Blizzard: WoW for PS3, 360 is a 'square peg, round hole thing'

Posted Aug 27, 2008 at 2:36PM by QJ Staff Listed in: PS3, MMORPG, Xbox 360 Tags: Blizzard, Hideo Kojima, J. Allen Brack, Square Enix, Tom Chilton

Apparently, some people are still thinking of the viability of having World of Warcraft on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Well, it's one of the most successful MMORPGs of all-time, so maybe porting it over to other platforms is a good thing, for financial reasons (if you're following Square Enix's line of thought).

However, running parallel to Hideo Kojima's statement yesterday (about MGS4 being impossible for the Xbox 360 because the game wasn't designed for the 360 in the first place), J. Allen Brack and Tom Chilton of Blizzard both agree that WoW was always intended to be played on the PC.

In a recent interview with Videogamer, they both reiterated the fact that WoW won't be heading for consoles.

Brack says that WoW was "designed to have a keyboard and a mouse" and that the controls are really - to use Kojima's word from yesterday - optimized for a PC control scheme. Brack continues: "If you think about mapping those controls and all those different type of buttons that you have to a console without a keyboard for chatting, it's a very challenging proposition."

Chilton, likewise, explained that it's not a worthwhile endeavor to bring WoW to consoles;

It's really not that we have anything against consoles," Chilton said. "I mean we love console games also. And I'm sure there will be a successful MMO sometime on a console. So it has nothing to do with that. It's just more like a square peg round hole thing for our game. It just wasn't designed with that in mind.

But then... when Videogamer raised the point that Funcom will be bringing their Age of Conan to the Xbox 360 - and that they've got some technology to map the keyboard buttons to a 360 controller - Chilton simply replies that he thinks that WoW wouldn't be "a very good experience playing like that."

While the PS3 has the upcoming Wireless Keypad, and the 360 its Chatpad, they aren't all that big, y'know. As Brack said, it'll be a very challenging experience indeed.

Via Videogamer

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Comments

# Personally — Sephiroth86 2008-08-27 09:41

I'm not really a fan of games where you have to pay a monthly subscription, so what I'm about to say really wouldn't affect me.

They claim that the only reason that it isn't feasible to port WoW over to consoles is the control system. Don't they realise that PS3 can use any USB keyboard & mouse? I'm not 100% on the 360, as I don't own one.

Anyway, they could always just include a cheap keyboard and mouse with the game. Problem solved.

# Same — ninja togo 2008-08-27 09:43

I wasjust about to say the same thing but you beat me to it. But as you said they could package a cheap pair of peripharels to play instead of making excuses as lame as that

# UT3 — ninja togo 2008-08-27 09:45

didn't UT3 allow play with usb mouse and keyboard and that was originally a PC was it not

# who cares — TouchDaSkeleton 2008-08-27 09:45

warcraft sucks bethesta should make the game elder scrolls oblivion online

# lame excuse — Ninjiz 2008-08-27 10:34

what a crappy excuse.....

PPl play FFXI with a Keyboard on 360 no problem. I think theres a mouse attachment somewhere... if not a simple software update should enable it to do so...

# stupid — platon 2008-08-27 10:48

1st: Just plug a USB or bluetooth keyboard and mouse and wow, you have a controller. At worst, sell a cheap combo of those with the game..

The real pain in the ass would be the updates that would need to pass trough M$ or Sony before popping on consoles.

Still, I played wow for 2-3 weeks and I won't even play it again. It's a game where your brain in on OFF while playing, just levelling and going into PVP... You really need to get a life if you LOVE that kind of game...

# hurr durr — Orlyeh 2008-08-27 11:15

Clearly nobody here has ever played WoW to any extent. The sheer amount of Addons and UI modifications alone would make the games impossible to play on either console even with both a keyboard and mouse.

# amen amen amen — trigger 2008-08-27 11:16

it sounds harsh, but i definitely agree with all those points. XD

especially the updates thing. can you imagine age of conan on the 360 by next year? hahaha! i can't see it happening, honestly. i applaud their effort, sure. but at the rate that their buggy game is going, there'll be two big patches every week on xbl. that's just plain silly on a console. you'll be spending more time downloading and installing the patch than actually playing the game. what a turn off.

# well — nyr2k2 2008-08-27 12:41

Is there anyone out there with a PS3 or 360 that doesn't also posses a rig capable of running WoW? Seems unnecessary to port it to a console.

# same — dbzking 2008-08-27 12:50

i know who care also kojima dont port mgs4 on xbox

this an playstation revolution dont mess it up

# misleading title? — Koolaidsred1 2008-08-27 13:11

"Blizzard: WoW for PS3, 360 is a 'square peg, round hole thing'"

Someone correct me if im wrong but shouldn't it be "WoW for PS3/360 is ...." or " PS3 and 360"? I could be wrong but when i first read it i thought it meant WoW for Ps3 while the 360 is a square peg..... I could be 100% wrong i just got excited for a second because I thought WoW was coming to Ps3 even though i have a PC more then capable of playing it, I just find console games to be more fun. (I'm not against pc gaming i do have a gaming pc i have SLI 8800GT's X2 AMD etc, I like pc gaming but prefer controllers most of the time.)

# well, me — Jmak01 2008-08-27 13:52

i bought my ps3 because i dont have a gaming pc. my laptop can play games like warhammer dark crusade and san andreas but not oblivion or anything as graphically superb as that. besides i wouldnt want to pay a subscription to any game, its not worth it imho. I totally use a keyboard with my ps3 all the time so thats a non-issue, and i could easily plug my mouse into it, and have done on several occasions for internet... it proves how little they know about consoles if they think they have to map everything to the game controller.

# .,.. — Ninjiz 2008-08-27 14:15

oh please.. clearly you dont play ffxi, or you would know that that wouldnt even need to be a concern for the console version...

# FFXI — Orlyeh 2008-08-27 14:28

FFXI's menu system is a ton different than WoW's. In fact, WoW really has no menu system like FFXI does. I repeat, you haven't played WoW.

# lol — phiyuku 2008-08-27 14:54

i saw this first on mozilla live bookmarks and it cuts off so I thought the same thing.

It said: Blizzard: Wow for PS3, Xbox 360 is a 'square peg, ro...

I was like wtf Blizzard making WoW for PS3 and calling Xbox 360 a gay peg?

# and i repeat... — Ninjiz 2008-08-27 16:34

it has nothing to do with the menu system. Anything in the menu system in wow currently shouldnt have a problem running on next gen consoles... And you said MODS.. which is why i brought up FFXI.. Mods should not be apart of this argument. Any official tool Blizzard has on WOW, would work on a console version. Which is WHY i said FFXI is proof of this.

# Ironic! :( — izkjon 2008-08-27 21:59

Where are all those xboiltz (X360 fanboys), from yesterday that were winning about Mr Hideo Kojima's masterpiece (MGS IV) being ported to the x360. this is exactly the some, as with MGS 4 and WoW, and I don't see any PS3 winning like the x360 fanboys did, just because its a PC(M$) game, does give you the right to act like x360 better than the PS3.

Peace Out!!

# are you listening — Orlyeh 2008-08-27 23:25

Really, please play WoW with the GUI addons before making another uninformed, ignorant post. You have no f-ing clue what I'm even talking about when I mention Addons or UI Modifications. They are PART of the game in so many ways.

There are addons to track the price of items - to tell you where you've mined for minerals in a given area - to help you manage raiding parties - to tell you what items typically drop off an enemy.

The Addons are a huge part of the game, and they're all USER MADE. They are such an integral part of the game that to discuss WoW without them is ridiculous.

Again, you have no clue what you're talking about.

# yes — chessboxer 2008-08-28 00:05

kb + m works on the PS3 for UT3 although it's not quite as good as on a PC. We (the UT3 community) are patiently waiting for a patch from Epic to resolve the issue.

# ... — Ninjiz 2008-08-28 00:10

Are YOu even listening??? They can make as many add ons and updates to whatever they want as often as they want. Please understand what im talking about before making claims....i have played wow... youve yet to list something that would be IMPOSSIBLE on a console... that has KB and mouse..

# ... — Ninjiz 2008-08-28 00:15

And Oh F-Please... you havnt a clue... FFXi has a S*** ton of USER CREATED MODS. BUt guess what.. SOME ppl play without them. Just like in WOW... many of my friends dont even use that many MODS. Dont tell me i dont know what youre talking about. I know exactly what youre talking about.

BUt to argue "you wont have access to user generated mods" is F-ridiculous. When many of those mods are mere luxery and arent "needed" to play the game. Get that through your head, and get over it.

# lol — Koolaidsred1 2008-08-28 02:05

see i knew it wasn't just me oh wellssss.

# commas — Guest 2008-08-28 02:09

Sorry if the title misleads you, but that's just how things go when writing headlines. It has to be short, concise. Longer headlines, as phiyuku points out, tend to be cut short, thus making it that much more confusing when you're not reading the title on the page of the article itself.

In this case, the comma represents an "and" in that it should read "WoW for PS3 and 360 is a..."

If they were two separate ideas, as in the way that some of you may have understood it (that there will be a WoW for the PS3, and that a 360 version is a square peg etc etc), then I would have used a semicolon as such:

"Blizzard: WoW for PS3; 360 is a 'square peg, round hole thing'"

See the difference? Hope this clarifies stuff. ;-)

# Can only play on a PC? — Braktar 2008-08-28 02:12

Then what's all this talk about WoW on a mobile device? Surely anything a mobile device can do, a console can do even better.

# thanks Gino D — Koolaidsred1 2008-08-28 05:31

clarified it perfectly. I was just a bit confused at first but im not greatly disappointed just was shocked on first read through of the topic title lol.

# IDK — ebola9717 2008-08-28 09:11

I don't really care if WoW ever comes out on a console. That's what my PC is for. But I would just like Blizzard to make anything for a console. I was so excited for Starcraft Ghost. I even played it at E3 back in 2002 IIRC and it felt polished and could have been released then. And then they went and canceled it. There is no reason something like Diablo 3 can't come out on a console.

# You will probably get your wish... — arishay 2008-08-28 10:57

If you guys are serious about WoW for consoles, I wouldn't sweat it. I guarantee you that they have that trick already so far up your asses you would be able to ***** an epic flying mount. They KNOW it would expand their revinue, and it would be most profitable for Sony to tag on a huge royalty for extending them to the console community (Or microsoft, which ever your flavor.) It's not going to be any time soon though, and I wouldn't expect it to be the same setup at all. If you have ever seen in the past that PC games getting ported to console never really turn out the way we remembered them. Of course for select few percentile that never played it any other way till it came to their tv screen, you will have modest to terrible ratings. Either way, it's probably going to happen in the near future. As far as mods go, you won't see them either. Mods can open up holes in the software for exploitation, as Sony doesn't condone this. Microsoft will also get this for themselves, as we all know that they will follow suit if Sony goes all in on something. I HATE microsoft because they are the "me too" company. If they can't have it then nobody should have it, so they BUY it. ***** em. Anyways, to sum up my point--yes you will play WoW on your console. It'll just be something like WoW Special Edition, or World of Warcraft 'Lite.' Game on WoW heads.

# Sorry... — Shatterdome 2008-08-28 15:27

Orlyeh owned you....

It's true, it wouldn't be hard to port WoW, AS IS to PS3/360, even using the chatpad I can think of how I would map all my spells/macros n *****....

What Orlyey is talking about is Mods and Add-ons....not supported by Blizzard, made by 3rd parties.....

Things which allow you to change your menus however you want....keep track of all the resources you've harvested and share with your guild....calendars, premade PVP group enablers.....threat montiors...lists of loot by dungeon, etc.....

Do you see UT3 on 360 allowing any 3rd party user modifications ? No, you don't......this would apply to WoW if it were ever to make it onto 360 as Well....PS3 would probably allow it....

Sure it would play as is, out of the box.....however any serious player does not play it out of the box, and if you wanted to be serious, without the ability to install these mods, lots of guilds would not even look at you....

# .... — Ninjiz 2008-08-28 16:10

DUDE>.. how many F***** times must I **** say it??? I know exactly what he is talking about you moron.

To say Its impossible would be equal to saying FPS wont work on consoles because of the lack of User created mods.

And AGAIN... not a SINGLE ADD on on MODs absense makes it "IMPOSSIBLE" to play WOW on a console like he says....

Hell you can get a ton of them at

http://www.warcraft-mods.com/Popular-mods.html

3rd party mods are a luxury that not every single WOW player uses. I know plenty of ppl who use them, and plenty of people who do NOT. Despite what you think the MAJORITY of WOW players are casual. Sure they help out, and changing your UI is a huge bonus. BUT are NOT a legit reason to say "impossible".

To argue that WOW would be IMPOSSIBLE to play on a console because of the lack of user created mods is F***** RETARDED.

And the only reason UT on 360 doesnt have user mods is because the game is run using Microsoft servers where MS is more strict. The reason mods arent availible for FFXI on 360 is because SE doesnt support them. But FFXI sint run on microsoft servers. It runs on POL which is operated by SE itself. Xboxlive simply connects to POL for you. INfact when playing, if Xboxlive goes down or disconnects your game is not interupted unlike games that run on Live servers.

You Owned nothing.

# continued... — Ninjiz 2008-08-28 16:13

The ONLY argument you would have is if this argument would be about "which version is BETTER" and thats a whole different argument.

# who cares — pissteeth 2008-08-28 17:15

World of Warcraft is the most boring game I've ever played. I hope Blizzard goes out of business.

# blizzard is Bull$h!t — z32tt3z 2008-08-28 17:29

i bet that they can make/release this game for console anytime but its either that they dont want to or just wants more money.... controlls shouldnt be a problem because both new gen console supports the mouse and keyboard.

samething for MGS4 going to xbox 360 i bet that they can make it but it will just be hard or costly and its gonna alot take time. its gonna be hard to fit everything on a DL DVD but 360 is gonna have the new dashboard update which gonna support storing contents of the game on the harddrive which will give us 360 faster load time and bigger games (maybe a installation disc and a play disc for MGS4360?)

# Agree — NemesisDTP 2008-08-30 05:13

I dont like WoW. In Fact i hate it.

[br][br]

But for the sake of it i just plugged in my usb keyboard and it worked perfectly with it. The only thing that didnt work was the number pad but it can be fixed easily. As far as mouse goes you can just have the 360 controller in one hane and have twice as many buttons.

# DUHHH — dark420bishop 2008-09-02 10:56

*dopey voice* DUHH YEAH BECAUSE THE PS3 DOESN'T HAVE A MOUSE OR KEYBOARD ATTACHMENT DUHHH

what's a bunch of retards, the PS3 HAS a keyboard and mouse. they wouldn't need to change the key config at all, just say on the box that a usb mouse and keyboard are required to play, accessories not included.

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