Video Game Odds – Which Titles Will Top the 2016 Charts?

Pick out any 12 month period and there are bound to be a host of interesting games on the docket. The next 12 months are no exception; 2016 is going to see the release of several highly anticipated titles, including one game over a decade in the making!

Just like we did last year, we’re going to take a stab – make that a more game-oriented “swipe” – at which titles will be the year’s best sellers.

As usual, new entries in established and popular franchises top our list. But one or two truly novel games break the mold every year, and since there’s no GTA or Call of Duty slated for release, a certain post-apocalyptic shooter could be the one this year.

Let the games begin!

Odds to be the best-selling video game of 2016:

Final Fantasy XV: 6/1

A decade in the making, the 15th installment in the FF series will finally arrive in 2016. The game will form part of the Nova Crystallis FF universe and players will take control of Noctis Lucis Caelum on his quest to retake the world’s last crystal! There hasn’t been a new entry in the main FF series since 2010, so expect fans to snap up XV quickly.

Tom Clancy’s The Division: 7/1

There’s no GTA or Red Dead being released in 2016, so third-person-shooter shootspeople will need another game to satisfy their yen to shoot people. The Division should do the trick. The game takes place in a virally-infected New York (perhaps reminiscent of 13 Monkeys?). Your goal is to restore order. What better way than by shooting people?

FIFA 17: 8/1

What do we really need to say about FIFA? The franchise is always dominated by Madden stateside but, internationally, it routinely pummels its “football” competitor and is the best-selling sports game year in and year out. It’ll be among the top sellers again this year unless soccer loses its appeal. (Sorry Sepp Blatter, not even you can stop the name FIFA from having mass selling-power.)

Street Fighter V: 8/1

Capcom’s uber-popular side-scroller returns in 2016! (Pardon me while I hunt for my M. Bison action figure.) Stree Fighter V won’t have as many characters as its predecessor, featuring just 16 at the outset. But more will be available in the months following its release, and all the essentials are back. In terms of gameplay, focus attacks are out while the EX gauge remains.

Hitman: 9/1

This will be the seventh entry in the Hitman franchise. You might be surprised to learn that none of the previous six were just titled Hitman, but number eight will be. (The first was technically called Hitman: Codename 47.) Hitman will get back to the sandbox level-style started by Blood Money but abandoned in Absolution. Three sandbox locations will be available upon release with three more to follow.

Sonic the Hedgehog (25th anniversary): 20/1

We don’t know much about the next Sonic game, but there are definitely plans for a 25th anniversary edition (which means a new game in 2016). The original is still one of the best-selling games of all time. More recent iterations haven’t fared as well on the open market. Could 2016’s entry return the franchise to fiscal glory? It’s not the frontrunner, but the little speedster could surprise.

(Image credit: Rob Obsidian (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode].)