Themed games in the past have gone well and others not so much (typically game dependent ex: Lunacy & Recycle Rush). Sports themes like 2008, 2010, and 2012 are easy for the community to love due to a large shared interest in various sports and universal acceptance in the outside community.
This announcement more or less solidifies the medieval theme this year (teaser video could always have been an abstract reference to the theme) which is still a toss up for me without knowing the contents of the game or how hard the theme gets pushed through the season. It could very well work in their favor and deliver a fantastic year, however it means everyone will be looking at the year with more scrutiny.
Either way we all still get to build robots in January so that's a plus.
I can't wait to see where the animation teams go with this!