To gamers, the battle of SEGA and Nintendo is something of legend. The video game giant Nintendo being taken on by the underdog SEGA. It’s almost like something out of a movie. So it only makes sense that the publishing industry and Hollywood would jump at the chance to make a book and film about the console wars. It was announced this week that Atlantic Books has acquired the UK rights to the book CONSOLE WARS, written by Blake Harris. The book is described as “a riveting behind-the-scenes business thriller that chronicles how SEGA, a small, scrappy gaming company led by an unlikely visionary, took on the juggernaut Nintendo and revolutionized the video game industry”. So basically The Social Network meets Rocky, and SEGA is the good guy. Atlantic plans to publish CONSOLE WARS: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation in August 2014, meanwhile American’s can expect the book to release this May from It Books.
Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin, of Moneyball and The Social Network, are developing a film version of the book, which is to be written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of Knocked Up and Superbad fame. The book’s writer Blake Harris is serving as Executive Producer and has his own version of the story, a documentary, in the works. The news of the film is nothing new, however this is the first time in a while that we’ve heard anything about it. Back in 2012, IGN came across Sony Pictures registering the domain for Console wars the Movie. So in a few years time we may very well see SEGA vs. Nintendo the Movie! Hey, if Facebook gets a movie, SEGA easily deserves one.
Update: Interestingly, this isn’t the first mention of Rogan and Goldberg being attached to a film version of the book. Back in late 2012 their involvement was mentioned in a Facebook post made by Trident Media Group. Despite this, it appears that the news was never picked up and reported elsewhere. That same day, Rogan and Goldberg tweeted about it.
