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Console Wars is a 2020 documentary directed by Jonah Tulis and Blake J. Harris. The film is about the 1990s console wars between Nintendo and Sega in the 16-bit era and the rise and fall of Sega in the home console market. It is based on Harris's 2014 book and is the first original film for CBS All Access, now Paramount+.
Premise
The documentary dives into the history behind how Sega stepped up to take on Nintendo during the 1990s. The events that unfolded between these two game companies would come to be known as the console war. From focusing on Sega’s views to then Nintendo’s views and the events they faced, it inevitably ends with fall of Sega during the late 90s.
Development
The idea for the development of Console Wars first came about in 2010, when author Blake J Harris was gifted a retro Sega Genesis console. He found great sense of nostalgia playing the retro console, and renewed curiosity about the iconic Console Wars between Sega and Nintendo in the 90s. He was surprised by how little movies and books existed about the console wars between Sega and Nintendo, so he decided to conduct his own research. Harris was still deciding upon the exact story he wanted to talk about for Sega and Nintendo, and ideas started to come to fruition when he and his business partner, Jacob Tulis, managed to get a meeting with producers and game enthusiasts Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg in 2012. Rogen and Goldberg loved the idea so much that they agreed to help get a book published and a documentary made. Producer Scott Rudin also wanted in and helped with financing the documentary through a book auction to Harper Collins Publishing Company and was able to influence Sony to gain rights to the documentary.
Old video footage for the documentary, showing the dynamic between Nintendo and Sega, was obtained through Harris’s VHD-to-DVD converter.
Reception
The documentary's structure has been contested, with some critics believing that Nintendo's introduction came too late. Some feel that it is unfocused, and while intriguing, focuses too heavily on Sega. Others feel that the interviews in the film do proper justice to showcasing the idea that the employees at Sega America were a part of something special. The documentary has been perceived as a "nostalgic trip" telling a David and Goliath-type story.
The documentary received a score of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes.
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Film poster
