The fact that Destiny is tossing itself into maintenance mode on older consoles got me thinking about the very nature of MMOs on consoles. Honestly, we’ve got more of them around than we have in a long while; long-time games like Star Trek Online are moving to consoles rather than away from them, and of course we have titles like Neverwinter and Final Fantasy XIV to ensure that you can yell at strangers from the comfort of your couch. And hey, more platforms means more potential players, right?
But then again, one of the things that held Final Fantasy XI back for the longest time was the fact that every new system had to still work on the PlayStation 2, a console that has significantly less processing power than your average smartphone. Either you have games that eventually grow beyond the console and have to kick into maintenance mode (such as Destiny) or you wind up shackled to that console hardware forever, even as your options get wider. Consoles, in a way, specifically resist the very changing nature of online games. What do you think? Is console support a bad idea for MMOs?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
