seebs
07-02-2008, 21:40
I've posted about some of these a few times, the "Birdmen" piece being the most famous:
http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html
Now, it's true that Malstrom comes across as a bit of a Nintendo fanboy. But underneath the funny writing and the thick coating of smugness, he has some very interesting points.
This is not something unique to video games; the pattern of how disruptive technologies change fields is quite common, and has been with us since the days when some of the very first mechanical devices were being developed. The reaction of tailors to sewing machines was to condemn them as incapable of producing the quality of work tailors were used to, and beginning the end of tailoring as a profession. In fact, that wasn't what happened...
I think Malstrom's essential premise is correct -- Nintendo's strategy of disruption is absolutely typical of disruptive technology, and they are playing it fairly well, if perhaps a little conservatively. Sony and MS have, thus far, reacted in the ways normally expected from the incumbents in a field about to be disrupted.
Thoughts?
http://malstrom.50webs.com/birdman.html
Now, it's true that Malstrom comes across as a bit of a Nintendo fanboy. But underneath the funny writing and the thick coating of smugness, he has some very interesting points.
This is not something unique to video games; the pattern of how disruptive technologies change fields is quite common, and has been with us since the days when some of the very first mechanical devices were being developed. The reaction of tailors to sewing machines was to condemn them as incapable of producing the quality of work tailors were used to, and beginning the end of tailoring as a profession. In fact, that wasn't what happened...
I think Malstrom's essential premise is correct -- Nintendo's strategy of disruption is absolutely typical of disruptive technology, and they are playing it fairly well, if perhaps a little conservatively. Sony and MS have, thus far, reacted in the ways normally expected from the incumbents in a field about to be disrupted.
Thoughts?