Make Your Bold Predictions For 2019!

Section: 

Some people have said they want to pretend 2018 didn't happen. Maybe it's because their 2018 Bold Predictions were so very wrong. Well, the latest podcast with our predictions is now live and we spent about as much time picking apart old predictions as we did making new ones. It hurts so good! Now is the time to look back on your old predictions and share how you made out in the comments below! It's also time to make fresh new predictions for 2019. Is this the year new consoles are announced? Will VR finally have a breakthrough? Will Bungie move their entire company deep into the woods, never to be heard from again?

Now is the time to have your say! I'll be locking this thread up in a few weeks so no one can do sneaky edits later. See you on the other side!

Our writers have been oddly quiet about making predictions this year. So far only brave Sir Greg Decker has ventured forth with his bold predictions! Perhaps we'll add more once we rouse the knaves from their bunks.

Greg "doubtingthomas396" Decker

- One or more PC game stores/launchers will file a lawsuit in the United States against Epic claiming that the deals Epic enters with publishers to release free games on Epic’s store constitute antitrust violations and predatory pricing under current precedent. The case will go to appeal, but not in 2019.

- Squares Enix will sell or otherwise spin off the Tomb Raider license, leading to rampant speculation that the people who made Hitman will make the next Tomb Raider game.

- Fallout 76 will receive a major overhaul that will redeem the game in the eyes of reviewers and make it utterly unplayable to me.

- Bungie will form its own launcher exclusively for Destiny and subsequent expansions, leading everyone to grumble about having to remember another password.

- In spite of their assertions to the contrary, Nintendo will announce or release a LABO-based VR platform which consists of cardboard helmet that holds the switch three inches from the player’s face. It will cause nausea.

- Capcom will announce a remastered Cloverleaf game for the PC and Nintendo switch. My hope is that it will be God Hand, but it will probably be a Viewtiful Joe Collection, and I’ll be ok with that.

- Intellivision’s Amico development will be delayed, and the release date pushed out beyond 2020 after someone at Intellivison says “Ouya” three times while looking in a mirror.

- The Monster Hunter Movie will actually be pretty good.

Comments

Squares Enix will sell or otherwise spin off the Tomb Raider license, leading to rampant speculation that the people who made Hitman will make the next Tomb Raider game.

Interesting prediction, though I think it depends on the Eidos side of Square Enix. I don't think Eidos/Crystal Dynamics would want to freely give up an IP so central to their identity. At the same time, it doesn't seem implausible. I think the only reason Square wouldn't pull another Hitman is that Tomb Raider is a far, far more recognizable name with greater history and clout in the game world. It will always have a market, just maybe not in the near future. There will definitely be some time dedicated to regrouping and figuring out where to go with the property from here rather than pushing another sequel out the door as soon as possible.

The Monster Hunter Movie will actually be pretty good.

But by whose standards...?


Okay, after looking at my predictions from last year I think I'll start off by clapping myself on the back first.

Spoiler:
  • Capcom finally reveals footage of their Resident Evil 2 remake, but it won't hit store shelves until 2019.
  • Microsoft will announce Halo 6 and Gears of War 5, and the majority of cheers in the audience will be coming from Microsoft employees.
  • Elder Scrolls VI will be announced, but won't release until 2019 or 2020.

...my... predictions were pretty bad.

Okay, so the only one that was 100% accurate was the Resi2 Remake one. Halo 6 and Gears 5 were announced, but my snark adds some inaccuracy. I feel like Gears 5 looked interesting to a lot of people, even those that didn't care for or completely forgot the existence of Gears 4.

Nobody cares about Halo Infinity, though.

As for Elder Scrolls VI, I'm not even sure if Todd Howard said 2020 was a pipe dream. So that's only a 50%.

Now for predictions that my memory is too fuzzy to recall if they were accurate or not.

  • A game franchise that we haven't seen an entry from since the 90's will be revived. Whether it'll be a major tone-deaf blockbuster or a faithful indie darling is anyone's guess.
  • E3 will be full of companies making jabs at EA and lootboxes – despite the fact that most of the open-world or multiplayer games we'll see were completely designed with pay-to-win lootboxes in mind.
  • EA will try to highlight the lack of pay-to-win lootboxes in Anthem without admitting they're trying to earn goodwill again, despite how obvious it'll be that the game originally had pay-to-win lootboxes.

I feel like we might have seen a 90's game revived this year, but I cannot for the life of me recall off the top of my head. There's just so much announced and released these days and I couldn't even remember if Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back was 2018 or the year prior (turns out it was the year prior).

Similarly, I don't recall E3 well enough to know if there were really all that many jabs at lootboxes. I know they happened, but I don't remember if it was to the extent that I predicted.

As for EA specifically, I feel it's more accurate to say they've been ignoring saying anything about pay-to-win lootboxes altogether, pretending it never happened rather than addressing concerns. So that one's probably wrong, but I have no doubt Anthem was designed with such mechanics in mind. And looking at last year's conversation thread, Dyni had a post to suggest that might have been the case, but as far as I can recall nothing concrete.

Now then... all the ways in which I was horribly, horribly wrong.

  • Square Enix will announce a Final Fantasy Collection for release on all major platforms, putting together the first six games in a single package.
  • Square Enix will announce a new Theatrhythm for release on Switch ... and it will release in America.
  • Bravely Third is announced for Nintendo Switch.

All wrong, though Bravely Third is an almost. We got this tease on Twitter after Octopath Traveler reached 1 million units sold, and this month the Bravely Default Twitter account announced a new game was in development. They also blanked out the section of their name that follows "Bravely". So... at this stage, not so bold a prediction to make. There's a new Bravely game being made, I was just a year early in its official announcement.

No sign of a new Theatrhythm, much to my dismay. While the Final Fantasy Collection continues to be a genius idea in my head, it remains nothing in reality. However, as a consolation prize, I'm getting FF7, 9, X/X-2, XII, and Crystal Chronicles on Switch, so... hurray!

  • Against my better judgment, I'm going to go ahead and buy into the hype that Mother 3 will be a premiere title on the Nintendo Switch's Virtual Console. I mean, we got Star Fox 2 on the SNES Classic, so I'm willing to buy into anything at this point.

I'm done with this prediction. Whatever. I got a cartridge of Mother 3 now, I'm good.

  • Metroid Prime 4 will be announced to release in 2019.

(╯ರ ~ ರ)╯︵ ┻━┻

  • Capcom announces that they'll be shutting down servers for Dragon's Dogma Online, further confirming the death of a franchise I'd love to see more of.

As far as I can tell, this game is still alive and kicking exclusively in Japan. It seems it's plans to launch in Taiwan have even fallen through, but it's not dead yet. That Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen is getting ported to Switch is just baiting me to predict something boldly.

  • Valve will announce a new game, but it will be multiplayer focused and supported by microtransactions. It will not be Half-Life related, it will not be Portal as we expect it, it will not be Left 4 Dead as we want, and if it's an existing property at all it will be Team Fortress 3. Odds are it won't even be that grand a scale and may as well be a mobile release.

Eh, they bought Campo Santo and evidently Erik Wopaw is back on board. I imagine Erik is back on board to work with Campo Santo, however. I'm not getting my hopes up that Valve is going to be anything more than the proprietor of an online store.

  • Sony will finally begin announcing new IP again, though the center stage of E3 2018 will be Ghosts of Tsushima.

I dunno where the "finally" came from in this post, seeing as Days Gone and Ghosts of Tsushima were both new IP. I feel like that "finally" belongs with Microsoft, who just bought the crap out of all kinds of good developers. Regardless, Sony did not put Tsushima center stage.

  • Due to Nintendo's insistence to stick by a phone-app for online communication, their online gameplay service – despite competitive pricing – will be a money loss as few will find it worthwhile to play online with such shoddy voice chat options.

I don't think there's room to tell how well the service is doing, but plenty of people seem to have it given the stories on Smash's net-code and continued popularity of SplatFests.

  • The third Tomb Raider game will be fully open-world, and thus will be the delight of many Western gamers and the least favorite in the franchise for me. Also, will rely much more heavily on microtransactions for profit.

The only accurate part of this is that it's the least favorite in the franchise for me. It was more open-world than prior entries, but was not fully open-world. Oddly enough, following my play of Shadow I began to day-dream a variant of Tomb Raider that takes more inspiration from Breath of the Wild, but with more sophisticated climbing mechanics as seen in Shadow. So an open-world variant wouldn't be so awful if they could do it right.

  • Fans will be outraged when they find out they need to purchase the season pass in order to get the actual conclusion to Kingdom Hearts III, and even then the story will be confusing and feel incomplete.

Eh. They announced there would be DLC last year, though they commented it would be largely stand-alone. No season pass, however. This month they noted there would be epilogue DLC and a "secret ending", though nothing overly specific.

  • Nintendo will finally release their Switch rewards as part of their Nintendo Rewards program, and it will still continue to be an awful waste of existence.

They didn't announce Switch rewards yet. Which makes this prediction too optimistic for reality.

So that's how I did last year. Now then... what do I want to predict for 2019? Hrm...

  • Either Bayonetta 3 or Metroid Prime 4 are announced to release in 2020.
  • Nintendo focuses their E3 presentation on the new Pokemon game. It will be using the same engine as Let's Go, but one or two Quality-of-Life improvements (such as no random encounters) will be missing and disappoint fans.
  • Shin Megami Tensei V gets its first major trailer, but a release window of 2020.
  • One of the following characters will be announced as DLC for Smash Bros. Ultimate: Travis Touchdown, Zero from Mega Man X, Leon from Resident Evil 4, a protagonist from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
  • Animal Crossing on Switch doesn't make it on a lot of forum member GotY lists, but it is in the top 3 of those lists in which it does appear.
  • Square Enix announces a port of Final Fantasy VIII to Steam, with no console release planned. The port will be a reverse engineering of the Eidos PC port due to early-Hollywood-levels of record-keeping, and thus will have its issues that are well-documented by purists.
  • Nintendo will begin releasing SNES games on their online service, but no sign or acknowledgment of GameCube or N64 emulation.
  • There will be no new physical model of the Switch.
  • Activision will have a quiet year, propped up primarily by Call of Duty and Blizzard as they internally scramble to find new IP's to revive or create, but with the goal of each of them remaining "as service".
  • Bungie will continue to release expansions for Destiny 2, but will be working on Destiny 3 to release in 2020 as an evergreen title that can "fix" what broke in 2 and live on similarly to Warframe.
  • Hideki Kamiya drops hints to his new project, but no significant details as to what it will be.
  • Buzz that Yoko Taro is working on something, but no official announcements in 2019.
  • Capcom revives another older property onto modern systems, be it as a remaster or a surprise sequel. It will not be Breath of Fire related.
  • Respawn's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will see a delay into 2020. There will be no sign of Titanfall 3.
  • EA will lose exclusivity to the Star Wars license.
  • The Outer Worlds will get a Metacritic around 70-79 and will be a disappointment to many at first, but will have its small but loyal following that marks it as a cult favorite in the years to come.
  • Sony is not "at" E3, but holds an event of their own nearby, physically and/or in terms of timeframe.
  • Microsoft will show off their new Xbox, but it won't be ready for release until 2020. Halo: infinity will be a launch title, but aside from 4K capabilities, there will be nothing much to get excited about. It will not have HoloLens, but will be VR capable. The primary emphasis will be a larger hard-drive and digital downloads.
  • Sony waits until their PlayStation Experience in December to reveal their PS5. It will also have an Ultra Blu-Ray drive, 4K ready, and will have PlayStation VR packed in.
  • RockSteady is NOT working on a Superman game. Crowds will react in disappointment at whatever is announced, but when the title releases (possibly not until 2020) it will be lauded by press and players alike.
  • Retro Studios finally reveals what they've been working on. It is related to neither Donkey Kong nor Metroid, and in fact results in a lot of disappointment from current fans. Just like Rocksteady, however, when the game does release, it will be lauded by critic and player alike.

That's all I can think of for the moment. Might come back later and make some additions/modifications.

Interesting prediction, though I think it depends on the Eidos side of Square Enix. I don't think Eidos/Crystal Dynamics would want to freely give up an IP so central to their identity. At the same time, it doesn't seem implausible. I think the only reason Square wouldn't pull another Hitman is that Tomb Raider is a far, far more recognizable name with greater history and clout in the game world. It will always have a market, just maybe not in the near future. There will definitely be some time dedicated to regrouping and figuring out where to go with the property from here rather than pushing another sequel out the door as soon as possible.

That’s solid analysis that is probably correct but is based on the analysis that Square is capable of learning things, which was not in evidence in 2018. My guess is that they think they’ve run the series into the ground, and will sell it to get out from under it.

But by whose standards...?

That, my friend, is The Question.
the

I feel like we might have seen a 90's game revived this year, but I cannot for the life of me recall off the top of my head. There's just so much announced and released these days and I couldn't even remember if Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back was 2018 or the year prior (turns out it was the year prior).

You actually nailed this prediction. We absolutely got a major reboot, but I’m not allowed to tell you what it was.

Capcom revives another older property onto modern systems, be it as a remaster or a surprise sequel. It will not be Breath of Fire related.

Yay! If two of us predict it, then it has to happen. That’s how this works, right?

Owing to the glut of predictions made in 2018, I'll crib a few highlights I made last year before moving on:

* Nintendo won't do a Mini N64 this year. I don't think there's enough first party titles and third party titles they could get the licenses to in order to make it happen and besides, who wants to put up with that controller again? What I think could happen is a new version of the original Game Boy, with tons of titles built into it, an optional colorized mode for all the games to be displayed on a modern LCD screen, and built in Blue Tooth for multiplayer.

Half-right, though who could have predicted the Mini PS1 and the so-so lineup? Someone will correct me, I'm sure.

* Red Dead Redemption 2 will come out this year and be a contender for GOTY, but I'm not sure if a Rockstar game will claim the crown. Also, I think last year's LA Noire VR game was a test case for interest in a potential VR version. Also, I believe it'll also be available for the PC and Nintendo Switch.

Other than being a contender, this was a series of whiffs at least for 2018. The drunk mission with Lenny, though, that'd be a hoot in VR.

* A repeat from last year: Harebrained Scheme's Battletech will be this year's XCOM. Possibly a sleeper pick for GOTY. It possibly may even be better than Mechwarrior V.

Solidly right, if by better than Mechwarrior V one counts it being available in 2018.

* The new Spider-Man game for the PS4 will be one of the best exclusives of the year, but not at the top of GOTY votes. Also, people won't stop talking about how much the in-game Peter Parker looks like a crazy genetic hybrid of all the modern actors who played Peter Parker.

Half right. If anything was really talked about Peter Parker was how good Yuri Lowenthal was in the role even with how great the cast for Into The Spiderverse was.

* Far Cry 5 will attract political attention as Amanda mentioned, but I think on the other end of the spectrum it'll get flak for pulling its punches.

And by pulling its punches I clearly meant being so boring it didn't even try.

* No new Elder Scrolls. Sorry, it feels like the Skyrim blitz last year and this year's Fallout 4 VR pushed Bethesda's schedule back.

That was wrong, just as wrong as Fallout 76's everything.

* Assassin's Creed: Something. I think Ubisoft sticks to the every other year formula going forward and I was hinting at above the next version will take place somewhere in Asia.

Wrong in continental proportions.

And onto this year's collection of wrong:

Hardware:

* The Switch will remain Switchy. A Metroid of some sort comes out this year.

* As mentioned in the Conference Call episode, I think Microsoft will throw everything they can into this year to both try to catch the XBox One up with the PS4 and set the table for the next console. That console will probably be announced as early as E3. Backwards compatibility, early forays into the VR arena, cross play with the PC, and the like.

* Sony will take a victory lap with the PS4 for the rest of the year, however at the Video Game Awards they'll have a promotional video that ends with merely flashing the number 5.

* The system seller game for VR will come out this year. What it is, I have no clue, though I think the tech's been around long enough that someone will finally figure out how to make the must play game for it.

Games You Can Play This Year:

* Mechwarrior V will be a lot better than people seem to think it will be, though socks will remain on people's feet.

* Anthem's delay actually will help, though only in so far as ensuring it won't have a dismal release like Fallout 76.

* Star Wars: Whatever will release because as mentioned in the Conference Call because Lucasfilm and Disney want something Star Wars related in concert with the new movie. This will likely be the last Star Wars game EA releases as the license holders adopt the model Marvel's using for Spider-Man and Avengers to farm out new versions of classic Star Wars games to AAA publishers.

* DOOM Eternal will be a solid game of the year contender and probably will be at the top of Sean and Cory's lists.

* Kingdom Hearts III will be...fine if you're into that.

* The Division 2's kind of...there but like Farcry 5 won't be this massive hit.

* The Farcry 5 spin-off, on the other hand, will be a hoot.

* The Outer Worlds will be a solid game of the year contender and may end up hitting the top of some people's lists, though sight mostly unseen I can't say for sure.

* A repeat from last year: I think when the dust settles, it'll be The Last of Us 2 that emerges as 2019's game of the year.

Games From Years Past You'll Still Be Playing This Year:

* I actually think Bungie's divorce from Activision will help Destiny 2 now that continued development isn't under the control of the publisher.

* Battletech's Urban Warfare expansion will draw more attention than Flashpoint, but the really big news will be that the third expansion will introduce the Clan Invasion, setting the stage for a Clan-centric Battletech 2.

* Red Dead Online I think gets better but never comes close to competing with the player base of GTA Online.

* Call of Duty: Whatever will be handled like the aforementioned Destiny now that Activision doesn't have Destiny anymore.

* People will finally buy what Shawn and I have been selling on Phantom Doctrine and give it a whirl. They even patched in some variation to the side missions last week.

* Elite: Dangerous. I only say this because I'm trying really hard to look over the giant hump to overcome that's been building up since I put the game down a few years ago and I really have the urge to try to overcome it but I need some big new addition to push me over.

Games That You Won't Be Playing This Year:

* Cyberpunk 2077. Easy pick.

* Starfield. Bethesda broke with tradition by announcing both it and Elder Scrolls VI this far in advance and I think that the earliest it'll come out is Q1 of 2020. It may even go further back if Bethesda is hellbent on trying to make Fallout 76 work.

* Elder Scrolls VI. Same.

* Assassin's Creed: Something. This'll be a gap year and I really, really, really hope that the next one's in Asia somewhere.

* Diablo 4. I don't think it was even a glimmer in someone's eye during BlizzCon and all that talk about "Oh, we thought about saying something" was someone trying to quell the firestorm.

* The Avengers. Considering how Marvel encouraged Insomniac and Sony to take their time on Spider-Man, I don't believe there's any pressure on Eidos Montreal and Square Enix to ship something this year.

* Dragon Age 4. Nope. Bioware will be doing everything it can to make Anthem successful to the point where I don't think we even get a teaser or a trailer this year. But, having said that, my bolder prediction is that Hawke will return as the player character.

Games That You'll Never Be Playing:

* Star Citizen. I believe now more than ever that nothing from that project's ever going to come out.

Games That You Don't Know About Yet That'll Be Unveiled This Year:

* A number of XBox exclusives in order to make my prediction about Microsoft mounting a massive offensive work.

* A tease for a new Mass Effect game will be revealed on November 7th. It may be subtitled "We're Really Sorry About Andromeda."

* A tease for a new Deus Ex game will be revealed at E3.

* One last big exclusive AAA title for the PS4 that'll likely have an upscaled version released the following year on the PS5.

* The game that'll ultimately topple Fortnite will be announced, perhaps even launch, but won't overtake it until next year at the earliest.

* One of the baseball games will unveil a story mode in the vein of FIFA and Madden, where you play the part of a baseball player from the Caribbean or Japan coming to America and having to adjust to the culture shock. Be really careful when you hold X to flip your bat and admire your home run.

* WB Montreal will announce either an Arkham-style Batman game adapting the Court of Owls story line or a Harry Potter game. One of the two.

* And at the end of whatever thing Valve does at whatever thing they're attending, the number 3 will briefly flash at the end of their video.

Sports Predictions Since *Legion* Can't Be Bothered Anymore:

* The Kansas City Chiefs will defeat the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl next month, ushering in a new age of football.

* The Golden State Warriors will win the NBA Championship over the Toronto Raptors.

* The San Jose Sharks will win the Stanley Cup over the Washington Capitals. Expect the inside of the cup to be tinged purple from all the wine being sipped from it over the summer.

* The US will defeat Japan in the World Cup finals.

* The Colorado Rockies will win the World Series over the New York Yankees.

-Switch will see a price reduction to $249 but it won't be low enough for me to buy it to play Octopath Traveler
-Daybreak Games will announce the new Everquest game that will be a BR game but unfortunately not be my greatest wish of a resurrection of Landmark; it will have a mobile component
-The Division 2 will be a better game all around but have worse sales than the first game (unfortunately)
-The new Diablo game will more resemble Alien Isolation than Diablo 3
-In the second half of the year, Bungie will be bought by a major publisher
-Doom Eternal will get rid of snap map in favor of Fornite or Conan Exiles style building tools
-Rebel Galaxy Outlaw will have better success than Rebel Galaxy but not enough to move them past underrated developer status
-Mechwarrior 5 will be delayed until february 2020
-Gears 5 will be swallowed up by all the AAA games released around it; the franchise is dead
-Cyberpunk 2077 will bomb
-The Surge 2 will be bigger and better but too much of the same and its potential will be squandered
-Age of Empires 4 will receive similar reception to Dawn of War 3; but if the single player campaign is more like DoW 2, I blissfully ignore the internet rage
-Rage 2 will trounce Far Cry New Dawn in every imaginable category
-Borderlands 3 will go back to the drawing board amidst the Pitchford drama

Microsoft will announce a switch-like console. It's going to combine the xbox with their microsoft surface line. It's going to be the Xbox Surface. A tablet that is capable of playing the entire xbox one library.

... for $899

Let's see:

1. Chris Roberts raises another $20 million after offering the epic E-P55N Class Dreadnought for only $500K a pop.

2. The Diablo mobile game becomes everyone's new guilty pleasure.

3. Anthem is in the running for best multiplayer game of 2019 and may even win if Fortnite fatigue sets in. This saves Bioware and ensures Dragon Age 4 moves forward.

4. A new Xbox console is revealed for a 2020 launch. Some kind of AR technology is involved.

5. The Game of the Year discussions are dominated by Last of Us 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and some yet to be announced VR game. (Well at least the first two I'm pretty confident about).

6. A new VR version of Fortnite is either demoed or released.

7. Total War: Three Kingdoms takes off like crazy in China and becomes the new "StarCraft 2."

8. The next Star Wars game is head and shoulders better than Episode IX.

9. The Game King sinks a full Sands (1,000 hours) into Imperator.

10. The next Assassin's Creed features a sole female protagonist.

My outrageous prediction:

1. The Patriots win the Super Bowl and Brady becomes the only athlete to repeat being on the Madden cover. This super charges the Madden curse and rips a hole in the space time continuum. During the White House victory celebration, Brady along with Donald Trump are hauled screaming into the void by giant tentacles. The only thing left behind will be their half-eaten lukewarm Big Macs.

*Insomniac Games releases Spiderman, which underwhelms like the last dozen of their games and they sell their souls to Sony or Microsoft.

*Epic switches back to having paid games and not only F2P or B2P games as services.

*New Elder Scrolls announced for 2019. Possibly pushed out early for holiday 2018 as Bethesda's publishing wing continues to underperform despite putting out good games. Game will be buggy as hell and maybe this time people will complain enough to make Bethesda change their tune.

Well, missed mightily on Spider-Man. I didn't watch a single trailer before making the prediction but I should've.

Epic ain't changing nuttin.

I still hold out hope for Bethesda. Their games are unique, amazing and sad at the same time. They need to become less sad.

For 2019 I've got this:

Nintendo Switch Pro with a Tegra X2 is what the Switch was always meant to be played on. Form factor will be the same, possibly with a slightly larger screen that is more edge to edge, but not a drastic increase in size like the 3DS XL was over a vanilla 3DS,

And that's it. There's so much weird going on in the industry I don't even know what else to say. The next gen of hardware is coming. VR is still a thing. Developers are making their own consoles. Epic is taking on Steam. Who the hell saw all that coming?!?!?

1. The Patriots win the Super Bowl and Brady becomes the only athlete to repeat being on the Madden cover. This super charges the Madden curse and rips a hole in the space time continuum. During the White House victory celebration, Brady along with Donald Trump are hauled screaming into the void by giant tentacles. The only thing left behind will be their half-eaten lukewarm Big Macs.

It would be worth enduring the Tom Brady worship for a few weeks if that actually happened.

Google partners with Epic on the release of a $99 streaming box that includes exclusive Fortnite cosmetics. The box will have some content permanently available to play/stream and available curated subscription plans starting at 5 bucks but that will include current AAA games from most major publishers.

Sony and Microsoft will follow suit with their own announcements of cheap streaming box versions of their next consoles for the masses as well as Pro versions that cater to 4K and VR. Neither will have a middle of road $300 next gen console.

Went and updated my own predictions a bit.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

That’s solid analysis that is probably correct but is based on the analysis that Square is capable of learning things, which was not in evidence in 2018. My guess is that they think they’ve run the series into the ground, and will sell it to get out from under it.

Just out of curiosity, from your perspective, how has Square Enix failed to learn from the past? I tend to have a more positive perspective on them, but I also view them purely from the lens of being a AAA publisher as opposed to the developer they once were.

You actually nailed this prediction. We absolutely got a major reboot, but I’m not allowed to tell you what it was.

The first thing that comes to mind is Spyro, which I don't count. So I'm still just... baffled. What could I have missed that now seems like it should be so obvious?

Rat Boy wrote:

WB Montreal will announce either an Arkham-style Batman game adapting the Court of Owls story line or a Harry Potter game. One of the two.

Doubtful it's Harry Potter. Rumors abound that the leaked one is by Avalanche Software.

fangblackbone wrote:

Borderlands 3 will go back to the drawing board amidst the Pitchford drama

Man, if only. That guy's done scummy business practices before and yet has eternally been forgiven because of whatever magic charm spell Borderlands casts on people. I'm not lucky enough for that man to suffer real consequences for his trashy behavior.

And that's it. There's so much weird going on in the industry I don't even know what else to say. The next gen of hardware is coming. VR is still a thing. Developers are making their own consoles. Epic is taking on Steam. Who the hell saw all that coming?!?!?

Anyone wanna take any bets on SouljaBoy's successes jumping into the console market?

ccesarano wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

WB Montreal will announce either an Arkham-style Batman game adapting the Court of Owls story line or a Harry Potter game. One of the two.

My source on that comes from a Batman news site that saw a dev from WB Montreal tweeting an image of a T-shirt the team got that featured an owl logo. Said site speculated it was the emblem of the Court of Owls while others said it was an emblem of some group from Hogwarts, so chances are it's probably neither.

Scoring my 2018 predictions...

Spoiler:
Anthem will be delayed until 2019.

This was almost a freebie.

Some other EA release will be disappointing and sources will blame it on Frostbite again.

I can't think of any? Battlefield is Frostbite's bread and butter. There were some teething problems with EA's sports franchises in the past, but they're settled in now. And most importantly, EA didn't release any RPGs in 2018! The problem went away!

Metroid Prime 4 will also be given a 2019 release date.

Silence. It could still happen, but not in 2018.

HBS Battletech will make the GWJ community top 10.

I'll just go ahead and declare a win here, unless Eleima wants to step in and correct me.

Mechwarrior 5 will be released in 2018, but it will be half baked and not much fun. PGI will announce plans to port MWO to the Unreal engine.

Nope. I am genuinely surprised that it's been pushed back so long and that MWO is still generating enough cash to do so. Now I'm less sure that it will be half baked. Maybe three-quarters baked.

MWO to Unreal still seems necessary. The janky old version of Cry Engine they're using certainly won't look good next to MW5. Unless they just give up on MWO.

Neither I nor anyone whose home I visit will own VR hardware (excepting Google Cardboard of course).

Easy peasy. But I feel less confident about that in 2019... :O

Microsoft will go on an acquisitions spree in hope of finding the next Bungie and ending their drought of exclusives.

That sure happened. Hey, remember the "Microsoft buys EA" rumors from last January?

More than half the AAA multiplayer first person shooters released in 2018 will feature a shrinking circle battle royale mode.

Call of Duty: very yes.
Battlefield 5: does a pre-announcement count?
...and I can't think of a third AAA multiplayer first person shooter released in 2018. Oh wait, Far Cry 5, but that's co-op only.

Now to throw out some new predictions:

Anthem will be pretty successful and will rank on the GWJ Community Top 10. The Final Digestion of Bioware will be delayed a couple of years.

The oldest retail Switch is celebrating its second birthday soon, which is still too young for a spec bump. But an alternative form factor might be possible in 2019.

HBS Battletech will remain Clan-free through its third expansion.

The fruits of Microsoft's acquisition spree won't really show up at retail in 2019, but there will be announcements of exciting 2020 exclusives we didn't see coming.

Desperados 3 will be good, and Mimimi will get the recognition they didn't really see for Shadow Tactics. Red Dead fatigue will help.

Sony will promote some kind of smartphone-based solution as the Vita successor.

-Contenders for GOTY 2019 are The Outer Worlds, The Last of Us 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and Ghost of Tsushima

-The Elder Scrolls: Blades mobile game surprises and reignites interest in mobile as a serious handheld gaming platform for "AAA" style games

-Anthem and The Division 2 both disappoint bringing an end to the multiplayer third-person "Destiny" style games

-VR finds it's niche in the Music/Dance gaming genre with more Beat Saber style games released in 2019

-Cyberpunk 2077 disappoints

-The Epic Games store has a decent year. They continue giving away old indie titles every month through 2019 but doesn't disrupt the digital distribution model like it intended nor does it take any market share away from Steam.

-Nintendo doesn't announce a hardware refresh of the Switch but instead announces new versions of the Joycon with bigger grips and joysticks.

-Nintendo also announces a Samsung Gear VR-style headset for the Switch where you strap the display into the headset and allows you to play your games in a VR immersive style.

I forgot about Outer Worlds Guitarlicks. I think you’re spot on with that being a game of year contender.

I got infinity% on last years predictions (or NaN, I guess. Zero divided by zero).

But I'm back in the prognostication game!

Nintendo:
- there will be NO Switch hardware refresh announced.
- the hardware won't see a price drop until holiday 2019.
- Nintendo continue to be entirely uninterested in VR.

PC storefronts:
- Steam's business will NOT be significantly impacted in 2019 by Epic Games Store or other storefronts. Inertia is a helluva drug.

- That said, Steam responds to the new competition by increasing it's revenue sharing model with developers. It will be an underwhelming offer.

- Epic Games store sees enough growth and adoption to be considered a "success".

- We'll see the launch of at least one high-profile storefront aggregator application that attempts to deal with the issue of storefront fragmentation. This will come from one of the non-Steam storefronts as a way to encourage consumers to fragment their library.

VR:
- PSVR will see a modest hardware refresh that focuses on comfort and lowering the cost of manufacture, but won't include any performance gains - PS4 doesn't have the spare CPU grunt to make further inroads.

- Pimax becomes the new must-have consumer high end headset thanks to it's wide-FOV display.

- Enterprise VR market explodes as more and more industries start to adopt AR into their workflows. Large scale heavy industry factory floors will become lousy with headsets.

- HTC release a Vive hardware refresh that rolls some of the learning from their enterprise headsets into the consumer market.

- You're going to get so sick of hearing about foveated rendering.

- There'll be a glut of new headsets announced. The untethered headset market gets saturated and collapses as a result.

- There'll be a new stupid viral "challenge" meme that involves VR.

Always enjoy this, often to see how wrong I was. As far as I can tell, I bunted in my 2018, not really making much in the way of risky predictions at all. So, you know, not to hard to hit these out of the park.

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.

Certis politely and correctly asked people to stop going into the Star Citizen thread to crap all over the development process, and instead reserve that thread for people to share actual news about the game. This is not that thread, so I can continue to shake my head in utter disbelief this astounding fecal show of a train wreck masquerading as a software development process still somehow manages to stumble forward. I argued at one point we’re basically in Pyramid Scheme territory, as the development team promises new features and begs for more funding, and then uses that funding to stay afloat to do the last round’s worth of promises’ development. Somebody else argued it was a Ponzi Scheme instead. Really, the form of fraud Star Citizen has turned into is irrelevant. There will be more promises, more requests for money, and no Star Citizen.

I've been rolling over this prediction since I think the 2015 or 2016 thread, every year, just pasting it in. There is a non-zero chance I may make this prediction again. I continue to be stunned that "progress" on a "game" that is many years and millions upon millions of dollars of development is measured in attractive glorified tech demos that are little more than limited instances instead of the massive world repeatedly promised. Duke Nukem Forever had a sane development cycle compared to Star Citizen.

2. Read Dead Redemption 2 is considered great, and has a multiplayer component similar to GTA V where you rob banks, hold up trains, and do other western stuff and it’s incredibly successful. I will not buy the game at launch. I will wait until somebody can verify how much of the pointless, banal crap Rockstar likes to throw into their games in order to make them feel “realistic” is stuck in there. If there is one single element of mandatory @#$!! cattle herding I’m out. It’s also a leading GOTY candidate, here and elsewhere.

Well, yeah. None of this was tough to guess, and I still haven't and probably won't pick this up. Open-world fatigue has officially crushed my gaming soul. Also, right before launch I made some post on Kotaku in a review of RDR2 mentioning I'd never finished the first RDR because I got sick of cattle herding and just watched the ending on YouTube, and didn't see what the big deal was. I'm still regularly getting comments popping up where new people are continually calling me an idiot and not a "real gamer" because of it. Good times.

3. Sea of Thieves has modest sales, but, being an Xbox title, not that many people play it.

/sadpanda

I really enjoyed Sea of Thieves, and my 16-year-old son and his friends are playing it all the time. They've added many cool things, but, yeah, didn't sell notably great.

4. Anthem does not release in 2018; with the backlash facing loot boxes forcing a significant rewrite of the game’s loot system plus a desire to actually release a, you know, finished title, it’s pushed back to 2019. I’ve come across a few things saying there have been developed issues regardless, and EA, looking at what happened with Battlefront II, decides to wait until the game is actually done.

Yeah, basically. Again, not a real stretch.

5. Crackdown isn’t good. It’s shiny and glitzy but shallow. The first Crackdown was fun, the second never existed in the first place, and this one . . . it’s mechanically OK, but just doesn’t give you much to do other than spend a half hour thinking how cool it was to be able to crush buildings.

DIdn't come out, and I am far from optimistic about its prospects.

6. Nintendo, having fired its Zelda, Mario, and Mario Kart cannons, has a “down” year. Sure, there’s still Metroid, Kirby, and Donkey Kong, but none of those are Zelda or Mario.

Not sure this was a prediction as much as a ramble. So, yeah.

7. Think I failed to get this right next year; a new Elder Scrolls game is released by Bethesda, and it’s about dwarves. Because why not dwarves?

Nooooooooooooooooo.

8. VR remains a gimmick few people want. The immersiveness isn’t worth the inconvenience.

Another easy one. With the dumping of PSVR at a lower price and the lack of buzz, VR's not really going anywhere. It's just too much bother; in the words of Jello Biafra, give me convenience or give me death.

2019 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.

Hello darkness my old friend . . .

2. Crackdown 3 is this year's Sea of Thieves in multiple ways; its a day one Game Pass title so it has a huge launch and big playerbase, but drops off. It also is just OK at the start but, as the year goes on, Microsoft continues to improve it over time.

3. Related, multiple high-profile titles are added to Game Pass, as Microsoft has realized a subscription-based service is their way to "win" this generation of the console wars. They'll never have the install base of the PS4, but they're going to get their money. Game Pass gets Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Just Cause 4, and other relatively recent titles reasonably early in the year.

4. Anthem has moderate sales, but between Bioware's unfamiliarity with the genre and the slapdash way the game was redeveloped to make it less loot box crazy means it's just not that great, and winds up the disappointment of the year. It's not the Destiny killer; it's the Bioware killer.

5. Division 2 is really just an iterative improvement on the first game and is better received in the long run than Anthem.

6. E3 is an insane explosion of everybody trying to one-up each other. The PS5 and XboxWhatAreYouGoingToCallItNow are revealed, we see early footage of Elder Scrolls VI (DWARVES I AM TELLING YOU), and Bioware teases a new Mass Effect game.

7. Distribution of a game is blocked within at least one European country due to the presence of loot boxes. Which are absolutely 100% gambling mechanisms aimed at children, incidentally.

8. Fortnite's Save the World mode launches as free-to-play, and is mildly successful. Battle Royale remains the most popular game in the world.

9. Microsoft releases an upgraded Elite Controller and makes it customizable via their Design Lab. Related; four seconds later I will have ordered a new purple Elite Controller.

10. Fallout 76 gets a few updates, but, by mid-year, is ignored by Bethesda utterly, and it dies on the vine.

2018 Bold Prediction Review:

Correct Predictions:
*Dons black hood and raises scythe*

Telltale Games close down due to a lack of sales despite continued '[Franchise]: A Telltale Story' releases.

*puts down scythe*
OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE?!

Incorrect predictions:

Nintendo: Hope you enjoyed Mario and Zelda because that's your lot. Initial excitement will fade as future game releases fail to delight. My bold prediction: Zero Switch games will make it into the GWJ Conference Call's Top Games of 2018.

I'm not checking whether or not Switch games made it into the podcast Top Ten because last month I bought a Switch with Mario Odyssey, Mario Kart 8 and Zelda: Breath of the Wild and my life has never been so complete and fulfilling.

Microsoft: Xbox VR headset announced at E3.

Nope. Maybe next year?

Europa Universalis V is announced!

I'm just so proud of my EU IV infographic. I had no reason to think they wouldn't just keep on releasing expansions.

Not Quite Correct Predictions:

Red Dead Redemption 2: get ready for average gameplay in a stunning open Western world. That's no surprise for a Rockstar North title so my bold predication is the conversation will centre around a botched mission that tackles sexuality or gender-equality in some horrible fashion.

I haven't played the game but from what I've heard there's nothing distasteful in the manner I feared. There was some Youtube unpleasantness with people uploaded targeted violence within the game but that's not Rockstar's doing.

Pay to play: Loot boxes will become increasingly common and will become banned in parts of Europe creating splintered/different releases of games in different economic regions.

EA reportedly under criminal investigation in Belgium due to FIFA's loot boxes - Eurogamer. Nothing has been banned but loot bozes continue to come under increased scrutiny (as I believe they should).

Not Bold nor Predictions. :

Sony: I have nothing bold to predict. They will seek to maintain stability with no risky decisions.
Valve Software: We're all wondering what the hell is happening inside Wonka's Chocolate Factory because more Oompa-Loompa's leave and no new chocolate is announced (Read as: No new games announced).

2019 Bold Predictions:

  • Microsoft: Xbox VR headset announced at E3 (I'm rolling this over to this year. Double or Nothing!)
  • Sony: New PS5 console announced at E3 including PS4 backwards compatibility. Gotta do something with all those PS3-to-PS4 remasters.
  • Nintendo: SNES games released on the Switch Online Service.
  • The Star Wars licence is taken away from EA and handed to another developer like Insomniac Games.

Not gonna kill off another developer?

garion333 wrote:

Not gonna kill off another developer?

My scythe doth rest a year
Until the hourglass is empty
A developer I'll kill
In the year of 2020

CPWilson wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Not gonna kill off another developer?

My scythe doth rest a year
Until the hourglass is empty
A developer I'll kill
In the year of 2020

If you're leaning Bioware, wait until after Dragon Age 4 comes out.

Spoiler:
2018 Reaper81 wrote:

General:

(Snip)

Into the Breach, from the developers of critically acclaimed industry darling FTL, will launch to solid reviews. However, it will seem to lack that certain something, especially in an already crowded field of incredibly strong indy games. People will find themselves wishing that it were actually FTL 2.

I'm giving myself half-cred for this one. It seems as though ITB was really hot for like two weeks and then most people were done with it.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will launch close to the season premiere of HBO’s Westworld to capitalize on sexy-time cowboy adventures. The actual protagonist of the game will be a woman.

Whiff!

Far Cry 5 will launch. It will largely be ignored, despite concerns about the so-called controversial content. The messaging will chiefly mirror recent Far Cry games: tone deaf, confused, and irrelevant. The gameplay itself will feel very, very stale in a post- Horizon and Zelda world. Primal will eventually be regarded as the superior game, simply because it tried something different. Discussion of the future of the franchise will be quite negative.

YUP.

Additional content for Hitman will be announced late Q1. The missions will focus on political assassinations. This will be highly controversial in the United States given the election year and people will begin hand-wringing.

I was thinking more episodes not a new game so I'm not giving myself credit for this one.

[quote]
Consoles:

The Switch has a banner year. A cosmetic refresh of the SKU will drive first time-ownership and promote “two Switch households.” Games on Switch, however, will disappoint early adopters as this year will seem dull compared to launch titles.

Sony will begin focusing heavily on expanding quantity and quality of accessories, apps, and peripherals for the “Playstation Family.” Games media will generally agree this hints towards the PS5 but really this year is just Sony putting the traditional console market on lockdown.

Microsoft will develop a kind of institutional panic around the Xbox brand. X1X will be a huge commercial failure with already low sales dropping precipitously by mid-year. X1X will be in danger of being discontinued as losses will be unsustainable. Microsoft will introduce a basic Xbox 1 SKU at 99$ USD in a desperate effort to drive market penetration. (I agree 100% with this from the conference call prediction.) Late year discussion will make unpleasant comparisons between the Xbox brand and Dreamcast.

Microsoft will announce Gears of War 5 and Halo 6. They will be announced this year and launch this year with enhancements for X1X. Most people won’t care. The announcement messaging will only reinforce the idea that Microsoft is out-of-touch. X1 holdouts will seriously consider migrating completely to a different platform.
[quote]

Nintendo: Wrong
Sony: Half-credit, I feel. Media has been obsessed with PS5 but really Sony has don't much with the hardware publicly.
MS: Half-credit. Subscription Xbox is a better plan than cheap SKU but I feel pretty vindicated by the non-reaction to GoW5 and Halo.

(Snip)
[quote]

2019:

Games:
MW Mercenaries 5 launches this year after missing initial release date. It is basically an early access tech demo. The mech selection is lacking and the enemy AI is brain dead.

Rage 2 is shockingly great. It is an early contender for GoTY.

Far Cry: ND feels like the really cheap cash-in it is. It is fun coop but plays exactly the same as FC 5 with many annoying bugs that have existed since FC3. The stupidly annoying mandatory cutscenes introduced in 5 carry over as it will turn out that feature is hard-coded in the engine now. Something horribly, overtly racist will a main theme of the game.

Anthem releases to very mediocre reviews. A small core community will form around the game but most players move on quickly as there is no story of which to speak or "end game" to engage with.

Metro: Exodus is the first Metro game normal people enjoy playing and it will unexpectedly cut across many gaming demographics. It will have a similar market impact to the original Skyrim.

Crackdown 3 will just be bad. Really bad.

Gears 5 will be virtually indistinguishable from Gears 4 and this will mark the end of Gears releases for this console generation.

Halo whatever will be announced as having a holiday 2019 release date. It will be the lowest selling core Halo release.

Fallen Jedi gets a teaser trailer late summer and slips to 2020.

Wizards of the Coast announces a 5E CRPG with heavy DM and multiplayer integration. It will feature very, very sexy tieflings.

Consoles:

Nintendo just kills it this year with Switch. They come out with some uncharacteristically aggressive bundles in the holiday season and scoop up plenty of new owners. They get an aggressive NA marketing team that encourages hobby and game shops to host Switch nights.

MS stays quiet on NeXtBox but hint that it's coming sooner than you think! (Please clap.) They score one more large game studio and announce that their next game is a launch exclusive.

Sony figures out how to market PSVR and creates some compelling social media software that capitalizes on the VR experience (think like Twitter + Second Life.)

Agathos wrote:
Metroid Prime 4 will also be given a 2019 release date.

Silence. It could still happen, but not in 2018.

Nope, it's official. I faceplanted on this one. https://kotaku.com/retro-studios-is-...

Yeah I might want to update my own prediction on that. More like "2022" now.

Given the rumors of a Nintendo Direct this week and surprises like Apex Legends starting to land, would it be a good idea to lock this thread so predictions can be similarly locked in?

Here's my bold prediction; Metroid Prime 4 actually does launch in 2019.

Boom.