Since its conception, the MMOG genre has been primarily on the PC, but there are those in the industry that feel a migration to consoles is inevitable. This has already happened to some degree with Everquest Online Adventure for the Playstation 2 and Final Fantasy XI on Playstation 2 and Xbox 360. If these two have been running on consoles, why then have so few other MMOGs ported to support console play? There are a number of reasons that the PC remains the dominant platform for MMOG gaming.

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style="font-style: italic;">Everquest Online Adventures is an MMORPG created for the Playstation 2.

Communication peripherals have been a major drawback in the past for console MMOGs. Previously, there effective way for gamers to communicate in an MMOG world, not to mention the lack of a built in internet connectivity feature that modern consoles like the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 currently have. Older consoles, like the Playstation 2, required you to buy adaptors in order to access the internet. This was a turn off to some people in an age where online gaming was still in its infancy.

Another drawback that consoles once faced that is now becoming less of a problem is the fact that MMOGs are often complex games that require players to use hotbars and macros to land a number of skills they gain through character progression. Keyboards were also the main form of communication between MMOG gamers as text chat was in the past the main form of communication. Controller shortcuts and using the controller to type a message with an on screen virtual keyboard wasn’t the most effective method of communication for a console MMOG. However, with most consoles offering keyboard support, other peripherals, and voice chat functions, communication and hotkeys for more complex games are becoming less of an issue.

Communication and hotbar issues aside, another big problem for porting console MMOGs is the updating process. We all know how our PC MMOGs receive constant patches and free content updates, the issue with this on a console is simply hard drive space. Many MMOGs currently have a client size anywhere from 10-30gb in size and when you throw in constant patches and free content updates that can get even bigger. How to do these patches is another issue, but obviously one that can be worked out as Everquest Online Adventure and Final Fantasy XI have proven. This can become an issue for consoles that only support 10-20gb hard drives, but that is changing as the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 Elite consoles have shown with much larger hard drive options.

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style="font-style: italic;">The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 are more accessible to MMOGs than previous consoles.

Another hurdle for developers is the fact that porting a game onto a console, be it the Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360, is the business model. Developers have to pay platform fees to Sony and Microsoft to bring the game to their system, but if the game is running a subscription-based model, it’s very likely those two companies are going to want a cut. Something developers don’t have to worry about on the PC.

It’s not all bad though. Consoles provide one thing that can make developers lives a lot easier and that is a universal system spec. While computers can range in all kinds of variations, consoles offer one simple specification that everyone uses and that alone can mean a lot less work for developers. Consoles are also a lot cheaper and more accessible to many gamers than a new expensive PC rigged for the latest gaming specs. This is something companies like Sony and Turbine plan to take advantage of in the future.

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style="font-style: italic;">The Agency is just one MMOG that will be available for console play.

At this year’s GDC Austin, Turbine's Vice President of product development, Craig Alexander, headed a discussion about the potential importing of MMOGs to consoles. During the discussion, pie-chart graphs were used to outline MMOG growth by 2011. Projections have MMOGs making up over 40% of the PC gaming market by that time and over 15% of the console market, each providing over $2 billion in revenue. So the incentive for developers is certainly there for an almost virtually untapped market. However, that market won’t remain untapped for very long. Already a number of MMOGs are targeting a console release. Age of Conan, Champions Online, Final Fantasy XIV, and The Agency are just some of the games that will be aiming to make their debut on consoles.

Times are changing for both developers and players. Pretty soon MMOGs will be common place on consoles. Text chat will take a back seat to voice chat and those that once enjoyed its silence will have reality come crashing down on fantasy when the burly deep voice of a man named Bubba, who has been controlling the super hot female elven avatar they have been gawking at for the last hour, speaks and totally ruins the moment. While there are some issues that platforms and developers still need to work out, the barriers that have been keeping MMOGs from becoming common on consoles are slowly falling. Like it or not, our world is about to get a whole lot bigger.