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Cultivating a fully social MMO will be the biggest problem facing MMOs on console, according to Guild Wars 2’s global brand manager Chris Lye.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com, Lye explained the ArenaNet team have tested the waters of a Guild Wars 2 console port.
“We’ve dabbled with console. It isn’t an active priority right now because we’re making so much progress with Guild Wars 2 on the PC that we want to push all the resources specifically onto PC at this point.”
However, he described that it’s a difficult venture.
“But to speak about console gaming for MMOs, based on the experiences that I’ve had with other console based MMOs I think the biggest problem is creating that social glue that makes MMOs so special, that make them sticky and want to pull you back into that community,” Lye stated.
“I really, I’ve yet to see a console MMO that does a really great job of that, like finding new friends, making parties easy, making communication between party members or guild members fun.”
In response to how well an MMO would work with a controller, Lye added: “I think that is the biggest challenge. I think the mechanics of fighting can work just fine with a game controller. Can the social glue work without a keyboard? That still remains to be seen.”
ArenaNet is currently working on a Guild Wars 2 app that will give users the ability to chat to their in-game friends and see where they are located on a map.
