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 Shahed Ahmed
News Editor
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Get Your Wallets Ready for Online Gaming

Remember September 6, 2000? That's the day Sega released NFL 2K1, the first console sports game to include a relatively successful online component. What about January 30, 2001? Sonic Team's Phantasy Star Online hit North American retailers that day, becoming the first online console role-playing game to enjoy both critical and commercial success (of course, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for the PlayStation 2 deserves a mention as well, even if Sony isn't providing an official modem and matchmaking service for it yet). All those dates and the associated games will become significant footnotes in the history of console games, because, among other milestones, they also mark the last time that you'll be playing online console games free of charge. Whether it is on the Xbox, PS2, or GameCube, you will have to pay to play online console games--get very comfortable with the idea. PC users have been paying to play server-based massively multiplayer games for years, and that formula is coming to consoles sooner than you think.

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Will you pay the projected $10 a month to play Final Fantasy XI online?
Both Sony and Microsoft will launch their respective online services around the same time in early 2002. Neither has discussed specifics about pricing, availability, or supply scenarios. But if I were to take a guess, I could easily imagine a preset monthly ISP fee that will cover non-server sports, racing, and action games and individual fees for server-based massively multiplayer role-playing games such as Final Fantasy XI and the like. Naturally, on top of the online access fees, you'll have to continue to pay for the games themselves at retail. Things could get very expensive, very quickly. To top it off, the official services from Microsoft and Sony will likely support only a broadband connection, which means that if you are one of the 90 percent of the people on the Net who access it with a narrowband connection, you're out of luck. Of course, I haven't even mentioned the price that PS2 owners will have to pay for the Ethernet adapter and likely the hard drive to play online games on that console.

Another issue is the problem with creating an online consumer base for consoles in the first place, because that demographic skews considerably younger than the PC market. How do you get little Timmy to pay for the ISP service and then dish out extra cash for each individual MMORPG? The allowance money isn't going to cover it. The publishers and console makers are throwing around a variety of ideas, but the one that has seemed to stick thus far is a prepaid-card service. Each console manufacturer would provide a prepaid card that would provide its holder access to online games on its respective consoles. Parents could put any amount of cash on the card and let the kids decide how to spend it. The idea sounds like a solid one on the surface, but it is still an untested business plan. Will parents be willing to pay hefty fees on the front end for these cards to keep the kids happy and playing online games for months?

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Will promising games like PlanetSide be released on console platforms?
These are questions to ponder as you start saving up money to play console games online. But all is not lost in the realm of online console games. The fact is that there are quite a few high-profile online games headed to consoles. Of the ones announced, Final Fantasy XI is probably the highest profile, but there are also games such as the GameCube version of Phantasy Star Online and Infogrames' Unreal Championship for the Xbox. Then there are games that began their life on the PC, but will likely end up on consoles. Sony Online, and in particular Verant Interactive, is gearing up to make a huge push on the PlayStation 2 very soon. The company has yet to announce anything officially, but franchises such as EverQuest, Star Wars Galaxies, and PlanetSide are prime candidates to appear on Sony's console. I asked a company executive recently whether those games would appear on the PS2, and I was given the vague answer of, "We haven't made any specific decisions, but Sony Online and SCEA are after all part of the same company and there is definitely opportunity [on the PS2] for us." Take that as you will. Also, Microsoft knows the PC space and online multiplayer games quite well, and it is working with both internal and external studios to bring a variety of such games to the Xbox next year. And Nintendo would be remiss not to release an online version of Pokémon, wouldn't it?

Whatever the case, there will be tons of great online games in 2002 and onward. You need to start saving up now if you want to be able to afford the payments involved in playing these games.
 

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