Console Wars

Console Wars (2020) is a documentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Blake J. Harris and Jonah Tulis. For the first time, the people who actually ran the Sega and Nintendo campaigns in the early 1990s go on record — marketing executives, product heads, and foot soldiers from both sides of the fight.

The year is 1990. Nintendo owns the North American console market. Sega of America, led by Tom Kalinske, decides to attack by doing the opposite of everything Nintendo does: Sonic against Mario, loud advertising against family-friendly packaging, American commercial instincts against Japanese corporate tradition. What followed was the defining brand war of a generation — kids picking sides, developers caught in the crossfire, and an entire industry reshaped over four years. Stream Console Wars online on iFILM.