When you think MMO, you think PC. It’s a domain that has largely been more active on that platform, even though consoles have tried in the past to grab a piece of that online pie. Still, we’re headed into new hardware territory this year, and it looks like PC MMO developers are keen to expand into those console areas. And one such game that would like to do so is World of Warcraft.
“I would personally be very excited to see that, it would be a huge challenge to take something like World Of Warcraft with its massive hard drive footprint and its reliance on mouse and keyboard,” WOW lead systems designer Greg Street told NowGamer.
I think if we were going to make a MMO for consoles then we might take it in a different direction. It can be done, it would just be a big challenge for a game like WoW.
It excites me. It would be something fun to work on just because of the design challenges would be kind of interesting to try to solve.
Gaming is also beginning to cross certain genre boundaries as the next-gen of hardware creeps in. Dust 514 has been a successful attempt at going big on an online console, while the upcoming Destiny from Bungie is aiming to do a fusion dance on both shoot ‘em ups and online connectivity.
And that’s something that Street says will make for an interesting couple of years in the industry;
We get to see where do the next generation of consoles go and where do tablets and portable devices go, and what are players most interested in? I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t know where it’s going, but I know it’s going to be a fun ride.
I’m not too confident on seeing World of Warcraft make it to console. It’s almost a decade old, and quite frankly, it feels even older than that lifespan. But as for that other MMO that Blizzard is supposedly working on, Titan?
I’d bet easy money on that making an appearance somewhere down the line. Right after Blizzard finishes porting over Diablo III to the Playstation 3 and 4.
Last Updated: March 13, 2013
Tarisma
March 13, 2013 at 12:37
I had about 3 billion hotkeys with macro’s for WoW my controller has 16 button. I dont see this working, Not for wow at least.
I do remember having DC universe online on my PS3 a while back though. That’s an MMO.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
March 13, 2013 at 12:40
I don’t know. Part of the lure of MMO’s is sheer customisation. With consoles you’d need to “dumb down” (for a lack of better words) your UI and how many skills you can have available at any given time.
It’s something the console market needs, but is it something that can actually work? Without impacting MMO’s on PC? I have serious fears that it will cause the same thing to happen with MMO’s as has happened with so many other genres. 🙁
Verrayne
March 13, 2013 at 13:44
Final Fantasy XI, PS2 and PC still thriving to this day… and rated as one of the best mmo’s out there. And it’s 2 years older than WoW.
You don’t have to dumb things down. You can make a game fun with all input methods.
Edwin le Roux
March 13, 2013 at 13:51
True. Many games work great with a controller. But some should be left with a keyboard and mouse.
MMO, RTS and don’t care how many sold and how awesome it is with a controller, I prefer my FPS with keyboard and mouse.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
March 13, 2013 at 14:11
It can be made to work on controllers. It’s not that part I mind. It’s the fact that developers tend to have this tendancy to think that because something works on a controller it naturally means it works on a keyboard and mouse. Which is usually very far from the truth.
Yolanda Green
March 13, 2013 at 12:43
Well, playing Tera with a console controller is pretty damn awesome, it could work. Although Tera’s combat system and interface is vastly different from WoW.
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 13:31
You still playing WoW Yolanda? How you like the new raid? Went in there last week with my group, we downed Jin’rokh the first night, then we tried Harridon….and wow. We put in soooooo many attempts, and we just couldn’t get past the 3rd door. I guess Blizz nerf’d (not entirely accurate, they didn’t nerf it, they simply tuned the entire encounter for 10m…for some reason the 10m adds had as much health as 25m adds) it yesterday, however, so we may actually walk through it this time. We’ll have to see! Can’t wait….got the first Thunderforged item in the guild!
Yolanda Green
March 13, 2013 at 13:40
I don’t hey, played a bit fora couple of days this month, but I can’t say there’s anything keeping me in the game. Played some Tera when it went f2p as well. Pretty much just Dota 2 these days xD
Good to see things aren’t completely ruined though, still some challenge in the game 🙂
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 14:52
Hah, congratulations for breaking the addiction lol.
Yeah WoW still has it’s allure for me, always loved the raids (though, I originally started playing because of 40m content and was supremely pissed about the change to 25…since it destroyed my raiding guild at the time heh), the new one is actually pretty sweet though. Looking forward to tackling more of it.
Matewis Jubilai
March 13, 2013 at 12:44
FFS! I guess I’ll just go out and buy a console and drink five glasses of red wine before every gaming session so that at least I know I couldn’t play with a mouse and keyboard in any case…
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 13, 2013 at 12:48
Oh, I thought the 5 glasses were for the time it took to enter a server 😉 trololo!
Admiral Chief Erwin
March 13, 2013 at 12:50
XD
Matewis Jubilai
March 13, 2013 at 13:27
Oh no, that requires hard liquor – whiskey, vodka, jagermeister all mixed together…
Theo Steenekamp
March 13, 2013 at 13:07
Just sooo much you can do more with a keyboard and mouse on WoW than on a console controller.
So unless like Yolanda said the game is made for easy access and fluent combat. I would say WoW on console won’t work as well as on PC
matthurstrsa
March 13, 2013 at 13:16
“I’m not too confident on seeing World of Warcraft make it to console. It’s almost a decade old”
It should just about run on consoles then?
matthurstrsa
March 13, 2013 at 13:18
Some genres just belong on PC with a mouse and keyboard like RTS (imagine Starcraft on console?!) and MMO in my opinion. But there are many people out there that are smarter than me that could probably make it work.
Verrayne
March 13, 2013 at 13:48
http://www.ign.com/games/starcraft-64/n64-3894
matthurstrsa
March 13, 2013 at 13:53
I just got schooled! Still, they had to make some serious compromises, like a master menu and such.
Verrayne
March 13, 2013 at 14:48
haha, I wonder how it plays. But it is not a widely known fact.
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 13:26
Fuck Greg Street, right in his stupid mage loving ass. I wouldn’t brake if I saw that bitch crossing the road. Hey Street, I got an idea for you, how about you hire a fucking Quality Control team for World of Warcraft, so you stop wasting peoples fucking time every goddamn patch by letting them memorize an entirely new rotation and build and then waiting until everyone is perfectly attuned with their character, only to throw hamfisted, clearly not completely tested nerfs and buffs, that ruin everything players have attempted to master about their characters….oh yes, and this is like 3 months after the launch of a major expansion.
Oh, and it doesn’t stop there, because their stupid idiocy doesn’t just go away after the first ‘attempt’ at fixing the problem. Then they come in with a sledge hammer, to try and surgically repair the damage they’ve done. Oh, unless you play a mage. See, Ghostcrawler (his WoW handle), plays a mage, and therefore Mages are his darlings. No class is ever allowed to outDPS a mage, and if it did, it was a mistake and will certainly be rectified in a hotfix. Or a stealth nerf, also something they love doing. See, they release information on all patches and hotfixes that are planned…except when they know what they’re doing is going to really bother the WoW community…then they just make a sticky and have a Blue (Community Manager) Post thrown up on the forums.
They’ve got a giant goddamn PTR (test realm) system, and this piece of shit makes it his life’s purpose to NEVER use it appropriately. God I wish I wasn’t so addicted to the game LOL. You might think this is a one-time deal, but the above _literally_ happens, every expansion, and every major patch. I’ve probably had to memorize about 15-20 different warlock rotations and builds,since the game started.
(Runs off tearing at his hair, screaming unintelligibly)
Matewis Jubilai
March 13, 2013 at 13:29
Hmmm probably a good thing you never played Star Wars Galaxies. Specifically the trials of Obi Wan….
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 13:33
I actually only allow myself 1 MMO, in fact, I only have 1 character in WoW (I put in many….many hours into my character), my Warlock. Love it to death, even if Blizzard seeks to send me over the edge at every opportunity 😉
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 13, 2013 at 13:48
he he! So no Sims for thee?!
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 13:50
Nah, I was never interested in the Sims, I’d rather watch paint dry. I played it for exactly 2-5 minutes once. Long enough to trap some nice folks in a wall, and let them die of starvation. Beyond that, it just doesn’t appeal to me.
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 13, 2013 at 13:33
Can’t you, uh, just stop playing it if it’s so terrible? Isn’t this the problem we have now with games like Sim City? People moan a hella lot, and a damn loud, but still BUY the game. So EA sit there giggling like nitrogen oxide bunnies listening to us moan and they don’t give a shit. Why would they when they rake in the money?
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 13:48
Well, here’s the thing, and no, I’m not tooting my own horn here. I’m being serious. I haven’t bought the past 2 expansions, and I haven’t paid for game time in close to 2 years….my guild won’t let me quit lol. So many friends, who want me around, not to mention that they consider me to be more than competent at my class.
The other problem is, the amount of time I’ve already invested in the game, and my Warlock is pretty substantial, and it reflects in my gear, achievements and so on. I probably could stop playing yes, but I would consider it an even bigger waste of my time than it already really is lol. Know what I mean?
Sir Captain Rincethis
March 13, 2013 at 13:50
Yeah, I do, was just teasing. It is NICE and important to have a game that makes you happy. I am just getting rather despondent with the gaming community’s lack of backbone when it comes to being pressured into things. If I don’t like a book, take for instance, 50 Shades of Shit, I don’t buy it. But it seems that with games people do, even when they moan about something. Mmm, maybe gamer fatigue?
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 13:53
I haven’t let them pressure me into making an alt, which the entire game is basically designed around now. I refuse. They can make any bonus they want for having multiple characters, and I just won’t do it. I roll pretty effectively with my Warlock, but I’d be far more effective if I didn’t have to constantly study my rotations or change builds because they decided to levy one of their hamfisted nerfs at my class (Warlock is one of the go-to whipping posts in the game).
Edwin le Roux
March 13, 2013 at 13:48
Aaaargh! Can’t WOW just die, so that they can make Warcraft 4?
I played wow for a while (few years). It was fun. But can’t we just end it. Please.
I would really love Warcraft 4.
Yolanda Green
March 13, 2013 at 14:16
A new Warcraft, now there’s an awesome thought.
mornelithe
March 13, 2013 at 14:53
Maybe if you ask Blizz and Activision really nice, they’ll shut down their hundred+ million/month game lol 🙂
Edwin le Roux
March 13, 2013 at 15:03
lol. Ja. Don’t think that’s going to happen.
But that’s the only way I can see them making a wc4 game.
Except if the make wc4 few thousand years after wow.
Melasco
March 13, 2013 at 13:52
I quit WOW after 2 years of hardcore raiding, took too much of my free time. Stopped when WOTLK launched, and only played casually once or twice after that for a month just to see the leveling content. I have not seen kung fu panda, and I’m not interested. Anyways, I can’t see how WOW can work on console, one of the things that made WOW special was the use of lots of abilities and macro’s…
But, that said, I do believe with next gen consoles we’ll see a strong focus on MMO’s, very possibly some cross platform stuff. I’m looking forward to Destiny.. No idea if it will be awesome, but I like the idea!!
Edwin le Roux
March 13, 2013 at 13:57
Was it also a big decision for you to quit wow? I know it was for me.
Melasco
March 13, 2013 at 14:17
Hehe, sure, I missed it, But I loved the extra free time so much that I got over it quickly. Quiting smoking 3 years ago was way harder…
Kromas
March 14, 2013 at 06:34
Lets trade. Console players get wow and we get The Last of us in return.
kennyg
March 20, 2013 at 06:01
The have shown a mmo on a consol DCUNIVERSE ONLINE its free on pc and ps3 and it plays similar to wow in some places.