E3 – Predictions and Wishlist
May 31st, 2009
E3 Prediction time!
I’m excited for this year’s E3; the return to the spectacle of the traditional E3 means that publishers have a lot more impetus to show off their goods and drop megatons upon megatons. So let’s get started, eh?
Nintendo
- Pikmin 3 will be displayed and demoed for the first time.
- Earthbound finally to the Virtual Console, marking a refocus on the Virtual Console because Nintendo likes money! Right! Right?
- New Super Mario Bros. 2 on the DS…it’s about time!
- Nintendo will finally show off different colored Wii consoles, in light of the slipping Wii sales. And it will be monstrous because consumers are stupid!
- Nintendo will announce either a new Mario or Zelda game on the Wii. Not both. If it’s a Zelda game, it will have Motion Plus and/or DS integration. If it’s Mario, it won’t make it out this console cycle – Nintendo hasn’t put out multiple games to a franchise the last couple of hardware cycles. Doh!
Microsoft
- The Motion/Camera thing that’s been rumored for XB360 will be announced, and unfortunately will flop.
- Alan Wake and Huxley will emerge from the mire of development, since we have heard next to nothing about upcoming 360 software aside from Halo 3 ODST, which will be demoed and dated for this Fall.
- Valve will make an announcement of Half Life 2: Episode 3 at the Microsoft Press Conference. The game will be available for PC/XB360 only and will be primarily be digitally distributed, marking the beginning of more substantive games for XBox Live.
- A new iteration of the 360, akin to a slim model or perhaps even in different colors. Because consumers are stupid!
Sony
- The Motion/Camera thing that’s been rumored for PS3 will be announced, and unfortunately will flop.
- The PSP Go!, despite being leaked on Qore yesterday, will be announced and kick off the “Year of the PSP” – a reinvogorated focus on the PSP.
- Gran Turismo 5, God of War 3, MAG, Heavy Rain, and Uncharted 2 all demoed and dated for later this year, marking a star-studded Holiday ‘09. Project TRICO? Next year.
- Sony will either announce a moderate pricecut of at most $50 (from $399 to $349), or a new value bundle at 399 bundled with both Uncharted:Drake’s Fortune and LittleBigPlanet. Leaning toward the latter for now.
- PS3 Slim will not be announced, despite all the leaked, atrocious, and probably doctored screenshots. Why? They still have way too many PS3 units still in stock.
- The oft-mentioned Sony “Megaton”? I’m not really feeling a Final Fantasy VII remake anymore, so I’m going to say it’s a non-game related service. What’s something that’s used by everyone and not on the PS3? How about Facebook?
Other
- Kojima Productions will announce 2 games, a PSP and a simultaneous PS3/XB360 title. Everyone by now has seen the ad with Big Boss, Raiden, and the mysterious porcelain mask – it makes sense for the next Metal Gear game to be a Raiden game, perhaps his side of the story during the events of MGS4. As for Big Boss? I vote the PSP sequel to MGS: Portable Ops.
How spot-on will I be? I guess we’ll see tomorrow with the Microsoft press conference. Let the games begin!
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Microsoft’s Project Natal was REALLY COOL but I just can’t imagine everything that would have to be set up just right for something like that to work. We’ll probably see the tech from it used in something a little more realistic.
I was pretty miffed that GT5 didn’t get a date. Here’s hoping for a holiday release. On racing games, Forza 3 looks OK – theres just no way it will be on Gran Turismo’s level of quality or polish though. I liked the video editor, which is a huge step forward from the frustrating lack of multiplayer replays in Forza 2.
I have to say that Left for Dead 2 caught me off guard – I was really hoping for a new announcement in the Half-Life universe.