Yesterday, big news hit the gaming world. Blizzard finally set a date Reaper of Souls’ release. But this is not the only big news on the horizon: Consoles may finally see a serious MMO company bringing it’s titles to them.
First, let’s get the Diablo 3 news out of the way: There are going to be 2 release dates for this game. On March 25th, PC gamers will be able to get their hands on this new Act V of the title, as well as all the tweaks being added, both in the original game via a timed update patch, and just for players who buy the expansion. Having had the opportunity to see some of this by chance (I happened to be visiting a friend who bought a virtual ticket to Blizzcon 2013 with Max to help fix his gaming PC while he had the feed running on his laptop), I can confirm there are going to be a LOT of changes to this title, and they all look to make the a good game a lot better.
In addition to this release date, the expansion will hit at least one console shortly after. PS4 will be getting an Ultimate Evil Edition of the game, which will include the main game, the expansion, and all the updates releasing for both PC side just for them. PS4 gamers will also get another rather interesting benefit that PC usually takes for granted: Since you need PS+ to play online anyway on the new system, gamers will be able to use that to transfer their saved game from the PS3 to the PS4 and play on like PC gamers getting the expansion!
However, there is new news which, while not as focused has the potential to be a lot longer lasting. Perfect World is looking to expand it’s business into the console world. Why is this such big news? If you know anything about them, they are currently one of the biggest companies to run free to play MMO titles. They have given no news about what they plan on doing exactly yet, or where, but the only attempts at bringing these games to console last generation resulted very few titles and very mixed results.
And while F2P and/or MMOs are not new to consoles, they are still very rare, basically numbering in a few F2P titles made for the consoles exclusively (usually bad), a couple games from Sony being pushed through on their console, and Final Fantasy 11/14. There was a Phantasy Star at one time on 360, but even that is long gone. These are just not games that have made the transition from the PC well. With any luck, those of us who like to see more people able to play more games will see this change this generation, and this will be the first step.
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