http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=16878

i found this at N4G, I took a portion and responded.   here's the article, so ya'll can copy and paste and then respond more easily.  (my response begins after the picture of Little King!)

We've dusted off our Crystal ball

We've dusted off our crystal ball to make some predictions for the coming year in the videogames industry.

What do the big three have in store?

Agree, disagree? Let us know your thoughts and predictions in the HEXUS.community forums.

Microsoft

• Sales will dip despite further price cuts. Price of Arcade, Premium and Elite consoles will drop by 20%.

• Xbox 360 will still continue to outsell Playstation 3, but will still be far behind Wii.

• Halo 3 expansion (ODST ) will be the biggest selling game of the year, but fans will be disappointed.

• A big announcement from Bungie before the end of the year, probably Halo related.

• Microsoft will try and make micro-transactions and DLC sound appealing and will then announce significant plans relating to both areas.

• Expect new game announcements that will feature episodic content.

• Microsoft reveal a number of deals with clothing manufacturers. A pricing scheme for the avatar store is announced. Expect to pay 99p for a pair of virtual Diesel jeans.

• A web browser announced for Xbox 360.

• A good year for XBL community games. One in particular will receive a lot of attention. An upgraded version of the game will eventually become a AAA title.

• Announcement of full Xbox 360 games available to download from the Xbox live marketplace.

• The next big dashboard update will be community focused aimed to enhance the appeal of avatars.

Sony

• Small PS3 price cut after March 31st followed by larger price cut in the lead up to Christmas. Sales targets still won’t be reached.

• An increase in Micro-transactions in Playstation Home bleeds gamers dry. Users may have nice looking apartments and clothing, but it cost them a small fortune. Expect Home to get a lot stick throughout the year.

• Lots of patches released for trophy support for most popular PSN games and PSP titles.

• Little Big Planet 2 announced for PS3, late 2010 release date. A PSP version of Little Big Planet confirmed.

• Expect lots of DLC for Little Big Planet.

• Heavy Rain and Insomnia will be the big PS3 hits this year. Resident Evil 5 on the other hand will be a disappointment.

• Motion-sensing controller announced alongside a number of casual games.

• Gran Turismo 5 gets pushed back to 2010.

• Singstar Beatles announced.

• Sony tells us how ground-breaking The Agency (MMO) will be and announce further MMO plans with Sony Online Entertainment. The Agency will go into beta in 2009, but will slip to 2010.

• Rockstar will confirm that L.A. Noire won’t actually be a PS3 exclusive

• Lack of quality games for the PSP results in a very bad year for hardware sales. Software sales are only spurred on by Star Ocean: Second Evolution and Phantasy Star Portable

More predictions

Nintendo

• Wii sales will start to level off, but it will still sell more than Xbox 360 and PS3. A small price cut and some good bundle deals offered in Q4.

• The DSi will fly off the shelves, despite it being a slightly upgraded version of the DS Lite.

• Nintendo continue its crackdown on illegal software downloads for DS. Expect R4 chips to be hard to get hold off and many DS Rom sites to close.

• As sales of Wii drop, Nintendo finally announce strategy to target hardcore gamers

• Third party support will increase for Wii and more games that appeal to the hardcore crowd will be announced.

• DSi-only titles announced, probably at E3, but initial batch will receive negative press.

• Mario platformer announced, possibly Super Mario Galaxy 2.

• New Zelda trailer teases fans, more information and release date expected Q4 2010.

• Wii Sports Resort will sell millions, but will be rubbish.

• GTA Chinatown will be a huge success, receiving rave reviews and selling millions. Wins game of the year awards.

• More Pokémon.

• Nintendogs for Wii announced at E3 and will incorporate Wii Speak device.

• Tons of casual games announced to take advantage of Wii motion-plus.

Other Predictions

• Alan Wake gets delayed again.

• Ubisoft announced new Rainbow 6 and a music game similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

• Sales of Ubisoft’s Imagine range will be very poor and the range will eventually be scrapped.

• More development studios close.

• Two big names merge.

• Steam further tightens its grip on the PC gaming world

• Free-to-play MMOs are wildly successfully, the best year for them yet.

• Midway Games have a very bad year, Wheelman and This Is Vegas bombs. Company sold.

• In a struggling economic climate, cheap games will be the big sellers.

• A man goes on a killing spree in Manchester’s China town, GTA Chinatown Wars blamed by the media. Violence in videogames debate starts all over again. Politicians get involved.

• Some big news regarding Sega this year will change its future forever.

• 2K win the mob battle. Mafia II will be far superior than Godfather II.

• Half Life 2: Episode 3 dated.

• Atari will have a good year, thanks mainly to Ghostbusters. • EA will announce at least 3 new IPs targeted at hardcore gamers.

We'll check back at the end of 2009 to see which of our predictions, if any, came true. Let us know your thoughts on 2009 in the HEXUS.community forums.

Nintendo

• Wii sales will start to level off, but it will still sell more than Xbox 360 and PS3. A small price cut and some good bundle deals offered in Q4.

- they won't level off, the Wii is completely sold out online, completely.  supplies will likely remain the same untill shopping season where will have it's biggest holiday so far.  no price cut.  store made bundles only.  next year expect a bundle with Wii Sports Resort and motion plus.

• The DSi will fly off the shelves, despite it being a slightly upgraded version of the DS Lite.

-yes.

• Nintendo continue its crackdown on illegal software downloads for DS. Expect R4 chips to be hard to get hold off and many DS Rom sites to close.

-may'be.  it's a fruitless battle though.  i was searching for these type a devices and there are so many i spent 3-5 hours researching them.  rom sites...eh, how about torrent sites.

 New DSi users who just discover roms and flash cards after they buy a DSi are going to help Nintendo's bottomline, they'll have to be careful going forward with new hardware in the future.

 may'be new Wii updates with disable mods on some systems this year.

• As sales of Wii drop, Nintendo finally announce strategy to target hardcore gamers

- YOU'RE BLIND, there are toooo many "hardcore" games coming out, checkout just about any forum site to see a huge list of Wii/DS exclusives(mostly) and third party coming this year.  you probably skipped a lot of good titles that've already come out...dork.

• Third party support will increase for Wii and more games that appeal to the hardcore crowd will be announced.

-see above.  as for established franchise games coming out this year from third parties I expect...hmmm...the unexpected!  but lots of announcements that'll make your head spin.  already got DragonQuest10 at the beggining of this year.

• DSi-only titles announced, probably at E3, but initial batch will receive negative press.

-by peeps like you perhaps...you might see the light though?

• Mario platformer announced, possibly Super Mario Galaxy 2.

-already announced at last years E3.  Pikmin 3 will come out before Mario or Zelda, possibly this winter.

• New Zelda trailer teases fans, more information and release date expected Q4 2010.

-this years loaded enough as it is, some of those who want a Wii that want Zelda don't have it yet, so a teaser could be distracting and take up too much mindshare over immediate releases.  I don't know for sure, I'm just thinking Nintendo's strategy if they don't show it.

If I could control whether to show it or not, for business purposes I'd tease it via an interview with few subtle hints, but I wouldn't show it untill after holiday 09 is over, may'be on Dec. over the Wii and make it so that you'd have to have a Wii to see it (like how youtube.com/tv only works for PS3/Wii users right now, while it redirects to the main site when you attempt to access it on the pc.)

• Wii Sports Resort will sell millions, but will be rubbish.

-1st Wii Sports wasn't rubbish, which greatly reduces the suckage probability of the next.  remember Wii Sports Resort 'Jet Skiing' was said to be bigger than Wave Race 64 while in development in May 08.  that's only 1 of 3 games that we know of of at the least 10 full games. 

• GTA Chinatown will be a huge success, receiving rave reviews and selling millions. Wins game of the year awards.

-looks to me like a flash game in it's style, like a management type game, reminiscient of GTA2 where you control gangs attitudes and businesses.  if a more in depth GTA2 is where it's at in the reviewers hearts at that particular time that they're playing it then I guess it'll do well.  I don't see game of the year though, I hope so.  I like GTA2 loads.

• More Pokémon.

-Pokemon MMO is in developement of some sort, whether for Wii/DS/nextgen who knows, that's the super exciting super selling, don't have to release it to make people happy and draw in consumers, but it wouldn't hurt typeagame.  the other, more traditional fare should keep coming at a steady rate, but i dunno if the userbase is gonna change.  in short, more pokemans!

• Nintendogs for Wii announced at E3 and will incorporate Wii Speak device.

-I say wait till 2012 and ride the Wii out for a "comfortable" 4 more years (could be 4 more after that...shazaam...in conjunction with the presidential elections. :)

• Tons of casual games announced to take advantage of Wii motion-plus.

-buy the good ones, shun the bad ones

non nintendo predictions:

• Announcement of full Xbox 360 games available to download from the Xbox live marketplace.

- game only retailers should start packing there bags and preparing their going out of business sales....now.

• Free-to-play MMOs are wildly successfully, the best year for them yet.

- add FPS to that.  It's the future. advergaming; buy the box, pay a subscription fee and play.

^>as for now, i'll leave with this.>V

• Xbox 360 will still continue to outsell Playstation 3,

[sony and microsoft pictured above fighting over 'ram']
 

but will still be far behind Wii.

[Nintendo]

Wiintendo

Wow, that guy is a serious PS3 hater. The PS3 will get not one, but TWO price cuts in 2009, and yet will still be outsold by the 360? LA Noire won't be PS3 exclusive? The Agency will be released in 2009? Not even a MENTION of GoW3 or inFamous?

Also, he thinks Halo 3: ODST will be the best selling game of 2009, which is ridiculous because it can't outsell Halo 3, now can it?

I think he meant ODST would be the best selling 360 game of the year. That sounds more reasonable. Doesn't seem like a particularly informed bunch of predictions to me. Wii sales slow down? I doubt it. PS3 receiving two price cuts despite Sony focusing on profit? Doubt it. Wii Sports 2=Rubbish? It won't be the traditional market's idea of a good game, but Nintendo will put effort into their big first party titles, average score of above 70, I expect.

Nintendogs isn't on Wii for a major reason, being that it is DS exclusive and if people want to play it they'll need to buy a DS.

If Nintendogs sales are really dead then Nintendo could probably kill off Eyepet next year but thats if they don't want to release new Nintendogs on DS2..

Don't see it happening

Wii sports resort is the best selling game of 08

featured on gonintendo.com
entire article belowOnline Distribution To Be The Future
http://www.thegameraccess.com/2009/01/online-distribution-to-be-the-future/The future is looking quick and fast with the way online is going. The speeds of internet and what it can do is amazing. Just look 5 years back and then look now. WOW!!! Sony and many more companies have been placing a lot of full retail games on their servers and it looking to gain ground with the way our economy is going. It’s cheaper, you don’t have to spend money on blu-rays or the packaging and distribution is all done in one place, their servers. I’ll give an example, look at steam and their popularity. They are the #1 in online distribution. They have millions of users that play the games they offer and it all started way back with Half-Life. Now the only problem I’m seeing in doing this is the speed of internet that people have and their hard drives. But nowadays harddrives are cheaper and are constantly gaining memory. These are the reasons why Online Distribution is smart and is looking to be the future.

 can't see anything else beating it out, unless you count Wii Sports 1 of course.

Best selling game of 2009?  Best Selling game of 2009?

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=52907

yeah um..how many times do you have to say that to people? It makes you seems desperate for somthing.

"Heavy Rain and Insomnia will be the big PS3 hits this year"

What is Insomnia? I've never heard of it.

• Wii sales will start to level off, but it will still sell more than Xbox 360 and PS3. A small price cut and some good bundle deals offered in Q4.

The "start to level off" could be taken 2 ways, realistically if "level off" can be described as: 'the increase from 2008 to 2009, will be smaller than 2007-2008'. then sure, it applies. A price cut is incredibly unlikely, and any bundle deals will be unlikely to save you much money, just like the current NSMB DS bundle costs about £5 less than buying the DS and game seperate.

• The DSi will fly off the shelves, despite it being a slightly upgraded version of the DS Lite.
Well duh... the DS is flying off shelves now.

• Nintendo continue its crackdown on illegal software downloads for DS. Expect R4 chips to be hard to get hold off and many DS Rom sites to close.
Very likely... I saw my cousin yesterday, I mentioned her on here before... even she has an R4 with loads of games on.

• As sales of Wii drop, Nintendo finally announce strategy to target hardcore gamers
Nintendo doesn't make Mature rated shooters/action games, so they won't be targeting any that call themselves "hardcore".

• Third party support will increase for Wii and more games that appeal to the hardcore crowd will be announced.
So wait, 3rd parties finally start increasing support when Wii sales are slowing down?

• DSi-only titles announced, probably at E3, but initial batch will receive negative gaming press.

• Mario platformer announced, possibly Super Mario Galaxy 2. No comment on this other than it's a possibility. (except the name, I doubt they will call it SMG2 unless it is based on a similar premise)

• New Zelda trailer teases fans, more information and release date expected Q4 2010. If it releases Q4 2010, it won't be officially announced till the very end of 2009.

• Wii Sports Resort will sell millions, but will be rubbish. And despite it being "rubbish" will rack up record amounts of time spent on it on the Nintendo channel, proving that everyone at least likes it, even if it is rubbish.

• Nintendogs for Wii announced at E3 and will incorporate Wii Speak device. I find it unlikely... Not sure Nintendogs really fits on the system, but I won't rule out the possibility of something of a similar vain, but likely different approach.

• Tons of casual games announced to take advantage of Wii motion-plus.