2011 Gaming Predictions

I did it for 2008, 2009, and 2010 so why not do it again. Below you will see five predictions I have made for the gaming world in 2011.

1) Wii 2 will not be shown until 2012

E3 will come and leave us this year with only a mention of a new Wii system. Iwata, or Reggie, will likely make mention of it at E3 but nothing will be shown or talked about. This is the year of the 3DS.

2) Legend of Zelda: Sky Sword won't release until holiday 2011

Even though it was initially thought, and hinted at, to be a 2010 title, it was pushed back. Then it was assumed to be a March release. But with the 3DS set to release in March, there's no way they would double up with a major 3D Zelda title too. There's not much to look forward to for the Wii currently, so this will be pushed to November.

3) LA Noire will make it into the top 10 all-time list on GameRankings

Rockstar knows how to take it's time with a game. They also know how to make some really well designed and massive adventures. LA Noire will be no different. It will be incredible...that is if it makes it out in 2011.

4) PSP 2 and new iPod devices will both have 3D (glasses free) screens, but with no depth slider

3D is all the rage right now, and the 3DS has begun a major shift: no need to wear glasses. Well this year both Sony and Apple will release devices with screens similar to the Nintendo 3DS, the only difference will be there won't be a 3D slider to alter the strength of the effect.

5) Vitality Sensor will be a 3DS add-on, not Wii

This 5th prediction is always reserved for my most outlandish and less likely to happen. Well, this is it. Nintendo will have something quite a bit different for the new Wii to announce. And besides, the only example they've really given for this device, aside from more enemies the more scared you get, is helping you calm down before bed. And I think we all know that falling asleep watching TV does no good because you always wake back up again on the walk to bed. Why not do your relaxation games right in your bed with the 3DS.

Luigi's Mansion Trademark Renewed (Vitality Sensor Related)

AND



It appears one of my predictions, the most far-fetched in fact, has already got some potential weight behind it. If you'll recall I predicted this year the Wii Vitality Sensor would be used in a new Luigi's Mansion game on the Wii. Well look who just renewed their trademark for Luigi's Mansion... Nintendo.

That's right, let the Vitality Sensor mansion hunting commence.

2010 Gaming Predictions

I did it for 2008 and 2009 and figured I had to do it for 2010 as well. Below you will see five predictions I have made for the gaming world in 2010.

The fourth year of each generation is usually when you start hearing about the "next gen." This year, with the boom of motion controls, you will see more of a re-branding than any truly new systems. Either way, it should be a pretty good year for gaming, assuming you don't mind a little movement in your games.

1) Gears of War 3 will release in Holiday 2010 but as a prequel to explain Marcus' history

From the first fifteen minutes of the first Gears of War I have thought this to be true. There would be two Gears games in the typical fashion with the third being a prequel to explain what Marcus has done in his past battles.

2) A new Pilot Wings will be released by the end of 2010

Boy oh boy I hope this prediction is right. Ever since playing the airplane demo on the Wii at E3 2006 I have been reminded of this sweet series. My only real hope is that the game has some form of online leaderboards with friends. I think that would really add to this game.

3) Nintendo will release a Virtual Console for the DSi with Gameboy-type games

This is an idea that really should have been acted on at the launch of the DSi but, again, Nintendo is a weird bunch. They innovate in so many ways and are so stubborn in others. I fear this feature is being held for the true successor for the DS but I hope I'm wrong there. This feature needs to be released now, or at least by the end of 2010.

4) This will be the last year for the PS2, ie major retailers will stop supporting it by the end

This little beast has been selling like mad for years but I am thinking that the PS3's success in 2010 will push Sony, and mostly retailers like Best Buy, Walmart, etc., to move away from the PS2 system. This is mainly because customer's will finally start seeing the PS3 as the obvious choice for their gaming buck over the 9-10 year old console.

5) Wii Vitality Sensor will be used in a new Luigi's Mansion Wii game

My fifth prediction is always the most outlandish, it doesn't help my prediction score that's for sure, and this one is no exception. Hate all you want about Luigi's Mansion (or don't if you actually enjoyed it) but someone at Nintendo loved the first game and is currently making the sequel for the Wii. It will use the Wii Vitality Sensor, announced at E3 2009, in some pretty cool ways to alter the environments that Luigi explores. If you like the Vitality Sensor I hope you like Luigi's Mansion because I don't foresee too many "core" games using it this year.

Now let's see if I can do a little better than 2009's predictions. It shouldn't be hard considering I only got one right.

2009 Predictions: Right or Wrong

Seeing as how 2009 is nearing it's end I thought I would check back on some of my gaming predictions. See the actual predictions plus descriptions right here. Below you will see 5 things that I thought were likely to happen in 2009.

In the end I shot a 1/5. Compared to my 3.5/5 last year I pretty much sucked it up this year. That'll teach me to try and predict Nintendo's choices. They make so many decisions out of left field it's near impossible to tell what they're going to do.

1) PSP2 will be released this Holiday and will not have a UMD drive Right!

For the most part I nailed this one on the head. The system is not officially the PSP2, it's called the PSPGo, but it is certainly the next version of the PSP system. The system was also released a little bit before the "Holiday" window but October 1 (in America and Europe) is close enough to "Holiday" for me to count it.

2) A new Zelda for Wii will release in the holiday of 2008 Wrong!

Boy was I wrong on this one. Had I not specified Wii I would have gotten it right, but alas, I didn't. As it turns out there was a new DS Zelda game released and we now know the new Zelda might be shown at E3 in 2010. So the chances of it actually releasing in 2010 aren't necessarily too great.

3) Voice chat will be standard on all online-enabled Wii games released in November and December Wrong!

I specified that all Nintendo-released games with online would have voice chat but there weren't any games at all released by Nintendo on the Wii with online modes at all. So in that way I was right. But I think we can all agree that this would never have been true even if they did release any online games. I hate to say it but this is the biggest reason I now own an Xbox 360 now.

4) Again we will see a price drop for PS3 and Xbox 360 but not for Wii Wrong!

Nintendo was the last one of the three to drop the price but in the end, I was wrong. I also said there would be new Wii colors and bundles and there weren't (at least not in America).

5) A new Resident Evil and GTA will be released for the Wii in 2009 Wrong!

I said this was my least likely to actually happen and sure enough, I was right about that. There was not a traditional Resident Evil title or GTA games released for the Wii in 2009. And after the sales of GTA: Chinatown Wars on the DS I seriously doubt we'll see one ever on another Nintendo system.

Zelda Wii on Wuhu Island?

Not sure if I'm the only one who caught this or if I just missed all the news and prediction threads about it but I found this very interesting. In the newest Iwata Aks interview Miyamoto has some very interesting things to say about the island in which Wii Sports Resort (and Wii Fit for that matter) takes place on.

Miyamoto:

It’s called Wuhu Island, but the concept is more or less the same. We really polished up the island, turned it into a resort and actually made the location into a kind of character. This will then lead to a range of island series…

Iwata:

So you’ll be releasing a range of series?

Miyamoto:

You could have adventure games, role-playing games, city-building simulation games... It will be fun to see all the ideas that we can come up with, won’t it?

Iwata:

So the idea is basically to use the same island as the location and then afterwards develop games covering all sorts of genres. Shimamura-san, how did you react when you first heard about the “Island Concept"? Did you have any reservations about it?

Shimamura:

Well, I was really taken aback. In fact, I was at a loss for words! (laughs)

Iwata:

Well, that's not surprising considering you’d just heard someone suggest turning an island into a character and then licensing it out! (laughs) Having just heard the explanation, I understand the concept but under normal circumstances, I think anyone would find themselves thinking: ”What on earth is this person talking about?”

Shimamura:

Absolutely! (laughs) Using an island as the setting for a game is very common, but the idea of turning it into a franchise...

Iwata:

So how did you end up coming round to the idea?

Shimamura:

Well, I heard an explanation that really made everything fall into place. If you see a street on TV that you’ve been to before, even if it was just the once, you’ll always say: “Hey! I know that place!”

Miyamoto:

We thought it would be a fun idea to have a location that everyone knows and then have all sorts of stuff going on there. It would mean that players would already know the town like the back of their hands by the time they came to buy the next adventure game.

See that in the bolded sentences above? Aren't those all a little telling about the next adventure game (i.e. Zelda) that Nintendo is going to be making? Unless they have some brand new adventure game in the works that none of us know about it seems to me like they may be making Wuhu Island the new setting for Hyrule.

And let's not forget this very obvious addition to the Wuhu Island.

Do you think Nintendo would use Wuhu Island as the location for the new Wii Zelda or do you think they have a new adventure game in the works that will use Wuhu Island?

2009 Gaming Predictions

Seeing as how it's 2009 now and I did this last year I thought I would make some gaming predictions. Below you will see 5 things that are likely to happen this year. Please feel free to argue with me on any of these predictions. Think I'm wrong? Well we'll just have to wait and see.

1) PSP2 will be released this Holiday and will not have a UMD drive

This one is a little bit out there but I think Sony will announce their next handheld device at either this year's E3 event or some event soon after. The system will have the ability, much like the DSi or the iPhone, to download games directly to them using a wireless signal. Also, the UMD drive will be gone since it drains batteries like a mother.

2) A new Zelda for Wii will release in the holiday of 2008

With Nintendo's new concept of holding onto game information much longer than in the past there is a good chance this prediction will not be proven true until after E3. And I don't mean we will hear about it at E3, I mean we will seriously not hear anything about it until maybe August for a November or December release.

3) Voice chat will be standard on all online-enabled Wii games released in November and December

As a new owner of the Wii Speak peripheral this could be more of a hope than a prediction. Sometimes it's hard to determine if my predictions aren't being driven by lust and the desire that they may become true. The only real way for this to be determined "Right" or "Wrong" later is if I give more details. For this prediction I mean that every Wii game released in the November and December months that has an online mode (simultaneous play with or against other humans over a network) will have voice chat available using either Wii Speak or a third party peripheral.

4) Again we will see a price drop for PS3 and Xbox 360 but not for Wii

We will, sometime before the end of 2009, see new Wii SKUs but not in the sense that you may think. The system will continue to sell well but a slight drop in sales during the summer will lead to a few different color options for the Wii. One will most certainly be black and I will be extremely tempted to buy one. I hate you Nintendo.

5) A new Resident Evil and GTA will be released for the Wii in 2009

This is my grand prediction that has the highest percentage of being wrong. Like last year's stupid prediction of Saints Row getting higher reviews on average than GTA IV this is my "out on a limb" prediction. I personally think 2009 will be the year that will start seeing some serious "hardcore" games released on the system. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition sold over a million copies so it's obvious there's a market for it on Wii. As for a GTA game being made, I see it being made by the same team at Rockstar that made the PSP Grand Theft Auto games. Let's see how close I am on that one.

Let the games of 2009 begin.

2008 Predictions: Right or Wrong

At the beginning of 2008 I laid down some predictions for the year. Below you will see how accurate my predictions were. Without spoiling too much, I think I did fairly well.

And stay tuned for this year's predictions in the coming week.

1) Wii Play w/ Remote will be best selling Wii game (not counting Wii Sports of course) Right!!!

According to this link it is apparent, and to some very sad, that Nintendo's brilliant marketing creation that is Wii Play has managed to be the best selling Wii game of 2008. But what is that you hear; the game actually outsold GTA IV that launched on not just the Xbox 360 and PS3 but also the PC? That is correct.

Some would say it is brilliant. Some would say it's a disaster.

2) Gears of War 2 will be release in the Fall of '08 Right!!!

As I stated in my prediction, this wasn't too big of a gamble on my part especially since there was no new Halo game this year and the first Gears was a huge seller the previous holiday season it came out. But just remember, back in January the release date for Gears 2 was not common knowledge.

3) Still no headset for the Wii, at least not by Nintendo Right and Wrong!!!

When it comes to voice-chat us Nintendo gamers have been a little left in the dust. My prediction was that Nintendo would complete the 2008 year without releasing a voice-chat enabled headset. Well they released Wii Speak, a voice-chat enabled device for the entire room, but not a headset. So if my prediction was "no voice-chat" I would be fully wrong but since I worded it differently, I'm gonna give myself a little credit.

4) Price Drop for Xbox 360 and PS3 but not Wii before '09 Right!!!

This is a prediction that makes you wonder if it was even a question that this would happen. Well, back in January it was still unsure if the Wii was going to be able to last and the PS3 and 36o were still doing fairly well in the hardware race. Well my guess was that both Sony and Microsoft would drop the price of their systems but Nintendo would hold strong. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 dropped its price a few times throughout the year and changed SKU options. The Nintendo Wii remains in the exact same packaging and price we got back in 2006 (aside from a few Wiimote condoms and package designs of course).

5) Saints Row 2 will have a higher GameRankings score than GTA IV Terribly Wrong!!!

I went out on a limb on this one far before we knew much of anything about GTA IV or Saints Row 2. All I can say about this one is "why?"Why would I ever think that a series like GTA that has always garnered great reviews ever be beaten by a newcomer that only has one game in the series and it wasn't rated very high? Looking back on it now, I have no answer.

Well according to GameRankings these are the average scores and rank for each game:

Grand Theft Auto IV
Review Score: 96.6%
Overall Rank: 1

Saints Row 2
Review Score: 83.3%
Overall Rank: 67

Dirk Nowitzki Loves Games?

I didn't know Germans, sized triple XL, enjoyed playing Guitar Hero. Then again, who doesn't?

But when all things are considered, Dirk has some other reasons to like the world of video games too. Recently EA Sports used their most recent sports game, NBA Live '09, to simulate the entirety of this upcoming season. The results show the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk's team, coming in 3rd place in the West. And judging from past years, that's pretty good. The West tends to be a far more dominant force in the league. Aside from one or two good teams in the East it pretty much sucks.

Are You Keeping Smash Bros Spoiler Free?

I have been trying my darndest to keep the remaining roster and stages of Smash Bros Brawl a secret but in thinking about what has already been announced it got me thinking. Ever since Sakurai, the director of Brawl, announced that all future updates to the Smash Bros Dojo may contain spoilers I have been keeping myself away from most of the Brawl news. But after doing some quick math in my head about the currently announced newcomers it got me wondering if I already knew almost every character.

I know the final playable roster on Melee, I've been re-playing it for the last 2 weeks now, and there are a total of 25 characters. So let's assume that every character in Melee is returning, this could deinitely be false, and we are only 10 characters away from the Brawl roster of 35. As you will see below, there could easily be more than 35 characters in Brawl, but that number could be correct so we'll continue anyway.

So with 25 characters assumed to be there already, the Melee returners, let us count the already announced newcomers.

1. Diddy Kong
   
2. Pit from Kid Icarus
   
3. King Dedede
   
4. Solid Snake
   
5. Sonic the Hedgehog
   
6. Olimar
   
7. Lucas
   
8. Pokemon Trainer
   
9. Wario
   
10. Ike
    
11. Meta Knight

You can see by the list above that it would already put us at 36 characters, more than the 35 I was told. So we already have 36 characters that we know of, but that was assuming that every character is returning from Melee. So let's remove the "clone" characters from the list.

1. Dr. Mario
   
2. Falco
   
3. Pichu
   
4. Young Link
   
5. Ganondorf
   
6. Roy

The Smash Bros Dojo hasn't officially announced any of the "clones" as playable in Brawl up to this point so it could be argued that all "clone" characters have been removed. So that would put us at 30 characters. But what about the already announced Lucas and Ike from Melee character's existing franchises. Are these characters in addition to Ness and Marth from Earthbound and Fire Emblem or are they replacements? Do we add them to make it 32 or do we keep it at 30 and call them replacements?

There are a few possible explanations for this whole roster situation. 1) There are more than 35 playable characters, 2) everyone has been announced already (highly doubtful since there were spoiler warnings), or 3) the roster is mostly different aside from a few characters here and there so nothing can be assumed about Melee returners.

One thing is certain, there should at least be a few surprises left for me when I get the game next month. I just hope they didn't get rid of Roy seeing as he was my personal favorite. And by the way, if any of you know there to be more than 35 characters in Brawl, feel free to inform me.

Sony Ends 80GB Model, Analysts Suck

Well it's official. Analysts are a bunch of idiots. And yes, I mean all analysts. I have never particulary liked analysts, for really any industry, because there are so many of them guessing so many different things that a few of them are bound to be right. And those are the only ones who get recognized. The 95% that failed never get mentioned because that's not interesting. I suppose I have always seen them with this thought in mind: "Those who can't; predict." Or should I say try to predict.

Didn't see that pole there did you analyst? Whoops...

For those of you who may not have seen the rumors, they seem pretty accurate and reasonable to me, about Sony discontinuing their 80GB model of their PS3 then head on over and read the news. With this news I was alerted of another reason I don't tend to read analyst blogs or care in the slightest what they say. According to GameDaily Mike Hickey, an analyst for Janco Partners, said

"Sony is likely dumping the 80GB version because it has failed to meet internal sales projections."

DO YOU THINK???? Could Sony possibly have canned the 80GB version of the system because it was selling too well? That's the only logical reason I could come up with. It's a good thing Janco Partners pays this guy [any money at all] to inform us of the ways of retail.

Leon S. Kennedy in Smash Brothers???

After yesterday's announcement about Olimar in Smash Brothers it is quite apparent there are a few secrets left in Sakurai's magic bag. According to IMDB (Internet Movie Database) Leon S. Kennedy of the Resident Evil series will be voiced in the new Smash Brothers game. This doesn't really mean anything since nothing has been announced but it is certainly interesting. I would have to think, were this information true, then Leon would have to be a playable character. If he was merely an Assist Trophy or side character then he would most likely not need a voice for the game. So he must be a playable character.

Leon may seem out of place in a game that is compiled of mostly cartoony sort of characters but the way the series has been going Leon really makes sense. Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid series has already been announced as a playable character and he is a very real-to-life character. Capcom, the makers of Resident Evil, also currently have no character represented in Smash. Sega has Sonic, Konami has Solid Snake, and Nintendo has, well, Nintendo has everyone else. So why not allow a company such as Capcom to release a major player in Smash. It may give them some incentive to support the Wii a little more with some other games, here's looking at you Bionic Commando (please help it happen readers), if they got a character in Brawl. It also leads me to wonder if Square-Enix or Ubisoft has anyone in the game. I sure hope so. On second thought, I just hope this rumor is true first, then I'll worry about Square and Ubi.

2008 Gaming Predictions

Seeing as how it's 2008 now I thought I would use my training skills to make some gaming predictions. Below you will see 5 things that are likely to happen this year. Please feel free to argue with me on any of these predictions. Think I'm wrong? Well we'll just have to wait and see.

1) Wii Play w/ Remote will be best selling Wii game (not counting Wii Sports of course)

With the fancy marketing that is Wii Play, it has successfully managed to mantain a top spot in the software sales lists for the last 12 months. This trend will continue into, and throughout, 2008. Wii Play will manage to be the highest selling Wii game for all of 2008. Yes, it will even beat out Super Smash Brothers Brawl, the sequel to the top selling game on the GameCube. That little $10 pack of mini games is just too enticing for the typical consumer not to pick up. Need a Wiimote? Why not grab one that comes with a game. It could be looked at as a cheap trick by Nintendo but it will successully top the Wii sales charts for 2008.

2) Gears of War 2 will be release in the Fall of '08

This prediction may not be all that crazy or unpredictable but in this day and age you never know. Too Human: delayed, GTA IV: delayed, Smash Bros Brawl: delayed, Turok: delayed, PS3's HOME: delayed. Those are some very high level games, or programs, that were delayed last year. Many big games missed their highly cherished holiday release last year. This year will be very similar in the fact that many holiday games now will not make it out until the year 2009. But that cannot be said for the next installment in the Gears of War series. It will release in the Fall of this year.

3) Still no headset for the Wii, at least not by Nintendo

Oh you poor, poor Nintendo-only gamers. You want voice chat in your online-enabled Wii games so badly don't you? Well so do I, and so do many other gamers out there. But I have some bad news for you... the year of '08 will pass yet again without the release of a Nintendo branded headset. Yup, even with those huge online-enabled games on the horizon such as Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart, and Animal Crossing there will still be no voice chat in a Nintendo game. Your only shot will be if Nintendo allows other companies to create their own or you will have to buy another system. Sucks don't it?

4) Price Drop for Xbox 360 and PS3 but not Wii before '09

This one should be pretty self explanatory. During the course of 2008 both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will see a price drop. These drops will most likely not be new SKUs, which has been the way for the last year for Sony and Microsoft, but rather a straight up traditional price drop. By the way, bundles don't count. There will be many of them this year, like always but I am talking about real price drops here. What you will see out of Nintendo is a few new Wii colors. These won't happen until much later in the year, look out for them sometime before the Fall rush, but the price for a Wii on January 1, 2009 will be $249.99.

5) Saints Row 2 will have a higher GameRankings score than GTA IV

This is by far the most outrageous prediction on the list. The race will be close on this one but in the end Saint's Row will see a slightly higher average review score than Grand Theft Auto IV. Not that this will matter in the slightest because GTA will kill Saints Row in sales. But again, not sure why that really matters either, unless maybe you are a stock holder of one of the companies. But one way or another, you will see Saints Row above Grand Theft Auto over at GameRankings for both systems.

Let the games of 2008 begin.

Smash Bros Brawl Online Detailed

Is a hardrive needed for replays?
Sakurai announced that you will be able to save and send up to three minute replays of battles or other modes. At first glance one would think this would require a very large amount of data to save that much footage of a game. However, depending on how they save the data, they could keep extremely small sized save files. When looking at a game like Halo 3 that allows a similar feature they manage to keep two minute save files down to an extremely small 100 Mb. Considering the large amount of HD textures and high number of polygons in Halo 3, that is quite a feat.

The way the Bungie developers accomplished such small replay files was by only tracking (and saving) game code of everything happening in the game. Rather than saving the footage as a video file this allows the new viewer (the person you sent the replay) to move the camera around and zoom in and out. If the Smash Bros team uses a similar strategy for a game with no HD and a small environment you could easily get a three minute replay in under 40Mb file size.

To add to this, Sakurai has noted that we can save created levels, screenshots, and replays directly to an SD card. If the above tactic doesn't work, you still really don't need a harddrive.

Will there be an Adventure Mode creation tool?
The president of Nintendo of America recently told a media outlet during an interview that he wishes LittleBigPlanet was on the Wii and not on the PS3. In this game people create single-player levels from scratch and allow others to play through the level. My question with this Smash Bros update is whether or not you will be able to create single-player levels as well as Brawl stages. One thing I found interesting was a screenshot on the site with a ladder as an object option.

I have never once seen a ladder used in the way Mario is using that ladder in a Smash Bros game. In the middle of a Smash Brawl I think it would be awfully weird to stop the action and start climbing a ladder. So what could this mean for the create-a-level option? Perhaps a single-player level editor is on the horizon. One can only hope.

There are a few other things I have worries or suspicions about in regards to Smash Bros online features but that will have to wait until a later date. Not to say I don't love all these online features, because I absolutely do, I'm just saying there's more to it than what we know right now.

Industry Insider Predictions

Apparently there is an industry insider, apparently quite accurate in the past, making some predictions about the future of the gaming world. There are some more interesting and some less interesting predictions in there so I went through and bolded the best ones, at least in my opinion.

1) The Gears of War trilogy will be finished on the Xbox 360.
2) IO-Interactive’s next Hitman game, tentatively slated for release next summer, is coming to the Wii.
3) The Far Cry franchise is coming to the PS3 courtesy of Ubisoft Montreal.
4) Even though the forthcoming Prince of Persia 4 will probably not be coming to the Wii, the system will receive an “alternate title” in the Prince of Persia franchise,
5) That Resistance: Fall of Man 2 starts in Iceland and ends in Mexico.
6) NBA Ballers 3 (not the final title) will be slam dunking on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in April.
7) Sony Bend is working on a PS3 Syphon Filter title slated for release sometime in 2009.
Neither of n-Space’s two Wii titles stars a ghost. However, they are even more ambitious than that ghost game and far better. One features a temple level that looks like it was swiped out of Red Steel and the other more ambitious title features an alien reptilian creature who bares quite a resemblance to Ganondorf. I’d be surprised if either sees release before March 2009.
9) Ubisoft will be publishing Soma, the Human Head/Mark Ecko collaboration coming to PS3 and 360 sometime before two years from now, and which I guarantee is way cooler than the overrated Prey.
10) After great success Athens 2004, Eurocom is developing sequel 2008 Beijing Olympics for Sega.
11) That non-Metroid game Retro Studios is working on is a new IP that is not an FPS.
12) Zoonami has a few titles that will be available through WiiWare next year.
13) Q Entertainment is working on WiiWare title or two for release for next year.
14) Space Michael won’t be in Space Channel 5 Part 3.
15) ChuChu Rocket! comeback for DS and/or Wii.
16) EA’s next-gen snowboarding title that may or may not have SSX in the title is coming next fall, at the same time frame as “the best snowboarding game ever” (or so I’m told numerous times) Shaun White Snowboarding (which is also shredding next-gen systems).
17) Red Steel 2 not before May, with multiplayer and co-op.
18) LEGO Indiana Jones is coming out after or at the same time as Indiana Jones (working title).
19) Yet another Super Monkey Ball game is in the works.
20) Fight Night 2008 is coming to the Wii.
21) Fuse Games + that pink round guy that floats = their next DS title.
22) Super Punch-Out! is coming to Virtual Console next year.
23) Monster Games is developing another game for Nintendo, that is not an Excite Truck sequel.
24) Wii Motor Sports Airplane is a WiiWare title.
25) Mario Superstar Baseball Wii is sliding to home base in the summer

Not sure if anyone even knows what Wii Motor Sports Airplane is but it has to be one of the most soothing and relaxing games that showcased the Wii back in May of 2006 at E3. The game is easy to control (hold the Wiimote like a paper airplane) yet it had challenges to complete as well. It was very reminiscent of the old days of Pilot Wings. Other than that, the bolded predictions seem to pretty much speak for themselves.

Holiday Sales Charts Prediction

After the warm reception of the last Google Trends comparison for games this holiday season on the Nintendo Wii I thought I would make one for all home console's games. Let me know if I missed something here but I believe I got the main games for each system. I wish I could place Grand Theft Auto IV on this list but considering it's not coming out this year anymore it doesn't make sense. Looks to me like Halo 3 will be the big winner with Heavenly Sword at the very bottom and Galaxy and Smash are holding the middle. To me, this sounds just about right.

Now imagine how much better the PS3 would be doing against the other consoles with these other future games. Would having Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid release this year make the battle a littl emore interesting? It appears at least one of them would make a run for the top.

Nintendo's Future Business Plan

This is entirely rumor and speculation. There is no fact here, simply opinion.

Nintendo is doing it again, they are doing the smart thing from a business standpoint. They are releasing four of their major franchises within the span of the first year of the Wii's lifespan (Zelda, Metroid, Mario, Smash Brothers) in order to get a larger install base for their system. This will help third parties feel confident that a more "hardcore game" can sell on the system and the install base will be huge right out of the gate.

At the same time the company is starting to build an install base of "casual gamers" by releasing new and old franchises (Wii Sports, Big Brain Academy, WiiPlay) to allow them to make more money then they even know what to do with. Big Brain Acedemy is essentially the same game as the DS version with an added "sort of" online mode and the game cost the same as a full priced Wii game, $50. The DS version only cost $20 new and they are essentially the same game for a different system. Not only does the game cost more but it is currently still in the top five for game sales in the UK and Japan. If you can't see where I'm going with this then let me say it straight out: Nintendo makes far more money on a "casual" game than they do on a "hardcore" game that sells the exact same number of units. The reason for this is they can pump out a game that sells the same but costs them a much smaller amount of money, not to mention time. I would be willing to bet that Nintendo could design five Big Brain Academy type games in the same time it would take them to make a Zelda. So essentially, they could make 5 times the money by switching to "casual" games.

What they are going to rely far more on, but not entirely, going into the next few years of the Wii's lifespan is larger third party support. They are going to be banking on the Capcoms, the EAs, the Ubisofts, and the other smaller guys to create these "hardcore" games while they sit back and rake in the dough with "casual" games.

When to Expect an Xbox 360 Price Drop

One of the main things that happened at the Microsoft Conference during E3 was actually something that didn't happen: a price drop. According to Microsoft execs the company needs to increase the number of games in Japan and decrease the price in America in order to be successful; but yet there was no price drop announced. Which leads me to the topic at hand, when will it happen?

Basically the rule of the game is patience. If you can hold off for about a month after the release of Halo 3, and a little longer after the release of GTA IV, then you should be able to pickup the great "little box that turns around" (Xbox 360 for the slow) at a discounted price. There's really no reason for Microsoft to drop the price of the system right before they're ensured to sell hundreds of thousands of systems with games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto. A price drop right before the huge holiday rush will get those "parents with no clue" more incentive to pick up the machine without losing all the potential revenue from the two biggest Xbox releases of the year.

After the most recent speculation on the PS3's price drop, as if no one saw it coming, perhaps Sony should take a que from Nintendo and learn how to properly do a price drop. And by that I mean actually drop the price, not just upgrade the system and tell people it's cheaper. And I don't mean to pick only on Sony here because if you recall, Microsoft just recently released the more expensive Xbox 360 Elite a few months ago. When will you guys realize you aren't Apple? You can't release a new version with one new feature and have people clamor over it. Video games are a much different beast than the portable music industry. And by the way, anything above $400 is way too much for a home video game console.

E3 Predictions

There's always some big announcements at E3 and there are always all sorts of rumors to build up to the show. So I simply cannot let this E3 go by without me shooting you some of my rumors and predictions.

• DVD-enabled Wii will be announced and will be released before the end of this year.


• There will be no price drops from either Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo anounced during the show.


• Square-Enix makes an announcement that Final Fantasy will make it's way to Xbox 360


• Nintendo will launch a new Wii Channel during the show.


• Metal Gear Solid 4 will make it through the entire show with no announcement for an Xbox 360 version, because there isn't going to be one (at least not before '09).


• Sony announces plans for new hard drive only PSP2.


• Mario Kart Wii will be announced for an '08 release.


• The ICO team will demonstrate their new epic project, dragons will be involved.


• Peter Molyneux demonstrate Fable 2 and it will be an incredible presentation. We'll see if the final game turns out any good.

Nintendo: Past, Present, Future

For anyone interested in reading a well written article about Nintendo, market share, and the future of gaming then click this link and head over to Business Week. The article makes mention of how Nintendo has always been about making profit and making people smile. They also make mention of the very frugal R&D costs Nintendo uses that makes their occassional failures (Virtual Boy, e-Reader, etc.) not cost them much money. And how they sell all their products for a profit so those same failures still manage to make some money in return. They risk, and innovate, often but do so in a very intelligent way. Enjoy the read.

Prediction: GTA: San Andreas Stories on the Wii

It's that time of the week again, prediction time. Here at the Game Gym we like to be at the forefront of the gaming industry in regards to future games, even those that haven't even been announced yet. Well just recently Take-Two announced that they are planning on ramping up Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS support for the near future. So basically this news, and the fact that the Wii is soon to have a massive market-share, means that there's no other choice for Take-Two but to release a Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game on the Wii.

There are a few different options that Take-Two has here and one of them, the easiest choice, is the least likely to happen. That option is the one regarding the brand new entry in the GTA series, GTA IV. This is a game completely designed from the ground up to work on the PS3 and Xbox 360 systems and would take a serious drop in not only graphics but pretty much every other department. So basically this isn't an option. Instead, the game that makes far more sense to produce for the Wii is the next game in the GTA Stories series. The first two games in this series (Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories) were released on the PSP and then months later released on the PS2. With the somewhat similar specs between the PS2 and the Wii it's in no way impossible to release such a game on the Wii. This would be a great test for Take-Two because they could release a "new" GTA game on the Wii with minimum production cost and see how well it sells to the different Nintendo market. From there, who knows what types of GTA games we'll see.

So don't be surprised this July when you hear GTA: San Andreas Stories is going to be released on the Nintendo Wii.