this was the game that really helped put sega on the map.t people had ever seen in video games before. in a sense, he was just hypnotic. ♪ sega did a great job of tapping into the mtv generation and turning them into gamers. ♪ they were always trying to challenge consumers and take them to this next level, whether it was offering 16 bits when nintendo offered 8. they really sort of created the hollywoodization of the video game industry with release dates and teasers and leadup to launches and making it seem like these were big must-have titles that you have to go on opening day to see. ♪ it probably wasn't until mortal kombat that sega actually surpassed nintendo and became the new market leader in the video game industry. these two warring companies were both going to be releasing this very, very popular game on the same day. and whoever sold the most games was going to probably be the winner of the 16-bit battle. nintendo sort of adhering to their family-friendly wholesome image decided to censor the game and remove the blood. not only di

in 1989, we had a nintendo game system, then sega. what brought sega into the home?r father brought it into the home. >> i think it was my mother. >> you are not alone. in 1989 or 1990, one in three homes had nintendo. the most popular selling toys, nintendo. they were at the top and dominated. sega tried to compete and failed misrabblely. they came back with the genesis and had a lot of struggles until tom joined the company and they created a new mascot, the sonic hedgehog and things really changed from there. >> the success of tom as a marketer is extraordinary. i find it interesting that these are sort of international companies with japanese culture and american culture existing and often clashing. you talk in the book, tom presenting to the sega board the plan and the japanese board thinking in a japanese cultural way saying no one agrees with you, what you are saying. everyone thinks you are nuts but this is why i hired you. go ahead with your plan. he brings and american aggressive marketing plan and the japanese allow him to go forard and it is successful. >

. >> i am watching a company in japan from sega. not good enough. short of estimates.what they are forecasting. this is what they're saying you can actually make. this is back in the 80's. this was actually their rival. this. never heard sega do >> this company is a merger. >> i don't play the games. >> you play them, video games? >> they can't get any worse. >> exactly. exactly. i did not. that is not me. you cannot use the word gamer to describe you. >> usually this came straight to work. i do not think that. you have to pay me. 4:00 a.m. to be there. we have to leave it there and get on with angst. we will be checking in about an hour to see where stock is up and which one is down. >> thanks. the stocks are reporting high right in our phase. we will be back in about an hour to check out how they performed. still to come, we will be breaking japan that it had with the latest reading coming out of tokyo in just a few moments here on "first up"." ♪ >> the latest data is out. >> taking a look at the figures coming for the month of march. ¥116.4 billion. a lot morerowing