Many moons ago, back in May and June 07, I discussed the future of gaming in 3 articles (see Games Workshop New Store & The Future of Gaming, Addendum: The Future of Gaming 2, and GW Store Closing, Patents, and The Future of Gaming 3) inspired by Ryan S. Dancey’s blog.

Now, Mr. Dancey, has done it again with one of his predictions coming true or so he says in his article Followup: Game Industry Predictions III. He originally predicted that either Hasbro or Mattel would purchase “…a hobby gaming company, likely a trading card game publisher…” by the end of 2007. Mattel recently bought Apple to Apple, by Out of Box games, along with some other games. Mr. Dancey uses that as proof that his prediction is correct.

So far so good, right? Wrong, or at least partially. He predicted it was likely that Mattel or Hasbro would buy a trading card game publisher. Upper Deck (Yu-Gi-Oh and World of Warcraft) is a prime example of this. Instead, Mattel bought a few games by Out of Box. They didn’t even acquire the entire company.

I know even Nostradamus had his off days and that Mr. Dancey predicted a “hobby gaming company” with a concentration on trading card games. BUT, Mattel not only didn’t buy a trading card game company they didn’t even buy a hobby gaming company. They acquired a few games and that’s it.

Mr. Dancey I have to say that so far this prediction is untrue. If Mattel buys all of Out of Box I’ll grudgingly give you a correct prediction. Even though Out of Box isn’t a trading card company it is still a hobby gaming company.

There’s no denying that Mattel buying Apple to Apple is news but that doesn’t equate your prediction coming to fruition. I think a more appropriate title for your blog article would have been, “Followup: Game Industry Predictions III…Sorta, if you squint and tilt your head sideways.”