Console MMOs Could Be A Reality In 2-3 Years

Monumental Games, a UK developer currently occupied with Football Superstars and Capcom’s Moto GP 09/10, commented in a recent interview on the possibility of making a successful MMO on a console and its economic reliability. CEO Rik Alexander said:

"I think the big players will start moving into console MMOs now that the format holders are moving in themselves and releasing the ability to do console MMOs: like billing, who gets the share, do they have to use PlayStation Store, what's the royalty share, hard-drive downloads and so on."

"Now those hurdles have been gone through then everybody's going to be moving into it. I think it'll be 2-3 years before the main players, or rather the normal players get into it. But we want to just be part of the solution, so we'll be 2-3 years into knowing about console MMOs before anybody else thinks about it."

The only successful console MMO up to date has been Final Fantasy XI, and even that one has been a relative success. The upcoming APB has already delayed its console version having the PC port coming up first. Age of Conan is also a project that is listed for an Xbox 360 release.

As Alexander states, the viability of an MMO is subject to the deal the developer can make to assure the game support with either Xbox Live and PlayStation Network with the same features as the PC version. Another question would be: Do players that pay for the online service for the console have to add up another sum for the MMO?