Last year, right after I was hired as an associate editor here at Destructoid, I made some guesses about how the world of videogames was going to change in 2008. As I'm still procrastinating about finishing the Tatsunoko Vs Capcom review (the better the game is, the harder it is to do it justice with words), I thought I'd quickly take a look at my predictions, and see which ones I got right and which ones I got wrong.

Sony

* The PS3 continues to remain 2nd to the Wii in Japan, 3rd to the Wii and the 360 in the USA and Europe.

Yep, got that one pretty much right.

* PS2/PS3 motion controller and coinciding casual games are released, sell very well.

Holy crap, totally wrong there. There were rumors that the break-apart PS3 wii remote rip off was in development, but nothing was ever shown or announced.

* New game from the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus team is released, doesn't sell half as much as it should.

Another fail.

* Home fails to attracted much attention, or is even scrapped entirely for more fleshed out retail version of the same idea.

Well, I was sort of right there.

* God of War 3 announced for 2009.

Got it.

* PSP 2 announced, still uses UMD format, still single screen system, but is now touch screen enabled. System is backwards compatible, roughly as powerful as XBOX1.

Failed.

Microsoft

*360 continues to trail in 3rd place in Japan, nips at heels of the Wii's 1st place spot in the USA through out the year.

Got that one half wrong. The 360 didn't do bad in the US, and even had a swell of success in Japan, but it didn't ever really "nip at the heels" of the Wii in any country (not to self, stop saying "nip at the heels". It sounds really stupid).

* X-Box Live Arcade stand alone system released for under $100, sells extremely well with the plug and play crowd, outsells 360 in Japan.

Totally wrong.

* XBLA games made available for Zune, boosting Zune sales to triple their previous numbers.

TOTALLY wrong.

* Gears of War 2 is released, sells at least twice what GoW1 sold.

Half right.

* Petal Rear Squalid Door announced for release on the 360 in 2009.

Very, very wrong.

Nintendo

*Wii Fit is released in the US only when Wii supply/demand issues are reconciled, sells extremely well.

Wrong and right.

* New Pokemon, Punch-Out, Kid Icarus, and Star Fox games announced for Wii.

Right (Pokemon Ranch, remember), right, half wrong, and wrong. I say "half wrong" based on rumors I've heard that Factor 5 was about %40 finished with Kid Icarus Wii, but due to financial trouble they had to shelve to project. The rumor is that Nintendo is still trying to figure out what to do about that.

* Nintendo boasts of how friend codes save their consumers from online rapists.

Never happened publically.

* Street Fighter 4 comes to Wii with option for motion controls, DieHard fans of the series are disgusted.

Totally wrong. I also thought SF4 would be out by now, and would have enver guessed that Tastunoko Vs Capcom would have been announced, brought to arcades, then released in Japan on the Wii all within twelve months.

* The DS2 is a DS/Wii hybrid and is announced for early 2009. Uses motion controls, when docked with disk drive/charging bay can play tradition Wii games on any tv. Console is also portable, can play DS1, DS2, and Wii Ware games on the go via SD card. With disk drive/charging bay, system costs approx $250, with out disk drive/charging bay costs approx $150.

Holy crap was I wrong! Some of this is right, like the SD card bit as it relates to the DSi, but it's generally crap. I should have just said something vague like "New DS will be announced". If I had, this would have been in the win column.

Total:

Right - 2

Half right - 8

Very wrong - 7

So, I'm no Nostradomous, but I could have done a lot worse.

Ok time for this year's predictions!

Microsoft

* New line of casual games announced, called something like "Family Fun" or "My Time" or something awful like that.

* Animal Crossing style game using 360 Avatars is announced.

* Halo 3: Recon sells much less than expected, Halo fans state "It's just too soon".

* 360's successor hinted at, uses motion controls in a way very different from the Wii.

* Zune gets a Halo game.

* Portal 2 is released, is totally amazing.


Sony

* PSP2 announced (for real this time).

* PS3 price drops to below $200 by years end, has no hard drive, but does have PS2 backwards compatibility, sales sky rocket.

* Loco Roco PS3 is released, is fantastic, sells much less than it should.

* God of War 3 is slightly above-average, sells much better than it should.

*LittleBigPlanet 2 announced, ditches the strictly 2D format, allows for all sorts of gaming possibilities including Kart racing, FPS warfare, Platforming, etc.

* Sony's Smash Bros rip-off is released, features Sackboy, Parappa, Robbit (from Jumping Flash), Sackboy, Taro, Ape Escape characters, and Team Ico Characters. Game looks and plays amazing, but no one buys it.

Nintendo

* Another Pokemon Wii game announced, huge online RPG in the style of Mosnter Hunter

* Kid Icarus Wii returns from the dead, plays like a combination of Resident Evil 4 and Mario Galaxy.

* Mega Man (3D this time), Resident Evil (either a RE2 port or a RE:UC sequel) , and Final Fantasy (Crystal Bearers, not Echoes of Time) all released exclusively for the Wii

* People still bitch that the Wii has no games.

* Mario skateboarding/snowboarding game released for Wii, uses balance board, plays like a combination of Mario Kart and SSX, sells like crazy.

* Rhythm Tengoku Wii is released, becomes my favorite game of all time.

So, those are my predictions for this year. I think I was a little braver this time around. What do you guys think? How wrong am I going to be this time?