Blizzard: Next Gen Will Be Better for MMOGs on Consoles

[Keane Ng]

Blizzard: Next Gen Will Be Better for MMOGs on Consoles

The situation for bringing MMOGs like World of Warcraft to consoles is pretty dismal, thinks Blizzard's Rob Pardo, but the next generation should be much better.

Asked what he thinks of bringing games like World of Warcraft to consoles, Blizzard's VP of Game Design Rob Pardo seems to have nothing good to say. There are multiple obstacles to doing it right. First, the controls: "Do you ship a keyboard and a mouse? DO you try to make a game that [adapts] to all the different controls and buttons?" Then, there's the issue of storage: "You'd have to eat almost the entire hard drive, and there are Xbox consoles...that don't have hard drives. So that's a big issue."

Those are the hardware problems. In addition to those, you've got the matter of the console makers themselves. Blizzard patches WoW with massive content updates, but on consoles, "the certification process is pretty arduous to do that. I know that's something Microsoft is trying to work out...but it's not going to be nearly as fast as we can do it." Finally, you've got the money issue: Pardo knows Sony and Microsoft will want cuts of subscription revenue, and that's a "hurdle."

Sounds like Pardo is pretty pessimistic about the future of MMOGs on consoles, but he's actually quite the optimist. "So there's definitely a lot of hurdles right now for doing MMOs on a console, but it can all be overcome and I think in the next generation of consoles it'll be much easier," he said.

This isn't just wishful thinking on Pardo's part. According to him Microsoft is making a concerted effort to learn how to make MMOGs work, and they're trying to learn from the best. "Microsoft has shown us some stuff they have in development and they asked us our opinion," Pardo said.

[Via IndustryGamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/mmos-on-consoles-is-a-big-hurdle-says-rob-pardo/]]

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[countrysteaksauce]

I can only imagine the kind of money they would be raking in.

 

[dnadns]

Finally, you've got the money issue: Pardo knows Sony and Microsoft will want cuts of subscription revenue, and that's a "hurdle."

Except that the MMO's on the Ps3 don't have subscription fee's.

I suppose he would consider that as the biggest hurdle ;-)

Although I am not a big fan of MMO's, Sony deserved itself some props for pushing games with online interaction focus. May it be on a sharing level like LBP or more the typical MMO as the Agency.
The latter actually caught my interest and I'm looking forward to see how it turns out.

 

[theultimateend]

The only reason next gen consoles look promising is because they'll just be PC's with static OS's . That's the only real difference.

 

[Brotherofwill]

MMOGs on consoles? What's next? Them trying to ship a best selling franchise as an RTS on conso...ehh yea, it's just a silly idea.

Leave them on the PC, please. Not wanted.

 

[Therumancer]

I see a big issue as being communication as well. The whole "community" function in MMOs works through massive text based communication, which is how people meet for the first time, sell and trade items, exchange information, and other things.

While consoles can do headsets and voice chat, that's fine for small groups of people working together for a dungeon (or even a raid) but you can't get several hundred people in a chat channel with more jumping in an dout with voice, which means you need text, which means you need a good typing interface/keyboard for communication. In the end typing is still the major method of MMO communication.

On the other hand, didn't the PS-3 already have a version of "Angel Love Online" for the Japanese markets? I tried it briefly on the PC, it had some interesting ideas but I wasn't really sold enough to want to spend money on it compared to other MMOs (ie typical Korean clothes shop/mandatory power up item shop MMORPG). The point being that it's kind of happened already.

 

[haruvister]

like World of Warcraft

This is the key phrase. There's no reason why a popular, free-to-play MMO can't be crafted specifically for console hardware - it's just Blizzard can't copy and paste WoW, including its slightly overpriced subscription model. Something like Guild Wars, which I seem to recall has non-streamed "zones", could easily make the transition.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Wow. Maybe blizzard just sucks? DC Universe. FFXI and XIV. Champions Online. All console MMORPGS.

I would just like to say that your avatar is sex.

Anyway, Blizzard never said that it would be impossible to bring MMOs to consoles, he's just saying that there are a lot of hurdles to over-come in order to make it happen, especially when the game already has a solid base on the PC. I haven't played FFXI, so I don't know how simple or complex the controls are, but I can confirm with personal experience that World of Warcraft is simply too complex for a 10-button controller.

Even using the 360 controller's D-pad as four extra buttons, I'm having a hard time with my little experiment to successfully play WoW with a controller at the same efficiency as I do with the keyboard and mouse. And let me tell you, I've got a fairly workable build going right now, but it's such a complex button config that I'd wager roughly 80% of WoW's player-base would go crosseyed trying to figure it out.

Just for a taste of how it's mapped-out, I'm using Xpadder (in case you know of the program). Using that, I can have upto 8 different control set-ups (mapping specific keyboard keys, or mouse buttons/movements to buttons on my 360 controller). You can set-up certain buttons to toggle back and forth between different control sets as needed. Currently, I'm using 6 of those 8 sets, and I'm still working on figuring out a decent functionality for some of the macros and hotkeys I use regularly.

So yeah... the complexity of how the game is played is also a very big factor that he didn't really directly mention. World of Warcraft all but requires a keyboard and mouse, because even if I do get my controls mapped perfectly to play on a 360 controller just as well as with the keyboard, it'll be such a tangled web that's tailor made to how I personally play the game, that it won't be usable for a console-version of the game that's meant for just anyone to use.

So again, I haven't played FFXI, maybe it's just as complex. But I can say from trying it myself that WoW would not work on a console unless they went through the added hassle of packaging-in a Keyboard/Mouse... at which point you might as well just buy it for the PC.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Thanks. My brother tried using that program for WoW and just couldn't get it to work effeciently. My point is though that other game companies are making MMORPGs from the ground up for consoles and doing it with ease it would seem. FFXI is one of the most complicated MMOs out there and it does a damn fine job of it on the console. CHampions Online looks to be pretty epic. Not sure about DC Universe but it's a PS3 MMORPG. FFXIV will be just as complex if not more so. I just don't think blizzard really wants to try and make a console MMO seeing as how they have enough money with what their doing to own their own country. Can hardly blame them though lol.

Talking to one of my guildmates who used to play (and occasionally renews his account to play) FFXI. He brings-up a couple of points.

Firstly, FFXI was designed from the ground-up to be played on a controller (if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it initially launched on the PS2 and PC?). The second point he brings-up is that positioning is far less of a factor when fighting bosses compared to the very complicated mechanics of the bosses in WoW's raids. He says that the game may have a few complicated mechanics build into it, but gameplay-wise (IE: controlling the game), it's a very simple game to play.

Now, I'm not gonna say this makes WoW any better than FFXI, or that I'm any better of a player simply because the game I play is more complex. Just trying to lay some facts down on the MMO that Rob Pardo has the most experience working with compared with the MMOs that you're talking about.

 

[Nutcase]

I see a big issue as being communication as well. The whole "community" function in MMOs works through massive text based communication, which is how people meet for the first time, sell and trade items, exchange information, and other things.

You could do all of that via voice chat, via NPC's, etc. It's just a matter of design.

I for one do not appreciate global chat channels like WoW's a whole lot. Almost everything done on there would have been better served by a specific trade or matchmaking system; having the channels allowed the devs to be lazy with those things.

 

[Reg0]

Finally, you've got the money issue: Pardo knows Sony and Microsoft will want cuts of subscription revenue, and that's a "hurdle."

Except that the MMO's on the Ps3 don't have subscription fee's.

if you mean the online gaming is free then your right, if you think that blizz are gonna let ppl play wow for free on a ps3 your wrong

gamecube internet was free, but for games such as PSO episdoe one and 2, you had to pay add fees to play

 

[Therumancer]

I see a big issue as being communication as well. The whole "community" function in MMOs works through massive text based communication, which is how people meet for the first time, sell and trade items, exchange information, and other things.

You could do all of that via voice chat, via NPC's, etc. It's just a matter of design.

I for one do not appreciate global chat channels like WoW's a whole lot. Almost everything done on there would have been better served by a specific trade or matchmaking system; having the channels allowed the devs to be lazy with those things.

I tend to disagree here, you really can't have several hundred people sharing a voice channel without pure chaos and everyone talking over each other. What's more if you just rely on matchmaking and other things you really lose the "massively multiplayer" component. Indeed I'd argue that without the mass communication channels and shared world, these games would become akin to just another online multiplayer game. It would also encourage people to simply play with those that they know, as opposed to creating a true community which is half the point.

Everything you put under an NPC is something that doesn't require another real person, and kind of ruins half the point. There is a reason for mass chat channels, and why in many games crafters and such need to deal with other kinds of crafters to do what they want.

To each their own I guess, we'll have to agree to disagree.

>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[Therumancer]

Wow. Maybe blizzard just sucks? DC Universe. FFXI and XIV. Champions Online. All console MMORPGS.

Final Fantasy XI is really the only "console" MMORPG on that list as the others have not come out yet. While it has a decent player base, it also has an incredible amount of critics, and truthfully when I briefly played around with it I wound up only dealing with players that had keyboards since grouping was such a big part of the game, and the preloaded shorthand/symbols was both annoying and inprecise in my opinion. It also seemed like the majority of people playing seriously were using PCs.

As far as DC Universe and Champions Online goes, all we know is that they would LIKE to draw in the console gaming crowd as opposed to just PC gamers due to numbers. Today almost all MMO producers are talking smack about doing exactly that but are pretty much incapable of delivering. I look at like "Age Of Conan" which made a big deal about a console release as well, not only did they fail at that, but they failed at a lot of other aspects of their planned design.

When it comes to DC and CO, I'll believe it when I see them make it actually work.

Honestly I tend to agree with Blizzard that even if it's theoretically possible things just aren't friendly to the idea. If the next gen consoles come with keyboards I can see it, if not then I think they will also fail in this area.

>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[Grayl]

MMOGs on consoles? What's next? Them trying to ship a best selling franchise as an RTS on conso...ehh yea, it's just a silly idea.

Leave them on the PC, please. Not wanted.

Couldn't agree more. Leave MMORPGs and RTSs on PCs where they belong.

Not that it'll happen. These days it's much easier to get a console and play on it than get a PC and work out how to use a mouse and a keyboard, and because of this companies would rather sell games on consoles. There's a bigger market with consoles and you can "dumb down" the games to be used on a gamepad, and until pirating is stopped, this will continue.

 

[Chipperz]

Leave them on the PC, please. Not wanted.

...by you.

When's Champions Online being released, anyway? Last I heard it would be out by now...