In the year 2007

Games
1

Saw this at the Shack, lets make 2007 gaming predictions. Here is my list

In the year 2007

Alan Wake, DNF, Fallout 3, Spore, GTA4, and HL2: Episode 2 will not be released in 2007.

Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 will be annouced but will not ship in 07.

To expand on HL2: Episode 2, I am predicting that will merg it with what was planned of Episode 3 and release Ep1-3 as Half Life 3: Orange in 2008. TF2 may be released in 2007 as a seperate product.

Mass Effect will end up being a not a big deal like Jade Empire. Lucasarts and Bioware will annouce a new Starwars MMORPG that is not Star Wars Galaxy but in fact based on KOTOR 1/2 story lines and expanded universe.

Star Trek Online will be an unexpected sucess.

Sin episode 2 is canceled.

EA will release a new Sim City that will take the series towards a more “animated look” and will be the easiest Sim City yet. It will be out before Spore.

After the mega sucess of the 3rd Pirates of the caribbean movie, LucasArts will finally put a new Monkey Island game in production but it will not be an adventure game.

Sierra will annouce a new Kings Quest. Watch it be released on gametap like Sam and Max.

Take Two will annouce new versions of Xcom and Civilization.

The world will be stunned as Interplay actually begins development on Fallout online because the gaming community fails to realize that investors have more money than brains. I don’t expect it to ever finish or ship in any year.

The Wii will take a significant lead this year. However it will show signs of weakness towards christmas as both the PS3 and Xbox 360 bring out their big titles. The PS3 will stay in 3rd place for 2007 and 2008 but will rise to the top at the end of the generation because of its additional untapped power. The 360 will be sucessful for the entire generation but it will always be second place. (disclaimer: I’m a 360 fanboy)

Atari will be bought and will fad away as a name once again.

Vista, DX10, and Live Anywhere will rock.

(what sucks is about half of these, there are people on this forum that know if they are true or not)

2

Right on Fallout 3 and DNF, wrong on all the others.

Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 will be annouced but will not ship in 07.

Wrong on both, neither will be announced.

To expand on HL2: Episode 2, I am predicting that will merg it with what was planned of Episode 3 and release Ep1-3 as Half Life 3: Orange in 2008. TF2 may be released in 2007 as a seperate product.

Also wrong. HL2:Ep2 will release in Q3 2007 and will be Valve’s only major release next year (not counting a HL2, HL2:Ep1, HL2:Ep2 bundle on 360).

Mass Effect will end up being a not a big deal like Jade Empire.

Also wrong. Mass Effect will be Bioware’s biggest title since KOTOR.

Lucasarts and Bioware will annouce a new Starwars MMORPG that is not Star Wars Galaxy but in fact based on KOTOR 1/2 story lines and expanded universe.

Hmm, interesting, maybe true.

Star Trek Online will be an unexpected sucess.

Wrong.

Sin episode 2 is canceled.

Right.

EA will release a new Sim City that will take the series towards a more “animated look” and will be the easiest Sim City yet. It will be out before Spore.

Interesting, maybe true but probably not.

After the mega sucess of the 3rd Pirates of the caribbean movie, LucasArts will finally put a new Monkey Island game in production but it will not be an adventure game.

Wrong.

Sierra will annouce a new Kings Quest. Watch it be released on gametap like Sam and Max.

No, Sierra is dead.

Take Two will annouce new versions of Xcom and Civilization.

Would be great, but wrong.

The world will be stunned as Interplay actually begins development on Fallout online because the gaming community fails to realize that investors have more money than brains. I don’t expect it to ever finish or ship in any year.

I don’t expect it to even start development. It will wander around in Phantom-like financing limbo for most of 2007 before the remaining Interplay people get sued for something.

The Wii will take a significant lead this year. However it will show signs of weakness towards christmas as both the PS3 and Xbox 360 bring out their big titles.

Right.

The PS3 will stay in 3rd place for 2007 and 2008 but will rise to the top at the end of the generation because of its additional untapped power.

Wrong. Globally, the PS3 will be solidly behind the 360 for this entire generation.

The 360 will be sucessful for the entire generation but it will always be second place. (disclaimer: I’m a 360 fanboy)

You’re a piss-poor one then :-) Wii will sell more units this generation than 360, but 360 will make more total revenue. Wii will make more profit than anyone, though, as usual for Nintendo.

Atari will be bought and will fad away as a name once again.

Yep.

Vista, DX10, and Live Anywhere will rock.

DX10 yep, the other two, not so much.

(what sucks is about half of these, there are people on this forum that know if they are true or not)

I’m DEFINITELY not one of those people.

OK that’s enough picking holes in your courageous first post, here’s my predictions for you to squash and then piss on:

Crackdown sells over half a million units on the strength of the Halo 3 beta invites.

Spore ships in early December 2007.

Supreme Commander develops a fierce cult following but does not reach Company of Heroes level of sales.

Company of Heroes major expansion pack in November 2007. (duh. also, can’t wait)

Hellgate: London has major server problems initially but rapidly develops the biggest online non-MMORPG community since Diablo II. (also duh)

The 360 will have another sales spike in Japan driven by Lost Odyssey, and will wind up having about 10% the volume of the PS3 in Japan by end of 2007, which will be considered either a staggering victory or an unexpectedly strong defeat for Microsoft depending on whether you are K0NY or not.

K0NY will continue to vacillate in a bipolar manner between relatively level-headed posts and raging fanboism.

Dungsroman will call someone a fag.

Tom Chick will continue to beat Geryk like a gong anytime they play an RTS.

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RepoMan just PWND Merritt. Awesome.

(Fag.)

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Wright’s said that he thinks the SimCity games have gotten too complicated and he wants the next one to appeal to folks who’ve never played one before. So I don’t think it’s a shot in the dark to guess the next one will be easy, although everything else is conjecture.

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Those are actually pretty good predictions, and I know a couple are correct and a couple are incorrect, but I’m not going to say which. (Hah! Take that.)

I do like that RepoMan says you’re WRONG! And a number of his WRONGs are, in fact, WRONG.

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And the other 2.5 million units because the game is really really good.

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You mean Chick’s not going to continue beating Geryk like a gong?

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The only way for Bruce to win is not to play.

Troy

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Yeah, Crackdown looks pretty badass.

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My bold prediction for 2007:

The Burning Crusade will sell a lot of copies.

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Is Smash Bros. not releasing Christmas 2007?

If Nintendo is able to keep the momentum up, I think it’s their market to lose at this point. That said, the Wii is the only great launch they’ve had since the Nintendo 64 and we all know how that went. The upcoming first quarter first party releases look a bit bleak; I think, in order to maintain their momentum, they need to provide another broad title like Wii Sports that appeals to that nebulous demographic of “everybody except those who call it a cheap tech demo”. Nintendo’s done extremely well with having big, wide audience, non-sequel hits on the DS (Nintendogs, Brain Training), hopefully they can continue the trend on the Wii.

(Obviously I’m a huge Nintendo fanboy.)

-Scott-

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That’s… so not right.

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Man, how I hope and pray that your right about new X-Com :)

-Chris

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I’ll go a step further and say Supreme Commander’s a flub. Reviews turn out to be lukewarm, citing boredom with the highly generic setting, low unit diversity, and unsatisfying multiplayer, if only because a single match takes 2-3 hours to actually finish due to the huge number of units and the giant map sizes. It develops a cult following like Total Annihilation, and the genre forgets it just as fast too.

I don’t believe that. Hellgate’s system requirements are too high. It’ll have a well-populated online environment, but it won’t break any records.

Personal predictions:

-Despite the Wii moving a shit ton of systems, Nintendo and its electron cloud of third party developers still can’t manage to release more than 2-3 “must have” games. Super Mario Galaxy is pushed back to 2008. Metroid Prime 3 is released and found disappointing, the formula has gotten old. Smash Brothers Wii is rushed to make Christmas and lacks online multiplayer.

-360 has its strongest year yet. Though the Wii might sell more hardware, attach ratios on the 360 are better, and the year is full of huge hits for the system. Blue Dragon polarizes gamers - you either love it or hate it. Halo 3 is boring but everyone buys it anyway for multiplayer. Gears of War gets a free expansion pack from Epic. Viva Pinata’s TV show is cancelled. All multiplatform games continue to play best on the 360.

-PS3 chokes and sputters. Sales dwindle bigtime in Q1 and by Q2 it’s as bad as the PSP. There aren’t any killer app exclusives for the system until Christmas, and even then, the PS3’s Christmas isn’t any better than this past one. The system continues to suck ass and be loathed. Square announces a Q3 2008 release for FFXIII.

-The PC chugs along. Vista and DirectX10 are not big deals – aside from a couple games that suck anyway, nothing requires either. Spore is released, adored by critics and hardcore gamers, but sales are disappointing. Vanguard is released in beta condition, has a decently strong population to begin with which constantly falls for a year til it stabalizes around EQ2’s current numbers. Burning Crusade is released; reviews are stellar; players aren’t comfortable with the new stuff and do nothing but bitch, yet never actually cancel their subscriptions.

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Here’s a safe one: the PS3 and 360 continue to be indistinguishable graphically.

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Most PC games will be released as Not-Ready-For-Primetime beta software. Thus, no change.

17

Are you not noticing the stream of patches to 360 games of late?

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No, Bill, no! It’s too soon! It’s not 2007 yet!

Wait, I guess it is 2007 in Japan or something :-D PSYCHE!

But you won’t say which, huh? Wuss! C’mon Bauman, I’m bookmarking this sucker and if a year from now I had my head solidly up my ass I’ll be the first to say so. Get your Nostradamus on, man. I dare ya.

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People pay me BILLIONS for my predictions, man; I ain’t given them up for free.

Okay, here’s one: For the 13th straight year, I won’t use any of my vacation time.

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This thread will be resurrected for christmas 2007