A Look Back at the Geek-Related Predictions for 2020
The year 2020 did not turn out how anyone envisioned, in too many horrible ways to recount. The COVID-19 pandemic was circulating around China during the time the 2020 predictions were written, but who could have known it would be so widespread for so long throughout the year? No one, well, predicted that, and it’s responsible for throwing off everyone’s expectations for 2020. Be easy on anyone who made them, though against the odds, I managed to get some of them right.
- The follow-up to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild coming to Switch will be shown in detail this year, but won’t release this year. It also won’t receive a release date more specific than “TBA 2021.”
No, it wasn’t shown at all, though there’s a great chance the pandemic threw several wrenches into its development. The game was mentioned to still be a while off, but Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a Warriors/Musou-style prequel to Breath of the Wild, was released this year to hold players off. This one’s a “no.”
- Square Enix still likes to announce and reveal games too early, which is why Final Fantasy XVI will be revealed this year as a next-generation console game. It won’t be based on the Agni’s Philosophy tech video for Luminous Engine shown years ago, but it will run on that engine.
What do you know? Final Fantasy XVI was announced, and with gameplay to boot. The gameplay in the trailer suggests it may not be that early in development, and fairly far along. There’s no indication as to what engine it’s running on, but I’m giving myself this one.
- While we’re on the topic of Square Enix: The next part in the Final Fantasy VII Remake saga will be teased to the point that it will convince fans that it will release before XVI, but will also be aimed towards next-generation platforms.
The first episode released, and the second episode was confirmed to be in full development. But that’s all. Not much footage of FFXVI has been shown, but it was enough to make it seem like that game will release before the second part of FFVIIR arrives. That’s not enough to give myself this one.
- The Google Stadia streaming service barely registered a blip on the radar when it arrived in November. It will only get marginally more popular for software sales throughout 2020, but Google will keep it going with good support. They kill a lot of services, but this will live on… for this year, anyway.
Yup, it lived. For how long it will stick around is up for debate. This one’s a “yes.”
- Atlus is promising to provide more information about the missing-in-action Shin Megami Tensei V this year. The game will not only be shown, it will also release in Japan by the end of 2020.
Hey, Shin Megami Tensei V was indeed shown in July, but it’s not due for a worldwide release until sometime next year — likely late 2021. This one was only half-correct.
- The Entertainment Software Association’s plans for a changed E3will fully come to fruition for the 2020 event, with a bigger focus on gamers, YouTubers, and streamers. The new show will take cues from the PAX conventions, and will barely resemble the E3s of years past. Outside shows like the X020 and PlayStation Experience be more important for hardware manufacturers.
E3 didn’t even happen. Who knew the pandemic would rupture society as much as it did at this point last year? Virtual shows from Microsoft, Sony, and other publishers were all they could hold this year, meaning they had their own showcases for reasons I didn’t expect. This one ended up being half right.
- The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will have the lowest launch hardware sales in a while, thanks to the increasing prices of the systems. But they won’t be bad enough for anyone write “they’re doomed” editorial pieces.
Hardware sales aren’t known yet, so I can’t answer this. I don’t know what I was thinking with this prediction, but maybe I figured they would launch earlier than November. Still, this one’s a miss for it being such a questionable prediction, even outside a pandemic.
- The future of Star Wars films won’t be hazy for long: Disney will announce a few new projects. A new trilogy won’t be part of these plans, but they also won’t be standalone movies. Rian Johnson’s films will be included among this.
A few, huh? The Mandalorian made it so big that Disney announced three spinoffs from that show alone, in addition to those already announced and others newly revealed. New movies from Taika Waititi and Patty Jenkins were also announced this year. The fate of Rian Johnson’s films remains hazy, but this is good enough that I’m giving myself points here.
- Evangelion 4.0 was given a June release timeframe for Japanese theaters a little over a month ago. In the US, though, it’s difficult not to think about how long it took for Evangelion 3.33 to release outside of Japan on Blu-ray, thanks to stringent demands from Studio Khara. We’ll see signs that Evangelion 4.0’s English translation will go through the same level of hell, even for the theatrical release this time.
The movie, formally known as Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, was delayed until January 2021 thanks to the pandemic, so it’s too early to say whether it will run into problems. This one’s a wash, though again, I couldn’t have predicted what would happen in 2020.
- There have been rumors about an updated Nintendo Switch coming for around a year now, one of which was misinterpreted for the Switch model with an updated internal set to ensure slower battery drain. There won’t be any announcements or concrete rumors about another model this year.
Bang-on. Nothing more to say here.
- The audience for VR games will continue to expand, thanks to bigger efforts like Half-Life: Alyx. But it still won’t get popular enough to convince skeptics that it will be the future of the gaming medium.
Half-Life: Alyx indeed convinced a lot of skeptics to jump on board with VR, but it, yes, wasn’t enough to say it’s the future. This one was accurate too.
Overall, I had five good predictions, four bad ones, and two that were kind of right. Surprisingly good given the sheer unpredictability of 2020. I will not predict how well I will do for 2021, thanks. Let’s save that for tomorrow.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
