Some things don't happen the way most people predict them to. Just when you think you've figured out the video game industry's next move, it goes and pulls a surprise out of its hat. The NWR Award for Biggest Surprise goes to the most unexpected news announcement of the year.

We were certain that the next game in Japan's biggest series would either be on the PlayStation 3 or the Wii. Even after Square-Enix announced that Dragon Quest IX would be exclusive to the Nintendo DS, many people could not believe it. What business did a major console series have doing on a handheld? The dust eventually settled, only to be kicked up again when the official game trailer was released. Not only were we surprised at the announcement, we got a shock when seeing how damn good the game looked. Two surprises in one!

Runner-up (tie): E3 Scales Down

The Electronics Entertainment Expo we all know and love is no longer. Instead, the event will take place in a smaller convention center and various hotels. The change in format will make our jobs easier thanks to the ousting of thousands and thousands of extraneous attendees, but the impact of losing the industry's biggest mainstream attention-getter won't be known until the aftermath of the July '07 gathering.

Runner-up (tie): The Wii Name Announcement

Although Nintendo insisted that “Revolution" was just a codename for their next-gen system, many people liked it and hoped the name stuck around as the official moniker. We expected the system's final name to be announced at E3; it was surprising that Nintendo released it a week before the show got underway. Thank goodness they did: People were angry, people were confused and people were dumbfounded at the “Wii" name, as can be seen in the really big forums Talkback thread for the news story. We all got used to the Wii name eventually, but at the time of the announcement it was the biggest shock of the year.