WoW a microstep toward Consoles

[Venkman]

Though I am exaggerating when I say "micro"

http://www.ps3land.com/article-611.php

One of the games which makes game companies all over the world green with envy, game companies other than Blizzard that is, is World of Warcraft, currently the most successful MMORPG out there. And according to COO Paul Sams, the fantasy title may be making its way to consoles in the future.

In an interview with Eurogamer.net, Sams talked about porting Warcraft to consoles and what hurdles the companies involved would have to face. "We have an architecture that we've already established, and it's very set. [The platform holders'] architecture is also very set. How well do those match? What kind of compromises do we have to make, and what kind of compromises do they have to make? The list is not short, to be candid," he said

Although console companies are putting more focus on online models and the importance of a hard drive, Sams still cited the hard drive as a potential major issue. Currently the Premium Xbox 360 offers a 20GB HDD and the PlayStation 3 offers either a 20GB or a 60GB HDD, and although both companies have promised the possibility of an upgradeable hard drive in the future, no plans have been announced yet. "One of the key features of a massively multiplayer game, especially WOW, is consistent and regular content updates. They require hard drive space, and there's a finite amount of that on each of those platforms," Sams noted.

The Blizzard exec clearly preferred the PC platform and cited many of the PC's pros during the interview. "What if we have something that needs to be dealt with promptly, a bug that's causing crashes? On PC, we make it, we test it, we deploy it. On console, we could be waiting for days, because you've got to submit and test it. And if they don't like something, we've got to go back to the drawing board." And when you've already got 6 million users who are shelling out $12.99 a month for the privileged to play your game, going back to the drawing board is something that you are temporarily entitled to refuse.

However, amid the hast criticisms for consoles, there's still hope for the gamers who'd like to see World of Warcraft on the PlayStation 3- Sams did not rule out the possibility of World of warcraft coming to consoles. "We've met with Microsoft, we've met with Sony, and we are exploring these things, but the list of challenges is long," he said.

Challenges, many. Opportunities, some. But let's keep dangling this carrot because you can't possibly have enough good hype when an expansion is looming.

[Trippy]

The Blizzard exec clearly preferred the PC platform and cited many of the PC's pros during the interview. "What if we have something that needs to be dealt with promptly, a bug that's causing crashes? On PC, we make it, we test it, we deploy it. On console, we could be waiting for days, because you've got to submit and test it. And if they don't like something, we've got to go back to the drawing board." And when you've already got 6 million users who are shelling out $12.99 a month for the privileged to play your game, going back to the drawing board is something that you are temporarily entitled to refuse.

I don't understand this part. Is he saying they would need to get approval from Sony or Microsoft to push a patch out for their game? Is that what Square Enix has to do for FF XI? Seems unlikely.

[Righ]

No, he's saying that they would have to do it for the many hundreds of expansions that Blizzard have released for WoW to date.

[Furiously]

The Blizzard exec clearly preferred the PC platform and cited many of the PC's pros during the interview. "What if we have something that needs to be dealt with promptly, a bug that's causing crashes? On PC, we make it, we test it, we deploy it. On console, we could be waiting for days, because you've got to submit and test it. And if they don't like something, we've got to go back to the drawing board." And when you've already got 6 million users who are shelling out $12.99 a month for the privileged to play your game, going back to the drawing board is something that you are temporarily entitled to refuse.

I like that he doesn't know how much his customers are paying.

[Dren]

The Blizzard exec clearly preferred the PC platform and cited many of the PC's pros during the interview. "What if we have something that needs to be dealt with promptly, a bug that's causing crashes? On PC, we make it, we test it, we deploy it. On console, we could be waiting for days, because you've got to submit and test it. And if they don't like something, we've got to go back to the drawing board." And when you've already got 6 million users who are shelling out $12.99 a month for the privileged to play your game, going back to the drawing board is something that you are temporarily entitled to refuse.

I like that he doesn't know how much his customers are paying.

He's probably quoting the cost of buying in 6 or 12 month blocks.  They will always tell you that cost and leave out the fact you are basically signing a contract.  It sounds much better that way.

[Venkman]

$12.99 could be the worldwide average. I haven't run these numbers yet thoguh

[schild]

As a gamer, Vivendi embarrasses me.

[Trippy]

$12.99 could be the worldwide average. I haven't run these numbers yet thoguh

Mainland China brings the number way down -- The9 is the operator there and they take a significant cut on top of the price being lower assuming you aren't playing like 60 hours a week (they pay by the minute), then it's about the same price. If you leave out China then the average number may actually be higher than $14.99, depending on how many people buy extended plans, since the Koreans pay quite a bit more than us even after their price drop in April.

[WindupAtheist]

The Blizzard exec clearly preferred the PC platform and cited many of the PC's pros during the interview. "What if we have something that needs to be dealt with promptly, a bug that's causing crashes? On PC, we make it, we test it, we deploy it. On console, we could be waiting for days, because you've got to submit and test it. And if they don't like something, we've got to go back to the drawing board." And when you've already got 6 million users who are shelling out $12.99 a month for the privileged to play your game, going back to the drawing board is something that you are temporarily entitled to refuse.

I like that he doesn't know how much his customers are paying.

Or maybe that fell outside the quotation marks and it's "ps3land" that doesn't know what the fuck it's talking about.

[Venkman]

Mainland China brings the number way down -- The9 is the operator there and they take a significant cut on top of the price being lower assuming you aren't playing like 60 hours a week (they pay by the minute), then it's about the same price. If you leave out China then the average number may actually be higher than $14.99, depending on how many people buy extended plans, since the Koreans pay quite a bit more than us even after their price drop in April.

I'd figure the same thing. In China, it's called "Usage Based Subs" to them (on Page 14), based on how PC Baangs/Internet Cafes operate and the shared royalty arrangement. They figure it's $3.72. If you took the various regions, multiplied the number of people by the amount collected per region and then took the worldwide average, you may be close to $13.

Or he could just not know what the US subscription fee per month was.

[Trippy]

Or he could just not know what the US subscription fee per month was.

Or maybe he's just quoting the European price (12.99 Euros) since it was a European interview :-D

[WindupAtheist]

Then P3n1sLand or whatever is still a pack of morons for using a dollar sign in the figure.