Description
How did a Japanese company that once manufactured playing cards end up capturing 80 percent of America's $5.3 billion video game industry? What is it about games that feature an obstinate ape ("Donkey Kong") and an intrepid little plumber ("Super Mario Brothers") that make them so addictive to underage consumers? And was it inventive genius or business hardball that enabled the Nintendo Corporation to gross more after taxes in 1992 than Apple, IBM, Microsoft, or all the major U.S. film studios combined?
The riveting story of Nintendo's conquest of the home entertainment industry reads like a cross between Barbarians at the Gate and The Soul of a New Machine. Whether it is recounting the origins of the game Tetris," offering a blow-by-blow narrative of Nintendo's bitter legal warfare with competitors, or its competition with Sega for market leadership, Game Over is a masterful piece of business journalism and technological reportage-a book both cautionary and hugely entertaining.
