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We are nearly a full month into the year 2007 A.D. With eleven months left on the calendar, a whole lot could still happen in the world of gaming. 2006 was a great year for Nintendo. The DS was a huge seller and the Wii saw an unbelievable launch. That being said, we should expect a huge year from Nintendo in 2007. Here are some things to keep an eye out for this year in the world of Nintendo. This list is only speculation, however it should give you a fairly good idea about what to expect from the Big N in 2007.

1. Revised Wiimote to simultaneously launch with a new system color. - Revised Wiimote rumors have been all the rage on the internets. Expect to see a slightly revised Wiimote sometime around August or September. The revision will feature some sort of rubber grip to prevent controller throwage. It might also feature the plus and minus buttons in slightly different positions in order to make them more accessible. This new Wiimote will be paired with the launch of the Wii system in blue or platinum.

2. Release dates finally revealed. - Nintendo has been keeping the release dates of their big releases secret for quite a while. Everyone knows that we will see Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl released this year, it is only a matter of when. Metroid Prime: Corruption will be announced with a June release and take the majority of summer sales. Super Mario Galaxy will follow in September to rave reviews. Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be released in mid-November in order to go up against Halo 3.

3. Multi-player games take gaming by storm. - 2007 will be known as the year that brought back off-line multi-player. While XBOX Live might be the on-line king, Nintendo games will remind gamers that real life friends are still cool too. WarioWare, Wii Play, Mario Party 8, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Soul Caliber 4, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and several unannounced projects will remind us how much we enjoy gaming with friends.

4. DS to Wii capabilities will finally take off. - Pokemon Battle Revolution and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers will help get us in the DS-Wii mood. This year, Nintendo will announce a new game series which will focus on DS-Wii networking. Imagine a Mario Party-like multi-player game in which each player used a DS as a controller. WiiConnect24 will also begin a DS demo download service.

5. Great new games in old series. - We might not see these games released this year, but we will see them announced. Expect Pikmin Wii, Donkey Konga Wii, Star Fox, F-Zero, Wave Race, Mario Golf, Donkey Kong Jungle Beats, Earthbound, and 1080 Snowboarding games announced this year.

6. Nintendo to gain sales ground. - Just how many systems will Nintendo sell in 2007? This is a tough question to answer. Let's look at some numbers. The XBOX 360 sold 10 million units in just over a year. The Wii has sold about 3 million units in 2 months and the PS3 has sold about 1.5 million in 2 months also. I see the XBOX 360 selling about 6-7 million systems this year. The PS3 will most likely ship 7-8 million, but only sell 5 million. Nintendo should see an advantage this year because of strong sales in all three major territories. The XBOX 360 has seen horrible sales in Japan and the PS3 has seen lackluster sales in the United States with no European launch until March. Expect the Wii to sell about 11 million units worldwide this year, leaving Nintendo in 2nd place slightly behind the XBOX 360.

7. Virtual Console to have a great year will plenty of great releases. - The Virtual Console has already sold 1.5 million games. Expect to see the release of many great classic games this year. Nintendo will also announce a new service which allows for independent developers to release new games for download through WiiConnect24. Expect to see some solid N64 games released this spring and summer when the release schedule is thin.

Anyways, I hope that this list gives everyone a good idea about what we should expect from Nintendo in the next year. Feel free to leave a comment or e-mail if you feel like I have left anything out.



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