January 4, 2013 by
Greg Noe
Predictions are back! After this exhausting 2012 Game of the Year
week, let's settle into something a little more fun. 2013 could be a
huge year for the gaming industry: a new PlayStation and Xbox are
likely, the Wii U is just getting off the ground, and the fabled Steam
Box could become a reality. Bask in our probably terrible predictions on
release dates, exclusive games, and even price of new systems!
There's
no science to any of this, and if you have your own predictions feel
free to post them in the comments. Depending on how right or wrong we
are we may revisit our foresights at the end of 2013, it could be
entertaining.
Award Articles
- First Hour, Worst Hour, False Hour, Most Hours of the Year Awards
- Guilty Pleasure, Best Surprise, Worst Surprise, Shame of the Year Awards
- Game of the (Other) Year, Console, Portable/Mobile, PC Game of the Year Awards
- Game of the Year, Most Anticipated for 2013 Awards
- 2013 Predictions
The Next PlayStation
The Name
- Greg - PlayStation 4
- Ian - PlayStation 4
- Nate - PlayStation 4
- Tyler - Considering the Japanese seem to hate the number 4, I'm going to go with Playstation Pita[bread]. No, far too delicious. How about Playstation 5!
Release Date
- Greg - March 4, 2014. I think the release date will fall until next year, and March 4th is the 14th anniversary of the PS2 release, so why not?
- Ian - November 15, 2013
- Nate - November 4, 2013
- Tyler - December, March, then November. Sony's going to have to shake this up - let's see an August 20, 2013 release so they can get the jump on Microsoft.
Launch Price
Secret Exclusive Game
- Greg - PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale - Now With PS4 Move Support!
- Ian - Metal Gear Plasma/Liquid/Gas/Anything but Solid.
- Nate - The Last Guardian
- Tyler - Gran Turismo 6: Prologue - because nobody thought they'd pull that again.
The Next Xbox
The Name
- Greg - Kinect 8
- Ian - Xbox Niuu (Hyuck hyuck)
- Nate - Xbox 8
- Tyler - The Xbox or Xbox RT or the completely daft Xbox 8
Release Date
- Greg - November 15, 2013
- Ian - November 14, 2013
- Nate - November 13, 2013
- Tyler - November 12, 2013
Launch Price
- Greg -$500
- Ian - $650
- Nate - $500
- Tyler - $500US for the full console, $300US if you want it to do nothing useful at all.
Secret Exclusive Game
- Greg - Gears of Kameo (the two great series finally meet)
- Ian - Age of Empires IV: Up-to-date Battling (Because Modern Warfare's taken). Why not? I think, by now, most companies dislike the idea of exclusive titles, so it's probably going to be in house, as 343 isn't going to pop another Halo title out it's rear that anyone will care about enough to buy a 720. So here comes an RTS that's like COD, and there's very little resource usage. But you have to destroy and rebuild your cities in different places ever few minutes because everyone hates camping.
- Nate - Kinect Sports (bundled with system)
- Tyler - Definitely not Halo 5.
E3 Surprise
- Greg - Valve's Steam Box announced for release in September, priced at $300. Runs Linux.
- Ian - Uh...Nintendo is moving to America? Who knows. Big Bold Prediction for 2013: Half-Life 3 will be announced, but suffer a fate much like Duke Nukem Forever, and Diablo 3. It will be delayed, and delayed, and delayed so much that everyone will be built up and ready, and thus Valve will suffer a little, but not a lot, because they will be like 2k games, and have things like Borderlands that DON'T suck.
- Nate - Batman: Arkham Underworld goes supernatural and jumps the shark.
- Tyler - Sony will not allow Jack Tretton up on stage to spill non-sense about them always having the most powerful console every generation, as they have to announce that they've made the switch to an AMD Piledriver based architecture, abandoning Cell and all notions of remaining seperate from PC in any meaningful way. Will likely run some form of Steam.
Bold Predictions
- Greg - EA announces a console for release in 2015.
- Ian - They will make a barbie game this year that will be off the chain,
except it will be barbie and no one will play it. Except creepy Bronies.
- Nate - Kickstarter Fever scales back after the Double Fine honeymoon,
impatient fans grow weary of long development cycles and failed projects.
- Tyler - The new Xbox will be able to boot into Windows 8, sealing Microsoft's ability to dominate the living room and the office as Apple continues to oversaturate the market with too many devices in a ditch effort to remain interesting and exclusive. The Wii U will sell at pace with the new consoles, reflecting both its limited horsepower but also it's comparitively reasonable price-tag.
