Sony, Microsoft “a difficulty” for MMO developers
In order for MMOs to make more appearances on consoles, both Microsoft and Sony need to have a better understanding of them, Star Trek Online executive producer Craig Zinkievich said in a recent interview with Eurogamer . While bringing Final Fantasy XI , the one MMO on the Xbox 360 right now, as an example — the game is only available because “so many exceptions were made” as the game was released at a time the system was expanding its market share — Zinkievich said getting the two platform holders to “really understand what needs to happen for MMOs, and then figure out all the business aspects of those games” has been something of “a difficulty for all of the MMO developers,” the biggest obstacles being the business side of things. “So when it comes to the business, to how the first-parties support MMOs, and what technologies we need in order to have our games run well, networking-wise and chat-wise and all that sort of stuff – those have been the really big hangups,” Zinkievich explained and added that “ Star Trek Online runs on the consoles right now … it’s that [business] side that I can’t speak for.”