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And this is why MMOs on consoles make sense
ThomasN7
87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690
There is a huge fanbase waiting to play mmos on there and more and more households are finding time to spend time on a console rather than a pc. I know it is hard for the pc elitists to swallow but yes, it is true. These are just stats for the 360, I could image what they are for the ps3. A ton of potential for mmos on a console has more upside than it does on a pc.
According to stats released today by Microsoft, gamers spend more than 40 hours a month on Xbox Live. If you multiply that by the number of Live users (around 25 Million), it adds up to over a billion man-hours a month spent shooting people in the face (and watching movies through Netflix) on Xbox. Amazing!
Also, consider these fact-oids:
In the last year alone there has been a 157 percent increase in the time spent watching movies and television on Xbox.
42 percent of Xbox LIVE Gold members in the US are watching an average of an hour of television and movies on their Xbox, every single day or more than 30 hours of digitally distributed television and movies a month.
Access to Xbox LIVE is expanding from 26 countries to 35 this November.
That first stat is pretty interesting: A huge increase in time spent watching movies and TV on Xbox. Have you found this to be true? Are you or your Xbox-having-friends watching more movies on Xbox lately? I know I have been.
Link: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/708326/Gamers-Spend-Over-A-Billion-Hours-A-Month-On-Xbox-Live.html
Comments
Um, in order to multiply that "40 hours a month" by "25 million", wouldn't you first have to show that EVERY one of those 25 million are playing 40 hours a month?
I have a PS3 and an Xbox 360. They sit gathering dust 90% of the time while I play all non-exclusive games on the PC.
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The point is that Microsoft has 25 mill spending time on their console and that is more than double of the largest subscription based mmo. Also Microsoft expansion to 9 more countries to purchase a 360 and these are not even including ps3 numbers. My 360 collects dust too sometimes but not all the time like some like to believe. Believe me when console mmos like Dust 525 and Undead Labs Zombie mmo start hitting the console the potential is going to skyrocket far greater than any pc mmo. I mean , I still love my pc to bunches but if there wa sa really good console mmo to play I would drop the pc like a bad habit. I am sure those 25+million 360 owners would feel the same way.
I think Age of Conan and Champions Online shows perfectly just how big of a market there is to play MMO's on consoles.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Every new next gen console that comes out brings it closer to a PC. In the near future you will be seeing a hybred Lanbox sitting under your TV. WHY because consoles have serious limitations in there present state compared to PCs.
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Huh ? It isn't like consoles don't get upgraded to support better features and applications. Maybe not s fast as pcs but eventually they do.
Of course but consoles are always one step behind.
You can't cite as evidence people watching shows and movies through their consoles for proof that people will want to play mmos through them as well.
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Consoles don't need to have the same hardware, consoles are built to support only games. They aren't running an operating system that has 40 services running in the background. They aren't meant to run games that have to have tons of different files programmed to support lots of different hardware types. When you play a game on a console, the game is optimized for that console.
One step behind has nothing to do with being able or not being able to run MMOs. One of the first MMOs was on console... way back before The Xbox, PS3, or Wii had ever been introduced.
As for the OP, I bought a second Xbox for my wife JUST so she could watch Netflix. Now that PS3 and Wii allows us to watch netflix on them too, I'm cancelling her Xbox live and she can just watch on the PS3. Eventually I'll end up building a media center PC to do all this, but until then, this is our best option.
Most of my friends have netflix and do the same too. Apparently this is a new feature that is just starting up in canada, and my cousin is psyched about it. I always said the console market could be where the next big game like WoW hits. So many players, and an almost untapped market. It could be huge.
Well, I think there is some merit to it. Watching netflix, and that you have to buy an xbox live subscription to watch netflix shows that people are willing to subscribe monthly for something they see a value in. Likewise with the PSN. I prefer the PSN subscription as I get free games and stuff like that, and it isn't required to watch netflix but it is required to watch Hulu.
Anyways, I guess a good indicator is past MMOs that HAVE released on console. PSU has shut down their PC version, but the 360 version is still up because it still has subscribers. FFXI in its hayday had more Playstation subscribers then it did PC subscribers. (granted that most of the subscribers were from the east, and western subscribers preferred the PC.)
Needless to say I feel the market is there, I just don't feel the right MMO has cropped up to give people the feeling of what a great MMO can be on console. I hope DCUO changes that, as I don't feel FFXIV will.
The day any game I play lets console kiddies in is the day I unsubscribe.
I believe that you can make MMOs with success for the consoles as well as for PC.
Consoles and PCs are not worse or better, they are different. Both have many players and both have a potential for online gaming.
All that said, porting MMOs from PC to consoles is a big mistake. Console games needs to be made for a console with different mechanics than PC MMOs. Porting Wow to consoles will not get you million of players for it, console owners does not want the same kind of games and the PS3/X-Box controllers demands a different combat system, something closer to TERA than Wow.
There have been some less successful MMOs on consoles so far but if someone makes a good MMO with the right mechanics they can make a lot of money, so far is however Jeff Strains Zombie labs the only one that seems to be heading the right way.
Compromises between PC and consoles that are released for both can only end in disaster like FF XIV.
I do not agree with OPs reasons really, moving the MMOs to PC just because many people have consoles wont work. Consoles needs to get their own kind of MMOs and it needs to handle questing, combat mechanics and controls very different from what we are used to,
So there aren't any kiddies that play on the pc ? Talk about being jaded lol. The whole point is that there is a huge amount of people that play on a console that potentially can be mmo subscribers if a mmo is well done.
I'll start with; I'm not a PC elitist.
I just dont think MMOs translate that well to a console controller. They dont, its a fact. There are a few others, hard drive space. Lack of mouse and keyboard.
And then theres the numbers youre throwing around.
All they show is an increase in the amount of hours watching movies and TV for xbox users, and has very little to no relevance to your post than it implies that they will become MMO subscribers. There is zero correlation between Xbox TV watchers and converting them to MMO players, zero.
Why should a PC MMO developer invest into that small of a market? Here are some hard facts. There are ~25 million Xbox live users. There are a confirmend 13 million MMO players (those are WoW and Eve hard numbers). Now if we can extrapolate some averages from the Western MMO community (less WoW and Eve). I'd guess there are about another 3 million who play MMO's, but dont subscriber to either of those two (and thats probably lowballing the numbers).
Now lest take the Eastern MMO community, less Wow and Eve. And I'd say there are 5 million subscribers easy, and I'b bet closer to 7-8 million. Only thing I can go off of is an aritcle I read about 3 or 4 years ago that said MMO's are about twice as popular in the East as in the West.
Now here is some very nebulous thinking. How many PC gamers are there? And what percentage of those who game on a PC also play MMO's?
All I can go off of is my real life example. I know 23 people who game on a PC (some on a console too), only 3 of those people play MMO's. What is that about 13%?
So if we take that number an apply that to the XBox live subscribers, that gives a potential 3.25 million console MMO subscribers. Thats all, more or less just 1/4 of the current WoW subscribers. And what, about 9%-13% of just PC MMO gamers world wide. Thats a small number Saint.
Thats why AoC dropped its dual platform release and CO too. There is barely a market for it, (or no market when youre talking investing 10 of millions of dollars).
And you know what, I bet the percent of console MMO players would be closer to 5%-7% max. Its just a completley different gaming mindset/community.
And just so you know Dust 514 isnt a MMO, its more of a persistant FPS tied into a MMO.
Now all that being said, if this new console zombie MMO does well, it may open up the door, or make the console community more receptive to MMO's. Course it may also pull them away from the console platfrom and into the PC platform for MMO gaming.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
You mean like Dust514, Undead Labs zombie mmo and Turbines console mmo ? All being made specifically for the console.
Believe me the pc mmo is not going anywhere, it is still going to be here but consoles will ultimately be a way to enhance the mmo genre if they do it right.
Actually, I'll agree and say there is a large, untapped MMORPG market out there and fhe first company that can deliver a good product like WOW on them is gonna be a legend. (and no, sorry FF fans, SE missed) Surprised that Blizzard chose to ignore this market though, not like them to miss an opporunity to make money.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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I do not own a TV. I do not own a gaming console. I own a computer. I understand that I am not "usual". I listen to NPR while playing EVE or whatever game I happen to be playing. I do have NetFlix, but I watch it on my computer. If I would like to watch a show, I have Netflix, HULU, or even Amazon.com. I don't need a TV or a console.
With that said...there are quite a few games on XBOX LIVE that do intrigue me. But, I haven't decided if I will get one yet.
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That day has pretty much already come. Those console kiddies equate to a fat paycheck for someone higher-up in the gaming world like Bobby Kotick.While you're sitting atop your perch, you should also notice that many popular MMOs already have a swelling population of people who could be referred to as console kiddies.
I for one am looking forward to the day that I don't have to sit tightly locked to my monitor during a raid or pvp brawl, and can kick back lazily in the living room to further enjoy myself. There is something about console gaming that is just more social and relaxing, and as consoles are basically becoming little pcs, it's only a matter of time IMO.
A forum i use that is for watching movies and tv on PC has over half a million members, if i were use the thinking in the OP does that mean they are potential MMO players too? Silly thinking is silly.
You want to get filthy rich?
Explaine to Blizzard how you would port WoW's mouse and keyboard input to a hand held console controller?
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
You want to get filthy rich?
Explaine to Blizzard how you would port WoW's mouse and keyboard input to a hand held console controller?
Most next gen consoles already have more than one USB port, so really mouse and keyboard is still possible, or the controller for movement and action, then the keyboard for chat/hotkeying. Seems easy enough to me to find a solution.DCUO is shaping up to be a pretty good PC/Console release. On various facebook pages and fan sites you see a pretty equal distribution of people buying it for Console vs PC. Unfortunately they won't be able to share servers, which had better be the next step in console MMOs. The company that can sucessfully bring PC gamers and Console gamers to the same world will be the big winner I think.
Unfortunately, until console memory limitations are overcome, I also fear that any MMO that aspires to be on both platforms will be inherently sub-standard when compared to the Giants of PC MMO history.
I'm currently playing an mmo that plays on both console and computer <no not FF>.
Its a good game BUT its not what we have grown accustomed to on PC.
The amount of customization and game play in general is MUCH more limited on a console then on a PC. Character creation or selecting skills is going to be the same way. Much more limited when you only have so many buttons to press on a controller.
If you don't mind that sort of game then good for you, however I prefer the mmorpgs to stay computer only for the robustness.
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So what youre more or less saying is that a console owner should just turn his console into a PC? Why not just buy a PC it has way more utility than a console.
And to answer your response;
I'm not disagreeing with you, once they turn a console into a mini-box PC you'll probably see MMO's porting over. But until then, it really is futile and a waste of money for the developers to try and simplifiy the games input to work with the limitations of a console controller.
Thats why you havent seen a major cross-over/dual porting release
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."
Hey, I really hope they succeed, and there is no sarcasm in that statement.
But did they have to comproimise player choice and variety to work within the limitations of the console? I hope not, because if they simplify the game play it may hurt them in the long run, at least when it comes to PC subscribers.
"I understand that if I hear any more words come pouring out of your **** mouth, Ill have to eat every fucking chicken in this room."