The Future of MMOs: I’m in your console, being massively multiplayer

We all know MMOs are extremely popular these days. Games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest are dominating the PC market, and causing thousands of gamers to be painfully attached to their computers. These games have enormous potential, yet traditionally, they tend to be exclusively available to the PC. But will that always be the case? What is the future of MMOs? Can we expect to see an increase in console MMOs?

Recently, Sony Online Entertainment has been very vocal about the future of their MMOs: they’re going to be featured on Sony’s two consoles, the PS3 and PSP. Although SOE is still going to be producing MMOs for the PC, consoles will play a large role in future releases. And those releases already have big names, including The Agency, DC Universe, and Massive Action Game.

But that is only Sony. There have been rumors of a Halo MMO for Xbox 360 recently, though the rumors have been dispelled by the closing of Ensemble. So it seems that unlike Sony, Microsoft does not seem to have any definite plans for console MMOs. Then again, Microsoft’s focus has never been in that realm, so perhaps that’s understandable. But will they in the future?

A shot from the canceled Halo MMO

Truth be told, with WoW and EverQuest (and now Warhammer Online as well) dominating the market, I think that in order to be successful, future MMOs will have to move to consoles. Though PC versions will undoubtedly be released, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more PS3 MMO titles. After all, the graphical potential of the console is far greater than a computer, and although a keyboard (obviously) has more buttons than a controller, an interface panel similar to the one in Halo Wars may help to solve some of the problems in translating MMOs from the PC to console.

StarCraft MMO?

And, although they’ve said that WoW wouldn’t translate well onto the console, Blizzard hasn’t ruled out the possibility of creating console MMOs. So it’s highly possible that we could be seeing a StarCraft MMO for one of the next-gen consoles. And how exciting would that be?

So although the future of MMOs is a bit unclear, it is fair to say that popular PC MMOs will not fade away gently, though console MMOs should put up a fight and become much more common. We should be seeing where the market goes in the near future, and I’ll be waiting in line to buy whatever console MMO comes out next.