MTV recently had a quick interview with John Smedley (President of SOE) and he noted that the PSP is a very possible candidate for MMO-type games. “I think PSP is something that we’re definitely looking at; 34 million [sold] worldwide really opens your eyes, and they’re all connected,” Smedley told MTV in an interview following his keynote and panel appearance about the future of MMOGs at the New York Games Conference on Friday.
“We started to get very interested in [the PSP] when we switched over from Sony Pictures to Sony Computer Entertainment back in April,” he explained. “And as we’ve kind of got our heads up looking around the world within Sony Computer Entertainment, we’re really starting to see a big push for PSP. We think it’s a world-class device… In the future, we see full MMOs that are designed for the PSP.”
There are several fallacies to this idea, however. What about updates? A successful MMO is constantly updated with bug fixes, class changes, and new content. Would they push updates to the Memory Stick Duo module? Also, what about the input – MMO games usually have numerous items, bags, and key bindings that will have to be simplified to a great degree for the PSP. It is very difficult to see how this could be truly desirable for play. Sony has yet to officially release it’s keyboard attachment for the PSP that it first showed off earlier this year.
I want to show you a screenshot from my experiences in World of Warcraft. This is one of the most popular MMO’s in the world with more than 10 million subscribers. It is plausible to assume that every single software company who are designing MMO’s emulate aspects of WoW because it is a successful model. The screenshot was taken while fighting Illidan, who is the last boss in Black Temple. To attempt this you need to have a 25-man raid, meaning 25 different players are online and fighting together. Click to enlarge:
This encounter, and this instance is essentially the apex of the game – all of the time spent leveling and advancing your character is to reach this point. Try and imagine this on the PSP – obviously, it would be impossible. The point I am trying to make here is that Sony will probably not release a MMO for the PSP that is too complex, because the hardware simply cannot support the need for a player to manipulate multiple things at once. Will people play a dumbed-down MMO? Perhaps a MAG style game would work, but Sony Insider can’t see anything like WoW or Everquest on the PSP. Sony will face great challenges to make a PSP MMO happen.
Smedley thinks so too, so they want to test the waters with something less. “Maybe one way to do it: In ‘Free Realms,’ you could have a pet-training system that literally connects to our online gaming where you can mess around with your pet,” he said of SOE’s younger-skewing MMO due out next year.
“Another way to do it might be to give them mini-games that they can do [on the PSP] when sitting at a bus stop,” he offered. “You’re sitting there leveling up your character, you log in at home when you’re on wi-fi, and all of sudden your character has leveled up. We think those kinds of experiences are very possible.”
p.s. I don’t raid anymore, and just PVP occasionally. My character’s name is Lotus, on the Echo Isles server.
