The definitive behind-the-scenes history of video games explosion into the twenty-first century
and the war for industry power A zippy read through a truly deep research job. You won t want
to put this one down. Eddie Adlum publisher RePlay Magazine As video games evolve only the
fittest companies survive. Making a blockbuster once cost millions of dollars now it can cost
hundreds of millions but with a $160 billion market worldwide the biggest players are willing
to bet the bank. Steven L. Kent has been playing video games since Pong and writing about the
industry since the Nintendo Entertainment System. In volume 1 of The Ultimate History of Video
Games he chronicled the industry s first thirty years. In volume 2 he narrates gaming s
entrance into the twenty-first century as Nintendo Sega Sony and Microsoft battle to
capture the global market. The home console boom of the 90s turned hobby companies like
Nintendo and Sega into Hollywood-studio-sized business titans. But by the end of the decade
they would face new more powerful competitors. In boardrooms on both sides of the Pacific
engineers and executives began with enormous budgets and total secrecy to plan the next
evolution of home consoles. The PlayStation 2 Nintendo GameCube and Sega Dreamcast all made
radically different bets on what gamers would want. And then to the shock of the world Bill
Gates announced the development of the one console to beat them all even if Microsoft had to
burn a few billion dollars to do it. In this book you will learn about the cutthroat
environment at Microsoft as rival teams created console systems the day the head of Sega of
America told the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog to f**k off how lateral thinking with withered
technology put Nintendo back on top and much more! Gripping and comprehensive The Ultimate
History of Video Games: Volume 2 explores the origins of modern consoles and of the franchises
from Grand Theft Auto and Halo to Call of Duty and Guitar Hero that would define gaming in the
new millennium.
