2020 Gaming Predictions, revisited

[Mogri]

Before the old thread gets consigned to the abyss, you may want to dredge up your predictions. 2020 doubtlessly still has surprisies in store for all of us, but you can always assess your predictions ahead of time if you're feeling confident.

Nothing announced about the new Xbox provides me with a compelling reason why I might prefer it over the PS5. (Probability: 90%)

Nothing announced about the PS5 provides me with a compelling reason why I might prefer it over the Switch. (95%)

Nothing announced about either console provides me with a compelling reason why I would prefer one over the other. (60%)

The FF7 remake ends up being pretty good (80%), emboldening Square-Enix to announce FF16 (60%).

My personal GOTY candidates are games I've currently never heard of (75%) by publishers/developers I'm currently unaware of (50%). Most of them are released for Switch and PC (80%), but given the option, I end up buying them for PC (70%).

I'm still using the same computer for PC gaming at the end of the year (50%), unless I get a new work laptop that does better (40%).

I can speak to some of my own already: the first two are accurate, but I kinda like the visual design of the PS5. (Probably won't buy one, though.)

If anything, I was too conservative on my FF7R prediction, though I don't think we've heard a concrete FF16 announcement. Rumors abound, though.

My GOTY candidates so far are likely Hades and Monster Bus. I've heard of Supergiant but not Shiny Shoe, so the 50% fits there. Neither of them is available for Switch, so that's a miss.

I still have the same hardware I had at the start of the year. Maybe I'll shop for a new work laptop around Black Friday.

 

[WildcatJF]

Skies of Arcadia HD - Just gonna put this down here for now; will do more predictions closer to 2020

Onto other guesses!

Smash DLC - I predict Fighter #5 to be a Bamco character (I still think it'll be Yuri or Lloyd), with the next DLC being a second pass with the following companies: Capcom (Monster Hunter seems likely), Square-Enix (with a Square and an Enix character already in, let's get Eidos a rep with Lara Croft), UBI Soft (an Assassin or Rayman seem the most feasible), Nintendo themselves (Fire Emblem Three Houses seems the most logical, and I hope it's Edelgard), and I'm going to predict Microsoft again, and while I want Joanna Dark it'll be Master Chief.

Super Mario 3D World and Pikmin 3 will be ported to Switch.

Metroid Prime 4 will not be shown in any capacity until the Game Awards.

Bayonetta 3 will launch this year with a big showing at E3.

The January direct will show off several new games we didn't know about, including a new F-Zero that will incorporate a few retro additions like Mach Rider and X-Scape into its canon. A new Kirby will also be announced.

E3 will add a new 2D Metroid from Mercurysteam, perhaps a remake of Metroid Fusion or Super Metroid. Metroid Prime Trilogy will be a shadow drop. We'll also see more Breath of the Wild 2, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and huge additions to Super Mario Maker 2.

Last Nintendo prediction: Breath of the Wild 2 will be a 2020 release to combat the new consoles.

Otherwise, Sega Ages will continue with their previously announced titles like Herzog Zwei and Sonic 2, but will add a couple late arcade, Saturn and Dreamcast titles to the roster in 2020.

Konami will have more anniversary compilations: a second Castlevania set with Rondo of Blood, Legends, The Adventure ReBirth, the Game Boy Kid Dracula, Castlevania Chronicles, and the three GBA games. Symphony will be an odd omission. The second will be another arcade set based on the Arcade Archive titles not included on the first comp: Frogger, Hyper Sports, Mr. Goemon, Time Pilot, Yie Ar KUNG-FU, Track and Field, Road Fighter and Pooyan. The last will be a shooter compilation with the Parodius and Twinbee series given their due with all of the remaining titles for each included.

SNK will announce King of Fighters 13 and 14 for the Switch to help promote 15's release in 2020.

And since I'm getting tired, Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be confirmed for a 2021 release and continue to make fans of the original confused about its existence.

Well this year isn't looking too good for my predictions lol. We'll see how the last four months go...

 

[ShakeWell]

Originally posted on Dec. 18th of 2019:

Because it's gaining so much steam, I predict MiSTer will get CPS1 and PlayStation cores. Probably one more major core will get a public release.

Polymega will do well out of the gate on the strength of its CD compatibility, but the "modules" will not sell especially well.

The PS5 will be backwards compatible with all previous PlayStation home format games. This has already been rumored, but with Xbox having a pretty good record on backwards compatibility, Sony won't want to give up any ground.

Resident Evil 3make will be good, but not as good as either RE2K19 or RE7. This is, obviously, subjective, but it's my list so it hinges on my opinion.

Final Fantasy VII Episode 1 will be better received by fans than critics. It will sell a lot. Critics will give it good-but-not-great scores (7.5-8.5 range).

Renewing one from last year: Golden Axe: The Revenge of DEATH=ADDER will finally get a home port by way of Sega Ages on Switch.

Finally, since it's going to be a year for new consoles: Xbox X and PS5 won't have any real must-buys out of the gate, and as such, will not be commercial flops, but won't move big numbers in 2020.

 

[Falselogic]

It seems none of you predicted a world pandemic.

I'm very disappointed in you all.

 

[Ixo]

Probably:
- Hylics 2 releases and it’s even more bananas than the first one.
- Pokémon Sleep turns out to be just kinda meh, with hints of a little overreaching.
- The N64 nostalgia train kicks into high gear. In the vein of N64 Classic or like Rocket Robot on Wheels Remastered, whichever.

Maybe:
- The retro PC gaming market / collector scene gets even more nutzo and then fizzles out like the console one did a few years ago. I feel like the threshold is approaching.
- More Nintendo Funkos beyond Pokémon.
- Some sort of trailer for Metroid Prime 4.
- A massive shift in video game review / gameplay content in general as we all watch YouTube’s gradual transition from video hosting website to Corporate Eldridge Abomination.

Long Shot:
- SMT V finally emerges from the Atlus Ether.
- Fantasy Life 2, But An Actual Sequel and Not Just a Mobile Port

 

[Bongo]

My predictions blow because COVID-19 caught me off guard. Here's what I wrote:

These predictions aren't done.

I'm going to keep predicting Skies of Arcadia HD until it comes true. I've been doing this for seven years; why stop now?

By the end of 2020, we'll know how many total Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighters there will be, but the last one won't have been released yet.

Playstation 5 and XBox 4 will launch in time for the holidays. Sony's offering will have some neato artsy launch title and a variety of PS4/PS5 cross-platform releases. Microsoft's offering will have a name that's still stupid, but not as stupid as XBox One or XBox One X (n.b. this one actually came true in 2019, when the name "XBox Series X" came to light - so it doesn't count), an expensive-looking genre exercise, and a variety of Bone/XB4 cross-platform releases.

There will be a car on stage at E3, with a twist.

UFO 50 will make it to PCs early in the year, and consoles by the end of it.

Attempts by Western gamers to relate to Chinese politics via the medium of video game boycotts will continue to be a theme. A major publisher other than Activision Blizzard will become the subject of a controversy due to an abnormal degree of perceived or actual bootlicking. All of my other predictions on this topic are politics-related rather than games-related, except for this one: despite all the attention, I will not hear about any actually interesting Chinese video games unless I specifically go searching for them.

On the home front, an American politician will say or do something stupid and video game-related that is more substantial, and also dumber, than just namedropping a game term.

At least one AAA game identifiable as a Death Stranding imitator will be announced at E3. By this I mean it'll have a strong emphasis on virtual kinesthetics.

Speaking of trends, this is the year where we start to get as sick of neon pastels as we all once were of shades of brown. Like, yeah, they've been popular for a while, but now they're gonna show up in the potboilers and groaners.

We'll get news of Will Wright's Proxi, but it won't be released in 2020. (At the time of predicting, the last news item about it was that they had concluded their 2018 contest to hire an art director.)

Nintendo's next gacha nightmare for phones will be released with little fanfare. My future self will appreciate the reminder that, as of the end of 2019, the most recent of these was Mario Kart Tour and the second most recent was Dr. Mario World.

I'm already right about Smash Bros and the consoles, and I was already wrong about Nintendo gacha because I forgot about Pokemon Masters.

 

[RT-55J]

We're 2/3rds of the way through the year, and apparently I made these predictions back in November...

> Let's get the Dumb Nintendo Predictions out of the way first:
> F-Zero NX will happen this year. BELIEVE

Hasn't happened, but it still could, even in spite of that dumb rumor from earlier. Note that I will consider an announcement by the end of the year to count as "happening".

> Also, we're going to get Metroid 5 (or, at least, a new 2D Metroid for Switch).

Hasn't happened yet, but oh boy all those juicy, stupid rumors. I can't wait to be disappointed when those rumors either prove true or false.

> No N64 mini. At best, we'll get some games as part of another thing.

I'm still betting on this. The hardware isn't quite there yet (in terms of performance per dollar), and honestly I feel like the market for these mini systems needs to lay fallow for a few years.

> Doomguy and Touhougirl Reimu are announced as Smash DLC characters in a lavishly-produced CG trailer where they team up.

Whaddaya mean ya haven't seen that trailer yet? It was beautiful.

> And now some other predictions:
> By the end of the year Google Stadia will be performing competitively with the Intellivision Amico.

The Amico isn't launching until next year, so unless Stadia gets cancelled by the end of the year I'm gonna take an L on this one.

> The PS5 and Xbox 4 will be formally unveiled at E3, but will not be released until at least March 2021.

E3 didn't happen, but they were still unveiled, but also they're both allegedly still going to be available by the end of the year. If supply chain issues or whatever cause availability issues for the remainder of the year I might count this as a win still.

> Like Xeno Crisis for the Mega Drive this year and Lizard for the NES last year, I will consider a crowdfunded homebrew game as a strong "GotY contender", as the kids would call it.

I have no flippin' idea here tbqh.

> I might add more predictions (and more formatting) to this post later.

I never added more predictions to my post, but I did change the formatting to use italics rather than bold, so I consider this a win.

 

[ShakeWell]

Originally posted on Dec. 18th of 2019:

Because it's gaining so much steam, I predict MiSTer will get CPS1 and PlayStation cores. Probably one more major core will get a public release.

Polymega will do well out of the gate on the strength of its CD compatibility, but the "modules" will not sell especially well.

The PS5 will be backwards compatible with all previous PlayStation home format games. This has already been rumored, but with Xbox having a pretty good record on backwards compatibility, Sony won't want to give up any ground.

Resident Evil 3make will be good, but not as good as either RE2K19 or RE7. This is, obviously, subjective, but it's my list so it hinges on my opinion.

Final Fantasy VII Episode 1 will be better received by fans than critics. It will sell a lot. Critics will give it good-but-not-great scores (7.5-8.5 range).

Renewing one from last year: Golden Axe: The Revenge of DEATH=ADDER will finally get a home port by way of Sega Ages on Switch.

Finally, since it's going to be a year for new consoles: Xbox X and PS5 won't have any real must-buys out of the gate, and as such, will not be commercial flops, but won't move big numbers in 2020.

Is it time to cash these in?

I got 1 for the first one (MiSTer has CPS1, PS1 is still in development).

LOL, the Polymega didn't even come out. 0 points.

0 points because Sony just cares about PS4, I guess?

A point for 3make being super good, but not as good.

I think I inverted the reality on this FF7 one.

I'll give myself .5, because it came home on both Astro City Mini and an Arcade 1Up, but not Sega Ages.

I think I nailed it? They're moving what they can, but there aren't a lot of units out there? I don't know, .5, I guess.

So... 3/8, I guess? That's almost half.

 

[Bongo]

Wow, I did terrible this year. In addition to those that were already wrong by August, 2020 saw:

• The first time an American politician used a video game for publicity in a non-stupid way (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' "Among Us" stream feat. Ilhan Omar)
• A Chinese AAA video game attaining popularity in the West (Genshin Impact)
• The neon pastels are like the one thing nobody hates about Cyberpunk 2077

 

[WildcatJF]

All right, let's see how I ultimately did, as I don't expect much to happen in the next two weeks to counter anything I got wrong lol

Skies of Arcadia HD - Just gonna put this down here for now; will do more predictions closer to 2020

Smash DLC - I predict Fighter #5 to be a Bamco character (I still think it'll be Yuri or Lloyd), with the next DLC being a second pass with the following companies: Capcom (Monster Hunter seems likely), Square-Enix (with a Square and an Enix character already in, let's get Eidos a rep with Lara Croft), UBI Soft (an Assassin or Rayman seem the most feasible), Nintendo themselves (Fire Emblem Three Houses seems the most logical, and I hope it's Edelgard), and I'm going to predict Microsoft again, and while I want Joanna Dark it'll be Master Chief.

Super Mario 3D World and Pikmin 3 will be ported to Switch.

Metroid Prime 4 will not be shown in any capacity until the Game Awards.

Bayonetta 3 will launch this year with a big showing at E3.

The January direct will show off several new games we didn't know about, including a new F-Zero that will incorporate a few retro additions like Mach Rider and X-Scape into its canon. A new Kirby will also be announced.

E3 will add a new 2D Metroid from Mercurysteam, perhaps a remake of Metroid Fusion or Super Metroid. Metroid Prime Trilogy will be a shadow drop. We'll also see more Breath of the Wild 2, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition and huge additions to Super Mario Maker 2.

Last Nintendo prediction: Breath of the Wild 2 will be a 2020 release to combat the new consoles.

Otherwise, Sega Ages will continue with their previously announced titles like Herzog Zwei and Sonic 2, but will add a couple late arcade, Saturn and Dreamcast titles to the roster in 2020.

Konami will have more anniversary compilations: a second Castlevania set with Rondo of Blood, Legends, The Adventure ReBirth, the Game Boy Kid Dracula, Castlevania Chronicles, and the three GBA games. Symphony will be an odd omission. The second will be another arcade set based on the Arcade Archive titles not included on the first comp: Frogger, Hyper Sports, Mr. Goemon, Time Pilot, Yie Ar KUNG-FU, Track and Field, Road Fighter and Pooyan. The last will be a shooter compilation with the Parodius and Twinbee series given their due with all of the remaining titles for each included.

SNK will announce King of Fighters 13 and 14 for the Switch to help promote 15's release in 2020.

And since I'm getting tired, Beyond Good & Evil 2 will be confirmed for a 2021 release and continue to make fans of the original confused about its existence.

Not much! I got the Three Houses character rep (who ended up being Fighter 5 in the Pass), and while Microsoft and Square-Enix did make returns in the second pass I didn't get the characters right, so still a fail haha. I also got Pikmin 3 and Super Mario 3D World's Switch ports, and a new Kirby game WAS announced...it was just Kirby Fighters 2 or something.

Better luck next year, me.

 

[Mogri]

Since FFXVI was announced, I think my predictions are almost universally true -- but I got a new PC, so I "lose" that one.