12 One-Sentence Thoughts For 2012

1. PC Gaming is back, largely due to some World of Warcraft competition, a renewed interest in hardware and an increasingly App Store-like Steam.
2. If the Xbox 360 dashboard is anything to go by (read: it’s not good unless you like adverts) Windows 8 Metro will be a damp Vista-esque squib.
3. Both Kinect and Move will follow Wii into players’ collective attics.
4. It will be obvious to everyone bar Facebook that the flaw in its ecosystem is the lack of an editorial storefront.
5. The Chrome Web Store will be the quiet success story that supplants Google+’s initial foray into games.
6. Google Native Client is the technology to watch.
7. The Wii U will amaze everyone.
8. Apple TV, apps, touch screen devices as controllers.
9. Tablet gaming should emerge as distinct from mobile, via iPad 3 and Wii U, and become the new hot ticket.
10. PlayStation Vita will sell a surprising number of units, but a disappointing amount of software.
11. Amazon’s Kindle Fire will grow large enough (and sell enough apps) to become a platform in its own right. 
12. The idea of the local game will start to gain traction.

Brevity is the soul of prophecy.