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Turbine opens up on console MMOGs

By Alex Sassoon Coby, GameSpot UKPosted Aug 14, 2009 4:49 am PT

Lord of the Rings Online developer sees a massively multiplayer move to the living room; talks up possibilities of integrating motion-sensing or music-game peripherals.

EDINBURGH--According to Turbine executive Nathan Jones, the massively multiplayer online gaming genre is only going to expand. Speaking at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today, the Lord of the Rings Online developer's vice president of corporate and business development gave his views on the future of massively multiplayer online games, pointing to social networks and consoles as two expanding frontiers.

MMOGs like Lord of the Rings Online combine social networks with games.

"MMOs offer the best of social networks, virtual worlds, and games," Jones said, with the caveat that there is still room for expansion. He cited his company's own MY LOTRO Web site, which integrates social networking features and game data to enable the firm to maintain "almost continuous engagement" with users. Creating minigames on sites such as Facebook and MySpace also expands the reach of the community and provides a way for new consumers to be reached and drawn into the game, he concluded.

Beyond the expansion of current games, Jones' Edinburgh lecture touched on the lack of MMO games on consoles. He noted that companies are increasingly looking to bring their MMO games to the living room, "whether that's an extension to an existing game or a new one."

When asked about the possibility of integrating peripherals like the Wii Remote or rhythm game controllers, Jones said that this would be tied inexorably with the move to the console. "Once there, it opens up a whole other category of opportunities," he said.               

31 Comments

  • runtheplacered

    Posted Aug 16, 2009 2:00 am PT

    On top of that, LOTRO is definitely the best MMO on the market right now. You can debate whether or not being the best of "basically crap" means anything or not. But, LOTRO definitely isn't "average", since the "average" is somewhere around abysmal.

  • runtheplacered

    Posted Aug 16, 2009 1:58 am PT

    @ tommynj,

    DDO definitely wasn't awful. I'd wager to bet you have never played it. It serves the exact purpose it was intended to serve and you can have fun doing it. I hope you're not judging it as a sandbox MMO. No, of course you're not. You've played it, right?

  • tommynj posted Aug 15, 2009 5:48 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    tommynj

    Posted Aug 15, 2009 5:48 pm PT (hide)

    Turbine may want to learn how to make a good mmo before putting any mmo on the console. Lotro was average at best and Dungeons and Dragons was awful. Though it is good to hear that mmos eventually will be on consoles. I love playing on my 360.

  • Barighm

    Posted Aug 15, 2009 12:09 pm PT

    About time someone else noticed the lack of MMO's on consoles! There are practically none out there, save for one forgotten one and FF11 which is actually a PC MMO ported to console (I hear it doesn't work).

    If somebody would just make a console centric MMO, designed for, and created by developers who specialize in, consoles, I'll bet anything it would totally clean up the console market. And it's not like MMO's don't work for consoles, it's just nobody has tried a console centric design. They keep using PC designs, and of course those don't work too well.

    How about this: a game like Dark Alliance or Champions of Norrath given the MMO treatment? Now that would rock.

  • Zloth2

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 7:31 pm PT

    Oblivion is a shallow gaming experience!? I've got over 100 hours of gameplay that says otherwise. The thing is awesome on the PC with all the mods.

  • sircyrus

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 4:42 pm PT

    And the broader your audience, the less focussed your game is.

    That's exactly the problem with multiplatform gaming. It tries to appeal to everyone, and becomes a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none." A broad-reaching but extremely shallow gaming experience.

    Just like Oblivion. And Thief 3. And the numerous other multiplatform games which have fallen short of expectations, and suffered from PC-specific issues like poor optimization due to multiplatforming (ie: GTA4).

  • xJackelx

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 3:23 pm PT

    In regards to "Console MMO's destroying the PC gaming Industry."

    Software companies will create products that will make them money. Square-Enix has proved this can be done from both a sales and profit potential. They hit multiple markets across multiple platforms and did it without the need for specific console add-ons. Yes it did require the hard-drive for the ps2 (which was included with the game) but the ps2 was not the only option, therefor not making it a requirement to enjoy the game, just enjoying it on that system. A lot of these posts are playing a blame game, it's like saying computer gaming killed Pen-n-Paper and Board Games. The more markets you can hit, the broader your audience can be.

  • sircyrus

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 3:14 pm PT

    So he hopes that multiplatform gaming will hit the MMO in full force.

    For the sake of PC gamers, I hope he is wrong. Multiplatforming is showing itself to be the surest way to destroy the PC gaming industry.

  • dzfunk64

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 3:08 pm PT

    Jagex has confirmed several times that they will be porting RuneScape to consoles, and was the first company to announce such plans, yet there's no news post about it? Why?!

    Quit being so biased about what news you post, GameSpot! I don't understand why you ignore RuneScape, but not these other MMORPGs, when RuneScape is currently the second biggest MMOG (in terms of players).

  • alixkid

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 2:28 pm PT

    Come on Turbine Make a new MMO of AC...Please >

  • Bobzfamily

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 2:00 pm PT

    Back when I was into MMO's and I played half a dozen of them, I'd sy that my favourites were WoW and LOTRO. Turbine's game is so fantastic but bringing it to consoles would meet with failure. The control scheme just wouldn't work with the hotkey schemes.

  • Melty123

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 1:23 pm PT

    LOTRO seemed like a solid game, and I really enjoy LOTR games already on X360 so a LORTO on X360 would be great.

  • Ryuketsu2043

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:56 pm PT

    LOTRO is the best mmo out there at the moment for my. I've always loved turbine

  • ISuPrEmAcY32I

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:51 pm PT

    It is possible to integrate a keyboard onto your 360, at least for use with MSN messenger etc. Maybe they could go the route of bundling a wireless keyboard, which is fairly inexpensive, into the game and for use with the game. I dunno if that would be the most pracitcal, as then you'd basically be playing a pc game through your tv, and really, who wants to sit on their couch with a huge keyboard on their lap. i dunno.

  • starbead

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:29 pm PT

    Would a decent console MMO have to be bundled with a custom controller? Neither MS nor Sony will allow a game to be released for their console that doesn't operate with the default controller (or come bundled with its own). Take WoW, for example. I started on launch day with a Warlock. Got her to around level 52 and deleted her because at the time I didn't know about Cosmos, et al and ran out of spaces for my new abilities. How do you put that many actions on a 360/PS3 contoller? Would people pay $100-150 for an MMO with a custom controller in the box?

  • Cwagmire21

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:03 pm PT

    @somberfox Not necessarily. Now these companies can't get casual gamers to grind for items like WoW players but what about a game similar to Animal Crossing but a MMO? I think you could get some casual gamers into that.

  • xJackelx

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 12:02 pm PT

    All current gen consoles offer USB and Internet support. This is in reply to all those commenting saying you'd need "add-ons for a specific MMO."

    While I can understand MMO's on a PC being superior for custom features, there is nothing wrong with kicking back on your couch and enjoying a night of MMO'ing.

  • somberfox

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 11:58 am PT

    The idea of a Wii mmorpg is hilarious. The casual Wii audience and the hardcore mmorpg audience are completely opposite demographics. A Wii mmo would end up a miserable failure.

  • Trogeton

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 11:46 am PT

    MMOs are awesome

  • console-deity

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 11:35 am PT

    @ Born_Lucky it's more publishers who want to spread MMO's, but yeah we gamers would get screwed if they expanded into our territory.

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