Im so excited in the end of days!
http://malstrom.50webs.com/news.htm
”Attention everyone. Attention,” a secretary tapped on the microphone. “The Press Conference will soon begin.”
From the outside stage, rows upon rows filled with journalists and observers could be seen. They busily talked to one another as they waited for the event to begin. Sitting near the front was the distinguished Hardcore Ambassador who looked like he ate a stove.
Malstrom appeared on stage and got to the podium. “Sorry, I’m late, I…”
The crowd erupted with applause and stood, cheering. A woman cried out, “I love you, Malstrom!”
”Uhh… thank you.” The crowd cheered some more and sat down. The reason for the applause was that this was NPD day. Since 2006, the message was given of disruption and the coming collapse of the Hardcore World. As ridiculous as that sounded, time gave it proof.
”Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the New World. It is…”
The Hardcore Ambassador made a run for the podium, but security caught him. In his outstretched arm, he held a sheet of paper in his fist: the NPD numbers. “These numbers… and with GTA IV being released… It is madness!”
”No, it is disruption.” Security began drag him out as he kicked and screamed. “Wait,” said Malstrom. “Let him speak.”
”Gaming… as we know it… it’s over!” His face was filled with tears. He screamed, “It’s the end!”
”It’s the beginning,” Malstrom answered. “Get him out of here.” Security took him away. “Now for your questions…”
The journalists stormed the stage. They thrust out their microphones and began talking at once.
”One at a time! One at a time! You! You get to go first.”
”Mr. Malstrom, Grand Theft Auto IV was the Game of the Generation. Yet, it didn’t boost the hardware of Play Station 3 or Xbox 360. Do you think that the hardware boost will be reflected for next month’s NPD? Why did the Game of the Generation fail to move to systems?”
”GTA IV had around five days of sales on this NPD. If it isn’t impacting hardware in the first few days, it is unlikely it ever will. But the better question to ask is not ‘why didn’t GTA IV increase HD hardware sales’, but what if it did and THIS was the result?”
”Mr. Malstrom! The DS shrank to 400k. Does that mean this system is over?”
”400k is about normal for the DS. The earlier 700k for the DS was probably the pent up demand from the shortages after Christmas. Next question.”
”Mr. Malstrom, the Wii has seen incredible sales in the U.S. But how much longer can it go on? Nintendo has increased production yet again. The shortages can’t last forever.”
”No, they can’t. The purpose of the increased production was not because of the usual shortages but because of the difficulty of building inventory for the Christmas season. And even now, the Wii is still sold out, and used Wii systems are selling as high or higher than new systems themselves. We thought the DS phenomenon was crazy in Japan, but the Wii phenomenon in America has surpassed that. A very interesting question would be, since the Japanese DS explosion eventually spread to Europe and then North America, will the Wii explosion further spread to Europe and Japan?”
”Mr. Malstrom! In the coming weeks, the enthusiast sites will undoubtedly be writing about whether hardcore gaming will die. Why do you keep saying that it will? Won’t hardcore gaming just appear on the Wii?”
”My dear, the values of the Wii are nothing like the values of the Xbox 360 and Play Station 3. The upmarket on the old value system has no future. Such games are now at the tip-top of the tiers. They fully use the brand new television sets, require an obscene amount of money to make the product, and often take many, many years to develop only to have the majority of its sales in seven days or less. It is not sustainable.”
”Mr. Malstrom, are you aware that the Wii-Fit-O-Doom counter on your website is not accurate?”
”Yeah, but it won’t matter in a few days anyway.”
”So, Mr. Malstrom, what is going on with Nintendo renting out the Kodak Theater again?”
”This will be the last E3. Well, actually, 2006 was the last ‘real’ E3. This is the last shadow of that E3. I have heard that Nintendo was very disappointed in their presentation last year. This year, they will put on a big show. Aside from the new DS being unveiled there, I have no other idea about new hardware. I expect a big showcase on Wii Music.”
”But, Mr. Malstrom, don’t you miss the old E3?”
”Of course. It was a literal celebration of the industry which we need more of. What is often not said is that game developers, aside from good pay, require social relevance for their work. After all, they are investing years of their lives on video games. The old E3 had many developers be able to be in touch with that public and to show their game off in some form.”
”But the game journalists keep saying E3 is a tradeshow and that only they, and publishers, belong there. The ‘mouth breathers’ don’t belong!”
”It clearly shows game journalists’ arrogance, and why we need to mock them. Only someone ignorant in business, as game journalists tend to be, would say E3 should be ‘purged’ of the ‘mouth breathers’. Tradeshows, such as E3, are used to gauge public reaction. In fact, if you study the history E3, one will find publishers used it to primarily gauge public reaction. This ‘reaction’ drastically effected the product development. Developers often watched people play their games and made changes based on that. Nintendo’s development on Twilight Princess changed massively after the 2004 E3 showing and the developers were pumped that people cared so much about the game. Wii Music, unveiled at E3 2006, was completely re-tooled based on non-journalists’ responses. One of the purposes of the tradeshow is to see where the excitement is at, to see where the crowds are going. To say there are too many people there is different than saying they shouldn’t be there at all. Game journalists say the latter.”
”But why are they so hostile?”
”It is because the ‘mouth breathers’ ended up being better journalists than the ‘professionals’. They would hear the developer say something, put it on their blog, and make major news and scoop the big sites. Publishers despised these little journalists because they could not be controlled. The big reason why E3 is dying is because ESA keeps charging outrageous rates for floor space. But a smaller reason is that some publishers hated these journalists they could not control or not expect instant favorable reviews. As for me, my hat is off to those guys. I got better news and impressions from the ‘little journalist’, who like the rest of us, has to actually pay for their games. It is past time for game journalism to be disrupted!”
The crowd cheered and applauded. The next question came…
”Mr. Malstrom, are you going to use the Wii-Fit release day to put up new articles?”
”I’m just having fun with the hardcore being scared of Wii-Fit and crying it is the apocalypse. There will be a unique update on Sunday, but the article is still not ready. No new content update.”
”But Mr. Malstrom, there has not been a content update in quite some time. What is the delay?”
”Consider that Birdman, and the Casual Fallacy was just the ‘prologue’ to disruption. It simply made fun of companies who saw ‘casual games’ instead of ‘disruption’ and briefly mentioned the upstreaming Nintendo would do. Disruptive Storm was just an overview of disruption in general. What’s coming is the exact how of Nintendo’s disruption, the Rosetta Stone to Nintendo’s strategy. It’s the most difficult article I’ve ever worked on and the research has been the most in depth than any other article. People may look at this NPD’s sales numbers and say, ‘Wow’. But where is Nintendo going with all this? You’ll be stunned as I’m still stunned. Nintendo is far more ambitious than Sony ever was this generation.”
”Can you elaborate?”
”The Blue Ocean Strategy and Christensen’s disruption strategy each have their own three tiers which can be a sort of benchmark for the progress of that product. The launch of Wii Fit will mark the beginning of the second tier of the Blue Ocean Strategy which explains why Nintendo is spending a fortune advertising it. We still are not done with the first tier of disruption: the aggressive growth stage. However, I think it will end at E3.”
”Why E3?”
”It is likely a certain console company will make a certain product announcement. Then the counterattack against Nintendo will begin.”
”Mr. Malstrom, can you tell us any other preview for the upcoming content?”
”Let’s see… Nintendo’s online strategy will be examined. Whether Nintendo is shielded against New Market attacks from Sony and Microsoft will be closely looked at. The special ‘weapon’ Nintendo is using to disrupt Microsoft and Sony will be revealed. Blue Ocean Strategy and disruption, so far spoken as separate strategies, will be shown how they interlock into one, and that both are the shoes on Nintendo’s feet. How brands work and why Play Station brand shattered almost suddenly will be explained. The article will show the collapse of the Hardcore World which, I thought I’d get an email box full of hate, but after this month’s NPD the hardcore themselves think they are doomed! We will also have an idea how all these analysts ‘erred’ this generation. And, once and for all, the ‘casual games’ meme will be destroyed for good.”
With that, the audience stood up and roared with applause. Everyone, apparently, was tired of the ‘plastic dog’ casual gamer nonsense being spewed around.
”Mr. Malstrom, Microsoft is now excluding the Wii to say the Xbox 360 is the top system. Are they doing this to say they can’t compete?”
”Don’t believe the ‘different market’ spin that is coming out. A different market would be lollipops or stuffed animals or automobiles. Wii is a video game console; it isn’t a unicorn. What we’re seeing is what I call the ‘Harry Potter’ effect. When ‘Harry Potter’ began dominating the New York Times best seller’s list after list, the elitist bookworms were not happy. They created another list called ‘Children’s Best Seller List’ specifically to remove ‘Harry Potter’ from the New York Times best seller list. I expect the same to happen here especially in software. Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Music, and other such titles will be placed on a ‘Casual Games Best Seller’s List’ or something while the old list turns into ‘Core Games Best Seller’s List’. I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft and Sony attempt to push this.”
”Mr. Malst---“
”Did I say was finished? Wait your turn. To finish what I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted by that ugly guy with the caterpillar shirt over there, it is popular myth to believe that Wii exists in some separate alternate market like a parallel universe running beside our own. Even stranger, they say the Blue Ocean Strategy supports this. No it doesn’t. People need to stop making excuses for the HD consoles.”
”Mr. Malstrom, do you think people will begin to start looking into disruption now?”
”It was shocking no one seemed interested in disruption when the Wii explosion occurred. The most cursory glances at Nintendo quotes have ‘disruption’ in almost every speech; it is impossible to miss unless you want to miss it. From this website’s counter, I’ve noticed the number of visitors has recently exploded revealing people aren’t satisfied with the ‘official’ explanations of why the market is in turmoil. I wish business experts would start writing about Nintendo’s disruption so I can retire and read them.”
”Mr. Malstrom, the PR coming from Microsoft and Sony is hilarious. However, they sound very rattled. What is going on?”
”They are realizing they are being disrupted. Microsoft is extremely familiar with disruption as every tech industry is attempting to disrupt them. Hell, Microsoft being in the console market is because they interpreted Sony’s actions with the Play Station to be disruptive against their control of digital entertainment. The executives of their gaming units are both experience meltdowns.”
”Meltdowns…?”
”The absolute worst nightmare for any company is to be disrupted. You have no idea the fear and anxiety these guys are in now. Not only can they do nothing to stop this, their gaming firms could very well fall apart. This is not just ‘bad’. This is like Western Union who called Bell’s telephone a ‘toy’ while their telegram empire was hailed for the fine success it was. Western Union, who got disrupted by Bell’s telephones, never suspected that the telephone would travel upstream to the upmarket, that they were on the brink of destruction. Microsoft and Sony are screwed more than anyone suspects.”
"Mr. Malstrom, I want to ask you..."
"Oops! We're all out of time. Before we go, I am marking the occasion by christening this site with the Mario Tux Fav-Icon so we will all know this site is a tool for investors."
The crowd applauded.
"Tux Mario will only appear on a few pages at first but soon he will be all over Malstrom's Site."
More applause.
"Since Doomsday is tomorrow, I was asked to give a message to the hardcore. Here it is:"
end of core gaming days prediction:
E3 2006-The beginning of the end. Wii introduced
E3 2008- Armageddon. Wii motion plus introduced. Wii Music. Reggie says Animal crossing was a core game. Massive disappointment. many Wii core gamers selling their Wii.
E3 2010- Tape runs out
http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/march2009/ICG_Tape_runs_out.jpg
![[Prototype]](https://www.vgchartz.com/games/boxart/2846586AmericaFrontccc.jpg)
