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Square's Next MMOG For PS3/Windows
Gamespot reports that Square/Enix's next Massively Multiplayer Online Game will be a PS3/Windows Vista title. From the article: "While talking up Treasures of Aht Urhgan--the game's latest expansion--FFXI producer Hiromichi Tanaka commented that his team is now working on a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game for Windows Vista and the PlayStation 3. He also shared his thoughts on porting games to new hardware, including bringing FFXI to the PS3 as well as the PlayStation Portable." More details are likely at E3. Update: 04/20 14:03 GMT by Z : Link fixed.
From the article
huh?
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
- a new video game
- it will be released
- sometime between now and the destruction of the universe
link to article: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6147946.html
Oddly enough the article http://www.gamespot.com/news/6147946.html says "The Xbox 360 operating system shares enough similarities with Windows, he said, so that porting the Windows version of FFXI to the 360 was a fairly quick task. A PS3 version of FFXI, on the other hand, would require redeveloping the game almost from scratch, a process that Tanaka estimated would take two or three years."
Which is virtually the opposite. So why are they annoucing it for the PS3 then saying it could take a few extra years to get on the PS3. A few years time between PC launch and PS3 launch would be death to the PS3 launch. Rather pointless really.
FFXI did very well for a MMO, prior to WoW and Lin2 it was the 2nd best selling MMO of all time and is still number 4 at 650,000. Likewise they still are turning a huge profit, enough of one that their Japanese players got a second strategy based MMO called Fantasy Earth not long after, though SE wont release it here cause there is little market for a strategy based MMO in their opinions on the NA market.
EQ isn't even close in the number of people they had at the most popular, and that was considered the "to beat" game for years in the MMO circle.
People want MMO's on the smaller systems. All of them sept Gamecube can accept keyboards and the controller is remarkably good in player movement, much better than the mouse or keys are, especially when you consider its not a FPS that requires precision just movement of character/camera. If Blizzard could have gotten their head out of their asses they would have known this, but then the company cant even get Ghost out, and from all indications have no interest in the market, only in the PC/Mac market.
If SE can put out a game similar to FFXI that works with the hard-cores, while keeping in the improvements they made in the last year in updates/new expansion that caters to the casuals with easy XP, solo and small group (3-4) oriented content AND put it out for the PS3/360/Vista, they will have a goldmine by the time it comes out, unless Blizzard can get their act together and see that computer gaming is on its way out.
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To upgrade my OS to Vista purely for games, and I also will not get caught up in the 360/PS3 and attached format war, so it looks my only gaming will be XP Pro and the Revolution with the DS for portability for some time.
Vista offers nothing of value or interest and I really don't see a mass switch to Vista happening so the least amount of sales MS sees should hopefully stop this new "trend" of claiming new games will be Vista-only.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
Handheld MMOs are the future. As we begin to see more and more wifi access being readily available, what's really going to sell the handheld systems - especially in Japan - is going to be the wave of online rpgs coming forth. (I'm referring to the PSP and the DS, since those two are the only systems I am aware of with wifi connectivity). Yes yes, I am aware the DS is selling very well in Japan, but just wait untill something like pokemon the mmo comes out for the DS. You won't be able to stock the shelves fast enough. That is, of course, if they don't have any problems running their MMO servers...
Some of us quit playing World of Timesink and FFXI because both games had the capacity to eat our schedules whole. I got into a high-level raiding guild last college quarter, and I had to quit two weeks into the quarter because I realised that I wasnt going to be able to participate in everything they did and still go to all my classes.
The problem that I had with FFXI was their requirement of a 5-person party for everything. I didnt enjoy having to sit in zones typing "42THF LFP" for an hour so that I could spend 30 minutes getting crap experience before someone screwed up and wiped the entire group. Skilled parties in FFXI were so few and far between for me that I clearly remember what the party was composed of, and why it didnt suck.
There was also a huge problem I had with the subjob eliteists who would not accept me into their party without a specific job/subjob combination. It was really annoying getting invited, then removed because I was subbing Warrior and they wanted that extra 4 DEX from an offhand. Nevermind that my damage from Sneak/Trick was capped anyway, so even if I had more +DEX/+AGI gear, I could never actually break the cap.
Finally, I quit playing THF and started leveling WAR, then eventually I just quit because I realised that there was nothing I could do with less than an 8 hour time investment.
Both games have their problems. WoW's problem centers more around the complete lack of casual content. They say they're designing a casual-friendly game, then they turn around at endgame and dont release any dungeons for less than 20 people. When they do release small-group endgame dungeons, the equipment provided is not consistent with the rest of the endgame. Their solution to casual-friendly playing is to not give casuals any decent equipment. Then they dont seperate people into different battlegrounds, so the hardcore players grind casuals all day.
SRSLY.