E3 is now less than a week away, and though it has certainly declined from the mass orgy of video game news that we all remember fondly from our younger years, E3 still remains a prominant and highly talked about event.
Staring into our magic 8 ball, we at Sword Machine have come up with a list of what we think, what we hope, and what we can only dream will happen at E3 2008. Our predictions range from the practically confirmed to the wild speculation sides of the spectrum. We have forced ourselves to keep to only 10 predictions this year in hopes of keeping them as on topic as possible (this is an RPG blog, after all).
In order to help you understand what we think the likelihood of each prediction is, we've ranked them from 1 to 10. Here is the scoring breakdown:
10 – Almost Guaranteed
9 – Incredibly Likely
8 – Very Likely
7 – Likely
6 – Foreseeable
5 – Possible
4 – Might be Possible
3 – Unlikely
2 – Probably Not
1 – In Our Dreams
And now, our RPG predictions for E3 2008:
10 – Tales of Vesperia announced for mid-August 2008 release for Xbox 360 with playable demo. Also, English demo finally “released” on XBL.
Come on, this one is a given. Plenty of sites have already gotten hands-on builds to mess around with, and there is already a fully-voiced English demo on XBL Japan. If this doesn’t happen, E3 is officially dead.
9 – Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant playable demos on 360, Last Remnant given firm release date
The first point is practically a 10. Both games are nearly complete and announced. Last Remnant’s release date is really the only debatable issue.
8 – No new RPGs announced for PS3
Again, this one’s a no-brainer. No one has announced any RPGs for the PS3 anywhere, and we just can’t imagine that any developer (Japanese or otherwise) would bother announcing one at E3 of all places. NIS has Disgaea 3, but its already announced, and they won’t be at the show anyways. Sorry PS3 owners. Oh, and before you ask: no, Final Fantasy XIII is not coming out anytime soon.
7 – Sega, Square Enix, Natsume, Atlus, Namco Bandai, Konami, Capcom, XSEED, Aksys, and pretty well every other publisher you can think of announces billions of new DS games, including some RPGs.
Like, duh.
(Note that this prediction was originally about Persona 4 coming to North America by the end of this year. "Unfortunately," it came true before E3 started, so we had to change it to something else.)
6 – Soma Bringer announced for Q3/Q4 2008 for DS in NA
This might be possible. Nintendo’s been pretty tight-lipped about their first-party DS RPGs making the jump (we only know about ASH through an ESRB leak). The game is really good, so even if Nintendo isn’t bringing it over themselves, I can’t imagine other publishers passing it up. Then again, it is the DS in North America…
5 – Cry On shown and announced for Q4 2008 / Q1 2009 for Xbox 360 Announced in 2005 alongside Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, Cry On looks like Mistwalker’s first arguably “unique” project. Clearly there have been development road bumps for it to be so much slower than the other titles, but recent art leaks suggest the game is still under active development. With a more mature story and action-RPG mechanics, this looks like the prime game to announce as Mistwalker’s first NA/JP simultaneous release.
4 – Valkyria Chronicles to be ported to Xbox 360 for Q2 2009
Since it started out as a 360 game, Valkyria Chronicles has definite potential for a multiplatform release, especially considering the game has been confirmed to be making the jump to North America. Plus, this is Sega we’re talking about here. They have given plenty of 360 support in the past, and I can’t imagine them skipping this one out, especially considering the recent flood of JRPG announcements for the 360. For me, the question is not “will it come to the 360” but “when.”
3 – Blue Dragon 2 announced for simultaneous NA/JP release in early 2009
Hinted at, rumored about, speculated on; make no mistake, Blue Dragon 2 is in development. Despite its mediocre reception in the West, it was the fastest and best selling 360 game in Japan. While you may scoff at that, remember that sequels often make more money than the original. Since Microsoft is paying for it, you better believe it’s on its way out the door sooner than later. Question is, will they show it at E3, or wait for TGS?
2 – Fragile announced for Q4 2008 in NA
Namco Bandai typically doesn’t surprise anyone at E3, so I don’t have much faith in this prediction. However, we do know that the game is in development, and is slated for Japanese release sometime this year. The Wii doesn’t have the worldwide timeframe reputation the 360 has, so we might be waiting a long time on this one. Here’s hoping the wait is a short one.
1 – Xenosaga IV announced for Xbox 360
Yeah, I know. Doesn’t seem likely. Monolith belongs to Nintendo now. Xenosaga underperformed. NB is busy with ToV,ToS2, and about a hundred more Tales of games. etc. etc. However, Namco Bandai seems to enjoy making 360 RPGs, and making them look nice. With ToV’s release sooner than later, we can’t help wondering what they’re working on behind closed doors. Is it a new IP? Or some established franchise they’re considering giving another shot? Xenosaga has its fans, and with a fresh start and some new direction, Xenosaga IV could really do some good.
Well, there they are. Though we have reasons for each of our predictions, you are, of course, free to speculate however you like. In fact, if you have any predictions of your own, feel free to write them in the comments below along with your rationale.
After the event is all over, we'll be revisiting these predictions and scoring ourselves based on what did and didn't happen.
E3 kicks off with Microsoft's press conference early next Monday morning. We'll be covering E3 as closely as we can, and will keep you updated on any RPG news that comes from the convention.
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