The end of 2015 is almost upon us! So, I figured it would be a good time to revisit my Predictions post from last January and see how I fared with my predictions! I’m going to be scoring myself on the following scale (because, as a gamer, I have to ask myself what would be the point of doing this if I wasn’t keeping score?):
- Prediction Completely Accurate: 2 Points
- Prediction Partially Accurate: 1 Point
- Prediction was WRONG!: 0 Points
Given that I made 6 predictions, I could earn a maximum of 12 points. Granted, I’m scoring myself here, and that might be construed as a slight conflict of interest, but hey, no body’s perfect! ;). Without further ado:
1. Star Wars Armada will release on-time in Q1 2015 (that is, before the end of March), and will see brisk sales and positive reviews.
Result: Completely Accurate (2 points)
Armada did indeed release in late March, and has been hailed as a great naval combat game. The only negative comments that have been made that I have seen surround the value proposition represented by the starter box; some feel $90 is a bit steep for only having 3 minis in the box. I feel safe saying it was a good seller too, based on how difficult it was to find certain ships through the middle and end of the year and by the fact that FFG had to reprint several items.
2. Spartan Games will release at least one new faction each for Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars by the end of the calendar year.
Result: WROOONG!! (0 points)
Spartan actually did have a pretty brisk year for releases, but contrary to my prediction there were no completely new factions created for either DW or FSA.
3. Spartan Games will release faction-specific TAC decks for the 7 core factions of Dystopian Wars.
Result: WROOOONG! (0 points)
Yeah, a bit strike-out on this one. As I said back in January though, this was a longshot. I’m still hopeful that these faction cards will materialize; I think DW could use some non-model based expansions in my opinion, and this would be a great place to start.
4. WhizKids will release a 3rd expansion for Star Trek Fleet Captains in 2015, and it will be Borg-themed.
Result: WRONG! (0 points)
Yeah, nothing doing. Wizkids hasn’t even hinted that another expansion might be coming, so its possible this game might be done as far as expansions go. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we will see at least one more, though. There were two years between the Romulan and Dominion expansions, so there is still hope that another expansion could hit in 2016.
5. World of Warships will make it through Beta and be released for public play by the end of the year.
Result: Completely Accurate! (2 points)
The open beta test started in March, and by September the game was fully released. It’s been a blast playing it! Unfortunately, the player population in the North American server has not been as robust as one would hope, and so far only the US and Japanese tech trees are fully realized. Still, I’m having enough fun with it at the moment that these concerns still seem minor.
6. Games Workshop will release a Warhammer 40k space naval combat game by the end of 2015.
Result: Partially Accurate (1 point)
Okay, so I know there hasn’t been any new BFG products actually released yet. However, shortly after I made my 2015 predictions post, the BFG Armada video game was announced. Over the course of the year, several more teasers have been released, and the game is shaping up to look awesome. Couple that with the fact that GW announced late in the year that it intends to reconstitute its Specialist Games line and re-release BFG at some point in the future, 2015 has to have been the biggest year for BFG in quite a while. Hence, I’m giving myself partial credit on this one!
So, the final tally is 5 points out of 12. I successfully managed to be slightly worse than just flipping a coin! Maybe I can do better in 2016.
Until next time…