4cr E3 2007 Predictions!

E3 is upon us. Sure it may be later, smaller, and less dynamic than usual, but the E3 Media & Business Summit is E3 none-the-less. As is the usual for the time of year that this event occurs, the other 4cr staffers and I have gotten together to give you our best guesses, predictions, and thoughts on what we expect to come to pass this July 11-13.

So, fellow rebels, read on to find out what they are and let us know what you expect to see happen during the event.

N Rumas

Obviously, we’re going to be seeing the big guns for Wii — Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Smash Bros — but I don’t know quite what to expect beyond those. After hearing the Project HAMMER cancellation rumor, I’m getting the feeling that we’re going to be seeing the biggest focus placed on Mii-starring titles in the Wii Sports/Play vein.

We already know that Wii Music, Wii Health, and Wii Motor Sports are going to be featured, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw even more of such titles at E3. To some extent, I see Mario scooting over a bit to share the spotlight with the Mii phenomenon, and on that note, I’d expect to see at least some teaser footage (hopefully more!) of Animal Crossing Wii with Miis.

Beyond that, I kinda doubt that we’ll be seeing many (if any) ‘epic’ game announcements, unfortunate as that may be. I could be wrong, though, so who knows. Also, I’m looking forward to seeing what progress has been made on Disaster, and I really hope the HAMMER cancellation rumor turns out false.

On the DS front, I really have no idea what to expect. We obviously have Zelda, Dragon Quest, Ninja Gaiden, and Chibi Robo to look forward to, but I get the feeling that Nintendo’s going to have some awesome out-of-the-blue software on hand to really blow our minds. DS is on its way to becoming the most popular system of all time, and hopefully that means the Big N has allowed financial leeway for some groundbreaking, experimental titles along the lines of Electroplankton and Superman 64. We’ll see.

As far as the hardware rumors go, your guess is as good as mine. I suppose a hard drive for Wii is likely to show up, but that doesn’t especially excite me. I wouldn’t put much stock in the DS lite revision rumor, though I suppose a special edition for the elderly, as has been rumored — bigger screens, buttons, etc. — isn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility. What I’m really, really hoping for is a portable VC player, perhaps branded Game Boy. I really, really want this to happen, and I want it to have full portable media player functionality. Here’s hoping.

Finally, I’d say that Microsoft is going to have a solid, predictable showing, and Sony is going to have a very strong presence with plenty of surprises.

Mitch

I don’t know about you, but the prospect of Nintendo announcing some
regal stuff at Mini-3 just doesn’t seem to hold much water with me.
The fact that the show’s been downsized considerably doesn’t matter
all that much, but the issue is, Nintendo’s going to be releasing
their news to just the press ““”“ the need to showboat is really a
faint memory.

Honestly, I’m expecting Nintendo to toggle the Reality Distortion
Field back a bit for this specific show, due to its much smaller
footprint. However, that doesn’t mean that they won’t roll out a
gamut of new casual Wii games ““”“ Wii Music, Wii Fitness / Health, Wii
Toaster, plenty more Miis. When it comes to getting news out far
into the public eye, Nintendo is most undoubtedly going to put full
steam ahead onto its Touch! Generations rap.

As for the DS, it’s anybody’s ballgame. The DS has become a virtual
proving grounds for all sorts of new gaming concepts, and with games
like Cooking Mama and Brain Age coming out of left field every other
week, who can guess what’ll be out?

And again on Hardware, I’m only betting on more DS colors. Anything
else is way too early, and frankly, a little too far-fetched ““”“ even
for an Apple fan.

Plus, we can always hope for a sudden decision to localize Mother 3.

Vinnk

Personally I am far more excited about TGS because I think that is
where a lot of the big guns will come out for Japanese centric titles
and with Nintendo coming this year, it will be a show to remember.
Still the stripped down E3 should offer a fair amount of good stuff.

I predict some more solid info about Disaster: Day of Crisis. With
any luck it will be playable. Smash Bros should also be playable at
the show and if Metroid Prime 3 isn’t playable by E3 (as it was LAST
YEAR) Nintendo is messing something up. I also expect a new original
title from Ubisoft and possibly an announcement about Red Steel 2 :
Master of the Less-Wonky Controls (Working title). I predict No
More heroes will be saved for TGS, but it might make a cameo.

There will be surprises of course but mostly I think we will finally
see a lot of previously announced titles in motion. And that is more
than enough for me. Anything more and I will get jealous that I don’t
get to cover E3.

Michael

Nintendo has such a strong line up for the rest of the year with all that has already been announced for the Wii and DS that if absolutely nothing new was presented at E3 then I think they’d still have plenty to show people. That being said, I don’t think any E3 should come to pass without any major or semi-major announcement.

I’ve thought for a while that going back to the “Third Pillar” idea Nintendo mentioned years ago would be cool if they revitalized the Game Boy again. I mean, the Game Boy brand is the most successful franchise in video game history so it wouldn’t make any sense if it went unused. So, my thoughts are that we either A.) see a Game Boy that plays Gamecube games and music(ala the Gamecube Advance) B.) see a Game Boy that will allow us to take our VC downloads on the road with us( the iPod to the Wii’s iTunes, if you will) or C.) a Game Boy that does both(*fingers crossed*).

Moving back into the realm of, you know, possibility, I think that we will see tons and tons of game announcements by third parties who are finally jumping whole heartedly onto the Wii train and that all signs will ultimately point to this year’s Christmas season being one of the biggest ever for the games’ industry because of the sheer amount of AAA titles coming out.