Typically I already have my predictions list out and ready to go by January 1st, I'm lagging this year. I do have excuses, but none of them are too good -- but I now have some predictions to send your way.

Here's what I see for sports gaming in the next year!

SSX is arcade sports game of the year material. Shocking? No. But sometimes you don't have to go out on huge limbs to make predictions and this is one of them. SSX looks beautiful and if the gameplay can just recapture the magic of the prior generation (I believe it will) SSX will be one of my top four or five games this upcoming year.

MLB: The Show will be quality -- but people will get tired of it. I'm not saying The Show will be bad. Do not read that into this prediction at all, I'm saying that the community and critics will score (and talk about) The Show on less of a pedastool this year by and large because of the lack of big-box innovations. I said this a couple of years ago and I feel it rings true, The Show is like the TV Show 'Bones', you always know what you are getting every week but you tune in anyways for quality entertainment. We know what MLB 12: The Show is bringing, quality baseball with some subtle improvements in gameplay over last year -- mainstream critics won't give the game enough credit, some OS'ers will follow suit.

MLB 2K12 is the last MLB 2K title. Time to go out on a limb -- with exclusivity ending and with Take Two's corporate leaderships' comments on how MLB 2K is basically responsible for every bad quarter for the company for the past two years, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Take Two's leadership will overcompensate the other way when exclusivity ends and cancel the series altogether.

MVP Baseball is announced this next winter. And on top of all of that, EA Sports will announce next December (or January but that's 2013) that MVP Baseball is making it's return.

There will FINALLY be a killer Kinect/Move app. I said this last year as if it were simply expected -- but now almost 14 months after the Kinect's launch I fully expect there to be one game that is a killer app for the platform in our genre. Finally, people who spent all the money on a Kinect will have a game worth playing in the sports arena.

Madden finally gets Online Franchise -- and it doesn't work. It might seem as if I'm stating what seems to be the obvious, but let's face it -- Online Franchise should've been in this game this past year. I'm making two bold predictions about it, Madden NFL 13 will get Online Franchise and it will be so buggy that gamers will revolt in a way we've yet to see. Good luck OS Mods.

Commentary in both Madden and NCAA will finally take a step in the right direction. Just call it a hunch.....

Overall both Madden and NCAA will once again be solid, but unable to get over the hump to greatness. Definitely don't see either Madden or NCAA getting over that hump to greatness that other titles in our genre enjoy, but I think both games will once again be quite good.

NHL stumbles.... With no competition, and with stable sales -- I think NHL might just stumble a bit this year. It's due for a bit of a downer year if nothing else.

Someone other than OOTP will win the indy sports game of the year. OOTP has owned this category for years, this will be the first year in quite awhile that OOTP won't be the king, and it won't be because OOTP suddenly becomes a bad game either.

NBA 2K13 will not solve it's online issues. Why should we expect it? The same problems for years are still in the game's online mode, 2K13 won't see a change in that regard, thus.....

Despite reviewing well below NBA 2K13, EA's NBA Title competes with NBA 2K in sales. Some people have asked me when has anyone ever bought an inferior product at the same price level -- I didn't respond then but I'll respond now: if you've bought American cars in the past two decades, you've done just that. 2K13 will likely get a metacritic in the 80s and EA's will review in the lower 70s, but a working online mode and functional and balanced gameplay will make EA's NBA Title a competitor from the get go, especially for online gamers and gamers who buy into the EA hype machine (there will be a lot).

...but NBA 2K13 will win our Team Sports Game of the Year. The online issues will once again be resolved (aka patched/servers upgraded) and NBA 2K13 will be so solid in every facet minus online that it will return to the top of the heap in the OS End of the Year Awards.

Many OS'ers (and Americans) will become acquainted with the greatness of PES and FIFA. FIFA won our Team Sports GOTY this year, many people panned that soccer games shouldn't win that award -- I don't get that logic at all. However, FIFA and PES will both experience record sales in America this upcoming year.

So what do you think? What are your predictions for this upcoming year in sports gaming? How much do you disagree with mine? Sound off in the comment box below!