Far less flaws than the OP and predictions, you gonna talk about those? Or are you on the wagon of believing WiiU is going to start selling 1.3m a week starting .. last week?

The only flaws in the OP are the crazy predictions.

The crazy predictions are a culmination of his theories, i.e; flawed predictions equals flawed theory. He's eloquent but not insightful, there's a huge difference. There are even people who can argue fairly well for creationism even if it is mere hogwash.

The whole "Nintendo conspiracy" is getting old, they aren't any less deserving of their troubles than anyone else, mistakes cost over time and Nintendo makes them just like everybody else.

He had a bunch of followers in here before, during the Wii era. When the predictions failed miserably and the blue ocean talk turned sour, both John Lucas and his disciples left the site. Sean Malstrom also kept quiet a while after this, neither him nor JL saw the phone/tablet revolution staring them in the eye because they wanted Nintendo to remain top dog, they are every bit as blinded by personal desire as every other, biased member on this site. If you want to cling to his cloak and stand in the limelight for a bit, go ahead, but you should know that he'll simply discard that cloak once everyone sees he's made a terrible miss again and then he'll show up a couple of years later with a new one which others will cling on to. The circle is complete.

For a perfect reference of someone else who clung to this cloak, visit this profile and browse some threads and posts, this might be where you're headed; http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/profile/2613/avinashtyagi/

Here's another guy who very recently removed his sig where he was mocking one of my primary predictions for the 8th gen; http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/profile/37372/phenom08/

PS: You're gonna label me a "hater" now, aren't you? That's what people with opposing viewpoints are to some.

I remember Avinash...who were the others?

Malstrom has been ripping on Nintendo since 2010, I think.He got pretty disappointed Nintendo never really followed through with their 'revolution', and left the Wii to dry for two years.

That's the most comical part of it; Malstrom was so busy praising Nintendo for their brilliant disruption that he never saw that Nintendo themselves were being disrupted. They had the whole casual userbase slowly (at first) stolen by the true, lasting revolution of browser and social games and phones/tablets and just stared blankly as the rug was swept from under them. Even if Nintendo had maintained support, the same thing was bound to happen, albeit a bit more slowly. That's the thing about casual markets and viral products; someone is going to find a cure or a new disease will show up sooner or later. Since phones and internet browsers and social networks were already an integrated part of out everyday life (to an extreme degree, not comparable to consoles at all), making them gaming platforms lead to the spread of an autoimmune disease, it might mutate and change but it's here to stay in some form.

These things alone show that Nintendo aren't the most brilliant company in the world and certainly not infallible. They stick to tradition and often lack a plan B, they don't know how to follow a market or keep the lead, this is their greatest weakness. This leads to them having only two engage modes; utterly brilliant or painfully poor, there isn't much middle-ground here. Their failure to see the importance of online features and functionality (even today), as an example, speaks of a company that refuses to adapt, they demand that the market adapts, and that's fine if you're in a position to dictate, which they currently are not.

There was a bunch of members with low post counts that joined from other sites just to dote on John Lucas and Malstrom, some are doing the same thing now, this very thread has been linked in several threads on several sites, you'll find it if you google around a bit. Avinash was the most prominent of them and the loudest, consequently he was also the one that looked the most foolish when the shit hit the fan, thus he left the site.

If you make a silly prediction that fails, own up to it, no one can retain any kind of credibility if they simply avoid the subject and keep making new fantastic claims, it's like a video game theory Munchausen or something. I've said a lot of stupid things too, and made some desperately poor predictions, one which can be found in my current sig. I woke up one day and stopped caring about consoles as a whole, suddenly things were crystal clear, I was able to see things for what they are when I tossed my console-goggles out the window. I wish more people would do the same, they could avoid looking silly in the end and perhaps even gain the ability to admit fault. One thing to note is that a lot of users, OP among them, write their posts as facts rather than opinion and people like Malstrom wishing "hardcore" gamers to go away because he doesn't like them and don't think they deserve to enjoy their hobby, smacks of elitism and stupidity, not to mention bigotry.

PS: I'm not happy that tablets/phones and browser/social gaming is stealing so much attention and dollar, I personally hate smartphones and tablets and I've never played a social game in my life.

PSPS: Liam Mcintyre looks like Nathan Fillion in your avy!

Heh, I remember Malstrom saying Nintendo´s first big mistake with the Wii was holiday 2008, when they released Wii music.

Mummelmann, remember this one?

I remember that one!

Therein lies Nintendo's main problem now; they somewhat alienated the core gamers with the Wii and their casual userbase have no thought towards home consoles any longer.
This goes for Sony and MS as well though, if they attempt to lure in casual consumers, they will fail and simply waste their money.
The idea that people will buy an accessible, or casual if you will, console or game and then "upgrade" for some reason is all together silly, I remember people saying this about the PS3 and 360, consumers would "upgrade" to the HD consoles.
Why, I saw this very argument in a thread today, written by a Nintendo fan, his point was that Nintendo had saved the gaming industry, therein also Sony and MS, since the Wii had made casuals run out to buy a PS3 or 360.
I believe this is a silly standpoint, if you are only very superficially interested in a subject, you won't suddenly dive deeply into it, or deeper at all for that matter.
It's not like Monster Truck fans suddenly start reading up on the dynamics and setup of a rally car, a Justin Bieber fan won't dive headlong into classical music studies etc.

Likewise, the most casual consumers won't go from Bejeweled, Farmville and other, similar games into Fallout, Gran Turismo or Zelda. This, Nintendo did know, as far as product aim goes, the Wii was a study in perfection, it was terribly popular among casuals.
For my part, what made the Wii so brilliant, the Wii-mote, was what made it unappealing to me, I don't find any form of motion control, be it Wii-mote's, Move or Kinect, to add anything to my gaming, it feels cumbersome and base to me.
And that's my entire point; the Wii U somehow thinks it can be sold to me and the Bejeweled crowd, when this is not the case. Look at the latest Wii U commercials, they're now aiming pretty much directly at kids and they actually need to clarify outright that the Wii U is not the Wii, that is a telltale sign of a product with a deep-set identity crisis.

Come 2014, my theory can be completely validated or be broken. If the sales plummet again quickly and remain low throughout the year, there is simply a lack of basic appeal and the price and software is not the issue.

"true, lasting revolution of browser and social games and phones/tablets"

You don't honestly believe this BS you just wrote do you Mummelmann?

I don't think your a hater. Although I do think you are confused as to where you stand in the gaming community. I mean if I were a part of the "Master Race" I wouldn't even think twice about what was going on in the console space or would I be playing console games for that matter. Feel free to hate me for that. As for Lucas' predictions, they don't matter to me in the slightest. We disagree on many things but we wholly agree that it is Nintendo who shape and mold this industry and they will continue to whether his lofty predictions are met or not.

In terms of catering to the actual gamer, over the last decade they've molded the industry the least!! The Gamecube failed, and the Wii sold to casuals and Nintendo fans. Did they enhance and push online? The true innovation over the last decade? No. Did they push new genres to the fore? nope, they rarely deviate from paltformers.

How and why do you see social gaming and phones/tablets dying down? They're no longer a luxury and more a necessity these days.

Mummelman has made it pretty clear he doesn't stand with any 'race' (wtf?) he's just telling it like it is.

BS? Break it down for me, show me how it's BS. Leaning on John Lucas and writing a simple paragraph calling my posts BS don't count as arguments.

Why do I care about the console world? Because it directly affects mine, the diluting and downright butchering of entire genres and franchises in the 7th gen have caused a great deal of damage to the PC community, with games like Call of Duty and Need for Speed setting the standards. Whether or not you believe that my nose belong in console business is also completely irrelevant to the discussion overall.

I don't hate you for anything (in fact; JL and Malstrom are the ones who want an entire branch of gamers to disappear for having different views), I just fail to see how you have any factual backing for your views and why so many Nintendo fans are completely unable to see faults at all in their favorite company.
And how are Nintendo shaping and molding the industry when they're getting beat on every corner?
They're even jumping into the tablet industry now, many years after the others, they are lagging behind on all things online and streaming, they only recently allowed their consoles to play normal media and their Wii-mote has had no long-term effect on the industry at all, traditional gaming is still the norm, albeit a watered down, shittier one.
Nintendo are setting themselves up towards becoming irrelvant within a decade unless they're willing to forego ancient tradition and see things for what they are and they need to get in touch with the market in a better way to succeed.

All that said, I hold no more love for the other two, they're going towards the same center from the opposite direction; where Nintendo are attempting to lift non-gamers into games by introducing simpler mechanics and concepts, the other are trying to make their games dumber and dumber to appeal to more people, lowest common denominator and all that.