Good point, fishy joe. Shooting games, fairly or unfairly, will be deemed at least partially responsible for the stuff that happened at VA Tech.

Iono, that stuff makes me sad just thinking about it (the VA Tech thing, I mean. I couldn't care less about Killzone or whatever) 

Well they have already tried on more than one occasion to link the VA guy to violent videogames, but his own roomate said he never played any videogames. If you have seen any of the recent videos sent in by the VA guy to the news you can see he's totally off in the head in every way possible. 

They can try to speculate all they want on the reasons for his killings and violence in video games may come up but I think it is clear this guy was just mentally gone.  I don't think it will hinder game sales, especially since there is a war going on and war games are still selling. I can see people bringing up cases against games again, but this time I don't think it's going to be as strong.

Again, I'm not saying that it's right to blame video games. But you have to put yourself in the mind of a parent, does the word Killzone conjure up anything except negative thoughts? Even without the current VT tragedy, the name Killzone will not endear itself to any parent. The only game I can think of with a worse name is Manhunt, but that was never a popular game. Killzone even sounds worse than Doom.

But it's stupid to say that Parents would be the ones buying Killzone for their kids, it's not the target demographic and i'm sure that if someone is interested in Killzone they are likely to be someone who will buy it for themselves.

As much as violent videogames get the blunt of the press and legislative interest they tend not to be the most hated of videogames (in general) ...

The videogame that will probably have more protests and letter writing campaigns this year is ... (pause to build anticipation) ... Harry Potter

At the end of the day I don't think there will be too much fallout for violent games (in particular shooters) because, as was mentioned earlier, there is little connection between the act and videogames. Hypothetically speaking, if the shooter was a loner who spent his days playing Counterstrike there would be far greater pressure.

For the most part Mature games are targeted towards people who could not buy it if there was legislation preventing the sales to minors. You can actually see this by simply paying attention to online conversations surrounding attempts at legislation about this (or when stores implement policy); about 10% of people will comment that they are old enough so they don't care, another 10% will be mostly positive (or at least neutral) claiming they want to be the one to choose what their children play, about 5% will say they hate that kind of game anyways, and the last 75% will through a tantrum.

No other console?

Lets see what the Wii has in one year:

Metroid Prime 3

Mario Galaxy

Super Smash Bros.

Super paper Mario

Zelda: TP

Fire Emblem

Pokemon Revolution

Big Brain Academy

PROJECT HAMMER

DAY of Crisis

Battalion Wars 2

Mario and Sonic Olympics

Mario Party 8

mario Striker Charged

Sadness

don't forget all the WII games/sports/play/music/health

and for 3rd parties:

MySims

Nights

Dragon Quest Swords

Final Fantasy CC

these are mostly really big games and as a whole I'm sure will kill the ps3 lineup in sales.

VF5 and Motorstorm aren't on the same level as FF, GTA, and MGS. If those fail to bring new buyers, I'll be impressed. Short of legislative restrictions, mature rated games will do just fine.

Kwaad, I thought Insomniac was the company that made that kid a character in the game.

I want to take into account ONLY games that will drive hardware sales, a lot of the games both have mentioned are meh games that 'already' owners will pick up, it is not going to cause people to buy the console and not going to have HUGE sales.

PS3 System Sellers
GTA4 - Of course
MGS4 - In the US this one will be good
LittleBigPlanet - Appeals to a new spectrum of players for PS console, I think this will have moderate success and is a reason to buy the console, less than the other games above though.

FFXIII is not going to come out this year

PS3 Decent Games 2007
All of the rest below here have my thoughts
DMC4 - never been a system seller, sells good to PS owners
AC - good game, but never a big seller
KillZone2 - Too much is riding on it being the same as the E3 trailer, and that's not going to happen, this game will be OKAY in sales, will not drive hardware.
Heavenly Sword - Awesome looking game, will probably be good but meh on sales front, won't sell systems.
NGS - whats this?
Lair - great graphics, looks okay, wont drive hardware, it's too niche
Uncharted - I don't know much about this but it doesn't appeal to me, and I doubt it is going to drive hardware.
Ratchet - Never been a system seller, awesome graphics awesome game, but not going to drive hardware.
MotorStorm - Pretty graphics, mildly fun game, hasn't pushed hardware
VF5 - Already shown to not sell consoles
Warhawk - This is not a big title for the console

Wii System Sellers
Wii Sports - Will drive sales all year.
Wii Sports 2 - It will arrive this year (my prediction)
Wii Health Pack - MASSIVE market penetration, sales of this will go THROUGH THE ROOF.
Mario Party 8 - Mario Party games are always popular and will help drive sales throughout the year consistantly, new gameplay style of particular importance to this game.
MySims - MASSIVE system selling potential, I don't need to justify this.
Metroid Prime 3 - I'm in two minds about this, I don't think it will hugely push hardware, it will sell AWESOME to already or going to be owners but isn't going to push new users... it stays here because I think it's a big thing for the system this year.
Mario Galaxy - Next Mario Game, Nuff said

Super Smash Bros Brawl wont come out this year.

Wii Good Games this year
Super paper Mario - appease Nintendo games, might push hardware slightly, but not a huge bump up for this game - not 'platform mario' enough to perform like NSMB
Wii Music - Good game for the New players that bought for Wii Sports and got WarioWare, WiiPlay etc, not going to push hardware1
Zelda: TP - it's already out it's pushing sales decently but not for much longer, not much strength left in this
Fire Emblem - totally niche game in the western world, isn't going to sell huge.
Pokemon Revolution - never as big as the handheld games, no one will buy a Wii for this, 'aready' owners game
Big Brain Academy - I'm in two minds about this, it suits the people that have bought a Wii for the new way of playing but I doubt it will drive hardware, people wont buy a Wii for this.
PROJECT HAMMER - Wont come out this year.
DAY of Crisis - Meh 'Geist' game.
Battalion Wars 2 - First one didn't sell greatly, will perform average and make Nintendo fans happy.
Mario and Sonic Olympics - I'm also in two minds about this, I think possibly this one will move hardware, but I don't think it will be ULTRA big so it goes in this list, it helps to bolster the Wii lineup.
Mario Striker Charged - Online play is good for Nintendo games, won't sell great, hardcore Nintendo fan game.
Sadness - Wont make it this year.
Nights - excellent core gamer game, only known by hardcore gamers, can see a million seller, Sega / Nights fans that haven't bought a Wii will buy a Wii for this game, will push sales but wont be a massive system seller.
Dragon Quest Swords - Dragon Quest isn't as strong outside of Japan, will do well in Japan but isn't that huge in the US and EUR
Final Fantasy Crystal Chron - MEH, the GC one sold like crap, this will be similar, will appease Nintendo fans for their FF fix, will not push hardware.


I think that is pretty fair across both platforms (don't you?) sprouting a list of games with nothing to back it up doesn't do much there are a lot of crap on both fronts, but in terms of sales I think the Wii is going to do much better this year.