Geekstorians: When Giants Fall Atari, Sega, Blockbuster and How Empires Collapse

Season 2 of Geekstorians continues with a story about collapse. In ‘When Giants Fall’ , Dave looks at three companies that once seemed unstoppable — Atari , Sega , and Blockbuster — and how each of them, in very different ways, lost their grip on the future. From Atari’s collapse after the video game crash of the early 1980s, to Sega’s spectacular inability to get out of its own way during the console wars, to Blockbuster staring straight at the future and somehow deciding it probably wasn’t important, this is an episode about what happens when success turns into inertia. It is also a story about what comes after. Because these collapses did not just leave wreckage behind. They reshaped the industries around them. Atari’s fall cleared the way for Nintendo. Sega lost the hardware war but survived as a games company. And Blockbuster became the monument everyone points to when talking about businesses that had every chance to adapt and somehow talked themselves out of it. If last week’s episode was about a film nearly vanishing, this one is about something bigger: the moment giants stop noticing the ground moving underneath them. Geekstorians is a documentary-style podcast from Dave Elliott of Geektown, exploring the hidden history of geek culture, fandom, film, television, comics and gaming. If you’d like to support Geekstorians in the Webby People’s Voice Awards, you can vote here: Support this show . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Geekstorians: When Giants Fall Atari, Sega, Blockbuster and How Empires Collapse online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Geekstorians: When Giants Fall Atari, Sega, Blockbuster and How Empires Collapse is an episode from Geektown Radio - TV News, Interviews & UK TV Air Dates by David Elliott.

This episode is 37:20 long.

This episode was published on Apr 15, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Geektown Radio - TV News, Interviews & UK TV Air Dates when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.