Thursday, June 05, 2008

E3 2008 predictions

Ok, it’s only just over a month until E3 2008 and as such, I thought I’d throw in a few early predictions for what will be shown at the show by the 3 big players in the console market. This is based on rumour, speculation and my very own guesswork:

Microsoft
I don’t tend to follow much Microsoft news (not owning one of there consoles), but I’ll still take a stab at a few predictions:

* Microsoft will announce a new motion sensitive controller (which looks suspiciously like the wiimote) together with various games which support this. This will be packed with the Arcade pack of the 360 to undercut the Wii. Everyone points at the 360 and accuses them of copying, which Microsoft utterly ignores.

* Microsoft will announce a blu-ray add on drive to the 360.

* Halo 4 is announced, but no real footage is shown (maybe just a teaser). A big deal is made of Halo Wars.

* A bevy (god I love that word) of casual games are revealed in order to attract the same audience which has been wooed by the Wii.

* Microsoft announces (again) that they have won this generation of the console war. Everyone else points to the Wii and reminds them that they are being soundly thrashed by the little white box.

* Microsoft announce that they are entering the handheld scene and unveil a handheld equivalent of the X-Box to compete against the PSP and DS.

Sony
I don’t actually expect that much in the way of surprise announcements from the PS3, as they have already shown there hand a little early. However, this will likely be the new info from the show floor:

* Bigger showing of Resistance 2 (of which the multiplayer with be a big highlight) and Killzone 2

* Yet another SKU of the PS3 is announced.

* A teaser for God of War 3 is shown (whilst I try to stifle a yawn).

* A final release date is given for Home.

* In game XMB is announced (if it hasn’t been released prior to E3).

* A sequel to Uncharted is shown.

* Heavy Rain is shown in full for the first time and stuns pretty much everyone.

* The next game from Team ICO is shown and I (and other fanatics) go completely crazy in anticipation.

* We finally get to see some in-game footage for Final Fantasy XIII, but get told that it’s been delayed until 2010.

Nintendo
There has been very little news from Nintendo of late in the way of first party releases and as such, I believe that Nintendo may well have a good few surprises in store:

* Nintendo will bang on and on about how well they are doing and how they are bringing a new audience to gaming.

* The new game that gets the must attention during the press conference will be Wii Music.

* Animal Crossing for the Wii will be revealed for the first time.

* A new 1080 game will be announced for the Wii, which uses the Wii Balance Board.

* A multiplayer only Metroid FPS is announced for the Wii. Similar to Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS, but obviously on the Wii and making good use of the Wiimote.

* A Nintendogs game is unveiled for the Wii (come on – this will just print money).

* Different colour Wii’s will be announced.

* A new (new) Mario Bros game will be announced for the DS.

* Either a USB flash drive or a hard drive is announced for the Wii (God know we need it).

* Possibly a new Cel shaded Zelda for the DS is announced – following on from Phantom Hourglass.


Also… Still game related, just had to add that it is just 1 week until MGS4 :)

4 comments:

Sinbad said...

On the casual game front, I think you're more likely to see something from Sony than MS, since they've just canned a couple of AAA first-party games from a group that was previously famous for SingStar and EyeToy games, so I reckon they're diverting them back to that kind of stuff. The new PS Eye seems to have gotten very little use yet, surely an opportunity.

I'm also not convinced MS is interested in portable gaming. They got their arses kicked with the Zune and the DS & PSP have the market pretty much sewn up, it would seem crazy to try to enter it at this time.

Blu-Ray add-on: if they can do it cheaply then maybe, but personally I'd rather buy a standalone BR player than an add-on. There can't be much of a window of opportunity where a BR add-on is viable I think, the HDVD add-on was viable because it was all so new & still expensive, but now BR players are dropping in price it makes less sense.

I think MS will talk more about XNA and their plans for indie offerings, a slight revamp of the Xbox Live structure that's been rumoured for a while, and perhaps some new Fable 2 footage as well as Halo Wars.

Sony definitely have to show a decent, interactive demo of Home, and they need to set a firm release date. They also need to let people from the press play with LBP and not just release yet more pre-recorded videos of the same kind of stuff, people are getting itchy about how much fun it actually is to play, now that the novelty factor of the videos is starting to wear thin.

Nintendo I'm sure will announce yet more franchise sequels, but hopefully they might preview some interesting WiiWare titles too. I think the Wii needs more fresh titles like BoomBlox and not more revamped old games with a Wiimote interface.

Bazlurgan said...

You're probably right about the casual games for the PS3 - as you say it is the same studio that brough us Singstar after all, which was a huge hit on the PS2

Should be interesting...

Anonymous said...

Do you know anything about the new game from developers of ICO and shadow of the Colossus?

SoC for PS3 would be amazing.

Bazlurgan said...

Yeah SOC for PS3 would be something special, but I think that it will likely be an all new game.

All that is known at present is that they are working on a new project (or projects) for the PS3.

Hopefully something will come to light soon :)