Once they have a keyboard and mouse combo (I honestly think this is what holds them back) then they will buy market share with WOW on 360 or something to that nature (if it already isn’t happening).

Never underestimate MS and their ability to bank roll. They have the time, leverage and money to chip away at an industry very slowly, but gradually getting better. If you would have told me 5 years ago MS would have a great RPG console, better than the current Sony console I would have laughed. Instead now I am loving mass effect, lost oddessy and blue dragon, although not my style of rpg, was very well done.

Sony is behind on console online infrastructure, I honestly hope they are not so far behind as not to give MS any competion (which of course is great for us game purchasers) but MS is really thinking ahead with the 360, just look at how far XNA has come in a year. Hell, if I had the hands and manpower I COULD create the next best MMO on the 360 and spread it around the net by myself.

This:

“Sont doing ok and Microsoft is a failure in gamespace”

should read this:

“Sony doing ok and Microsoft is a failure in MMO gamespace”

This fact colours their entire business (it even explains Vistas lackadaisical start in life, but that’s off-topic here really). Microsoft has some very smart people working for it, and that extends in to MGS, but Microsoft the company just doest “get” gaming as a whole.

Here’s an example: Live to Microsoft is a corporate strategy to get “MS” into the living room. They want people downloading (read: buying) media from them directly and to “own” the living/lounge room. The fact that you can use it to play games over was just a side effect, the core of Live (from a MS perspective) is media distribution, sales and subscription income.

This is the core of the situation at the moment with Blizzard a success, Sont doing ok and Microsoft is a failure in gamespace: Blizzard are gamers that got into business, Sony is corporate, but their focus has always been consumer, not enterprise and Microsoft is business trying to get into gaming…

As to MMO’s on consoles, I’m really not sure how I feel about it. I wasn’t happy with how Bethesda cosolized (new word alert) Oblivion even for the PC version – not that it can’t be done well but I think a lot more effort has to go into making a good console experience.

The other side is the limited life of the console. An MMO that takes 4 – 5 years to develop and then goes onto a console that has a set life before the next generation comes out is a risky proposition.

This could be different in a marketplace that seems to be moving away from subscription based payments (in fact I think that for an MMO to be successful on a console you’d almost need to have no subscriptions – I’m imagining an awful future for the 360 where not only do you have to pay for your gold account but also pay a monthly MMO sub).

I also worry about the average Halo 3 smack talking player wandering into one of the worlds I play in and destroying the experience with their greater internet f&^kwad behavior (I know these people exist on the PC as well – but I tend to find it much easier to encounter them on the consoles). The console experience would need to be carefully tuned to funnel these players with their own kind while allowing those of use with the ability to think before we speak to enjoy the game without encountering them.