What are your 2007 gaming predictions?

[7th lutz]

Here are mine:
psp will be loosing 3rd party support late in the year unless software sales increase
There will be no viral Marketing for the ps 3 or the psp in 2007 due to the 2006 viral Marketing flop for psp
The ps 3 sales will not be as strong as sony expected with blu-ray movie sales not doing well
the 360 will have a very strong in North America
The wii will continue to do well in Japan
Dragon Quest 9 will be one of the top 3 selling games in Japan
The ds sells will continue to increase
There will be a major game anouncement of a gaming going to a handheld system or a next generation system
The virtual gaming console will have some major tiles in the states
Ea will buy another gaming company
2007 will be xbox last year before there will be no new games for it
2007 will be gba's final year before there will be no new games for it

[swlovinist]

I will keep my list short, so here I go. I predict:

The PS3 will have lower than expected sales by the end of the year
The Wii will have reached sales expectations by the end of year
The 360 will meet sales expectation by end of year
The 360 will see a price drop of $50 or less with a new bundle
The PSP redesign will not help sluggish sales
The DS will continue to dominate the portable market
The PS2 will suprise sony and exceed sales predictions
I also predict the future to hold a true retro console release of some type

[Poofta!]

wii will be proved to cause cancer.

[bangtango]

Nintendo Will Fall!!!!!!!!!

(I don't really think they will. That was just my parody of some of the fanboys who inhabit this or any other board)

[MarioAllStar2600]

Nintendo won't be able to get many good games out for the Wii, they are gunna come out way to slow......

That is my only prediction as of right now.

[agbulls]

Nintendo Will Fall!!!!!!!!!

(I don't really think they will. That was just my parody of some of the fanboys who inhabit this or any other board)

That's funny. I think its the sole reason I love this board and avoid Gamefaqs like the plague. But, wouldn't it read more like:

Nintendo Will Phaill!!!!!! Mario suxors!

[s1lence]

Sega will release the Dreamcast II

[klausien]

Everyone always seems to forget that the Wii has the advantage of being cheaper to develop for than the 2 HD systems. Developers will support it steadily if it continues to build a solid, diverse user base. Nintendo also seems as though they actually may be beginning to crack that older demographic who remembers the Atari but has long since left the mainstream market to their children, grandchildren & younger siblings. The Pong generation is finding their way back to gaming though the Wii.

The Wii will remain strong as a supplement to the 360/PS3 in the mainstream market, no doubt. The Japanese market will continue to embrace the system; as will Europeans when they finally get their hands on it. If the EyeToy phenomenon was any indication, Wii Sports, Wii Play & WarioWare will be smash hits in Europe.

Nintendo will release a Nintendogs-esque virtual pet sim on the Wii, as well as an Animal Crossing sequel. We will also see Mario Tennis sooner rather than later. It will have both a "Beginner" automatic character control mode ala Wii Sports Tennis, as well as an "Expert" mode which allows for Nunchuk character control. We might see a Wii exclusive Virtua Tennis title from Sega as well. Pikmin will return by 2008, or the two GC games will be bundled as a new title and receive a Wii control update. Sonic and Tails may yet become selectable characters in Smash Bros. I personally think there may be more bonus characters up Nintendo's sleeve, which is why we are seeing a delay. There are negotiations going on that we are unaware of.

The Virtual Console is going to be profitable whether we like it or not. The Ocarina of Time Master Quest will come out for the VC, possibly alongside the original Ocarina of Time as a freebie. Sin and Punishment will happen on the VC. Nintendo will offer the ability to have the blue disc drive light remain illuminated when the system is powered on as a $5 WiiWare download. They will also offer further customization options for the dashboard for a price.

The XBox 360 will rise even further beyond the competition in the US, proving to be THE HD system of choice for most, provided they get Halo 3 out on time. They will only make a price drop if they have to, which seems unlikely. Japanese sales will remain flat.

Metal Gear Solid 4 will be announced for the XBox 360. World of Warcraft will be announced as a limited exclusive for the 360 as well. Whether it is ever actually delivered remains to be seen.

XBox Live Arcade will get Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo.

The PSP will continue to trail off, slowly losing the battle to Nintendo's handheld dominance. It coulda been a contender if the overpricing and oversaturation of UMD movies, and the lack of quality software hadn't left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. UMD movies will finally be put out to pasture.

The DS will continue to find prosperity. Nintendo's gamble paid off, but we knew that last year. I do predict some water-treading in its library though.

The GBA will be phased out, but it already has been in that state for a year. It will continue to remain profitable to publish for it for at least 2007. If Nintendo ever decides to bring out the Bit Generations games in the US, it will be as a final push for the GBA. Micros will remain in stores until at least 2008.

PS2 will indeed remain strong, possibly acting as Sony's lifeboat with the PS3 and failing PSP sucking away their profit margins. PS2 games will sell enough copies to keep Sony from doing what Microsoft did to the XBox when the 360 came out. I am hoping we see another banner year for Classic Compilations.

Profit-wise, I think we really are looking at 1) Nintendo 2) Microsoft & 3) Sony. Nintendo's plan to split the market will continue to be a major success for them. The mainstream press will continue coverage of the Wii, but will heavily favor the 360 & PS3. The current issue of Game Informer all but totally proves this.

Microsoft will be the darling of the mainstream gamer. XBox Live is, and will remain the premier online console gaming service.

Sony's high price will mean that they'll have a lot of catching up to do, especially if they keep losing exclusives. BluRay absolutely must become the format of choice for the company to stay solvent. The 4th Quarter of 2007 is going to be Judgment Day for Sony's position in the industry.

Just my take. I am not an expert or anything and have been horribly wrong before. Regardless, it is going to be an extremely interesting year for our hobby.

[Poofta!]

i think that by this time 2007, ps3 will have confortably positioned itself as the #1 console, like its previous two consoles.

[Lothars]

i think that by this time 2007, ps3 will have confortably positioned itself as the #1 console, like its previous two consoles.

I agree, I also think that the 360 will not do that well, even though i really like Xbox Live, I still think that Sony will step it up, drop the price and the PS3 will be like the PS2 just for every type of game you can think of.

The Wii will be good, but I think the sales will taper off unless Nintendo can follow up with some more substantial games.

Though it will do good, I still see it selling really good but they need to get some really outstanding software out.

I also predict by end of 2007 I will own all 3 systems.

[jajaja]

I think the Wii wont be doing so strong as Nintendo hopes. People will be so used to the controller that its not longer something new. GFX have always sold and since the Wii got rather poor hardware compared to 360 and PS3, Nintendo might take a hit on this.

[ALAKA]

Here are mine:
There will be a major game anouncement of a gaming going to a handheld system or a next generation system

wow,you really went out on a limb there...

[diskoboy]

Sega will release the Dreamcast II

One can dream

I think that MS will do a 360 (no pun intended) on the "No games on the HD-DVD Drive" policy, and start releasing games that will only run with the HD drive. MS will only sell them as "limited editions". EDIT - and they will only be games slated for big releases.

I think we'll finally see a sequel to NiGHTS (or they'll at least announce one) and Sega will start making smarter decisions again, and bring back some of their long-forgotten IP's.

There will be no RE5 this year.

The PS3 will lose all kinds of american 3rd party developer support. Blu-Ray will go the way of the Beta.

[poieo]

My prediction is this:

*Nintendo will prosper massively, having taken a very hard lesson (whatever you are, 3rd parties make you better) and combined it with what they already knew (hardcore idiots want the same shit over and over, while actual human beings want to have fun). They will once again become a household name, and most likely will be the one that finally manages to cement videogames' place as a valid form of entertainment and expression.

*MS will essentially take Sony's place as the clueless moron company that really doesn't know what the hell it's doing, but gets to fool itself into thinking they're brilliant simply because they're in a position where they can't lose. At this rate, they will go on to eventually take Nintendo's NES-SNES position by overreaching, turning their cluelessness into flagrant insanity. At this point they will then watch in collective horror as i bludgeon the living shit out of J. Allard. Berift of their chosen PR douchebag, the Xbox team will have lost the closest thing they had to a driving force and will subsequently collapse under the weight of their own headless blunder.

*Sony dies. I mean like total collapse of the company and name. It's either that or they hire someone to ask "Holy mother of fuck, what are we doing?". Or maybe they find some other miracle niche to survive off of.

[njiska]

My prediction is this:

*Nintendo will prosper massively, having taken a very hard lesson (whatever you are, 3rd parties make you better) and combined it with what they already knew (hardcore idiots want the same shit over and over, while actual human beings want to have fun). They will once again become a household name, and most likely will be the one that finally manages to cement videogames' place as a valid form of entertainment and expression.

*MS will essentially take Sony's place as the clueless moron company that really doesn't know what the hell it's doing, but gets to fool itself into thinking they're brilliant simply because they're in a position where they can't lose. At this rate, they will go on to eventually take Nintendo's NES-SNES position by overreaching, turning their cluelessness into flagrant insanity. At this point they will then watch in collective horror as i bludgeon the living shit out of J. Allard. Berift of their chosen PR douchebag, the Xbox team will have lost the closest thing they had to a driving force and will subsequently collapse under the weight of their own headless blunder.

*Sony dies. I mean like total collapse of the company and name. It's either that or they hire someone to ask "Holy mother of fuck, what are we doing?". Or maybe they find some other miracle niche to survive off of.

Do you actually have any idea what you're talking about? Seriously the Wii is not that great and if you challenge me, play wack-a-mole on super monkey ball and try to not to be pissed. Microsoft really is a brilliant company and listens to their consumers. They are far from clueless.

As for my educated predictions i see things playing out like this

Nintendo:
-Wii will be thrid place at the end of then year due to the lack of showcase exclusives.
- Most multiplatform titles will be bought on other platforms.
- Developer support will remain the same
- Most VC titles will fail to sell much but a few key titles like Super Mario RPG will sell big and drive a rise in VC prices. Similar to what we've already seen with TG-16 titles.
- Online support on the Wii will be about as well accepted as WFC was on DS. Lots of people will do it once or twice, but Xbox Live or PSN will be their home.
-DS sales and software will contiue to be strong

Sony:
- PS3 will either be in 2nd place or tied with Microsoft going into christmas.
- PSN will go down many times throught the year as Sony attempts to deal with the growing pains of developing the new system. Similar to the crash experinced when the GT HD download went live because the server couldn't handle the volume
- Multiplatform titles will have little or no difference graphcis wise. As with the current titles some will be better on 360, some on ps3, but in either case it won't be a big deal
- PSN original downloads will do decent
- Many, many firmware updates
- Gamers will be pissed off at having seperate IDs for many different games
- Exclusives at 720p may look better then some 360 titles. Don't expect many if any 1080p games to considerably better.
- Most games will not take more then 1 DVD of space

Microsoft:
- Most likely in first place going into christmas
- Xbox Live will continue to thrive
- The Video marketplace will greatly expand making MS lots of money. Will probably intorduceed in to a few new markets
- XBLA will see some great original titles and SOTN
- Halo 3 will be Microsofts Trump card for christmas
- Titles like Lost Oddesy will continue to boost microsoft popularity in Japan and with japanese developers. However ti will still have a freakishly small installed base
- It'll be the number one system in NA
- HD DVD addon will sell well
- Microsoft will continue to listen to it's community and will provide a solid set of updates to the dash in spring and fall

[Lord_Magus]

Traditional console gaming will be strong in 2007, mainly thanks to Nintendo's Wii and the DS. Although they both use disruptive technology and non-conventional controls, in spirit they are the two systems which focus more on "traditional" console gaming than the others. I'm expecting the Wii to be constantly sold out until next Christmas, and will eventually dominate the other two consoles sales-wise in a similar manner as the DS has dominated the PSP.

The line between "living room PCs" (360/PS3) and actual desktop PCs will (intentionally) continue to blur, and by the end of ~2009 Microsoft will have complete dominance over both areas. Expect a very strong connection between Vista and the next Microsoft console, which will be announced sometime around the end of 2008.

Sony will slowly start to die out, mostly due to their ridiculously high prices and arrogance. Also, expect the high development costs to divert several 3rd party deveopers to the Wii. (this is likely something the 360 will suffer from as well). Sony has become increasingly nervous and unstable lately, and is behaving similar to Sega before they met their demise with the Dreamcast. I'm expecting them to try and match the features provided by the Wii, so expect a few motion-sensing bowling and\or tennis games which promote "innovation".

Overall, console gaming will start to be separated into two distinct areas: one which favors high-end(?) technology and one which favors good old fashioned fun (and please, enough with the "they're not mutually exclusive" argument). Microsoft will take over the first half, while Nintendo will take over the other. Microsoft expands their empire from the desktop computer to within every persons living room, and Nintendo is left as the only company focused exclusively on producing games-only systems. All this won't happen until much later (2009?), but the first steps towards this direction have already been made.

The next 2-3 years are going to be very interesting, that's for sure...

[heybtbm]

Most of the predictions so far seem pretty realistic and grounded in logic...except for one glaring (obvious) omission...

The Wii will be in distant 3rd place by next Christmas. The public will see that the Wii's "innovative" controller is just a simple novelty...and one that doesn't even work that well. I will be supporting the Wii till the end, but the public will eventually loose interest and move on to either the 360 or PS3. The only kink in this prediction is the Wii's fantastic $250 price point vs the PS3's $600 price point (obviously a big deal to the average parent). I guess we'll see.

[rob black]

The Phantom console will make it long waiting debut.

[Captain Wrong]

The Phantom console will make it long waiting debut.

WINNAR!!!

Seriously though, I agree with most everything njiska said.

I think MS is going to be sitting well, unless they cock up royal. The PS3 is going to catch up once they put more units in stores and they're going to have tons of growing pains on-line. The Wii is going to enter the same period the DS did where the novelty of the control wears off and we wait for the really great games to come along.

Speaking of the DS, it's going to continue to sell well, even though software is going to be hit or miss. I don't think the PSP is quite dead yet, but Sony needs to pull a killer app out fast. I think they might and I think it may have something to do with PS3 connectivity.

[diskoboy]

Oh and one more obvious one (even though Njiska has said it already) - HALO 3 will make the 360 sell like hotcakes, around Christmas 2007.

And people will shut up about the 360 as "A heat source" when MS starts the 65mn chip process, around Febuary or march (supposedly the date they were supposed to start was January, but it got pushed bak).