Grading my picks for 2010: Am I even close to greatness? - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

Grading my picks for 2010: Am I even close to greatness? Stuck

Posted on December 15, 2010 at 02:22 PM.

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In case you haven't heard, 2010 is coming to a close in a couple of weeks -- so now is the time to take a look at what I predicted for 2010 and whether I was completely off my rocker or can be legally declared a Swami.

Let's review the picks -- with my comments added.

The appetite for risk is over- I said niche sports wouldn't receive any additional attention from major publishers and more existing games would be cut. What did we get in 2010? We got EA cutting its NBA game for the year, and no real major niche sport getting any attention or a major release from EA or 2K. I passed this one. Result: Swami
The judge will side with the NCAA athletes- Somehow, I thought that the extensive courts system would actually be able to move this case through and into something by now. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but there has been no clear distinction either way. This wasn't a pass and it wasn't a fail; it was something in between. Result: Not quite Carnac the Magnificent.
Innovation will be small- I said outside of an aberration or two, there wouldn't be much (if any) real innovation going on this year among major sports titles. Thinking back through the last year, it's clear developers did not take many risks and just kept things close to the vest. There were some very notable aberrations -- NBA 2K11 being one of them. However, by and large this year was more about slow and steady progress than innovative thinking. Result: A bit better than Miss Cleo.
Backbreaker is a one and done title- I said the game would not sell well and would also not review well. Check and check. I then postulated that the game would not be receiving a sequel anytime soon -- outside of Backbreaker 2 on the iPhone, it doesn't look like the game is going to get a sequel in the near-term future. But I think it's possible NaturalMotion revisits football at a later date (say 2013 or so). Result: Call him Captain Obvious.
Media convergence will show up once again in 2010- I said I was thinking we could see EA or 2K, or someone along those lines, bought up by a major media company this year. This was my shot in the dark, and instead what we got were new rumors about new companies looking at buying EA for pennies on the dollar. I was quite wrong on this one -- but if you give me another year or two, I think I'll end up being right. Result: Seeing the future like Mr. Magoo.
MLB 2K won't sell well -- again- What did we get in 2010? MLB 2K not selling well and the 2K boss saying that he thought the MLB exclusive license was a bad deal. But the real kicker is that while I expected MLB 2K to do poorly, it actually sold quite a bit less than last year's title, which itself wasn't profitable because of the MLB exclusive license deal. Result: It's like I was in the Delorean and saw this whole thing already.
EA Sports MMA vs. UFC will be fun- I said both games would be really good -- instead we got two games which were pretty good. The rivalry really cooled down as the year went on, too. In fact, this whole thing had a feeling of a big-fight hype followed by a one-punch knockout. This could be a fun rivalry -- but it'll be taking place on an irregular basis. Result: I'm no John Edward.
EA will still struggle with the Wii, which will continue to grow as a platform- This one was like saying the 6-year-old kid couldn't dunk on a regulation basketball goal. EA can't figure out what exactly it's doing on the Wii, and except for a couple of great ideas (NBA Jam, NHL Slapshot) the company still can't find a niche for its sports titles -- which still aren't selling all that great on the console (Jam included). This doesn't bode well for EA thinking up awesome features for the Kinect and/or PS3 Move. Result: Scratch that, John Edward only wishes he had my skill.
Lower-cost projects will become big deals- The revolution not only has continued -- it has completely taken on a life of its own. Be it XBLA, PSN,I-Apps etc., this market is a huge deal and becoming a big money maker for gaming companies. In a lot of cases, you are seeing new companies founded that are becoming overnight successes. This is a big deal and is only getting bigger. Result: Completely a psychic...or just mildly observant.

Overall: I'd say I was a little early on a couple of things, right on several, and outright wrong on a couple. If this were a test, I'd say I got an 80-85% -- but I'm definitely thinking I played it a bit safe last year. I'll have to go bigger for my 2011 predictions, which will be coming sometime in the next couple of weeks!

Comments

# 1 Dazraz @ Dec 15

I have to disagree with your assessment on item 1. This year we saw new versions of SBK & V8 Supercars from Black Bean as well as a long overdue release of a WRC game on this generation of consoles. We also saw a new PDC Darts game from O-Games. Darts is about as niche a sport as you can get in regards to videogames. F1 also made a long waited return.