There’s been talk of turning Blake J. Harris’ Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, And The Battle That Defined A Generation into both a documentary and a feature (or a TV series) since it came out in 2014. Now, after debuting at SXSW earlier this year, the former is ready for you to press start.
Directed by Harris and Jonah Tulis, Console Wars unpacks the book’s deep dive into Sega’s underdog attempt to topple the monolith that is Nintendo, primarily through the introduction of a certain blue hedgehog. The topic’s been mined time and again in the years since Harris’ book—Netflix’s High Score docuseries has an episode on it—but consider Console Wars the definitive chronicle of the bitter feud that erupted between the companies.
As you’ll see in the below trailer, the documentary rounds up the key players from both Sega and Nintendo, all of whom get to tell their own side of a story that spans years, continents, and cultures.
Console Wars will stream exclusively on CBS All Access, making it the streamer’s first feature-length documentary. It’s fitting, actually, as CBS All Access is gearing up to join the Streaming Wars in earnest. Over the next year, it will debut Josh Boone’s anticipated reboot of Stephen King’s The Stand, John Krasinski’s studio spin on Some Good News, and a SpongeBob prequel series. Use your free trial wisely.
Console Wars debuts on Wednesday, September 23.