A Look Back at Geek News Predictions for 2023

2023 has been one heck of an eventful year, especially in some of the worst ways. I totally didn’t foresee a new war completely unrelated to Ukraine and Russia taking off. Nor did I think democracy could continue to backslide with troubling implications for the 2024 elections, but here we are. As for the predictions I did make, they had mixed results. Not too many misses, so I’m satisfied.

 

New Switch hardware is finally revealed

I predicted that we’d receive a credible leak regarding the next Nintendo console. Also, no release date would be given. I was pretty far off the mark with this prediction. All we got was speculation, but we were not graced with credible leaks or announcements. At this point I’m of two minds. I find it incredible that nearly seven years into the Switch’s lifespan we haven’t heard anything regarding a successor. On the other hand, I’m not ready to buy a new Nintendo console.

 

New PS5 hardware is revealed, but it isn’t quite the Slim we wanted

I predicted Sony would release a PlayStation 5 Slim, but it wouldn’t quite be what we wanted. By that I meant the cost savings wouldn’t be passed on, and it would make use of a detachable disc drive. I pretty much nailed this prediction. The only area I was slightly off in was that there is a regular version with the disc drive, and a digital-only version sans the drive. They both use the same drive. Also, the price of the digital-only version actually increased by $50. The PS5 Slim itself has some questionable changes including only being slightly smaller, having a disc drive needing to be activated online before it will work, and having a weird stand to place it horizontally.

 

Advance Wars 1 +2 Re-Boot Camp finally gets a release date

I said Nintendo would finally release Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp, as the war in Ukraine is nowhere near being over. Another slam dunk in terms of prediction. The game was released on April 21, 2023.

 

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth gets a PC launch announcement

Here comes my second complete miss. I predicted Final Fantasy VII Rebirth would release at the end of 2023 as a PS5 exclusive, and we’d have an announcement of the game’s PC launch date. Neither of these events happened. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth won’t be releasing until February 29, 2024, and there’s no hint of a PC port coming out any time soon.

 

Crunchyroll finally finishes absorbing Funimation’s catalog

Another miss. I guessed that Crunchyroll would finish absorbing the Funimation brand, and as a result everything would be available on the CR website. Post-merger, Funimation still persists as a brand with its own streaming service. It has a number of shows still available. At this point I can only guess there are contractual obligations for the anime still on Funimation, which is why everything hasn’t been consolidated into a single site. However, I didn’t see the subsumption of RightStuf coming.

 

 

Attack on Titan: The Final Season Part 3 Won’t be the end

This Attack on Titan prediction turned out to be a mixed bag. I predicted the final season wouldn’t be the end, and we’d have to endure a movie finale that aired either in late 2023 or early 2024. What we ended up actually getting is an hour-long special that aired in March, and a second movie-length special that aired in November. The second special completely wrapped up the series.

 

Rick and Morty’s 7th season makes up for season 6

This one’s a bit odd for me. My prediction is a hit, but I’ve only seen half of season 7 of Rick and Morty. I’ve heard critics praising season 7 as one of the best to come along in years, though. I predicted that S7 would make up for the transitional season 6. In the five episodes I saw, there was payoff regarding Rick Prime, in addition to providing more answers about Evil Morty. After this turn of events, we saw how Rick was affected, as well as Morty. The trajectory of the plot was headed in an interesting direction. My only regret is that by this point I haven’t finished the season of Rick and Morty out, but when I do, you can expect it to appear on Quarantine Control.

 

AI art and writing gets people into interesting trouble

This one turned out to be a hilarious prediction that hit the mark. I said AI art generators and LLMs via ChatGPT would get people into trouble in a variety of ways. All of that came to pass. We had lawyers depending on ChatGPT to reference case citations for them and getting into trouble with the courts. Lawsuits regarding the use of LLM datasets without permission. Even large media outlets getting into trouble by their use of generative AI. There was also the massive WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that each lasted for over 100 days that was partially related to the use of AI. Even as people are beginning to see the limitations of generative AI, companies insist on replacing segments of their workforce with these programs or shoving it into aspects of everyday life– regardless of if people want it or not.

 

Truth Social folds

Another total miss for me. I predicted that with Elon Musk’s restoration of Donald Trump’s account on Twitter, the former president would quietly fold Truth Social. For better or worse, this never happened. Truth Social has been in decline, yet Trump has resisted the siren call of Twitter. Truth Social also ended the year completely intact.

 

Twitter and Meta continue their decline

This was a mixed bag. I predicted Twitter would continue to drive off users and advertisers in addition to suffering from extended downtimes. On the Meta side, I predicted Meta would cling to virtual reality and its stock value would continue to decline. Everything I predicted has happened on Twitter and more, including Musk foolishly ditching a well-known brand name in order to rename the site “X.” At this point, he’s told advertisers to go fuck themselves, even as he predicts the site will go into bankruptcy at some point. There have been bouts of downtime, but they’ve only lasted a few hours at time.

As for Meta, the stock has mostly rebounded to 2021 levels. Virtual reality was abandoned in favor of AI development. Additionally, sensing Twitter was weak, Threads, a competing service was launched. Instead of being based on Facebook, it was based on the far more popular Instagram. On a dumber note, Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a physical fight, only to back out after seeing Zuckerberg was in shape and practiced MMA on the regular. That incident certainly contributed to people seeing Zuckerberg in a more positive light, despite the all the wrongs his companies have wrought on society.

 

Henry Kissinger finally exits stage left

I noticed at the start of 2023 that Henry Kissinger would be 100 and the possibility of him passing away was very real. I predicted he would die either before or after his May 27th birthday. My observations were rewarded when Kissinger’s devil’s deal came to an end on November 29, 2023. There was much rejoicing at his death. I could only shake my head as he was a man responsible for the deaths of so many people, and he got to spend a century on this earth. Sometimes things just shape up bitterly, but at least he can’t hurt anyone else now.

 

Those were my prediction results for 2023. Tune in tomorrow as I make my 2024 for predictions to bring in the New Year!