"By this time next year..." revisited!

On November 2nd, 2007, I wrote "By this time next year...", an article containing predictions about what would happen in the gaming industry between then and November 2nd, 2008. Let's take a look at how well my predictions fared...

"...Star Fox Wii will have been announced for an early 2009 release." = WRONG

Augh, not off to a good start, am I? Star Fox Wii hasn't even been hinted at yet, much less announced for early next year. On the bright side, though, we did get confirmation on the development of Pikmin 3...

"...Animal Crossing Wii will have launched in all major markets." = WRONG

Oh, and I was so close, too! Sadly, it was a little less than two weeks after the deadline that City Folk was released in any region, so that's another prediction that bites the dust.

"...a new design of the Nintendo DS will be announced." = Correct!

A-ha, finally, I strike back! And not only has the DSi been announced, it's even launched in Japan! If only the rest of the world didn't have to wait so long...

"...at least two more game systems will be added to the Virtual Console." = Correct!

Score another one for me! In the last year, both the Neo Geo and SEGA Master System were added to the North American Virtual Console catalog. Furthermore, the European store has seen the addition of the Commodore 64 to its ranks.

"...the obligatory third Pokemon game of the generation will be released." = Correct!

Pokémon Platinum was released in Japan in September 2008, adding one more game to the pile, and one more point to my score!

"...over 20 million Wii systems will have been sold worldwide." = Correct!

Oh, if only I knew how right I was! The Wii's almost doubled that number, reaching roughly 35 1/2 million units sold worldwide as of September 2008! For all we know, the Wii could have already reached 40 million by now. I'm sure Nintendo will be all too happy to alert us when the landmark is reached.

"...Duke Nukem Forever will remain unreleased." = Correct!

I believe I'll let Professor Obvious field this one:


Thank you, professor.

So then, that's five right, and two wrong. I'd say that's a pretty darned good ratio right there! Now then, time for a new round of predictions! Annual tradition? You betcha! So then, by this time next year...

...at least one more console will be added to the North American Virtual Console
...Star Fox Wii will have been announced for an early 2010 release (I'm not giving up on this!)
...the true successor to the DS line of handhelds will have been announced
...Nintendo still won't have released a true solution to the Wii storage problem
...Wii sales will surpass 60 million worldwide
...the combined sales of the Nintendo DS, DS Lite and DSi will overtake the Playstation 2's record sales of 140 million+
...Mother 3 will still be landlocked in Japan, without any sort of announcements made for a release outside of its homeland
...at least two more Pokémon games will have been released (Main series and/or spin-offs)

The least likely of all the above would probably have to be the DS sales outdoing the PS2, with everything else hovering around the 70% range for probability. Will my predictions turn out true? The only way to find out is to wait for December 3rd, 2009...

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