Originally published on Trevor Trove on January 7, 2018
Predictions are also a fun way to kick off the new year. And since there’s never any actual accountability in who gets what right on these things, let’s have some mindless fun. That said, if any of these actually happen, I’ll brag with an image of the prediction completely disregarding how wrong all of the other predictions wind up being.
1. Kingdom Hearts 3 will launch in the Fall with the first playable demo of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
This is a pretty common thing for Square Enix to do actually. Release on of their flagship titles with a demo for another hotly anticipated flagship title. Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 had the demo for Final Fantasy XII. Most people only bought Final Fantasy Type-0 for the Final Fantasy XV demo that came with it. In fact, Kingdom Hearts 3 launching with the Final Fantasy VII demo seems a no-brainer, making the real wild prediction here the idea that it will actually launch this year.
2. Microsoft will tease Halo 6 at E3.
Microsoft had a rough 2017 in terms of first-party output. With Crackdown 3 delayed yet again, the new Xbox One X launched with only Super Lucky’s Tale, Forza, and third-parties to help push the new console. I don’t know if they’ll manage to turn that around this year but a Halo 6 announcement, without all of the bait and switch Master Chief vs. Locke marketing that mislead fans of the series on Halo 5, would be a good start. Wouldn’t surprise me if they try and chase the Battle Royale trend with a mode like that built into to classic maps or something.
3. Nintendo will tease a Majora’s Mask-like Zelda follow-up for the Switch.
With how well The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild performed, Nintendo will capitalize and turnaround a quick follow-up game using the same core assets and gameplay of Breath of the Wild. It might even be time-based like Majora’s Mask, though probably longer than a three-day time frame based on the size of the open-world. Yeah, I can easily see The Legend of Zelda: Curse of the Blood Moon coming along in a year or two.
4. Bethesda will repeat their infamous Skyrim reveal for Elder Scrolls VI.
In December 2010, Bethesda presented the first tease of Skyrim at the Video Game Awards, including an 11-11-11 release date. This completely baseless and probably wrong prediction is that history will repeat itself at this year’s Game Awards. The Elder Scrolls VI will have an announcement trailer and an 11-19-19 date, somehow still coming out before Death Stranding.
5. CD Projekt Red will show off Cyberpunk 2077 in the PlayStation and Microsoft E3 conferences.
For The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red refrained from aligning themselves with either of the major consoles, ensuring that there would be no console-exclusive content. In order to reinforce that same messaging for their much-anticipated Cyberpunk 2077, they will appear at both conferences. Given recent trends from the platforms, I suspect we will see a bit of gameplay at the Microsoft conference first, followed by an extended story trailer at the PlayStation conference.