Grant's E3 predictions

By platform and probability.

PC:
Starcraft 2 is playable and awesome.
Outlook: Probable
If Blizzard is letting attendees play this at Blizzcon this year, that certainly means it's ready for the press. However, they could just save it for the devoted fans... and press at their own gig.

Team Fortress 2 and Portal are playable. Episode 2 is not.
Outlook: Probable
Valve has only shown TF 2 off to a few gaming magazines, so this is probably the big coming out for the game. We probably won't see anything on Episode 2 until this October however, since the story seems to be a bigger deal than in Episode 1.

Fallout 3 footage is shown.
Outlook: Unlikely
Bethesda has said a lot about the game in the past week but seeing as how far off this is (and how they may be trying to prepare fans for the horror of the franchise going first person) we probably won't see much on it until late this year or even next E3.

Microsoft announces real features for Games for Windows Live.
Outlook: Possible
This is almost the last chance for Microsoft to sell people on GFW live and they realize this. However, they'll probably just show off how fancy DX 10 is instead.

Id shows off new game, has fancy graphics and is shiny.
Outlook: Probable
Press were shown a demonstration of the engine at the recent Mac conference, so Id looks ready to share. Here's hoping it is better than Doom 3 and Quake 4.

Romero shows off new game, proves he can make games better than Daikatana.
Outlook: Unlikely
He said it was a world-changing MMO, so that means he hasn't milked all the money out of unwitting investors yet. Just kidding! Maybe we'll something out of it someday.

Real Time Worlds shows trailers for games that aren't Duke Nukem Forever.
Outlook: Probable
They have to be working on something over there, right?

Real Time Worlds shows off Duke Nukem Forever in a trailer that shows how the game has changed from being in the Quake 2 engine, Half Life engine, Quake 3 engine, Doom 3 engine and finally Unreal Engine 3. They show the game in playable form and announce it's coming out at the end of 2008.
Outlook: Impossible.

Xbox 360:
Halo 3 single player is playable. Demo on Xbox live.
Outlook: Possible
I mean, it comes out in just a few months right?

Assassin's Creed playable. Demo on Xbox live.
Outlook: Possible
Same.

Blue Dragon demo on Xbox Live.
Outlook: Probable
Again, it comes out in August.

Eternal Sonata demo on Xbox Live.
Outlook: Probable
It's out in Japan, in English!

Microsoft announces a price drop for Xbox Live.
Outlook: Probable
I know most people will not agree with me on this and I may be wrong, but that 50 dollars a year will be a lot harder to justify to an average consumer when Home comes out.

Microsoft announces a price drop for the 360.
Outlook: Possible
If Microsoft is smart, then we'll have the core go down to 200, the Premium to 300 and the Elite to 400 at the event. However, this may not happen as they'll still be cheaper than the PS3 and they have better games.

Microsoft announces that Konami will bring MGS4 to the Xbox 360 on the same day as the PS3.
Outlook: Possible
It's abundantly clear that a version of the game exists and if the PS3 continues to sell as poorly as it is in the US, Konami may accept a Microsoft deal to get the game out the same day.

Microsoft announces Final Fantasy 13 is coming to the Xbox 360.
Outlook: Unlikely
No way sadly, even though I would love for it to happen. HOWEVER, I think we'll see this next year since the PS3 will be trailing the Xbox 360 so dramatically in US sales by that point.

More classic console games are announced for Xbox Live arcade. Specifically, Sega titles.
Outlook: Probable
There is a blade for them in the 360's dashboard and I'm sure Castlevania sold well so we will see Genesis games and maybe even bigger downloadable Sega games?

Microsoft announces full size downloadable games.
Outlook: Probable
Now, this doesn't mean you can download Halo 3. What it does mean however is that you can download games that will be priced higher and are larger than Arcade games. I think we will hear an announcement of this and perhaps nothing mentioned, but I wouldn't be shocked if older console games that were bigger than 100 megs showed up on this by next year.

No mention of Gears of War 2. If anything, a teaser trailer with no footage.
With all the games coming out on the 360, there is no need to tease something so far off.

Shenmue 3 announced.
Outlook: Impossible
I want this game so badly damnit.


PS3 and PSP
Sony announces and shows a PSP redesign that will be out later this year and be the same price as the current PSP. It has a large battery, a few gigs of internal memory and a smaller screen. The unit looks hot and everyone wants one.
Outlook: Probable
I think this one doesn't need explanation.

Sony announces a PS3 price drop.
Outlook: Possible
Most would say this is a definite yes, but I'm unsure as to whether Sony wants the PS3 to look so weak that it already needs a price drop. I think they may drop it this fall when there are at least a few games people care about.

Sony shows off a bunch of unannounced games. People want to buy PS3s.
Outlook: Probable
Sadly these won't include the creative games that went to PS2. We won't see the PS3's answer to Gitaroo-Man or Rez. Hell, we probably won't even see Fumito Ueda's games (the designer of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus), but we'll see a bunch of big budget games for the westerners. We may see some games for the Japanese as well, but these will probably just be at TGS and may be very few. Nintendo is outselling them 6 to 1.

PSP gets a ton of good games.
Outlook: Probable
It's still selling really well in both America and Japan. We'll see lots of good games.

PS3 gets lots of fun downloadable games.
Outlook: Probable
This will become one of the biggest selling points of the PS3 this E3.

Sony announces SIXAXIS with rumble. Finds palindrome name for device.
Outlook: Possible
It's bound to happen sometime this year, E3 seems as good a place as any.

Sony announces PS3 was a big joke, tells consumers that they are sorry for the misunderstanding and releases a non blu-ray version of the console at $299. Also scraps cell in favor of something practical to develop for. Announces new versions of Jumping Flash!, Jet Moto, Twisted Metal and says Fumito Ueda's game is a Zelda clone.
Outlook: Impossible
Oh how nice that would be...

Wii and DS
coming tomorrow...