TechTheDay

The year 2017 is drawing to a close and there’s already a lot of hot new stuff for the techies waiting in 2018. This year was a blast in so many ways: lots of new gadgets and devices announced and launched like the Razer phone and the iPhone X. And just like last year it feels like the beauty and greatness of the devices that were launched this year have set the bar pretty high to the things that we can expect next year. A lot of people are already expecting CES 2018 and MWC 2018 to be full of juicy news like this year.

As for video games, Nintendo reigned supreme all year long with lots of titles announced and launched. Sony and Microsoft will definitely not stay silent, so you can expect more from them when June comes around again for E3 in 2018.

So without further ado, here are some of the things we can expect to see next year:

Gadgets

Google Pixel 3 will be announced and launched probably around October next year, and then will become available around January the year afterward, like how the Pixel 2 was announced around October this year and will be available around January next year. From now on until announced otherwise we can expect Google to participate in the annual smartphone battles between older smartphone giants: Samsung, Apple, and Huawei, especially now that Google has invested so much this year, acquiring 2000 HTC staff to work with Google’s Pixel division.

Samsung launched it’s “iPhone killer”, the S8, late March this year. Hailed as the world’s best-designed smartphone, the phone features an “infinity screen” that wraps around the sides of the phone. It also has no home button. This style has become the look-of-the-year with smartphones. People used this as the standard to measure other smartphones released this year. “Hey, does it have an edge-to-edge screen?” They also released the Samsung Note 8 with almost the same design. So we can pretty much expect this brand new design to be the staple for the coming S9 and Note 9, which will probably be announced next year, maybe in MWC 2018 in Madrid. There’s also some speculation that the new devices will now have a fingerprint scanner so that got some people really excited about 2018.

Apple just released their iPhone X and the iPhone 8 this year and there’s no announcement yet from Apple of the two phones’ successors, a possible iPhone 9 or an iPhone X2 or XI, especially since the iPhone X has some issues concerning its new FaceID system. If there will be any successors then the earliest we can hear from Apple is definitely around the same month they announced the iPhone X. Let’s just hope that by that time Apple already has everything ironed out with the iPhone X. We also got Apple doing more wearables, with their Apple Watch Series leading the charge so expect more from them next year.

Other likely launches from the other companies that might happen next year include an HTC U12, the successor to Huawei’s P10 (the P11), a new Xperia from Sony, a new Nokia, and a rumored LG G7 that’s said to be already in the works in partnership with Qualcomm. There’s also leaks of Xiaomi’s possible successor to the Mi Mix 2.

Games

There are only three companies vying for supremacy in this gaming generation and they’re Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. All three companies have their background in technology and just like this year, expect Tokyo and E3 to become the battleground for these three giants.

For the PlayStation4, the games that are slated for a 2018 release includes the following: Death Stranding, God of War, Days Gone,  Monster Hunter World, Kingdom Hearts 3, the remake of Shadow of the Colossus, and Spider-Man. Sadly there’s no news yet for Final Fantasy VII.

Xbox has the usual annual plethora of sports games along with the other multi-platformer games that it shares with the PS4, the PC, and Nintendo Switch, so expect Monster Hunter World and Assassin’s Creed Origins on January next year. There’s also other games including Farcry 5, A Way Out, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Metro Exodus, Anthem, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, The Last Night, and Valkyria Chronicles 4.

For Nintendo Switch a port of Darkest Dungeon is coming for the console, the first console port of the game. The first 2 Bayonetta games will be making a comeback for the Switch as well. Others for 2018 include Attack on Titan 2, Atelier Lydie and Suelle, Hollow Knight, Gal Gun 2, Kirby, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and Octopath Traveler. The 3DS has Radiant Historia, Alliance Alive, Strange Journey, and, hopefully, Persona Q2.

Conclusion

2018 is looking to be an exciting year. We got gadgets, we got games. Let’s hope we got enough budget for all of them. We’ll definitely hear more news when January comes and wait with anticipation for CES, MWC, and E3.