2009 - the year of the console mmo

Console gamers, it's time. The MMO is coming to your couch in a big way in 2009, and you know what, I'm ready for it!

Phil Harrison once said "We believe that the PS3 will be the place where our users play games, watch films, browse the Web, and use other computer functions. The PlayStation 3 is a computer. We do not need the PC," and you know what, he was right.

[AliciaNie]

Just wanted to say well done, that's a great article you've got there. Got me thinking about the new style MMOs that will be making an appearance on our consoles very soon. Not convinced it will topple warcraft (massive fan here) but looking forward to see what happens !

[Beast_Master]

MAG is an MMO? I know it is 256 players but are they going to charge a monthly fee to play?

[Dits]

They better not, just making a point of the mmo style game that is coming to consoles, monthly payments dont always have to be part of an mmo

[Karum]

I have to say that I disagree with the writer of this article when he says that consoles have the same capabilities of storage and communication. My PC can hold so much more HDD space than my PS3 and I think the biggest HDD for a 360 is what? 120 gig?

Online communication I feel is also much better across PC games with programs such as Ventrilo. I've not used xbox live but Ventrilo is light years ahead of voice comms on the PSN and I'd be very surprised if it wasn't miles better than voice comms on Live. A proper keyboard is also miles better than either of the chatpads.

Time will tell how well MMO's do on consoles, the jury is out for me and that one and will be for quite soem time. They may "work" but work as well? It's hard to see at the moment, for me anyway.

[Dits]

360 communications is better than PS3 but still as you say is a long way from PC quality. Am looking forward to the new styles of gameplay we will get from this over the coming years.

[Raoh]

currently for the ps3 you can install a 500gb drive

[Xi]

MMO's in most cases, aren't "casual" games that are slowly beginning to dominate the console market (just look at all the new rock band and guitar hero games). They have things like theory crafters who min/max every spec/class/compostion/gear/sta ts possible. It's not something casual players tend to be drawn towards and with wow as the obvious exception.

The second problem is that the user base on which mmo games flourish will never be as large as the PC populace. As more and more games come out for consoles more and more of the console users get split over these titles. Just look at halo 3, players quit halo 3 for cod4, both will probably loose many users to gears 2. Multiple MMO's isn't something most players can afford, so how do developers plan to design console mmo's competing against one another in a much more limited market?

consoles will not be the biggest threat to MMO's, the biggest threat will be the end of subscription based rpgs. Games like runescape and maple story, secondlife, puzzle pirates are going to kill wow, games that have a free to play, pay to win mentality.

[Raoh]

yes they do want... i'm one of them...

i've played Everquest Online Adventures and Final Fantasy XI on my ps2/ps3

dying for something new, looking forward to an NCSoft announcement, EQII for PS3 as well as the above mentioned games

when i bought my 360 last year the game that had me sold was when i read about huxley.. i no longer have a 360 but i still hope games like huxley are successful.. who knows being an mmo it may come to ps3 (unless its published by microsoft)

i know the developers of champions online said they were concentrating on the 360 and pc release but may work on a ps3 version after that..

it also brings something no other game allows.. Cross Platform play

in ffxi I can play with friends on pc, ps3 and 360 on the same game and server...

i dont mind fees for a good service and game.. also i think there are debates going on behind the scenes on how to handle fees.. do they charge like normal? do they charge a lower fee and will that effect pc fees? do they not charge but kill two birds with one stone (charge customers and combat farming) by charging for in game transactions, using real money to buy a sword, gun attachment, gear etc

i'm so desparate i still load up EQOA and FFXI.. i dont have a gaming pc and i gave up on pc gaming years ago, i got tired and broke having to upgrade my pc every year... long live the console

[Raoh]

also in response to how multiple mmo's would work..

there are always tons on mmo's on the pc coming out. its a weird market.. and you never know if a game is going to work or not.. a player community usually has to play for a few weeks, level, take down some bosses, work out the gear and leveling point system, communicate with developers in their forums and work together for game and character balances

servers sometimes are shut down weekly for an hour for maintenance, patches almost always etc etc etc

then it spreads like wild fire..

this can take multiple games to find one that works.. before WoW there were a few mmo games that people enjoyed.. but it was everquest (evercrack) that ruled the online rpg world before WoW and many games came after it before WoW took over...

its the nature of the beast