The video games market has seen notable successes and failures in the last decade. Both Sony and Microsoft entered the industry and took market share, with Sony's PlayStation putting it at the top of the sales heap for a while. Microsoft, too, enjoyed success with its Xbox console. But few stories of that time match the rollercoaster journey of Nintendo.
Having dominated the games market, Nintendo entered the new millennium in a crisis. Its hardware wasn't selling and the games were out of date. To make things worse the firm's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi was on the verge of retiring after 50 years at the top and no clear successor was identified.
Yamauchi eschewed obvious candidates and picked a young outsider. This is effectively the story of how Satoru Iwata restored the company's place at the pinnacle of the industry, first with the the handheld Nintendo DS console and later with the Wii that changed gaming from something unhealthy for pre-teens to healthy family fun. Sloan tells the story well, offering detail and insight. As comebacks go, this is a story worth retelling.
