King of Old School said:
You must be using a very different definition of "hit" from the one found in the dictionary.
Fates of the One Eye'd Kings
Wizards of the Coast
I'll call my prediction for Wizards of the Coast a miss. They actually did release a couple of new things in 2007. Keep watching in 2008.
Upper Deck
I get a hit for this prediction. Essentially everything I suggested would happen has happened.
Games Workshop
Unfortunately, I have to chalk this up as a miss. Unbelievably, nobody stepped up and took Games Workshop away from its current management team in 2007, despite a disastrous year in the market where it lost 60% of its value. Tom Kirby, the CEO, did step down, and a big restructuring plan was announced. There are several private equity firms looking at the opportunity, but so far, the perceived risks outweigh the perceived rewards, and nobody has made a bid yet.
Privateer Press
I can't call this a hit or a miss, since the "prediction" was an option, not a definite. This is a pass. They're still growing, they're still healthy, and they're still dealing with the transition from small to big company.
WizKids
I am going to put this in the "pass" category. WizKids continues to show a public face of supporting hobby game retailers, but they are making all the right moves to shift their business out of the hobby and into the mass. All other issues aside, the year-long battle between Upper Deck & Eisner for control of WizKids parent TOPPs rendered much of my speculation moot. Nobody inside WizKids was able to do anything strategic in 2007 once the takeover battle started due to the corporate shenanigans going on in New York.
White Wolf
This is a miss. White Wolf did not make a strategic decision to exit the hobby gaming industry in 2007.
Review
1 hit, 3 misses and 2 "passes".
Mass Market Titans
I am going to call this a hit. Mattel did a deal to buy the games made by Out of the Box Publishing. Hasbro & Mattel did skirmish with collectible games all year, but neither over committed to any line. And neither succeeded in bringing the next Pokemon to market.
Bankrupt Distributors
This is a hit too. ABC Northwest went out of business.
Spider Sense
This was a miss. If anything crawled out of the woodwork in 2007, it certainly did not set the hobby gaming world afire.
My former consulting partner Luke summed up my 2007 predictions as "when not if", which I have to agree with in retrospect.
RyanD