Blizzard: World of Warcraft Not for Consoles
If Blizzard is to make an MMO for a console, it won't be World of Warcraft.
While some game developers who have traditionally been making franchises for the PC have ported its games to find great success on consoles such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Blizzard isn't ready to jump on that wagon just yet.
The World of Warcraft is undoubtedly the juggernaut of the online PC gaming world, but Blizzard isn't so keen on the idea of trying to cash in on console gamers just yet.
G4TV asked World of Warcraft lead producer J. Allen Brack what may be stopping MMO's from crossing over into the world of consoles.
"I think there's a lot of reasons," said Brack. "There's not one thing. One is, it takes a long time to develop an MMO. The lifecycle of consoles being what they are, you have to really time when your console's going to come out, what its projected lifecycle is going to be with when your game is going to be, which is challenging."
Blizzard launched World of Warcraft in November 2004, a year before the Xbox 360 hit the market, and two years before the debut of the PlayStation 3.
Even if Blizzard had considered putting World of Warcraft on the then-state-of-the-art consoles, the company would be facing technical challenges today that it doesn't encounter on the PC and Mac. Brack listed patching challenges and differing quality control standards to what Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo enforces.
"All those things sort of raise the bar in terms of the challenges and then specifically in the case of WoW, WoW was designed to be a keyboard game and its control scheme and its camera controls and the number of abilities that you have and the spells and how things work are very keyboard-centric," Brack added. "The idea of translating that to a gamepad is a very, very challenging proposition."
Brack admitted, however, that Blizzard often considers an MMO product for consoles, but it's not going to be one related to the current World of Warcraft. In a near-conclusive statement, Brack said, "I think it's unlikely that WoW comes to the consoles."
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MMO's suck and i played WoW on 3 seperate occasions and never really had that much fun. only fun i ever had was leveling and i dont know why. I realized how much time i wasted inside during the summer months. Recently ive gotten outside and i feel great. Physical exercise releases endorphins so it makes you feel better. the theme of my rant? game in moderation and go outside.
If a developer can get a big MMO to work effectively on any console they will make a mint! The biggest problem is mapping the complicated MMO controls to a joypad. I know several people that have tried that in reverse, use an XBox controller to control an MMO, and it's almost impossible.
The real time control needed to play an MMO is difficult to replicate on the limited buttons of a pad. The MMO would need to be developed from the ground up to work on a console... porting an existing MMO would be difficult...
why not bundle the console port with a keyboard? (sort of like guitar hero that's bundled with a guitar!) that way, when you buy the game you will experience the same controls as on a pc.. if the price is not too prohibitive, that is..
why not bundle the console port with a keyboard? (sort of like guitar hero that's bundled with a guitar!) that way, when you buy the game you will experience the same controls as on a pc.. if the price is not too prohibitive, that is..
You also need a mouse and most console gamers don't sit at a desk where the mouse/keyboard is easy to use.
Maybe a hybrid control system is the answer, but if I could design a good solution, it wouldn't be here musing I'd be