It's always tricking coming up with an interesting E3 prediction list. Some items invariably end up being too obvious and safe, and some are outlandishly unrealistic or simply the product of our hopes and dreams. Anyway, here are some things I think we can look forward to when E3 starts up in two weeks (Microsoft's press conference is June 1, Nintendo's and Sony's are June 2):
--Microsoft and Sony will announce some fancy motion-controlled peripheral that they'll say is super family-friendly and will expand the market and so and so on...M$ for the 360, Sony for the PS2 and maybe PS3. Neither will really do much to dent Nintendo's stranglehold on the market and fail to capture any buzz in the enthusiast press.
--Microsoft will have a video demo of gameplay from Halo: ODST, and maybe a closed-door hands-on, but no hands-on on the floor. People will lose their shit. The game is going to be larger in scope than they originally said it would be. The multiplayer will just end up being an expansion to the Halo 3 multiplayer rather than a whole new multiplayer platform.
--Mass Effect 2 is going to look shit-hot, and is going to blow everyone away. Fall 09, but don't be surprised if it gets pushed back to early 2010. It'll definitely come this fiscal year though (through March '10)
--Nintendo and Microsoft won't have any big hardware announcements, but Sony will. The updated PSP rumors will be mostly true, and it will come out this fall. Paired with that will be increased download support for games to PSP, kiosks at Gamestop, Best Buy, and maybe Wal-Mart for transferring PSP UMD games to memory sticks and/or the new PSP's flash memory, and an uptick in the number of PS1 games being released on PSN/PSP. Sony WILL announce a PS3 slim, though I'm a bit skeptical whether or not it's going to look like those leaked photos from China.
--Twisted Metal for PS3, with David Jaffe presenting it.
--God of War 3 will have a brief playable demo on the floor.
--Nintendo will announce some more games that will work well with Wii Motion Plus, some more Wii Fit stuff that uses the balance board, and maybe some other casual-friendly games, but the enthusiast crowd will be underwhelmed as usual. Why should Nintendo come out with ANYTHING new right now when they have Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart DS, Wii Play, and New Super Mario Bros in the top 10 for software every single month? They're raking in money without even trying.
--Sony won't announce a price drop. They'll save that and/or more bundles (because the value proposition arguement has been working SO WELL) for this holiday season.
--Kojima will announce his next project he's working on. Probably Metal Gear Solid 5. The man cannot drag himself away from that series.
--FFXIII is given an official March 2010 US release on PS3, but the 360 release won't come until later in 2010.
--Sony will announce they're also going to start having Netflix streaming as well, coming soon.
--Splinter Cell Conviction will be shown during Microsoft's press conference, people will be underwhelmed.
--Heavy Rain will be the belle of the ball among enthusiast press, and mainstream press will be intrigued, but when it comes out this fall, it won't sell well.
Things that should happen/I want to happen:
--Ueda's team will finally at least give us a teaser of the game they're working on for PS3.
--Nintendo will announce they're going to start selling old GameBoy and GameBoy Advanced titles on DSiWare. People will lose their shit.
--Nintendo will announce a new Metroid game...not sure it'll be on DS or Wii, or where it will fit in with the timeline of Metroid, but it'll be there.
--The Matsuda/Sakimoto/Yoshida team will announce a new game for either 360 or PS3 or both. LOL I'm dreaming.
--Valve will show at least a teaser for Half Life 2: Episode 3. People will lose their shit.
--And on a totally unrelated note, Sarah Connor Chronicles will be un-canceled after Terminator: Salvation does bonanza at the box office.
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What's this Wii Motion plus you mention? is this a more sensitive wii remote or something?
ReplyDeleteHeavy Rain sounds a lot like Chubby Rain from Bowfinger. Probably one of my favorite movies of all time. 'Gotcha Suckers!!'
No new systems coming out in the near future?
The Wii Motion Plus is (ANOTHER) add-on peripheral for the Wii that improved the precision of the Wiimote. It's coming boxed in with Wii Sports Resort (the sequel to Wii Sports), and soon a lot of Wii games are going to be making use of it...some of them will even require you to have it to play the game (like Red Steel 2). Everybody is going to buy Wii Sports Resort though, so...everyone is going to have at least one Wii Motion Plus. Supposely Nintendo had the technology to integrate the Wii Motion Plus improvements into the original Wiimote, but they opted not to in order to keep the costs down.
ReplyDeleteHeavy Rain looks crazy beautiful. It looks like an interactive movie, adventure-style game.
No, I wouldn't expect any huge new hardware announcements for at least another couple years, at least as far as home consoles go. Microsoft and Sony lose a bunch of money on new hardware cycles, and they're looking to be thrifty in this economy (especially since Playstation branch of Sony lost a shit-load of money last year)...besides, a lot of games haven't even really used the full potential of these systems, there's plenty more people to sell these things to, and there are still plenty of games to be made. Nintendo...they're selling like 400k+ Wiis per month still, and even more DSs...why would they want to make new hardware when the stuff they have out is still selling like crazy?
God you know your shit. So did you write up all that stuff about things happening at E3? How do you know all that will happen? Do you have some insider knowledge that i don't know about? All that sounds pretty cool though and i totally agree with you about poor Kojima. How many times has he said this is the last MGS? Oh well he makes some killah games so i'm cool with whatever he comes up with, although i'd love to see another franchise from him, something different.
ReplyDeleteLeaked photos from China! I wonder if it was those damn syndicates! They're always up to no good.
--The Halo 3 ODST Demo will be live gameplay from one of the Bungie guys. I'm not sure if they will change the scope of the game, they've been pretty clear about the general plot structure (open hub world at night with several objective points, each triggering a day mission flashback). Also, we've known from the beginning that there is no ODST multiplayer. It will simply provide people with the three remaining Halo 3 maps. You can, however, expect to hear Marty trying his hand at a jazzy, saxophoned up version of the Halo theme.
ReplyDelete--Ubisoft will show footage of Assassin's Creed 2: Renaissance Boogaloo. But since Jade Raymond isn't on the project and won't be presenting it public excitement for the game will be tepid in comparison to the previous game.
--Ubisoft will show Splinter Cell Conviction, yes, and their inexplicable urge to strip Sam Fischer of all that made his games rad will be laid bare and I will clutch the boxes of the first and third games to my chest and slowly rock back and forth... sobbing...
--Remedy will announce that Allen Wake is releasing the next day.
--Nintendo execs will pull their heads out of their asses and let Goldeneye be released on Xbox Live Arcade. Where it will promptly make them millions.
--Infinity Ward will tell us about co-op in Modern Warfare 2 (Call of Duty 6). It will be much like Resistance 2 and will take the form of Special Forces side missions. Also, 24 player matches on consoles. A perk free mode in multiplayer. Oh man, now I'm just spewing nonsense.
--We'll see gameplay footage of Star Wars: The Old Republic. There will be laser swords.
--2K Boston will show a little of Ken Levine's next masterwork.
--Some moron on some stage will make an ass of himself playing Tony Hawk on the new skateboard controller.
I did mix some wishful thinking in with my legit predictions. I trust you can tell the difference.
YES, that last one will most definitely happen.
ReplyDeleteGood call on Modern Warfare 2 co-op being similar to Resistance 2's co-op (the only reason I had any interest in buying that game). Can't wait to play multi on that. I'm pretty sure I'm getting it on 360 so I can play with you this time.
Nintendo won't release Goldeneye on XBL...why would they release one of their big popular games on a competitor's system? If it appears anywhere, it'll be on Virtual Console, without online play. *sigh* Not that Goldeneye is that good anymore, seriously, even if they updated it with two-stick controls, the frame rate makes me have a seizure and tear my eyes out.
Good ones about Ubisoft. I really should find a used copy of Chaos Theory for Xbox or maybe even find a PC copy of it and play it again.
Lol about Alan Wake.