Sony Pictures and Scott Rudin (Moneyball, The Social Network) are developing Console Wars, an adaptation of the book by Blake Harris. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are attached to direct and are also writing the screenplay. Harris is serving as executive producer and is co-directing a documentary on the same subject, with Rudin, Rogen and Goldberg producing as well.
Atlantic Books’ publisher, Toby Mundy, last week acquired rights to the book, 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.
Atlantic will publish “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation” in August 2014.
In the book, Blake Harris draws on hundreds of interviews to present the first full account of this titanic corporate battle, which transformed computer games into a global industry that last year recorded sales of $50 billion (surpassing the film and music businesses combined).
“Blake Harris’s amazing book has all the narrative drama of the work of Michael Lewis and Ben Mezrich. It should appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike,” said Mundy.