2019 Gaming Predictions

I'm open to humorous subtitle suggestions.  The usual: bung up what you think will happen in 2019 in the world of gaming, then look back at your foolish hopes and laugh, laugh, laugh.

Nintendo

1. The Smash Bros. Ultimate season pass contains at least one more character who's never seen the light of day properly on a Nintendo platform.  Balladeer turns puce just thinking about it.  Also, it contains an indie character of some sort.  They're fun to play as.
   
2. One of the SSBU characters' games is brought to Switch.  No more than one, mind.
   
3. Daemon x Machina is good, but not quite as good as I'm hoping.  Measured 'objectively' by a score in the 80s on Metacritic.
   
4. Yoshi's Crafty World doesn't manage to hit the same heights.  Measured 'objectively' by a 65-79 score on Metacritic.
   
5. We finally see Metroid Prime 4.  It has disappointing voice-acted NPCs in it.  It's also delayed until 2020.
   
6. Pokémon Gen. 8 links into Let's Go! in a big way.  Trumpets the connectivity on the box or something.  It introduces new Megas.  Balladeer turns puce again.
   
7. One and only one of the following announced at E3: Star Fox, F-Zero, 2D Mario, Paper Mario, Waluigi's Great Adventure.
   
8. Switch redesign announced.  It's smaller, but has no power drop: more a redesign than a new version.
   
9. SNES games announced for Switch Online.  N64 games are not.
   
10. Nintendo finally stop pretending to support the 3DS.  No first or second-party games in the last three months of the year, or a formal notice.

Nontendo

1. Continues to fade into irrelevance against the GLORIOUS SWITCH.

Please do submit forumite ones as well, those were the best bits.

Hah, jokes on you, I don't have any hopes or dreams to be crushed by reality!  Only half-joking

Nintendo:

-Pokemon gen 8 to exist, possible late-year release
-Fire Emblem Three Houses to somehow have a decent localisation despite Treehouse being involved
-Zelda rumours begin to float around, but nothing concrete beyond "we're working on a new game".  Internet to explode anyway.
-Some old IP to get a new game, but for it to not be F-Zero because god forbid they make a futuristic racer without any gimmicks
-Switch to get a handheld SKU
-3DS to continue to get releases to the bafflement of even myself.

Microsoft:

-Continue to become irrelevant as the PS4 and a PC do the exact same job far better

Sony:

-Censorship woes to begin impacting Japanese companies making games for the PS4, Nintendo to begin seeing a slight increase in third party support as a result.
-Something something generic zombie game 102 and 103 to be shown off again, continue to be vaporware
-Generic shootybang games galore as usual
-New Tales game, releasing early 2020 in the west.  

To be fair about Joker there've been rumours for a while of a new version of Persona 5 being in the works, and the smart money is it releasing on the Switch.  So odds are you'll get to see Joker in action in his own game if you choose before the year is out.

I'll do some predictions this year - 10 for Ninty and 5 each for the rest.

Nintendo

1) Sora to be announced for Smash alongside ports of the Kingdom Hearts series for Switch
2) Metroid Prime 4 to be delayed to 2020
3) Animal Crossing will be this year's big autumn release
4) Pokémon will be the big winter game
5) And I guess that leaves Fire Emblem as the summer game
6) Spring? Fuck knows. Yoshi?
7) SNES games will not be added to the Switch Online offerings
Skyward Sword Remastered to be revealed
9) New 2D Zelda game to be announced
10) New Nintendo IP to be shown off too

Sony

1) FFVII Remake to finally get a release date, 2020 naturally
2) Horizon Zero Dawn 2 to be announced
3) Bloodborne 2 (or the spiritual successor at the very least) to be revealed
4) PS5 announcement at PSX this year, and it'll be disappointing
5) Death Stranding will get a release date. 2020, natch

Microsoft

1) Xbox Two or whatever announced this year - backwards compatible out of the box and a heavy push on on-demand games services like Game Pass
2) Microsoft will show off at least six exclusives from their new studios to tempt people to pick up their new console
3) New Rare platformer
4) The Outer Worlds to get exclusive content on Xbox by way of Obsidian being first party now
5) Despite all this, Microsoft will still struggle compared to Sony in 2019

Other

1) Valve still won't bother announcing a new game
2) New Ace Attorney to be revealed
3) Harry Potter action RPG thing to be released in the autumn
4) Shadow of Tsushima will win the majority of GOTY awards
5) Mother 3 will... not be announced for the West. You've beat the optimism out of me, Nintendo.

Better show you how's it done

Nintendo
1. E3 Booth to based on one game which is likely Animal Crossing
2. Some sort of Zelda game to keep the one game per year since about 2010 Yep Link's Awakening
3. Level-5 Character in SMASH
4. Koei Tecmo Character in SMASH
5. Some sort of partnership with MS likely Banjo in SMASH
6. New Switch like DSi, New 3DS, PS4 Pro, One X
7. Something else comes to NSO that isn't an NES game I think Tetris 99 has to count as it's only on NSO
8. Wii U port (Not NSMBU) to 3DS or Switch
9. A GameCube game get's HD'd
10. Ubisoft exclusive thing

PlayStation
1. Two PSX like events (I think one will be June time either before or after E3)
2. PS5 will be shown at the later PSX to launch in 2020
3. New Uncharted game not from Naughty Dog announced
4. Bluepoint announces their new game
5. MediEvil is not good (It never was that good, yes I will buy it) eg less than 70 on Metacritic
6. Days Gone is actually good eg 75+ on Metacritic but no one really cares that much about (Yes I will get it)
7. Guerrilla shows of the other game (not HZD2) which will likely be part of the PS5 showcase
8. Only one of the Big Three comes out in 2019 with Death Stranding to be the most likely
9. Death Stranding to be really divisive on Metacritic so either critic's give it 90+ but Users 3's or the other way around with things like you love Kojima or you don't get Kojima
10. PS4 passes 100m sold and may even pass the Wii & PS1

Microsoft
1. Scarlett is announced at E3
2. Scarlett to have two SKU's
3. MS will have some sort of Japanese team
4. MS will buy at least two studios
5. Gears 5 to launch in October
6. RARE allow someone to use an IP (like with Battletoads)
7. Fable is announced from Playground
8. Less than three games from the new studios come out (Doesn't count things like Outer Worlds)
9. Some sort of Japanese exclusive
10. Some sort of partnership with Nintendo likely Banjo in SMASH

Other
1. Final Fantasy XVI announced
2. Watch Dogs 3 to be the big Ubisoft end of the year game
3. Epic Games store to get a big timed exclusive Metro Exodus for a start
4. Shenmue III is bad
5. Cyberpunk 2077 to be confirmed for PS5 and Scarlett
6. THQ buys some random IP They bought Kingdom Come Deliverance and have like 80 games in development now
7. Google releases its streaming box thing
8. Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to PC
9. Marvel game announced
10. Rocksteady announce their new game

Athrun888 wrote:

Hah, jokes on you, I don't have any hopes or dreams to be crushed by reality! Only half-joking...

To be fair about Joker there've been rumours for a while of a new version of Persona 5 being in the works, and the smart money is it releasing on the Switch. So odds are you'll get to see Joker in action in his own game if you choose before the year is out.

More Chibnall's Doctor Who for you in 2019, then.

I've seen the rumours, and I definitely hope they're true. That's also why I felt the need to make my Point 2 more specific!

JayMoyles wrote:

7) SNES games will not be added to the Switch Online offerings...

5) Mother 3 will... not be announced for the West. You've beat the optimism out of me, Nintendo.

Just because you've been crushed, Jay, it doesn't mean you're allowed to crush me.

masofdas wrote:

4. Shenmue III is bad

Hooray, we've all been crushed!

For the SNES Online thing, I think that's going to boil down to Nintendo being a) tight-fisted and b) not really getting online, still. I just don't see it happening - I hope to be pleasantly surprised!

Complains about being crushed when he writes stuff like this.

Balla wrote:

We finally see Metroid Prime 4. It has disappointing voice-acted NPCs in it. It's also delayed until 2020.

I'm still trying to work out how a game with a TBA date can be delayed.

Everyone drowns.

I could've swore it'd been announced as 2019. Perhaps that's me getting Nintendo and 'the Internet' mixed up again.

The_Jaster wrote:

Complains about being crushed when he writes stuff like this.    

That's more me pre-crushing myself so I'm not even more crushed when it happens. 2020 seems likely, though: that's not crushing, that's just them giving the game extra time to get it right!

If it doesn't make it out this year for those reasons I can accept that BUT disappointing voice acted NPC's? A prediction like that will crush even the most casual Metroid fan.

Well the internet is wrong as you can all go see the financial report which looks like this

Animal Crossing 2019
Bayonetta 3 TBA
Daemon X Machina 2019
Fire Emblem: Three Houses Q2 2019
Luigi's Mansion 3 2019
Metroid Prime 4 TBA
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe January 11th
Pokémon RPG 2019
TOWN 2019
Yoshi's Crafted World Q1 2019

The_Jaster wrote:

If it doesn't make it out this year for those reasons I can accept that BUT disappointing voice acted NPC's? A prediction like that will crush even the most casual Metroid fan.

I just can't help recalling MP3C's abominable lot. With BotW getting voices that were okay, but nothing special, sadly I can see it happening. I hope to gracious I'm wrong.

The difference is it isn't really something Metroid fans ever asked for whereas Zelda fans did for a really long time, and they have now had two badly voiced acted games (MP3 and OM) so I can only hope they realised their mistakes and know Metroid doesn't need it.

Obligatory.

That could be a valid prediction for the next few years as sea levels rise.

Then the lava incident happens.....oh space ark when will you show up to save our games? (and maybe us)

Oh shit, I dunno, er...

Nintendooooooo

• Animal Crossing is released and is so wonderful (this can't be quantified, so this is an automatic victory)
  
• The NES games dry up in quality - we get Zelda II, but then Clu-Clu Land, and then one random game a month
  
• But it's OK because the Free SNES Games happens
  
• Skyward Sword HD is announced - everyone's excited because they forgot they didn't enjoy it that much
  
• We see a cutscene, but no gameplay, of Metroid Prime 4
  
• Yoshi is an 8/10-er (from last time)
  

Just, like... everyone else

• Psychonauts 2 is disappointing - I am in denial about this for a few months, but it ends up being a 7/10-er
  
• But they announce a direct sequel to Maniac Mansion!!!!! Pleeease?
  
• (carried over from 2017 and 2018) The Final Fantasy VII Remake is cancelled this year.
  
• (carried over from 2017 and 2018) Dreams is an unplayable mess.
  
• (carried over from 2018)The Last of Us 2 is not going to be as well-received as the first; Naughty Dog are accused of "going too far"
  
• (carried over from 2018)Tunic to be a surprise hit. It's an isometric Zelda-like with a widdle fox in it!
  

Things that aren't even games

• I actually get a demo out for my next game idea, and never touch it again, even though it's barely functioning.
  
• Western civilisation will collapse
  

Jimbob wrote:

• Skyward Sword HD is announced - everyone's excited because they forgot they didn't enjoy it that much

I can see this happening, but nope: I remember.  The sky does not count as an overworld Nintendo, I don't care how literally over the world it is! Also where's my Tokyo Mirage Sessions port!?

I love Skyward Sword

Balladeer wrote:

Jimbob wrote:

• Skyward Sword HD is announced - everyone's excited because they forgot they didn't enjoy it that much

I can see this happening, but nope: I remember.  The sky does not count as an overworld Nintendo, I don't care how literally over the world it is! Also where's my Tokyo Mirage Sessions port!?

That's because Skyward Sword deliberately doesn't have an overworld as it is a linear action-adventure game. Skyloft works well as a central hub that you periodically return to for upgrades.

I love Skyward Sword!

So were Ocarina, Twilight Princess, Minish Cap... heck, even Majora was functionally linear in the way it worked, and that managed an overworld. Skyward Sword doesn't get a free pass for that, not from me anyway. Deliberately scrapping one of the better things about Zelda games does not a great Zelda game make!

I did still enjoy SS though, although I had further problems with it. The motion controls were (yes Jimbob) excellent.

Least it didn't ditch dungeons or items

Jimbob wrote:

[*](carried over from 2017 and 2018) The Final Fantasy VII Remake is cancelled this year.

I expect this one to be carried forward for a few more years.