With the popularity of MMOs on PCs and the comparative lack of alternatives on home consoles, Microsoft should be jumping at the chance to get more massively-multiplayer fun on the Xbox 360. However, the company is more concerned with hemming and hawing over how such games would conflict with Xbox Live rather than getting a slice of the action, and Cryptic CCO Jack Emmert is baffled by it.
“Microsoft’s a big company, and they have to work out all the various issues related to MMOs,” explains Emmert. “It just takes time for the big beast known as Microsoft to get moving. I really have no explanation other than that, because it’s as baffling to developers as it is to everyone else.”
An Xbox 360 version of Champions Online is all ready to go, but Microsoft’s insistence on dragging its heels means that Cryptic has no clue when it will hit the system.
“This year? I don’t know,” he states. “Right now we’re just talking with Microsoft. Right now the ball is firmly in their court. We’re ready to go, but until we get the go ahead from Microsoft, right now we’re sort of waiting.”
I’m fairly certain the main issue is that Microsoft doesn’t want a developer making money from Xbox Live if it doesn’t get its cut. I’m sure once Microsoft finds a way to rob and rape its customers even more through MMOs, it will be more than happy to let the genre invade the Xbox 360.
