Bold Predictions 2017

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Maybe it's just because 2016 was such a whirlwind, but 2017 feels positively tame as I survey the landscape through my futurescope. Beyond stuff I predicted on the latest podcast, I think survival games will finally begin to wane as the market teeters over much like the MOBAs and MMORPGs that came before it. Shadow of Mordor 2 will be announced and it will take place long before the events in Lord of The Rings. Sean Sands will buy a VR headset. It's prediction time everybody, make yours in the comments and let's see how we do!

Also make sure you look back on 2016 and see how you did. Good luck!

Greg "doubtingthomas396" Decker

- The Nintendo Switch will have trouble meeting shipments at launch, leading to a continuation of the argument over whether Nintendo is brilliant (as argued by their critics) or incompetent (as argued by their fans).

- Nintendo will announce the end date for 3DS production and it will either be in 2017 or 2018. They may backpedal if their experiments with overpriced, under-featured iPhone apps fail to gain market traction.

- Star Citizen will not release in its finished form this year, but will become available for purchase in Early Access, leading to another three million dollars in revenue for the developers.

- Project Scorpio will release and will be precisely as disappointing as the New 3DS and the PS4.5.

- Sony will suffer some sort of PR debacle involving PSVR and will handle it in their inimitable tone deaf fashion, leaving the Vive as the only accepable alternative for commercial use. HTC will not melt down until 2018, when it becomes clear that the Vive catalog of experiences will be just as bloated and terrible as the indie game scene on Steam, which means we still have to endure at least another year of VR apologist triumphalism.

- 2017 will be the year that the worst fears about iterative console releases will be manifest, with at least one major release from both Sony and Microsoft that plays like hot garbage on original hardware while running passably on pro or Scorpio hardware. This prediction will be a race to see which developer is first to say the solution will be to buy the new consoles.

- A major publisher will be forced by court of law to pay the data cap fees of a large number of players after their mandatory patches exceed customers download limits.

Chris "C" Cesarano

- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be delayed, and if the Switch sales numbers do not immediately beat the Wii's then pundits will bang on every drum they can to claim the delay is the cause for Nintendo's latest failure.

- The members of the conference call will talk about the Switch when it releases and when Breath of the Wild comes out, but otherwise it will be business as normal.

- The Scorpio will be better received by hardware enthusiasts and gaming press more positively than the PS4 Pro, but it will fail to capture the attention of the masses.

- VR will see a slow and steady incline in marketshare, but will still make hardly a dent in mainstream (unless it's a cellphone company's crappy me-too gimmick that fails to capture the wonder of VR).

- Prey 2 will be Dishonored in space, a move that pleases the masses and leaves me as one of five people lamenting that the original concept will never see release.

- E3 this year will be one of the most amazing yet... especially since the majority of newly announced titles will release in the Fall and holiday season, as is becoming more and more the case.

- Denis Dyack will make headlines once again by saying something stupid.

Shawn Andrich

Nintendo (Switch)

- New Mario 3D style game and Zelda Breath of the Wild at Launch

- Cost will be $399 for the system

- There will be a Daydream style headset so you can strap the switch to your face. Rather than being a dumb screen holder, the headset will have more ‘safety’ and awareness features built in.

- Full multiouch screen

- Mobile performance is going to be disappointing.

Microsoft

- This year the exclusive game lineup combined with cross-PC play will make for a above average year of MS games.

- Scorpio will beat the PS4 pro and notch a few specs over it, but it’s so late in the console cycle it won’t change their market standing too much.

SONY

- Stay the course on the console side, no major shake ups. VR will have a steady flow of new games throughout the year. By Fall 2017 there will be a break-out, must-play VR game on the Sony platform but the overall sales performance will be tepid.

VR Industry

- By end of year there will be legitimate wireless VR. Oculus and HTC will NOT release new headsets, just add-ons and upgrades.

- There will be other VR headsets that enter beta this year but none will enter the retail market.

- VR is in full transition mode now, big shakeups won’t happen until wireless takes a leap in 2018.

Star Citizen

- Squadron 42 will have a beta this year, but no final release.

Valve Software

- Valve releases their first, full VR game that takes place in the Portal setting.

Bethesda

- No major in-house games announced this year. Fallout VR will release and kind of work ok, but nothing you’d want to spend hours upon hours playing.

Amoebic

- Thanks to Pokemon Go, Anime Sex ARGs will start popping up.

- NINTENDO SWITCH will do well despite everyone's dour predictions! They will finally get it's act together this time.

- First scripted-as-a-gay-dude AAA protagonist.

- The general public is starting to get Star Wars fatigue, and the next SW game will be met with lukewarm response because of this.

Sean "Elysium" Sands

Nintendo

- Switch release 3/26 for $299. The detachable controls will be problematic, expensive to replace and hard to find in stores.

- Nintendo Switch will be a sales disappointment -- though not as bad as the WiiU. Instead of attracting both the mobile and console customer base, it will instead feel like it’s not fulfilling as either kind of machine.

VR

- Facebook will “clean house” with Occulus, including more key departures as well as a price drop late 2017 and a refocus away from gaming.

Streaming

- Valve will launch a game streaming service to compete with Twitch.

- Amazon integrates twitch and Prime more closely, some well known streamers become accessible only to Prime members and are instead paid directly by Amazon.

General

- Ubisoft and Activision will follow Bethesda lead and eliminate review copies of games before launch, and instead will double down on streamers and YouTubers for pre-release promotion.

- Star Citizen Squadron 42 will not be released but a release date of Q1 2018 will be announced at Citizen Con 2017 -- crowd funding will exceed $175,000,000

- Doom 2 announced and released

A Late Entry from JR Ralls!

jrralls wrote:

Red Dead Redemption Two will be considered the greatest rockstar game of all time.

The Nintendo Switch will be a big enough hit/not fail badly enough that people will consider Nintendo to maybe have another console in them after it.

There will be a VR game that makes the news in a significant way. Maybe because of sex maybe because of violence maybe because of some new social panic, but some game in the VR field will make a splash that hits the public consciousness.

A Console War film will begin being filmed, if not released.

No game released in 2017 will capture the feeling you had that one time from playing Goldeneye in your college dorm room with a bunch of friends you haven't talked to in over a decade.

Comments

The only prediction I feel completely comfortable making: Elite Dangerous will be zeroKFE's Game of the Year again.

I saw this discussion start in the guild, and every time I opened the thread I just sort of stared at it blankly for a few minutes.

It's gonna be a year, alright.

I had a lot of stinkers last year except these two:

* Nintendo debuts the name of the console codenamed NX and somehow it's not something we'll be making fun of. Probably because it won't sound like a portion of the anatomy in English.

* No Man's Sky launches and...it gets kind of dull after the first couple hours.

Let's see if I can do better:

Hardware:

* The Nintendo Switch will debut and...kind of just exist and not really get discussed all that much. The mobile component's issues means one won't be seeing subways full of people playing Zelda.

* The Xbox Ones' hat will become cross platform compatibility with the PC. The Playstation 4s' hat will be exclusive titles. Yes, I made them plural for a reason.

* Nintendo will announce and release the Mini Super NES in time for the holidays. It'll have double the library of games, double the number of stocked units, and double the demand, so if you didn't pick up a Mini NES in 2016, you're probably out of luck with this one in 2017 too.

* Like they said in the conference call, VR will continue to be the IMAX of gaming. As for AAA titles dipping their toes in VR, the more common usage will either by special levels in VR (like Battlefront) or lower priced spin-offs (like Batman).

Games You Can Play This Year:

* Mass Effect: Andromeda will be an early horse in the race for GOTY, though I'm willing to bet hardcore fans are going to get to the end of it and lament that the new characters and plotline just aren't as good as the original trilogy.

* Prey will be likened to System Shock for all the right reasons. Probably the better bet for GOTY.

* Red Dead Redemption 2 will scratch the western itch the same way the previous one did, but it may not end up being quite as memorable as the original.

* Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a few of the Mario games on the Switch will be discussed.

* Star Wars: Battlefront 2's single player campaign will be this year's Titanfall 2 and/or Battlefield 1.

* Harebrained Scheme's Battletech will be this year's XCOM. Possibly a sleeper pick for GOTY.

* Pokemon GO will see an uptick after the weather in the northern hemisphere is no longer crap.

* No Man's Sky, a year after launch, will be a lot more like what people wanted it to be.

* In the end, I'm thinking a game like Tacoma might be the biggest splash of 2017 unless Blizzard suddenly drops Overwatch 2 on us.

Games That You Didn't Know Existed That You Could Play This Year:

* The Elder Scrolls VI. Sorry, Certis, but I get the feeling the Skyrim re-release was to pave the way for a sequel announcement and/or release.

* Assassin's Creed: Something. Kind of an easy one, but I think the year off will do the series wonders.

* Call of Duty: Something. I don't think they're taking the year off. If there's going to be a delay, it'll probably happen down the line.

* Indiana Jones: A Telltale Series. You heard me.

Game That You Won't Be Playing This Year:

* Star Citizen. Sorry, I'm with Julian and Corey on this one. This is the year the whole thing starts unraveling.

Miscellaneous:

* That streaming TV show you won't shut up about when talking with the family during the holidays? You don't know it exists yet. Think about it. Did you know about The Crown or Stranger Things this time last year?

- Ubisoft and Activision will follow Bethesda lead and eliminate review copies of games before launch, and instead will double down on streamers and YouTubers for pre-release promotion.

Only if Ghost Recon and For Honor are complete busts.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will be released in March (or near enough to the Switch launch) in order to boost sales, but due to rushing it out the door it will be one of the first heavily patched Nintendo games released. May or may not negatively impact Switch sales/buzz.

AAA games will continue to slowly morph into games as services with less and less focus on contained experiences and more focus on mp and open-ended gameplay.

Lego Dimensions won't continue into 2018, Skylanders will limp along another release in 2018 before dying.

DQXI in 2018.

Insomniac Games to fold.

New Armored Core game sells more than any other thanks to From's now-marquee name attached to it, but will be easy to pick up in a discount bin for fiver within six months.

1) Warner Brothers will release another open world game with Arkham style combat. The license will be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and it will actually be kind of awesome.

I'm giving myself half a point for this. There was a TMNT game, but it wasn't an Arkham/Mordor/Austrailia open world game.

2) Oculus Rift’s system requirements and $600 price point will prove to cool the ardor of many enthusiasts, leading to a price drop in the later half of the year. It won't help.

Whiff

3) Nintendo will announce that their next console is a handheld system that plugs into a dock that will allow you to play games on your television.

Score!

3a) Nintendo’s next console will be digital only, and will not support playing disc-based WiiU games.

Half-point. It is reported to have a cartridge slot, but it won't accept discs.

3b) Nintendo will continue to link all digital game purchases to hardware serial numbers.

Does it count if it's not particularly bold? Aw heck, full marks.

3c) If 3a and 3b are both true, later in the year Nintendo will announce an optical disc drive add-on to allow people to play WiiU games on the new console. It will plug into the dock and the handheld system will become the controller. The WiiU controller will not pair with the NX.

Hmm. Maybe I should have kept this one for 2017.

4) Paid mods will return to the news when Bethesda releases the mod kit for Fallout 4. It will only be implemented on consoles, because Bethesda hates console owners and resents having to port their games onto them, as evidenced by how their console ports always work (or, rather, fail to).

Whiff.

5) Everyone will realize that TellTale games has jumped the shark when they announce a Happy Days game in the style of all of their other dialogue-tree adventure games.

Whiff

Three points out of a possible eight. I'll call that a win.

Alright, let's take a look at last year and see how I did. Looking back I think I was in a grumpy pants mood when I made my predictions.

- The Nintendo NX, at least the home console variant, will not release in 2016 (a common one for the GWJ Nintendo fanbase)

Sorta yes. I was still believing NX was the OS and that we'd get multiple devices on the same OS, rather than having one solid device with both capabilities. The feeling that 2016 was too close to release was accurate, though.

- Final Fantasy XV will be a long game, but the world will actually be rather small. We'll be lucky if it spans an entire continent.

Sort of true as well. You can spend a lot of time in this game in that single continent, so my reasoning for it being long was sort of accurate. It did manage to span an entire continent, and enough info has been revealed that there should have been a whole second continent to wander. But Squenix clearly had two choices: delay the game another year or two or cut losses and release now. They chose the latter.

- The Occulus Rift will commercially go the way of the OUYA, with the Playstation VR perhaps being the best chance of the experience going mainstream (might be more of a 2017 prediction)

I feel like I hear about the Vive and PSVR a lot more than the Rift, but honestly I'd say I was wrong on this one. For 2016 at least. It could still prove true in the long run, as I feel like more people are excited over their experiences with the Vive and PSVR, but honestly... meh. It's VR.

- Nintendo will announce a new Metroid game for NX, but it will somehow still be a disappointment to fans.

Wrong on this one. If I wanted to give myself a bone I'd count the teaser in Federation Force but honestly, nah, I was completely wrong on this one as there was no new Metroid game announced.

- Capcom continues to piss me off by not localizing Dragon's Dogma Online in the West.

This is like saying "People will be snarky and bicker on Twitter".

garion333 wrote:

AAA games will continue to slowly morph into games as services with less and less focus on contained experiences and more focus on mp and open-ended gameplay.

I'd say you'll find this for a while, and then in a couple years you'll see 2016's single player shooter banner year influence releases for a while, and then back to MP-focused open-world games as service, and then etc etc....

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
1) Warner Brothers will release another open world game with Arkham style combat. The license will be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and it will actually be kind of awesome.

I'm giving myself half a point for this. There was a TMNT game, but it wasn't an Arkham/Mordor/Austrailia open world game.

It also wasn't Warner Bros. At most you get .25 points.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:
3b) Nintendo will continue to link all digital game purchases to hardware serial numbers.

Does it count if it's not particularly bold? Aw heck, full marks.

This continues to not be true for, like, the fourth year running.

Demon's Souls HD and Bloodborne 2 will be announced as PS4 Exclusives, with respective release dates holiday 2017 and 2018. At least one will offer a PSVR mode.

Microsoft will announce a Playstation Now type service alongside an XBox branded Surface that'll stream Xbox 360 and Xbox One games for $19.95 a month. They'll show off some tech demos for a home version of Hololens, but it won't be given a release date.

Nintendo Switch will be plagued by availability and battery life issues and won't ship 5m units this year. Breath of the Wind will be delayed until April, with "Coming Soon" titles in the Pokemon and Star Fox series slated for Holiday 2017 but won't ship until 2018. Their biggest game of 2017 will be in the Animal Crossing series, which will get an iPhone exclusive App that'll be tied to it in some way. A Metroid game for Switch announced but will end up getting cancelled.

At least one major franchise will be getting a GTA Online-like MMO lite title. I'm calling it now for Assassin's Creed, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's either Mass Effect or Fallout.

Amazon will start making more noise about their Fire TV gaming system, and will make moves to prioritize streamers on Twitch who use it. They'll also offer an alternative to Gear VR for the Kindle.

The Killer App for VR will be released this year and will be Gran Turismo: Sport. PSVR will run away and hide with the VR crown, with Oculus and Vive basically flat.

And finally, one last note about the VR space - one or more of Sony, Amazon, Netflix or Valve will announce a platform and possibly a studio for making VR-specific TV content. For a few months, VRTV will be talked about as the next upgrade to TV, but demos will be about as successful as 3D was.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will get a PC release.

BOLD!

Or just wishful thinking.

I guess I didn't do great last year. I don't follow esports but since I didn't hear anything I assume I whiffed on the matchfixing and while Stellaris wasn't great on release it wasn't even as bad a Rome II Total War.

Anyway, this year:

-Paradox doesn't release a Victoria III but do release a Roman Republic game.
-Riot announces a fighting game.

Ten Bold "You Heard Me" Predictions!

But first, how'd I do last year...

Spoiler:

All the consoles get a price-drop, and the WiiU is going to be sold for dirt cheep by Black Friday ($199 USD with at least two pack-ins).

Nope, I got the spirit of Nintendo running away from WiiU right, but not the details.

We get are first hints of the NX, including a Holiday 2017 release date for the US. The NX is some sort of dockable handheld, and comes with the new Zelda game as a pack in.

I'm giving myself a point here until proven otherwise. +1

There is no way Mass Effect: Andromeda is coming out this year. No effing way. Also not coming out: Last Guardian, any game with Final Fantasy in the title, Zelda, Kingdom Hearts 3, No Man's Sky, and any of the usual vapor-ware titles (Half-Life 3, BG&E 2, etc.).

If I am keeping score: 5/8

There will not be an Assassin's Creed game this year as Ubisoft works on their new Ancient Egypt game.

Yep +1

E3 becomes Star Wars, as we get a bunch of games that will be worked into the new EU. (For extra credit, a KotOR style game from BioWare, set in a different era).

Nope, but I am still doubling down on this. Hope springs eternal

The VR Headsets will all be cost prohibitive ($499 USD or more) with the caveat that if there is one or more that aren't that pricey then they are generally seen as garbage. This may not kill VR, but it definitely slows adoption to a crawl, with only a select few die-hards getting in early.

Yep +1

Destiny will NOT see a meaningful expansion until Destiny II: The Nolan-ing (working title).

I played Rise of Iron, and I am definately giving myself a point here. +1

My Personal GotY: The Amy Henning Star Wars game (working title?).

Oops

Score: (4 5/8) /8 = 37/64 = 0.58

And now...

You heard me...

1. The Nintendo Switch will flop, hard. Think WiiU. Expect massive price drops by the end of the year, and expect a few people to tell us how great a few games are, and most of us to not get one.

2. VR Games will slowly go away as it becomes more obvious that it the tech won't be adopted en masse. Expect every video game pundit to discuss the death of VR by this time next year.

3. There will be a violent attack involving a someone who speaks out for social justice in games, representation in the games industry, or equitable hiring at game-related companies. .

4. Trump, in about 6-9 months will need a new boogy-man to blame his problems on. Remember Elysium's prediction on games being put back in the negative spotlight from last year? He was a year early.

5. This is the last E3, with 2-3 more major publishers holding off-site events and their own press conferences.

6. More companies will stop giving products to critical gaming press early, and by the holiday buying season it will be rare to see a Day 1 review for a big-budget game.

7. EA/Bioware an announcement of a new Star Wars RPG in the style of KotOR, but in a different time period.

8. Games you think you aren'y going to play this year: but yes: Metroid, The Elder Scrolls VI, Star Citizen (Open Beta), Assassins Creed,

9. Games you think you'll play this year, but no: Prey, Red Dead 3, Crackdown, a new CoD, Destiny II

10. Community GOTY: Mass Effect: Andromeda

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

10. Community GOTY: Mass Effect: Andromeda

Yeah, that's pretty much the free square in Bold Prediction BINGO this year.

MeatMan wrote:

Red Dead Redemption 2 will not be a good game either .

FTFY

I hope predict that NieR: Automata will barely make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017. That's probably going to be painful to read next year.

I predict that Persona 5 will not make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017 despite everyone into JRPG's loving it. My thinking is that NieR might draw in some non JRPG-folk while Persona 5 is still going to be a dense, stylish game that's too out there for the general video game player.

2015Wordsmythe wrote:
2014Wordsmythe wrote:

The internet in 2014 was obviously broken as a platform for civil discussion, but we're going to figure it out in 2015. This is our year, people.

I think I need a nap or strong coffee before I can respond to this. What kind of bubbly jerk would write something like this?

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I hope predict that NieR: Automata will barely make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017. That's probably going to be painful to read next year. ;)

I like your optimism.

I think it's foolish, but I like it.

ccesarano wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I hope predict that NieR: Automata will barely make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017. That's probably going to be painful to read next year. ;)

I like your optimism.

I think it's foolish, but I like it.

I'm going for bold! I have giddily been enjoying how most every gaming blog/news site has been speaking really positively about the demo which is unusual. I think it'll do pretty well critically and sales-wise regardless.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I hope predict that NieR: Automata will barely make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017. That's probably going to be painful to read next year.

I predict that Persona 5 will not make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017 despite everyone into JRPG's loving it. My thinking is that NieR might draw in some non JRPG-folk while Persona 5 is still going to be a dense, stylish game that's too out there for the general video game player.

You think that Persona 5 is a stylish, dense game that's too out there for Western audiences, so you're instead going to put your money on NIER. Bless you.

Nintendo
* The Switch will sell out and be plagued by supply problems for the first few months of its life.
* The Switch is priced at $350 for the SKU people actually want.
* It will have an ok launch lineup but there will be a major drought of games for it until Fall 2017.
* It will sell better than the Wii U but not as well as the Xbox One or PS4 did at launch.
* The major complaints Switch owners will have is about battery life and Nintendo still not having great online services.
* A third party releases a headmount thing for the Switch.

Sony
* PSVR sale decline and there is not a must have app released for it. Many games will get some kind of VR experience shoehorned into them, but most will be throw away experience that you check out once and never think about again.
* Sony announces, but doesn't release a Switch like Playstation Tablet for Spring 2018. Later turns out to be based on Android and gets rooted to become the best portable emulation machine since the original PSP. Doesn't have a dock but does have an HDMI Mini output and will sync with Dual Shock 4 controllers.

Microsoft
* Halo 6 announced at E3 for Fall release. 4k 60FPS HDR on Scorpio.
* Scorpio launches at $399. Consistently out sells PS4 moving forward causing lifetime sales totals to even out between the two platforms.
* Original Xbox games become backwards compatible with a feature that lets you play games in LAN mode over Xbox Live.

VR
* Nothing much changes besides some meager price drops. Lots of neat little experiences, but no must play games.
* Cheap VR headsets are released by a variety of manufactures. Most are crap.

Bethesda
* Bethesda Softworks announces a new IP at E3 for release Fall 2017.
* Another Bethesda remaster will be released: Morrowind.

Blizzard
* Releases patches for a number of their old games allowing them to run on modern PCs/Macs.

2K
* Announces a new Bioshock game at E3 for release 2018. Nobody who worked on the first or third game is involved. The outlandish setting is either in space or hollow earth.

Activision
* Call of Duty goes back to WWII.

EA
* Star Wars games. Lots of Star Wars games.

Other
* Star Citizen: Squadron 42 is released and you would swear that it was a Peter Molyneux game.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

I hope predict that NieR: Automata will barely make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017. That's probably going to be painful to read next year.

I predict that Persona 5 will not make it onto GWJ Community's top 10 games of 2017 despite everyone into JRPG's loving it. My thinking is that NieR might draw in some non JRPG-folk while Persona 5 is still going to be a dense, stylish game that's too out there for the general video game player.

You think that Persona 5 is a stylish, dense game that's too out there for Western audiences, so you're instead going to put your money on NIER. Bless you.

Did Bayonetta 2 make it onto the community top 10 that year it came out? If not then my prediction is already in trouble. Probably should have checked that first.

Not even close.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Not even close. ;)

Ha!

I'd be shocked if it was on more than 5 people's lists.

If I wanted to go against the grain around here I'd definitely say:

*The Switch will be readily available
*The Switch will be well received

Those seem to be some of the most frequent predictions. Not even close to bold at this point.

My own personal take is Nintendo will probably continue to exist slightly apart from Microsoft and Sony. I'm personally totally okay with that as I expect they'll probably outlast them both as game developers/publishers/etc.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

7. EA/Bioware an announcement of a new Star Wars RPG in the style of KotOR, but in a different time period.

Safe bet since they announced back at the last E3 they were already working on 3 new SW games

ranalin wrote:
UpToIsomorphism wrote:

7. EA/Bioware an announcement of a new Star Wars RPG in the style of KotOR, but in a different time period.

Safe bet since they announced back at the last E3 they were already working on 3 new SW games :P

This would make me so happy. Mass Effect was basically a KOTOR replacement for me. If I can have more Mass Effect and KOTOR I'd be a very happy camper.

I predict I am annoyed I apparently didn’t do any predictions last year.

Spoiler:

LOOK AT ME I AM PSYCHIC.

The thing is, I was sure I’d done a prediction because I vaguely remembered smack talking Star Citizen. Oh, wait, that was in 2015:

Star Citizen is vaporware, and distrust and disappointment increase as the delays build. Something that promises to do everything is going to wind up doing nothing. It’s Battlecruiser 3000AD with better graphics and a presumably more sane developer.

So, you know, that was my 2015 prediction, would have been my 2016 prediction had I bothered to do them, and, well, as long as we’re doing 2017 predictions . . .

1. Star Citizen is vaporware, and distrust and disappointment increase as the delays build. Something that promises to do everything is going to wind up doing nothing. It’s Battlecruiser 3000AD with better graphics and a presumably more sane developer.

2. To double up on my Star Citizen prediction, lawsuits begin to fly. Seriously, people, this is why you don’t let the creative geniuses run stuff. Someone has to be there to say “no”, and nothing kills a software project more than endless scope creep. Star Citizen will never, ever be released in anything like a final form. 2017 will see more shuffling and promises, but this will be a train crashing off a bridge into a sinking freighter that is packed with burning dumpsters.

3. The Nintendo Switch is like every Nintendo console since the SNES except the Wii; it’s different, innovative, and doesn’t sell nearly as many copies as competing consoles. It does better than the Wii U, but the PS4 and Xbox have a share of the market they’re not surrendering anytime soon. The Switch can’t find a market in between the far more powerful consoles and the endless series of tablet and phone games people play.

4. Mass Effect Andromeda scans your gaming history, and if you played as DudeShep in the first trilogy your console or PC becomes sentient at night, walks into your room, and strangles you with a power cord. What? You think you can say the words “Mass Effect” without somebody arguing about who the real Shepard is? Yeah right. Also, ME3’s ending sucked.

5. Mass Effect Andromeda is much more fluid than the prior games, and basically rips off Destiny’s sense of movement. Which is a good thing. The game is lauded for both its gameplay and its story.

6. I play approximately 9,000 hours of Mass Effect Andromeda multiplayer over the course of the year. This seems difficult being that a year only has 8,760 hours, and a third of the year is gone before the game even releases. I’ll find a way.

7. Legion predicts the Jacksonville Jaguars will make the playoffs this year. The Jacksonville Jaguars will not make the playoffs this year.

8. VR is to gaming what 3D was to TVs; a neat feature that’s just too inconvenient for most people to bother with. People didn’t want to wear fancy glasses to watch movies on their couch, and they don’t want $500 headsets to play a game. It remains a niche market.

9. Red Dead Redemption does not come out in 2016. It’s delayed until next Spring in order to polish it, and to help avoid the holiday rush. Also, it’s full of all the same boring, mundane tasks Rockstar always throws into their games in order to make them seem more “real”.

10. Crackdown 3 is a buggy mess. The idea of having your world basically hosted server-side and allowing you to destroy huge parts of it in a great cooperative experience sounds so awesome and it’s just not going to work.

11. Elder Scrolls VI is announced, but not released until 2018. Also, it’s about the return of the dwarves.

12. There’s a new Madden game this fall. I WANTED AN EASY POINT OK DON’T JUDGE ME.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

:D Did Bayonetta 2 make it onto the community top 10 that year it came out? If not then my prediction is already in trouble. Probably should have checked that first. ;)

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Not even close. ;)

To be fair, Bayonetta 2 was a WiiU exclusive and not a lot of the Nintendo fans here are quite die-hard on action games of its ilk. Nier Automata already has an advantage by being a PS4 game.

I forget if it's also a PC game. I feel like that was mentioned somewhere. In that case, it might have a stronger chance, but the more likely scenario is that you'll see it this year and next year thanks to Steam sales, but never will you see it crack the top 10.