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.
