apparently Metroid Other M raped his dog or something, as it was about that timeframe as far as I can tell.  He went from "here is an analysis of what is going on with Nintendo's success" to "Metroid should look like this, kirby will fail because it should play like this..."  instead of looking at the broad picture he started bitching about stupid crap in individual games. 

he's basically a verbose Michael Pachter now.

don't get me wrong, he has good ideas but he writes in the most arrogant self important way imaginable.

I meant in the context the SNES was still all about arcade like games, while its successor was devoid of them...the major blow was the sports games going to the Genesis.

Rol, about the bolded, I agree with you....but do you think the 3DS will at least surpass the GameBoy Advance numbers? (something around 82 million sold)

I haven't read it yet, but th emost frustrating part out of all of this is if he is right, because that would mean Nintendo is stupid.

After having 5 years to evaluate this generation, and almost 30 years in the business notched under your belt, how STUPID would Nintendo have to be to make the same exact mistakes again? Virtual Boy, no 2D Marios, rehashes, experimental formula Zeldas, "story-driven" titles, User-Generated-Content etc....

I cannot fathom how a company cannot learn from their mistakes. It is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

I think people try to focus on a concrete progression as to why successive Nintendo systems ran into trouble, but I think it is a much more abstract problem. From the NES to the Gamecube, Nintendo struggled because each system was less unique in the market than their previous system was; and they were forced into direct competition with other (often larger) companies, and were competing on a symmetric set of values which were not in line with Nintendo’s strengths.

The Wii and Nintendo DS changed this because Nintendo focused on producing a more unique product, and focused on competing on innovation and accessibility rather than the conventional values of processing power and features that Sony and Microsoft were focused on.

The Nintendo 3DS continues Nintendo’s efforts towards producing unique products, and while 3D may not seem to be the most innovative feature I actually believe that it is not the main focus of the 3DS. The combination of the motion controls and cameras, along with the bundled software, makes me think the primary focus of the 3DS will be augmented reality; and I suspect that Nintendo is betting on individuals finding value in blurring the line between videogames and reality.

If you're trying to be the most succesful business you can be, shouldn't you try to cater to the largest market possible? More importantly, hasn't Nintendo itself repeatedly claimed that it tries to make games for "everyone"? I'm not seeing the issue with taking the first stance.

As for the second claim, you first say he's urging mass-market principles, then you call him a hipster. Please reconcile.

Unfortunately it happens all too often...I´d wager lots and lots of people (or maybe most of them) never really learn from their mistakes.

That's actually quite simple; most people don't learn a lesson unless they first pay a price for their mistake. Nintendo may repeat its errors, but as long as the competition makes the same ones, what need do they have to learn?

you've muisunderstood, I used to like Malstrom, but he is a broken record.

The contradictions are my entire point, he whines to whine, and hes always at odds with himself, he wants to make himself "at odds" with the common tendencies of his readeership.  so when everyone was crying foul about nintendo losing the hardcore audience he stepped in to talk about their new startegy, then when they started to put out some true "hardcore games" as per the blue ocean startegy, he bitched about them being too hardcore (as with Metroid). I'm a bit outspoken about my dislike for this guy, as I feel that he is a character made up to piss people off.

no, I don't care about his opinion on the game, I feel that those articles were the exact point his blog went from "here's my opinions on business aspects of the gaming industry" which is why I read it to "here is why my narrow minded view on a game character makes me superior to all else."  this pissed me off as his blog went from good to just another fanboy rant blog. at this point he began to relish in this fact, proudly posting hate-mail he got and such, thus making him appear as an attention whore that was shocked that folks were calling him out.

Obviously I can't definitively refute the idea that the entire persona is made to troll, but let's look at it this way. Over the past six years or so he's been right about issues more often than not. Over that same timespan he's usually been against the grain, as you point out. So either he's a prick who's got a better grasp on the situation than the majority of people, or he's a fake character who's decision to go at odds with the flow has fortuitously resulted in a six-year winning streak. Either way, it seems that he's worth listening to, no? More disturbingly, if you're right, doesn't that just mean that "the flow" is completely wrong?