Summary: It's time for the annual MMO Reporter Predictions Show! We're dragged Bill back out for a show to talk to Chris and Harry about last year's predictions, and to comment on our predictions for 2013. Included in this show are MMO Reporter's pick for best expansion of 2012, as well as MMO of the Year! Listen now: 2012 Predictions Big winners predictions: Chris: TOR, The Secret World, GW2 Bill: Guild Wars 2, TOR Harry: TOR, Guild Wars 2 Surprises: Chris: End of Nations Bill: Planetside 2 Harry: Wildstar, Core Blaze, everquest next Fails: Chris - Wrath of Heroes. Bill: Tera online Harry: Final Fantasy XIV, Eligium, Mists of Pandaria What will eat up most of your time in 2012? Chris: In order - Rift, TOR, LOTRO, GW/GW2. Bill: TOR, LOTRO, GW2, … , WoW Harry: TOR, LOTRO, GW2, EVE, Hello Kitty Online What game won’t release in 2012? Chris - GW2 Bill: Mechwarrior online Harry: Warhammer 40k Will Blizzard remain the 800lb gorilla in the room in 2012? Chris - No, down to 6 million subs by the end of the year. TOR + GW2 will take up the slack, combining to take about Blizzard’s dominance. Biggest /= dominant. Bill - Yes - 6 million will still make it the biggest subscription MMO in the world Harry: The decline in WoW subs will motivate Blizzard to reveal Titan, and will offer some kind of bundled deal for WoW year-subs to include free or discounted access to Titan, re-establishing itself as the king of the hill. Question Marks? What can’t you quite put your finger on: Chris -Shadowrun Online - What’s the gameplay going to be like from an isometric perspective. Bill: Neverwinter - shift in gameplay design, 2012 release (short dev time), Cryptic = good, Perfect World = ?? Harry: Secret World, world of darkness What game could be announced that we haven’t heard about yet? Chris - Palladium Books Rifts MMORPG - OMG “YES!” Bill: Elder Scrolls MMO Harry: New sandbox MMO from SOE, TOR expansion Predictions for 2013 Big Winners: Chris: Guild Wars 2, Firefall, Neverwinter, Planetside 2 Harry: Guild Wars 2, Hello Kitty Online Big Fails: Chris: The Secret World, TOR Harry: Rift, FFXIV What will eat up most of our time in 2013: Chris: Guild Wars 2, Rift, Neverwinter,LOTRO Harry: LOTRO, Guild Wars 2 What game(s) won’t be released in 2013? Chris: Elder Scrolls Online, Shadowrun Online, World of Darkness Harry: Titan. EQ Next Expansion of the Year: Chris: Storm Legion Harry: Riders of Rohan MMO Reporter Official Expansion of the Year for 2012: Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan Will Free to Play be the dominant/default business model by the end of 2013? Chris: Yes, but there will still be several games that stick to the purchase/sub model. When a game can get a certain number of subs, its a more stable income stream that leads to more stable content releases. Harry:Yes, but more companies will adopt the Guild Wars model, rather than gimping their game. In fact, this will show the Asian model was correct all along, except for all the grinding. Question Marks? What can’t you quite put your finger on: Chris: Mechwarrior Online - Why are so many games calling themselves MMOs when they barely have any of the aspects of an MMO? Harry: Why haven’t we seen any viable console MMO yet? What game could be announced that we haven’t heard about yet? Chris: Madden the MMO Harry: EverQuest Next, Guild Wars 3: Guild Warsinganating Harder: Reloaded: The Sequel, part deux point 5, this time it’s personal. Now a Trillogy!, Fallout MMO MMO of the Year: Chris: Guild Wars 2 Harry: Guild Wars 2 MMO Reporter's official MMO of the Year 2012: Guild Wars 2
