Geek News Predictions for 2016
2016 is here and its time to polish my crystal ball with a few geek news predictions from the world of technology and video games. On December 31 I’ll check back in to see if my predictions were right, or if they were completely off-base.
Apple Music will hit a wall:
Apple Music seemingly came out of nowhere in 2015. The service was a solution to other streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. The company already had a music streaming service in Beats Audio, but it was estimated that Apple overpaid for Beats. So enter Apple Music. So far the service has 8 million listeners, and 6.5 million subscribers. The service is also available on Android as well iOS. Despite the impressive numbers, I predict that the service won’t surpass 15 million subscribers and won’t dethrone the extremely popular Spotify and its 75 million subscribers.
The “Year of VR” or so they say:
Virtual Reality is the next big trend. In 2016 we should see the release of the PlayStation VR, the Oculus Rift, and the HTC Vive. All three of these headsets promise to bring the joy of virtual reality to gamers and anyone else interested in the experience. Even with all of the hype, I predict VR will be little more than a niche hobby. At $350 and up, the headsets are expensive and outside of the range of most causal consumers. Furthermore, buying a PC that can handle VR gaming specs is expected to cost at least $850. VR will make a big splash when the first headsets are commercially available, but interest will quickly die down.
The Xbox One closes the sales gap with the PS4:
As of this writing, the PS4 has sold over 30 million units worldwide, while the Microsoft has stopped reporting Xbox One sales. Independent estimates put sales at about 17 million. To say Sony has a huge lead with the PS4 would be the understatement of the New Year. I predict that Microsoft will push hard and come within a few million units of catching up with the PS4. The company will achieve this feat by continuing to offer strong exclusives and deep price cuts.
The Nintendo NX is pushed into 2017:
Nintendo has been pretty coy with the NX and refuses to dole out information until 2016. People still aren’t sure what the new system is supposed to be. Is it a new console and handheld wrapped into a single system? Will it run Android software? No one knows! I predict that while we’ll learn details of the console at E3 or a special Nintendo Direct, the system itself won’t hit the market until 2017.
Angel Beats is given a Steam release, thanks to Clannad:
Clannad is a visual novel that was originally released in Japan more than 10 years ago. The game inspired two anime series and a movie. Last January a Kickstarter was launched to bring an English version of the game to PC. The project met its funding goal of $140,000 in hours and reached over $500,000 by the time the Kickstarter ended. When Clannad was released on Steam in November it briefly outsold Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Grand Theft Auto V. I predict the success of Clannad will open the door to Angel Beats (volume one of the visual novel was just released over the summer in Japan), seeing a Steam release. The anime was created before the visual novel and was fairly popular. A Steam release would be a no-brainer, unless the developer, Key, decides to hold up the release up for some reason.
About The Author
Angela
Executive Editor | Angela has had an addiction to video games and cartoons since she was young and impressionable. She enjoys writing long articles about these subjects and whatever else catches her eye. Mastodon
