Speculation: Personal E3 2009 Predictions from CyanCaze

210w ago - As I'm sure many of you know, E3 2009 is about 2 weeks away and it's almost time to sit in front of your PlayStation's Xbox's and Wii's waiting for the next big announcement in gaming.

Now many of you have already expressed your opinions on what is and what isn't going to be at the show, however the is no thread that I could find so far where that data is compiled, I hope to do that with the commenting section below.

So here is how this works, Below are my E3 predictions and a percentage of how likely I personally think they are going to be announced at E3 09. I also include a small description of why I think this is going to happen.

It may take some of you a little time to write your E3 predictions but a well written comment tends to get you Reputation around here (If you are into that sort of stuff). Please don't post predictions that have been confirmed....

Also note that if there are E3 predictions you don't think will happen that have been speculated (With in reason, Nintendo isn't just going to cancel the Wii or something like that). Then you may also post your conflicting theory as to why those will not happen. And that you don't have to be as descriptive as me.

So here are MY personal beliefs about the upcoming E3 show.

Xbox portable, 52%: Microsoft really hasn't given us anything to latch on to lately. They have announced that a new console is currently being developed and I'll get to my predictions on that in a moment. But I thought to my self back at GDC why didn't they save that for E3?

Now I wrote it off back then as a "They just want development teams to be ready", but the more I thought about it it just didn't make sense to release such a important update there and not save it for E3 when you need to pull out all the stops, so my speculation grew on a Xbox portable.

Now, Microsoft has been eying the hand held market for some time. With the Zune as a sort of "test product" I'm sure they feel it's about the right time to release a full fledged gaming on the go system and try and beat Sony at their own game. Now the PSP isn't a bad system but it could be a lot better had Sony though it through a little bit. I personally own a PSP and I can't remember a day since I bought it over half a year ago that I haven't turned it on.

But the PSP did 3 things wrong that it's trying to correct with the PSP GO! 1: Physical media is a pain for such small games, and a portable system. 2: The battery life and... 3: the Storage should have been a 16GB with a optional 30GB upgrade HDD. Microsoft being a software company knows the importance of storage, Sony has always tried to get by with the bare minimum until the PS3 and since the PSP was made before then you can tell just by looking at it. This is where Microsoft is going to try and learn from Sony's mistakes and try and take the Hardcore portable market by storm.

They will probably use a clam shell design because Sony PSP's have a tendency to scratch when you are working (Trust me I use mine all the time at work...). And they want to make it fit in your hand correctly also it would be the only real way to put analog sticks on it (No nubs). I know it was a little bit off a odd prediction, but Microsoft has to have something going for it, and this may just be it.

PS3 Slim, 67%: I understand this is a prediction by many people now, and to be honest I wasn't convinced at all when I first heard about it. However when those pictures were leaked my interest in the story went from 0 to 60 in 0.1 seconds, I was only 50% convinced at that point, but when Sony immediately I knew something was up. If these were normal rumors that didn't effect Sony in any light then they would normally let them go.

But if this was a massive E3 announcement that was leaked then they want as few of people as possible to know about it so they became active and said NO!!! It's not very compelling evidence for those who still don't believe the Rumors but it's a start. But in my opinion here is what will happen.

The Slim will have 1! model for the time begin, all others will be cancelled. It will have PS2 Backwards compatibility and 2 or more USB ports most likely 4. Possibly memory card readers, but you will see PS2 backwards compatibility first.

PS3 Price Drop, 89% with slim 13% without it: If the new slim is announced then it will be made cheaper. Sony needs the slim or they will never get below the $400 mark. So Sony needs this so they can become competitive again. New Slim at $299 the golden PS mark and they will take off.

Next Xbox model shown off, 26%: Microsoft may release a prototype casing of the next xbox, but it's not likely.

Anyway those are the only predictions I really care about at this point. Please post your comments, and predictions of your own below and see how close you get when E3 starts in 2 weeks.