By Andrew SheivachmanThe Daily Northwestern
The end of 2006 saw the launch of two new consoles, Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Playstation 3, and a slight increase in PC game sales.
So what’s next for gaming in 2007?
Internet Protocol Television will become the lynchpin in Microsoft’s strategy to dominate your living room entertainment center. Microsoft wants to stream television to XBOX360s over the internet and make consumers pay heaps of cash for it. Couple this with the recently released HDDVD player for the XBOX360, and you have a home theater enthusiast’s dream set-up. Bill Gates announced to reporters at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show that the XBOX360 is meant to be a complete entertainment solution, and not just a platform for gaming. Also, in 2007, the Xbox360 has Halo 3 slated for release, which might as well be money in the bank. Halo 3 will serve to sell systems and steal any holiday 2007 thunder from Sony and Nintendo. And if Halo 3 misses its release window, expect Irrational Games’ Bioshock or Bioware’s Mass Effect to fill the void.
Playstation 3 systems will sell, but sit on shelves throughout the world due to their ridiculously high price and lack of quality games. Right now the PS3 can be best described as a “PS2 with blu-ray,” the high definition video format competing with HDDVD. The PS3 lacks any killer applications or stunning original titles slated for 2007. The best offers include Virtua Fighter 5, Heavenly Sword, and maybe the epic Metal Gear Sold 4: Guns of the Patriots. You can expect Sony, at the very least, to announce a new version of their PSP to sell alongside the PS3 as a remote-cum-portable. Yet, Sony is primed to lose its place as the leader in the console world and probably will. The PS2 will still sell well, despite the next-gen failure. God of War 2 is shaping up to be particularly barbaric and Madden will sell copies regardless of the platform.
The Nintendo Wii will receive little substantial third-party support, and live or die by the quality of upcoming titles like Metroid Prime: Corruption, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The Wii system itself will still sell like hotcakes, since it purports to be cheaper, prettier, and more fun than the competition. Nintendo will continue to roll-out retro Virtual Console games, and expect some classics along the lines of Super Metroid, Mario Kart 64, and Super Mario RPG. The release of The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past recently is a clear sign that Nintendo is dedicated to releasing good content for Virtual Console, and not just milking money from the next generation who never suffered through NES Baseball. The Nintendo DS will continue its reign as the unchallenged leader in the portable market and Nintendo will begin to phase out the Game Boy Advance. All told, Nintendo will certainly have a wildly successful year.
Amazing titles will be released for the PC under Microsoft’s new Games for Windows branding, but most gamers will still prefer cheaper, uglier, and less complex console games. Crysis, Crytek’s follow-up to the exceptional Far Cry, appears as though it could be one of the most revolutionary games of all time. With completely destructible jungle environments and the utilization of Direct X 10, Crysis is primed to be a very pretty game. Of course, one will probably need a $5,000 computer to play it. Gas Powered Games’ Supreme Commander, already proven in a well-received round of beta testing, is poised to redefine the strategy genre on an epic, planetary scale. Online RPGs like World of Warcraft will still probably rule the PC gaming market for those who don’t live life in reality.
And the big surprise games coming in 2007? Virtual Concepts, the team that developed Sega’s venerable 2K Football series, is working on a new title featuring only historical players. Portal, to be bundled with Valve’s Half-Life 2: Episode 2, looks to be a fun and particularly wry puzzler. Also, don’t be surprised if Guitar Hero 3 isn’t exactly as hero as its predecessors. Original developers Harmonix have been removed from the project in lieu of Neversoft, the people beyond the Tony Hawk games.
All of this is complete speculation, of course. But when you are recording TV to your XBOX360 while playing Halo 3, don’t say I didn’t call it.
Andrew Sheivachman can be reached at [email protected].
