find a way to strike the right balance.” “Agreed,” Glen said. “I think we can do better.” “Absolutely,” Kalinske said. “I have a feeling that Wieden+Kennedy will find a way to strike the right balance.”
― Blake J. Harris, Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation