Speculation on Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console has ranged from unabashedly positive to very skeptical. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but Funcom lead designer Joel Bylos says that MMORPG fans should be stoked.
“Wii U could be the first real console on which running an MMORPG without compromise is plausible,” Bylos said to Official Nintendo Magazine, “The controller is perfect for lining up those rows of hotbars that are essential in most MMOs. A customizable touchscreen interface combined with the 3D spatial movement of a console controller could be a winner.”
Part of the problem in porting PC MMORPGs to consoles is the heavy amount of user interface and hot keys that are made use of in the PC versions. The touchscreen on the Wii U controller could be used to map a lot of the shortcuts that would traditionally be accessed via keyboard.
With Square Enix already planning to develop Dragon Quest X as a Wii U MMO game, we won’t have to wait too long to find out if the genre and the console are truly a match made in heaven.
