Friday, July 18, 2008

Sword Machine E3 RPG Predictions REVISITED

Well, it's finished. E3 is over and done with for another year.

A few companies surprised us (Microsoft with FFXIII and Capcom with their press conference about nothing), and some companies didn't (Sony with... uh... Resistance PSP?).

Some companies impressed us (Square Enix with big name titles hitting solidly every month from here on out) and some companies disappointed us (Nintendo with the "hardcore" announcement of Animal Crossing Wii).

With the show now just a lingering scent in the air, it's time for everyone's favorite E3 wrap-up: Rate the predictions!

Yes! Below I am personally going to go through each of Sword Machine's E3 predictions and score them. So get a pen and paper ready and keep score at home!

...Or don't. I'll write the score at the end of the post anyway. Whatever you like.

For your reference, the prediction (copied and pasted directly from the original article) will appear in italics, while my score will appear in bold, and my comments in normal print.

Shall we?

10 – Tales of Vesperia announced for mid-August 2008 release for Xbox 360 with playable demo. Also, English demo finally “released” on XBL.
TRUE. As suspected, ToV will hit North American retailers this August, and the demo is officially up. Get your pre-orders ready!

9 – Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant playable demos on 360, Last Remnant given firm release date
MOSTLY TRUE. Both games were there, and both were given firm release dates (in September and November, respectively). IU was playable, but unfortunately TLR wasn't. But still close enough that I'll give myself the point.

8 – No new RPGs announced for PS3
TRUE (much to the dismay of PS3 owners). In fact, not only did Sony not reveal any new RPGs for their console, they didn't even bother to show the ones they have already announced. (Okay, sorry. I meant "one". Go White Knight! You need to win it for Sony this generation!) Perhaps even worse, the only RPG they showed during their press conference, they screwed up on and showed on the wrong console, effectively dropping some affinity points with that publisher. Ouch.

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.
FALSE. Well, to a degree. While it's true that there were more exclusive RPGs on DS than any other system, there were almost no new ones announced. So no point for this one. =(

6 – Soma Bringer announced for Q3/Q4 2008 for DS in NA
FALSE. What can I say? Nintendo didn't announce anything, nevermind an obscure action RPG for their handheld which sells a zillion units without additional marketing anyway. Forget the fact that its one of the best DS RPGs and developed by Monolith. No one cares. Everyone wants Wii Sports 2! Yeah!! (/sarcasm)

5 – Cry On shown and announced for Q4 2008 / Q1 2009 for Xbox 360
FALSE. Except for Majesco's surprise licence of AWAY, there was absolutely no Mistwalker presence at all for this show. Sad face is sad. =(

4 – Valkyria Chronicles to be ported to Xbox 360 for Q2 2009
FALSE. Sega didn't announce anything. Nor did they even show much of anything. I don't understand Sega.

3 – Blue Dragon 2 announced for simultaneous NA/JP release in early 2009
FALSE. As stated above, no Mistwalker. Fingers crossed for TGS?

2 – Fragile announced for Q4 2008 in NA
FALSE. Namco Bandai? Surprising people at E3? Yeah right. Never going to happen.

1 – Xenosaga IV announced for Xbox 360
FALSE. See above.

Final Score: 3/10

Well, there you have it.

E3 definitely had some big surprises this year, most notably, of course, being Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 (I certainly never could have predicted that). Some other welcome surprises were AWAY coming to North America, some Star Ocean 4 gameplay, and... uh... 5 new Harvest Moon games?

So, how did your predictions do?

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