While I'm not personally interested in any of the above games, I am concerned whether this is 'the way forward' for future development. We know that late 2009 AoC is due on the Xbox (hur hur) and Sony are big players in the MMORPG market.
I hate console controllers and it doesn't help with communication unless its all intended to be over headsets (immersion anyone?) so this development isn't promising.
On the other hand, games would be more likely to be finished and polished before release simply because that’s what the console audience demands unlike the mess we generally see on release of new MMOs for the PC.
Comments?
It's a bit of a mixed bag. I think someone is bound to try the "PC and Console together in one MMO" thing either openly or with a volunteer/in-house gamer set-up. It broadens subscribers for one, and is something some gamers have pressed for - especially with WoW and LoTRO.
Patches will be patches, and I doubt there's any getting around it, as it's part of the MMO deal, but the on-shelf product will be solid and it forces devs to have a finished game-world AND mechanics.
It could end up lowering the quality of some of these things for a launch/finished product, with upgraded content in patches rather than initially.
I probably wouldn't play a console version of a MMO unless I was hard-strapped for equipment or system requirements. Granted consoles could tackle the strain, I'm just old-fashioned and prefer a PC.