Over on Joystiq, they held an interview with NCsoft’s Executive Producer Brian Clayton, where they talked about NCsoft’s partnership with Sony and the current landscape of MMOs for consoles. During this year’s E3, Sony revealed that NCsoft is now an exclusive first-party developer for Sony.
First, Clayton talked about how the current consolegaming market is ripe for MMOs, "Online console gaming has reached a critical mass and now offers a climate where MMOs can achieve reasonable success. While other MMO console attempts should be applauded for their desire to grow the market, they were well ahead of the connected console gaming wave." Clayton also notes that all current consoles are Internet-ready, so jumping to online gaming should be a breeze.
NCsoft, like Sony, always has numerous MMOs in-development or ongoing simultaneously; for example, NCsoft has Auto Assault, Dungeon Runners, Lineage, Lineage II, Guild Wars, City of Heroes and City of Villains currently running in the MMO landscape.
When asked about an oversaturation of the MMO market, Clayton responded, "NCsoft isn’t the least bit worried about cannibalization in the MMO space. The genre is poised for radical growth (especially on consoles)… Our strategy to heavily invest in new development and IP will continue to grow our position in the market."
Clayton didn’t reveal any initial projects with Sony but hinted at where they’re going, for example the PSP, "We are not announcing our PSP plans yet. But, we see a number of opportunities with the PSP as a standalone MMO or as an extension to our full-blown MMOs on PC and PS3."
Lastly, regarding about price subscriptions for MMOs, Clayton remarked, "I expect we’ll see some existing PC MMO subscription models carry over to console, but there will be plenty of new and innovative subscription and business models introduced regardless of platform."
