Predictions: So Bizzare

2012 is going to be a strange unnatural place, but that is not completely a bad thing.

This console cycle is running long and things are a little different than we are used to. Not long by much but with the only officially announced home console for the next generation being the Wii U, I think we can expect at least a full year with our current systems.

With all the trilogies that wrapped up this fall/winter I think we are going to be trotting some foreign ground in the coming year. What I'm getting at is that new IPs will be plentiful. I know companies don't like taking risks, but with Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and Epic Games already working on new IPs for this generation, I have hope others will follow suit and we will see, not a sequel-less year, but hopefully one with more new blood and less numbers.

I also see the portable scene changing a lot. Now that the 3DS has stumbled into the room and the Vita being a portable PS3 in some regards, it is getting really hard to tell where the boundaries are for mobile gaming, portable gaming, and console gaming. The thing is I don't know how it will change though. I honestly could not have even imagined what things would be like at this point. My phone can do things my original DS couldn't and Nintendo is actually having trouble selling a handheld for the first time sense the VirturalBoy which you could argue wasn't a handheld but it was a failure none the less.

Also The Behemoths's Battle Block Theatre is going to be great. I cannot wait.

Edit: More awful names. I hate it but I fear there will be plenty of awful names in the near future. We have gotten to the point where if I don't actively follow a games I have to think about it for a bit before I realize what it is. The Darkness, Darksiders, and Dark Souls all sound like the same franchise and if another game gets announced with Revelations in the title I am going to be a very sad panda.