What are your 2008 video game predictions?

[8th lutz]

Here are mine:

 

The video game Tax will pass in Wisconsin.

 

More crimes will be blamed on videogames by the media and by politicians without knowing all the facts.

 

EA will buy Take two.

Nintendo will buy Bungie.

 

Atari will fold this year.

 

There will be great homebrew game releases this year.

 

There will be great virtual game console games coming out in North America this year like Star Tropics, Phantasy Star 4, Harvest Moon, Super Smash Bros., River Ransom City, Lords of Thunder, Shining Force 2 and Books of Y's 1& 2. Sega CD games, and Game boy games will be coming to the vc this year.

 

There will be great games released on the Wii, PS 3, 360, DS and the PSP.

 

There will be more dumb statements by games companies this year like Sony did last year with them offering money for each PS 3 in a store not sold.

 

There will be a big announcements by nintendo at e3. It will be the announcement of an Earthbound game being work for the DS. The 2nd one is a demo channel for North America.

 

Xbox live will continue to have good game being released.

 

EA will announce that they will not renew the exclusive Nascar videogame license.

 

Ea will continue to have their game sales to go down like from Nascar 2009.

 

There will be a crash bandicoot game in the Ps 3 this year.

 

There will be a great rpg being this year on the 360.

 

There will be more management people getting replaced in some game companies.

There will a pr problem for a game publisher or game developer this year. It will not be caused by criminal activities by teens. It was be caused by bribing a game review site or magazine. It will be cause by that or by a bad advertising campaign for a game.

 

There will be online game accounts being stolen for rare items or for moving virtual items.

Edited January 1, 2008 by 8th lutz

[ninjarabbit]

-Nintendo has another dominating year with Super Smash Bros: Brawl (the best selling game of 2008), Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Animal Crossing Wii, and Metroid Dread for the DS

 

-Sony has a good year with the PS3 passing the 360 with hit exclusives like MGSIV, Fianl Fantasy XIII, and Gran Tourismo 5.

 

-The 360 starts to slow down as it shot its load last year with Halo 3, gets few exclusive stuff, and people get more and more fed up with the 360's hardware problems. However the 360 does rebound at the end of 2008/beginning of 2009 as Microsoft releases a redesigned 360 at $250.

 

-GTA IV gets delayed until 2009 due to quality issues and a new team takes over development and starts the game almost completely from scratch.

 

-World of Warcraft has another strong year and and its subscription base reaches 12 million.

 

-Dragon Quest IX gets released and becomes the best selling handheld game in Japan but is only met with lukewarm sales in the US.

 

-No More Heroes becomes a major hit and is a candiate for GotY honors.

[MetalSlime23]

-Dragon Quest IX gets released and becomes the best selling handheld game in Japan but is only met with lukewarm sales in the US.

 

THIS is definitely going to come true, based on DQ sales in the past. :lol:

[SINGLE TOOTH]

Hyperscan system will become the hot item this summer.

 

But I really hope Nintendo does give us another Earthbound. On Wii or DS. (Both?)

[Atari5200]

I doubt Smash brothers Brawl will do anything for the Wii, Super Mario Galaxy didn't, compared to the amount of systems sold, it really didn't sell nearly as much as you would think.

 

For 2008, I see the PS3 really gaining steam and momentum, the Wii will start to lose momentum as people see the same ol crap being released over and over again, and people realizing in general that they will never see quality games that the 360 and PS3 can produce on their Wii's, (mass effect, Oblivion, Drakes Fortune, etc.) The novelty is going to wear off in 08.

 

I see the Wii remaining #1 but all 3 consoles will be within thousands of each other in consoles sold. Wii #1, 360#2, PS3 #3 but the margin will be much much smaller.

[Gregory DG]

- Nintendo will continue to dominate with the Wii and DS.

- 3rd party games will increase for the Wii, but the quality will be crap.

- Sony will continue to lag in third place and will introduce 3 or 4 new PS3 models further confusing the market.

- MS will announce and release Gears of War 2.

- Atari will restructure and only make games for the PSP, DS, and cellphones.

 

Oh, and finally...

 

- Duke Nukem Forever will not be released in 2008.

[Paul Humbug]

An XBOX360 bundle for $249 around X-Mas.

[Atari5200]

Oh, and finally...

 

- Duke Nukem Forever will not be released in 2008.

 

forgot about that and I agree, no Duke in 08.

[RickHarrisMaine]

An XBOX360 bundle for $249 around X-Mas.

 

 

Now that would be sweet......

 

I see a Wii coming with DVD-Playback this year. Same price though.

 

I also see earlier games coming for the VC. Imagine old Atari games on the VC?

 

Personally, I see myself playing the Wii almost exclusively.

[Atarifever]

The PS3 will struggle as the 360 continues to dominate the shit right out of it. The Wii will continue to do well, but may slow enough for the 360 to catch back up.

[RickHarrisMaine]

The PS3 will struggle as the 360 continues to dominate the shit right out of it. The Wii will continue to do well, but may slow enough for the 360 to catch back up.

 

 

I don't know, I think the blu-ray will be the key to the PS3 success. I think Blu-Ray has won the format wars for now.

[spacecadet]

The PS3 will struggle as the 360 continues to dominate the shit right out of it. The Wii will continue to do well, but may slow enough for the 360 to catch back up.

 

 

I don't know, I think the blu-ray will be the key to the PS3 success. I think Blu-Ray has won the format wars for now.

 

Yeah, I've been predicting for a while now that the PS3 will eventually surpass the 360 worldwide in terms of current sales. I think 2008 *may* be the year that it happens. It will *at least* happen in two of the three major territories (it's already happened in Japan, and Europe's a lot closer than the US).

 

The Wii is going to sink. It's really got nowhere to go but down, and not a *whole* lot that's going to keep people interested. Super Smash Bros. is nice, but it didn't move a whole lot of GameCubes last time around. The Wii has pretty much blown its load on Wii Play, Wii Fit, Mario and Zelda. Nintendo's not going to replicate a lineup with that much mass appeal this year.

 

By the end of the year, I think worldwide ongoing sales are going to be roughly equal between all three systems.

[Paul Humbug]

The PS3 will struggle as the 360 continues to dominate the shit right out of it. The Wii will continue to do well, but may slow enough for the 360 to catch back up.

 

 

I don't know, I think the blu-ray will be the key to the PS3 success. I think Blu-Ray has won the format wars for now.

 

Just my experience: Around here Sony manages to showcase Bluray to even a non-techi like me and to convince me with just a 3 minutes presentation that what you see on the screen can´t get any better.

 

I wouldn´t invest in any capable LCD or Plasma right now though but on impulse I was thinking best to go with it is a PS3 for its bluray ability. The price tags of non-gaming devices weren´t that promising.

 

I still have to see HD-DVD if it is the same experience but I woulnd´t know where to go right now to verify.

[Avid Fan]

from what I understand Blu-ray has already won. Next year Warner Bros. will stop making HD-DVDs and that will push it over the edge

[vdub_bobby]

My prediction: Whether or not Blu-Ray wins, it won't make a measurable difference in console sales, ever. By the time enough people are looking to replace their DVDs with HD DVDs that it could matter, regular HD DVD players will be cheap enough that nobody will want to buy a PS3 for the Blu-Ray player, just like nobody buys a PS2 anymore for the DVD player.

 

EDIT: I'm not saying the PS3 won't be successful; just that it will sink or swim based on its games and gaming hardware, not based on its HD DVD playing capability.

Edited January 2, 2008 by vdub_bobby

[DragonmasterDan]

There will be great virtual game console games coming out in North America this year like Star Tropics, Phantasy Star 4, Harvest Moon, Super Smash Bros., River Ransom City, Lords of Thunder, Shining Force 2 and Books of Y's 1& 2. Sega CD games, and Game boy games will be coming to the vc this year.

 

Y's 1 and 2 was announced by Hudson and ratedby the ESRB it's coming.

 

There will be a crash bandicoot game in the Ps 3 this year.

 

Considering Vivendi owns the license it's highly likely it will be multiplatform whenever it comes out.

 

There will be more management people getting replaced in some game companies.

There will a pr problem for a game publisher or game developer this year. It will not be caused by criminal activities by teens. It was be caused by bribing a game review site or magazine. It will be cause by that or by a bad advertising campaign for a game.

 

Game companies management changes all the time. Also that sort of thing has been going on for a while from what I've heard, it's just not as talked about because people don't care.

 

There will be online game accounts being stolen for rare items or for moving virtual items.

[liveinabin]

Ooh, fun. Wild speculation for '08 that we can all look dumb about in December

OK, here goes:-

 

Nintendo will further consolidate their lead, especially in Japan and Europe without the need for hardware revisions, though there will be a minor price drop on both the Wii and DS in the third quarter '08. The DS will finally become the biggest selling console of all time in '08.

More colors for Wii will be announced in the summer.

Nintendo hardware sales will continue to perplex and upset AA forum posters.

 

The PS3 will eat up some of the 360's market, but not massively so. The 360 will still lead by Xmas 08 except, of course, in Japan.

However, 2008 won't be the year the PS3 really takes off in Japan. It's coming, but not yet.

2008 will see no change to the console itself, though a bundled HDMI cable is probable towards year end. Rumble controllers will be a pack-in from late Spring.

PS Home will launch. No-one will care.

 

The 360 will get the hardware revisions (mostly just internal) that it's needed. Expect a quietish, cool running Xbox by next Xmas. There will only be two 360 SKUs. A 60Gb White model (with HDMI, wireless networking and included Charge and play kit) and a Black model with the same spec but a 120Gb HD (as the Elite) and wireless headset.

 

Sonic Team will cease to be. (this is more hopeful than speculative, it's a mercy killing, really)

 

With the Wii finally joining the fray with 'Wii-ware', the popularity of smaller, more accessible downloadable games will pull away. This is where third-party Wii support will shine, while Nintendo clean up on the full-price disc software. The PSN network will still be the place to go for the most creative game ideas, whereas XBLA will continue to host solid 'upgraded' classics. The first 'killer-app' of the downloadable era will be on the Wii.

 

The scores for the Ghostbusters game will range from the mid 60's to 75%.

 

Development of 'next gen' (sic) games will shift to the PS3 as leading platform to port from as developers get their heads round it.

 

Although it won't actually disappear in '08, HD-DVD will end the year as a struggling platform.

 

NOKIA's latest plans to get people to give a shit about phone gaming will fail.

 

2008 will see the first drop in World of Warcraft player accounts.

[homerwannabee]

I think that it is amazing that the PS3 is actually making a comeback marketing itself as a movie player. I have seen a ton of PS 3 commercials and they are all about how the PS3 can play Blu-Ray movies. Now here is the ironic thing. For the past year PS3 fanboys have been making fun of the Wii because it has marketed to non-hardcore gamers. Now a year later the PS3 is doing exactly the same thing. Do you really think that people who are buying the PS3 to play movies are going to gobble up video games for the system. I just love the irony.

[AtticGamer]

-Nintendo's success continues, sometimes going down and sometimes back up depending on the games that are released.

 

-PlayStation 3 get another price cut and another version and gets better games, selling a bit better.

 

-Xbox 360 gets another version and hardware problems are partially solved.

 

-PSP starts going down.

 

-Atari gets bought again.

 

-Another Tomb Raider game.

 

-Nintendo DS gets another Mario platform game.

 

-A VC-like onlne store is launched on the DS.

[Lord Helmet]

The Xbox 360 will continue to sell better than the PS3 here, but it will have its ass handed to it by the PS3 in Japaen.

 

The Wii will sell..and sell....and sell.

 

The DS will continue its dominance.

 

The PSP will continue to prove that it is a great handheld...despite what nintendo fanboys say.

 

My Wii library will grow by 2 or 3 titles...while my Xbox 360 library will grow exponentially.

[godslabrat]

I think that it is amazing that the PS3 is actually making a comeback marketing itself as a movie player. I have seen a ton of PS 3 commercials and they are all about how the PS3 can play Blu-Ray movies. Now here is the ironic thing. For the past year PS3 fanboys have been making fun of the Wii because it has marketed to non-hardcore gamers. Now a year later the PS3 is doing exactly the same thing. Do you really think that people who are buying the PS3 to play movies are going to gobble up video games for the system. I just love the irony.

 

I'm amused at the fact that the original idea behind giving the PS3 a BluRay drive was to make sure the BluRay format survived because of the PS3. It's looking more and more like the PS3 is going to survive because of BluRay.

[Shaggy the Atarian]

from what I understand Blu-ray has already won. Next year Warner Bros. will stop making HD-DVDs and that will push it over the edge

 

Blu-Ray has not won anything and neither has HD-DVD. Both are in a stalemate, even Sony's CEO has mentioned that. Blu-Ray enjoys OK sales thanks to the PS3 but HD-DVD has sold more standalones and has not been dramatically outsold by Blu-Ray. Neither format has come close to overtaking DVD and until that happens there is no winner in the current format war. If Warner choses a side it will change things but it is only a rumor that Warner will stop being dual format, there is no confirmation on what they are doing but we should know for sure at CES.

 

Anyways, my prediction is that this will be a big year for arcades but mainstream gaming journalism will continue to ignore it. But with Street Fighter IV coming to arcades as well as a bunch more games, it will be the best year for arcades this decade.

[n8littlefield]

My prediction is that I'll keep buying Wii/DS games despite having a backlog already and I'll finish 2008 frustrated with never finishing enough of my games.

[Gamemaster_ca_2003]

For 2008 My predictions Are

 

The Wii While it will still have the lead by the end of the year Sales will Slide a bit, but will have the best first party games this year. The DS will still sell like gangbusters everywhere.

 

The 360 will not have a Sales Surge this year in the US, but it will have sold the Most Units in 08. Microsoft will also have its Fortunes in Japan turn arround with Lost Odyssey and continuing rumors of MGS4 and a FF13 Spin-off coming to the 360.

 

The PS3 even though it will be a distant third here it will Hold its own and will do better in Japan. The PSP will continue to grow in momentum with better sales and more good games for that platform.

 

PC's and Mac's will reach the top of its Performance in Processing and in Graphics and a Continuing drop in Game Sales will continue the PC Decline in a Gaming sense. We still don't care about Mobile Phone(or iPod or Zune) Games.

 

EA and Activision will both buy another Big Developer/Publisher.

 

Jeff Gerstmann will show up at another game Publication/Website.

 

Madden 09 will Show up on 360,PS3,Wii,PS2,DS,PSP,XBOX,GC,PC,MAC,GBA,Mobile Phones and once again on PS1.

 

There will be a general boycott of GameStop/EB Games and I won't take part in it.

 

A game will be on an Amiga in 2008.

 

The UT3 Comunity will explode into a sea of user Content.

 

The Wii Shortage will end very soon.

 

2600 and Intelivision games will be released on the Wii VC this Year.

 

ATARI WILL NOT FOLD THIS YEAR AFTER THE RELEASE OF GREAT RPGS AND XBLA GAMES.

 

WOW Will still be uber popular.

 

The SciFi MMO equivilent of WOW will be released, and that game will NOT be Developed by Blizzard.

 

Duke Nukem Forever WILL be released in 2008 to generally good reviews but Lackluster Sales will make the Game go to consoles in 2009.

 

of the 3 online game services WiiWare will have the Better games even though XBLA and PSN will have great games.

 

Finally the 3 Console makers will hint at their next consoles and Handhelds at E3 This year

[chrisbid]

My prediction?

 

Pain