Service Games cover art

Service Games

The Rise and Fall of SEGA: Enhanced Edition

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Service Games

By: Sam Pettus
Narrated by: Tom Racine
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Starting with its humble beginnings in the 1950s and ending with its swan-song, the Dreamcast, in the early 2000s, this is the complete history of Sega as a console maker. Before home computers and video game consoles, before the Internet and social networking, and before motion controls and smartphones, there was Sega. Destined to fade into obscurity over time, Sega would help revolutionize and change video games, computers and how we interact with them, and the Internet as we know it. Riding the cutting edge of technology at every step, only to rise too close to the sun and plummet, Sega would eventually change the face of entertainment, but it's the story of how it got there that's all the fun. So take a ride, experience history, and enjoy learning about one of the greatest and most influential companies of all time. Complete with system specifications, feature and marketing descriptions, unusual factoids, and now enhanced Europe-specific details, exclusive interviews, and more make this the definitive history of Sega available. Listen and learn about the company that holds a special place in every gamer's heart. Funded on Kickstarter.

©2013 Sam Pettus (P)2014 Sam Pettus 20th Century Americas Modern United States Technology Video Game Marketing

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Beneath a Surface cover art
The Ultimate History of Video Games, Volume 1 cover art
Disrupting the Game cover art
Once upon Atari cover art
Masters of Doom cover art
Sid Meier's Memoir! cover art
Control Freak cover art
Abroad in Japan cover art
When Computing Got Personal cover art
Doom Guy cover art
Three Moves Ahead cover art
Electronic Dreams cover art
Not All Fairy Tales Have Happy Endings cover art
Blockbusters cover art
Replay cover art
Snow Crash cover art
All stars
Most relevant
The greatest nostalgic journey I could have asked for, great story, great narration. Thank you.

excellent story, excellent company.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
this was really interesting. It focuses mostly on the 90s golden age of Sega, but also talks about the origins and early days enough that you can get an idea of who sega was. it's genuinely fascinating and worth listening to if you have an interest in retro gaming and that world

a really fascinating deep dive into Sega

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Unlike other reviewers I really enjoyed this book. The narration isn’t too bad and it’s packed with interesting facts and history.

Anyone with an interest in technology and video games is sure to enjoy. Finished this in just over a week, found it that compelling!

Very informative and interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I learned so much about sega I didn't know and would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the companies past

informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I imagine anyone who finds this book will be looking for an in depth history of Sega. That's what the book provides, but it does so with such amateurish writing as to make it a slog to get through. Sentences are often oddly short, and rarely flow together. The writer also lurches wildly between saying how wonderful everything was going to Sega, to how everything was falling apart. This radical change of outlook may be achieved within a few sentences. The narrator tries his best but the writing is so weak that he often struggles.

I'm also unsure as to how accurate it is. I'm well versed with the technicalities of the various Sega consoles, and factual errors abound in this book. If those areas are incorrect, perhaps others may be too.

This book is very different to Console Wars. That book is largely fictionalised and reads more like a soap opera. For all its faults though, at least it feels like it was written by a professional. By contrast, Service Games is clearly the work of an amateur.

An interesting story poorly told

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews