Wii Will Rock U
Banned
Since this E3 will be the first full E3 that I will be in attendance and since most of GAF knows me as the guy who always has a ton of predictions, I figured it would be fun to create the Official E3 2009 prediction thread. If you guys aren't exactly sure how these work, check the GDC 2009 prediction thread (also created by me) that we had going before GDC. Basically, what do you guys think we'll see from the big three at GDC this year and what sort of surprises might blow everything else out of the water?
Here are my guesses as to what we'll see from the Big 3:
Microsoft:
-Alan FUCKING Wake. This is literally its do or die year. If we don't see it at this year's E3, then I would be willing to bet that we will not see its release this generation.
-2K Boston's next title will revealed and it won't be X-Com. Shawn Elliot has hinted at it a ton on his Twitter and they have been pretty under-wraps with info. Also in 2K news, 2K Marin's Bioshock 2 will have an enormous presence during Microsoft's show and some sort of exclusivity will be announced for the 360 SKU.
-Halo 3 ODST and Halo Chronicles are going to be shown, both possibly demoed, during MS's press conference. As Halo Wars has proven to the people who didn't think an RTS could really sell on a home console, THE HALO BRAND WILL SELL ANYTHING. Bungie knows this, Microsoft knows this and the people want Halo games. And hell, let me throw this out there too, another Halo game will be hinted at during E3 at some point.
-Mass Effect 2 BLOWOUT. No more needs to be said, it will be huge.
-Rare is going to have, at least, one big game for the fall. And, I'm guessing that game will either be Perfect Dark Zero 2 or Killer Instinct 3. Nuts and Bolts, despite major GAF support, did not sell well and the last Viva Pinata game on 360 didn't even launch in the Top 20 on the NPDs so I'm willing to guess that there won't be any announcements in those franchises. Also, whatever happened to that downloadable racing game using avatars that Rare was making?
-Probably goes without saying that we'll see upgrades to NXE and the Party features announced at the show. However, I think a big surprise will be the first back room rumblings of the Xbox 720's tech. It's too early to show the masses the next hardware since 360 is doing quite well at this point but an unveiling in 2010 does not seem that out of the ordinary.
Nintendo:
-Kid FUCKING Icarus. If we don't get it now, then we won't this generation. This is Nintendo's Alan Wake.
-That said, if we don't get Icarus then we will get the announcement of ONE of these two games for this holiday season: Zelda Wii or Super Mario Universe, (Nintendo would not show both a new Mario and a new Zelda so fanboys don't get your hopes up, if we se any, it will be one or the other). Iwata said at E3 LAST year that the Zelda and Mario teams are hard at work (the Zelda: Spirit Tracks team is not the core Zelda team, by the way, so we still haven't seen the next core Zelda) and Gamestop has been told to reserve store space this holiday season for a big game. One of these two is that game. Or maybe that game is the next guess...
-Wii Fit Plus. This is already on Gamestop reserve list despite never being officially announced and the title is already floating around out there. Is this a full-blown sequel to Wii Fit or a version 2.0 with Wii Motion Plus? We'll find out at the show I'm sure and Nintendo loves showing the big casual games.
-Nintendo will announce at their conference and, possibly same day release, the GB and GBA Virtual Console on DSi. This has been rumored at ever since the announcement that the DSi would have an SD slot for external memory but it will actually be shown for the first time at E3. Also, I mentioned this in the Pokemon Platinum thread but I'll mention it again here as it is the only "insider info" I've heard at the moment. Apparently, Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow will be launch titles for the GB VC service on DSi and Nintendo is also currently hard at work on having Pokemon Stadium available on Wii's VC service by the end of the year. Can you say "Connectivity 2.0"?
-Modern Warfare 2 will be confirmed for Wii. Call of Duty 3 and World at War both sold relatively well on Wii, just not anywhere close to their other console counterparts though, and Modern Warfare skipped Wii for some reason. However, if Activision is really serious about trying to make this the greatest-selling game of all time, there will, undoubtably, be a Wii version.
-A version of Super Smash Bros. will be announced for DS. It seems like that is the one huge blockbuster series that Nintendo has left to make a DS iteration for. Of course it would be huge, of course everyone wants it, so why not do it?
-Wii Motion Plus BLOWOUT. On-stage demos of Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus, Red Steel 2, and, if it is announced, Zelda Wii, to show just how precise the new add-on really is and how it is incorporated into this year's big games. Also, I'm sure that Nintendo will use Red Steel 2, Rabbids Go Home and Modern Warfare as their 3rd party showcase titles like they did last year with Clone Wars, Rabbids TV Party, and World at War.
-New Wii channels will be shown, one of which will be the US version of Nintendo streaming video service that is coming to Japan next month. Nintendo has already stated showing interest in porting that over here and my guess for some of the programming that will be available on the service would be Pokemon and Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Sony:
-Team FUCKING Ico's Next Game. If we don't get it now, then we won't this generation. This is Sony's Alan Wake and Kid Icarus. We should AT LEAST expect footage.
-Despite this practically being confirmed in the 1UP story, PSP Go! will be revealed, announced for an October release in America and will have LBP PSP and Motorstorm as launch titles. None of this is really any big shock but I'm sure it'll be a major push at this year's show.
-Kojima's Next Game will be shown. He already confirmed that we'll see it at E3 so no doubt its presence will be felt during Sony's conference and throughout the show. My guess? It's not a Metal Gear game.
-A lack of PS2 presence. Sony has probably realized by now that one of the many things holding back PS3 from selling is that PS2 is still going well. With the recent price-drop though, things have finally hit the floor and Sony seems to realize that its time to focus on solely the PSP and PS3 now because those are the systems that truly are in need of help. That said, I am expecting an announcement of PS2 on PSN for PS3. Launch titles? Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, and MGS 2 would be my best bets.
-The first 3D compatible PS3 games will be shown. Sony demonstrated true 3D compatibility for titles like WipEout and MotorStorm at GDC this year so I'm sure something big is in the works. Not only do I think Sony will announce downloadable 3D patches for these games but I also think some titles will be announced that are being developed from the ground-up for the idea. I'll bet Starhawk is one of these big 3D push titles.
-God of War 3, MAG (Hopefully it's been renamed), Uncharted 2, Starhawk, and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time will all be demoed and will all be announced for Fall/Winter 2009. Sony is going to do all they can to make this the second year of the PS3.
-A PS3 Price Drop. It will happen, I would almost 100% guarantee it. If not, I'll have the mods change my tag to "I eat my own fecal matter for pleasure" if it doesn't happen.
Well those are my predictions, what do you guys think we'll see?
P.S.: These threads are always fun to come back to after the show is over to see just how wrong we all were. :lol
Here are my guesses as to what we'll see from the Big 3:
Microsoft:
-Alan FUCKING Wake. This is literally its do or die year. If we don't see it at this year's E3, then I would be willing to bet that we will not see its release this generation.
-2K Boston's next title will revealed and it won't be X-Com. Shawn Elliot has hinted at it a ton on his Twitter and they have been pretty under-wraps with info. Also in 2K news, 2K Marin's Bioshock 2 will have an enormous presence during Microsoft's show and some sort of exclusivity will be announced for the 360 SKU.
-Halo 3 ODST and Halo Chronicles are going to be shown, both possibly demoed, during MS's press conference. As Halo Wars has proven to the people who didn't think an RTS could really sell on a home console, THE HALO BRAND WILL SELL ANYTHING. Bungie knows this, Microsoft knows this and the people want Halo games. And hell, let me throw this out there too, another Halo game will be hinted at during E3 at some point.
-Mass Effect 2 BLOWOUT. No more needs to be said, it will be huge.
-Rare is going to have, at least, one big game for the fall. And, I'm guessing that game will either be Perfect Dark Zero 2 or Killer Instinct 3. Nuts and Bolts, despite major GAF support, did not sell well and the last Viva Pinata game on 360 didn't even launch in the Top 20 on the NPDs so I'm willing to guess that there won't be any announcements in those franchises. Also, whatever happened to that downloadable racing game using avatars that Rare was making?
-Probably goes without saying that we'll see upgrades to NXE and the Party features announced at the show. However, I think a big surprise will be the first back room rumblings of the Xbox 720's tech. It's too early to show the masses the next hardware since 360 is doing quite well at this point but an unveiling in 2010 does not seem that out of the ordinary.
Nintendo:
-Kid FUCKING Icarus. If we don't get it now, then we won't this generation. This is Nintendo's Alan Wake.
-That said, if we don't get Icarus then we will get the announcement of ONE of these two games for this holiday season: Zelda Wii or Super Mario Universe, (Nintendo would not show both a new Mario and a new Zelda so fanboys don't get your hopes up, if we se any, it will be one or the other). Iwata said at E3 LAST year that the Zelda and Mario teams are hard at work (the Zelda: Spirit Tracks team is not the core Zelda team, by the way, so we still haven't seen the next core Zelda) and Gamestop has been told to reserve store space this holiday season for a big game. One of these two is that game. Or maybe that game is the next guess...
-Wii Fit Plus. This is already on Gamestop reserve list despite never being officially announced and the title is already floating around out there. Is this a full-blown sequel to Wii Fit or a version 2.0 with Wii Motion Plus? We'll find out at the show I'm sure and Nintendo loves showing the big casual games.
-Nintendo will announce at their conference and, possibly same day release, the GB and GBA Virtual Console on DSi. This has been rumored at ever since the announcement that the DSi would have an SD slot for external memory but it will actually be shown for the first time at E3. Also, I mentioned this in the Pokemon Platinum thread but I'll mention it again here as it is the only "insider info" I've heard at the moment. Apparently, Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow will be launch titles for the GB VC service on DSi and Nintendo is also currently hard at work on having Pokemon Stadium available on Wii's VC service by the end of the year. Can you say "Connectivity 2.0"?
-Modern Warfare 2 will be confirmed for Wii. Call of Duty 3 and World at War both sold relatively well on Wii, just not anywhere close to their other console counterparts though, and Modern Warfare skipped Wii for some reason. However, if Activision is really serious about trying to make this the greatest-selling game of all time, there will, undoubtably, be a Wii version.
-A version of Super Smash Bros. will be announced for DS. It seems like that is the one huge blockbuster series that Nintendo has left to make a DS iteration for. Of course it would be huge, of course everyone wants it, so why not do it?
-Wii Motion Plus BLOWOUT. On-stage demos of Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus, Red Steel 2, and, if it is announced, Zelda Wii, to show just how precise the new add-on really is and how it is incorporated into this year's big games. Also, I'm sure that Nintendo will use Red Steel 2, Rabbids Go Home and Modern Warfare as their 3rd party showcase titles like they did last year with Clone Wars, Rabbids TV Party, and World at War.
-New Wii channels will be shown, one of which will be the US version of Nintendo streaming video service that is coming to Japan next month. Nintendo has already stated showing interest in porting that over here and my guess for some of the programming that will be available on the service would be Pokemon and Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Sony:
-Team FUCKING Ico's Next Game. If we don't get it now, then we won't this generation. This is Sony's Alan Wake and Kid Icarus. We should AT LEAST expect footage.
-Despite this practically being confirmed in the 1UP story, PSP Go! will be revealed, announced for an October release in America and will have LBP PSP and Motorstorm as launch titles. None of this is really any big shock but I'm sure it'll be a major push at this year's show.
-Kojima's Next Game will be shown. He already confirmed that we'll see it at E3 so no doubt its presence will be felt during Sony's conference and throughout the show. My guess? It's not a Metal Gear game.
-A lack of PS2 presence. Sony has probably realized by now that one of the many things holding back PS3 from selling is that PS2 is still going well. With the recent price-drop though, things have finally hit the floor and Sony seems to realize that its time to focus on solely the PSP and PS3 now because those are the systems that truly are in need of help. That said, I am expecting an announcement of PS2 on PSN for PS3. Launch titles? Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, and MGS 2 would be my best bets.
-The first 3D compatible PS3 games will be shown. Sony demonstrated true 3D compatibility for titles like WipEout and MotorStorm at GDC this year so I'm sure something big is in the works. Not only do I think Sony will announce downloadable 3D patches for these games but I also think some titles will be announced that are being developed from the ground-up for the idea. I'll bet Starhawk is one of these big 3D push titles.
-God of War 3, MAG (Hopefully it's been renamed), Uncharted 2, Starhawk, and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time will all be demoed and will all be announced for Fall/Winter 2009. Sony is going to do all they can to make this the second year of the PS3.
-A PS3 Price Drop. It will happen, I would almost 100% guarantee it. If not, I'll have the mods change my tag to "I eat my own fecal matter for pleasure" if it doesn't happen.
Well those are my predictions, what do you guys think we'll see?
P.S.: These threads are always fun to come back to after the show is over to see just how wrong we all were. :lol