Looking back on looking forward on 2020

The fun part about this round is that we made these predictions before COVID-19 was really on our respective radars. I was expecting massive damage on these as a result, but somehow the predictions came out pretty average. Nothing short of miraculous, there.

1. Despite not making make any daft marketing mistakes this time (aside from confusing naming schemes), Microsoft’s Xbox Series X will not boast launch sales greater than the PS5’s.

Leaning toward hit. We only have numbers for some countries right now, but every single one of them has come down on Sony’s side.

2. However, I expect hype and demand for this new console generation to be less intense than the previous launch, and PS5 launch sales will be behind the PS4’s.

Miss. We don’t have hard numbers yet, but Sony has publicly declared this to not be the case.

3. For real this time: Nintendo will not announce the production of any first-party Wii U titles being remade for the Switch.

Miss. This prediction lasted all the way until September’s Mario 35th Anniversary Nintendo Direct, when Super Mario 3D World was announced. That’s probably the last thing they could do outside of porting the HD remasters of Windwaker and Twilight Princess.

…if it weren’t for the original Super Mario Maker and the fact I transitioned all my original Wii stuff to it, there’s not much reason left to hang on to my Wii U.

4. The Washington Capitals will capture the President’s Trophy, but not a second Stanley Cup.

Miss. While the season didn’t get to all 82 games, Washington would have had to win 6 more games than President’s Trophy-winning Boston Bruins did in the remaining games to catch up. Even with a game in hand, it would require Boston to have lost half its games and Washington to win out, so I’m guessing not even blaming COVID will give me a bye, here.

COVID did pretty damn well shuffle the deck on the playoffs — and the Caps did indeed lose —, but I’m just going to call this a loss anyway.

5. Despite high demand for a continuing Dragon Ball series, none shall air this year. We might get another movie or short side series, but Dragon Ball Super Duper is not in the cards… yet.

Hit. And we’ll probably keep on waiting a lot longer than demand would suggest.

6. Nvidia will put AMD’s GPU business back in its place, but Intel will not do the same to AMD’s CPU business.

Hit. Nvidia’s ray tracing evolution has proved to not just be a gimmick, it took back the power efficiency crown and are still king of the hill for high end cards. And the whole lineup is cheaper than its predecessors. Meanwhile, Intel is still releasing new processors on a 14nm node, and is now getting its lunch eaten by ARM chips.

7 .Apple will continue to use the Lightning port in its new phones despite its almost sole use USB-C ports on its computers.

Hit. In fact, with the slow burn of airpods and magsafe, Apple is probably going to transition straight from Lightning to no ports at all, though perhaps not for the iPhone 13. Magsafe seems like it needs more time to settle into the accessory stack.

8. Disney will own at least 6 of the 10 top-grossing movies of the year.

Miss. Were there even 10 movies this year?

With COVID delaying the release of blockbuster aplenty, and several transitioning to streaming release, a movie’s gross is a bit harder to come by this year. Disney broke into the top 10 only twice, with Fox’s Call of the Wild and Pixar’s Onward. If you wanted to count The Rise of Skywalker‘s earnings since Jan. 1, it knocks Onward out of the Top 10, so it’s still just two movies.

9. A new Star Trek series starring Anson Mount’s Captain Pike will be announced — but not air — this year.

Hit. It’s nice to get an uncomplicated swish. Strange New Worlds was announced in May, and it won’t even start filming until next July.

10. And here’s the daring one: Damage Control will add a new byline.

Miss. As is custom, I snatch defeat from the jowls of victory by being too florid. While Damage Control gained a new guest writer this year, their work went under the generic DC Guest account, which means their literal byline was not new. Boo!

This year’s record: 5-5-0 (.500)

Overall: 43-40-7 (.516)