Virtual World News posted a bit with title Habbo’s Sulka Haro Says Virtual Worlds Won’t Work for Consoles.

I didn’t quite expect that title based on the article but yeah, I’m pretty skeptical of how the PS3 Home end up being adopted by PS3 owners. However I didn’t quite mean to specifically target Home as such. Looking at MMOs in general, I think player to player communication is key to creating a successful world. On consoles, most people won’t bother to hook up an extender cable to a USB keyboard so any game trying to motivate people do that is going to have adoption issues.

I also don’t believe voice will cut it either. Sure, we’re starting to have somewhat realistic filtering that’ll change what you sound like but that doesn’t mean a fifteen year old would still sound like a 40 year old paladin. So, if you’re working on a world where people actually have characters with roles, voice communication probably won’t be applicable to your game. Voice just might work for Home though, if the main point to go there is to meet your real-file friends. Just don’t expect to make too many new friends.

So, I believe consoles are inherently at disadvantage when it comes to MMOs. Someone please prove me wrong! :)