Enhanced Edition.
This book, written primarily by Sam Pettus, takes a close look from the origins of the company all the way to its "demise." It was written as a love letter to Sega, and it definitely shows. The voice the author uses makes the whole thing very interesting to read, even when he's talking about straight statistics. Think of it as your friend who is so incredibly enthusiastic about Sega, and just wants to talk endlessly about anything and everything related to it. All while never losing that energy and passion about the subject.
This book is chock-full of information. After finishing it, I realized that Sega had made way more dumb decisions than I had initially thought. It's great that the book examines all of the causes as well as the effects. Because most of the time, publications only focus on what happened, not why it happened.
A lot of it really boils down to different factions of the company not communicating, agreeing, and being in the mindset that, "they know better than everyone else." Sega of Japan shot itself in the foot so many times, I'm surprised anything was left below the knee by the end.
Pettus scrutinizes all the angles of the problems and solutions. There aren't any new or exclusive interviews in the book, but snippets of existing ones allow for a very credible retelling of the history.
The only real problem I had with the book was its seemingly random chronology. I would be reading about Sega in 1994, then the next section would jump back to 1991, then it would skip over to 1995. But upon looking at the big picture, I understand why Pettus chose to do it that way.
The extreme highs and lows of the company basically happened in the span of five years. Tons of both hardware and software was being cranked out, developed, and cancelled constantly (in different ways in different parts of the world). It was nuts, and nobody (even Sega's diehard fans) knew exactly what or where to support. Trying to smash all of the information together strictly chronologically would make for the most confusing book ever.
For instance, the 32X was not really supported by Sega of Japan, because they had the Saturn in the pipeline. But they didn't tell Sega of America about it at all. So there's a bunch of information about the development of the 32X in America, but not really anything about it in Japan. There's also nothing about the Saturn development in America because they didn't know it existed. Each region was focusing on a totally different piece of hardware at the same time. All the while, games were being created and ported to both. And both are running into their own hardware and software problems. Oh, and Sega CD stuff was still going on during this period as well. All of the previous points are delved into quite deeply.
Trying to discuss something like the above example in one chunk would be extremely confusing, so I understand and appreciate Pettus' decision to split the book the way he did. I only wish he had put something in the Introduction explaining it. Until I figured out the structure of the whole thing, I kept turning back, sure that I had missed something.
I look at the whole book as a collection of mini-volumes. Pettus chiefly separates each chapter by major hardware. So one "mini-volume" will be all about the Mega Drive, another will be about the Sega CD, another about the 32X, and so on and so forth. Each section examines the origin of the hardware, it's struggles and triumphs, and eventual (often messy) retirement. Key pieces of software are also examined, as well as important people in its development.
And again, the author's voice is very energetic and passionate, but this sometimes leads to a few more subjective viewpoints or guesses than is necessary. Pettus acknowledges that when he originally wrote most of the book, the internet was not nearly as broad as it is today, so he really had to go on some quests for tidbits of information. For not actually being there, he does an insanely impressive job of putting together a very messed up puzzle. It's just that once in a while, he'll have to say, "Who knows why this or that really happened?"
I will point out that this is a stark contrast between Service Games and the more recent book, Console Wars by Blake Harris. The reason I am not even bothering with Console Wars is because the author has "imagined what could have gone on" during that time period. He has made official statements confirming this. For instance, there is documented evidence that a meeting occurred on a certain date. Harris says, "Okay, let me pretend I know what happened and what people said in that meeting. It'll be really dramatic and eventful." Then he'll write it as "truth." It's a Hollywood-style look at what really happened, which is annoying, because people are looking at it as what really, truly happened. I want facts, and if the author doesn't know something, I want them to say, "I don't know this, but here's a possible guess based on evidence" instead of saying, "Ah, I'll just make something up and call it a fact."
If you are looking for lots of photos and pictures, you're out of luck. Service Games is very much a textbook of Sega. There are some images here and there, but just to illustrate a point. Books like Sega Consumer History or Sega Arcade History give a much closer look at each individual piece of software, with pictures galore. Just be aware that those are entirely in Japanese.
It's crazy to think that all the extreme highs and lows basically happened in the span of five short years. Sega seized the torch, but by the wrong end. Parts of the book could be easily related to a sort of fairy tale. With the evil wizard Nakayama ruling the Sega Kingdom with an iron fist, only to be eventually cast down by the brave Okawa, who ended up sacrificing himself for the good of the realm. Part of it, again, is Pettus' unbridled enthusiasm. He loves every piece of Sega, both good and bad, and will defend it all until the end.
I enjoyed the book very much. At 400+ pages, it looks like quite weighty tome, but it went by very fast. Just make sure you pick up the Enhanced Edition, since it corrects small errors in the original printing.
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