5 Reasons PlayStation Should Bring Back Its MMORPG.
(AfroGamers.com) EverQuest Online Adventures or EQOA was my second experience with a MMORPG only behind the well-known Runescape. At thirteen years old, me and my older brother would sit down in front of my PlayStation 2 and play EQOA for hours, late into the night, even if we had school in the morning. We would catch the bus to the other side of town to buy subscription cards for ten dollars each so that we could keep playing each month. Why did the game shut down? I have no idea, but here are 5 reasons why it should come back exclusively to the PlayStation consoles.
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Playstation’s Massive Player Base
This one is a no brainer. PlayStation has well over 150 million consoles in people’s hands right now. They boast the most impressive player base for any group of consoles in recent memory. While there is an existing player base for EQOA, those players either get their MMORPG fix from the dying EverQuest servers on PC, from another MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV, or don’t play MMOs at all any more. Now is a better time than ever to bring them back into the fold with a new version of EQOA. Sony has been on a hot streak for well over ten years and I think that if they came out with a new EQOA, at the very least, a large amount of their player base will give the game a shot. Why wouldn’t they?
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Existing Infrastructure
In order to make the game, of course they would have to craft a whole new system for the game and do the character models and graphics from scratch, but they already have the bones of a great game that they can pull from. The last EQOA game is almost 20 years old. I don’t think that many people would complain if they had the exact same map but expanded a lot. Something simple like adding more space between towns or making the towns larger would be a good starting point. They could even keep the same races and classes for just starting the game out. You know what? Forget it, just give us a remake of the old game, and add on to it a few months after it has been out. Like I said, I don’t think many of the old players would mind and it would be new to the new players to the game.
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Cornering the Market
PlayStation has almost every game genre covered in its expansive portfolio. If you want action, you have God of War. If you want action adventure, you have Uncharted and Infamous. Straight adventure, you have Ratchet and Clank, and Jak and Daxter. FPS? You got Killzone. For racing you have Gran Turismo. For sports you got MLB: The Show and for western RPGs you have Horizon Zero Dawn. What is one of the only genres left out? JRPG and MMORPGs.
It would be smart if they took the one that would be the least amount of work to get off the ground to get going in order to grab that chunk of fans. I think that a lot of hardcore gamers are fans of RPGs in one way or another and with an already made game concept, they could increase their game portfolio.
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Longterm Income That Could Be Made
I think that everyone already knows that MMOs basically print money. Look at Final Fantasy XIV. They have people paying for expansions every six months to a year, paying a monthly subscription fee, and buying a premium currency so that they can buy cosmetic items to show off in game. Even if PlayStation didn’t want to go this route (which I would prefer), they could do a free to play model with micro transactions in order to get the highest possible player count.
If they make the game correctly with minimum bugs and do a decent job at bringing new content out, they could have the next big hit MMO on their hands.
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Advances in Technology
Lastly, a lot has changed since EQOA came out in 2003. Back then, you had to buy a separate adapter for your PlayStation 2 and actually go to your local game store to buy subscription cards for the game. Now, all of that is built into the system. Also, I think that actually crafting the game itself for consoles is easier because of how much modern consoles resemble PCs as opposed to the older consoles which were more standalone consoles. This would make it easier to develop because there is not a special code that developers have to learn in order to make the game. I remember that back in those days, there were reports of issues making games for Sony consoles because of their way the consoles are made.
The Reason They Won’t
The simple reason that they most likely don’t want to revive EQOA is because of one game. Final Fantasy XIV is currently the king of MMOs on the PlayStation console. If PlayStation did bring EQOA back to this gen, they would have to compete with Final Fantasy XIV. While I think that they have an established fanbase that would play EQOA and they could compete with a game that has been out for a long time, I don’t think that they would want to compete with them mainly because of the great relationship that they have with Final Fantasy XIV developer Square Enix. They basically have exclusive rights to all of the Final Fantasy games on console, and many of their other none Final Fantasy games. Because PlayStation don’t have a JRPG of their own, in a way, they kind of license it out to Square Enix in exchange. If you look at it from this point of view, you can see why they wouldn’t want to do anything to mess with this great relationship.
Staff Writer; Tardell Swift
This brother is new to writing yet has many different interests such as gaming, hip hop, wrestling, and manga.
You can follow him on Twitter; PhirewoodGaming and keep up with his thoughts there as well.
