PSP suitable for MMO News

PSP News by Robert Purchese

4 June, 2007

Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics producer Lawrence Liberty believes the PSP could handle an MMO.

He was speaking to Eurogamer in an exclusive interview about his upcoming role-playing game, and said the only thing holding the platform back from going online was a potential lack of audience. So, er.

"There could be an MMO made for the PSP," Liberty told Eurogamer. "Even if it relied on a sizeable Memory Stick, the machine has the basic components to field an MMO. It could certainly handle something like EverQuest Online Adventures [PS2 MMO].

"This begs the question, would there be a market for a PSP MMO?"

Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics is an RPG with its roots firmly in traditional turn-based soil. Liberty reckons this is the best way to recreate the famous D&D gameplay, and that the lack of similar games on the platform will spell success.

He also remains optimistic that there's plenty of space in the genre-playground for RPG and MMO to co-exist; the rise of one won't stamp on the other's sand-castle, so to speak.

"I think there is room enough for both genres to thrive. The continued success of Final Fantasy is testament to that. The gaming market continues to expand, so I don't view the RPG market as fixed," he continued.

Look out for our full interview with Lawrence Liberty later in the week.

Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics is due out on PSP in September.

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dirigiblebill

04/06/07 @ 11:18

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As with any handheld game, a MMO for the psp would have to be playable in fits and starts. I don't wanna spend five hours farming for ore when I could be playing Crush, for feck's sake. Not sure the battery life would hold up, either.

These criticisms aside, ZOMG teh psp MMO is teh schnizzl3!1

Venkman90

04/06/07 @ 11:22

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D&D Tactics is the one game I think will make me regret selling my PSP

Convert it to DS please, you will make bundles :b

dirigiblebill

04/06/07 @ 11:24

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Not sure the DS could crunch the numbers or handle the save file :(

Hughes.

04/06/07 @ 11:29

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TDU works fine as an always on MMO, the only flaw being you get logged out if you go into sleep mode and have to quit the game to log back in. Whether an MMO RPG would work as well depends on the pacing of the game, and whether handheld gamers would be expected to pay a monthly subscription that usually goes with them.

I wouldn't.

Quine

04/06/07 @ 12:10

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I'm oddly excited about D&D Tactics- not sure it would work on the DS, but there's some loose talk of a Disgaea port in the works for it.

The PSP could make a good stripped-down client for a full-on subscription MMO- do some crafting while on the bus, grind a few mobs while the autopatcher finishes on the main machine...

Nobuo

04/06/07 @ 12:33

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Why would you design a non-portable game for the PSP?

bushwod

04/06/07 @ 13:44

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Right, so I wouldn't be able to play this on the train or tube or bus or park (unless your very lucky)...

So...

...pointless then.

manic_mouse

04/06/07 @ 15:45

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"Why would you design a non-portable game for the PSP?"

What is a portable game? One you can play on the go, which means ANY game on the PSP is portable. And with the sleep functionality the length of time needed to play is irrelevant.

I, for one, am really glad the PSP hasn't been inundated with "portable games".

AOFanboi

04/06/07 @ 15:50

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Tactical D&D 3 ed. RPG has already been done in the form of Eye of the Beholder on the GBA, though.

PSP MMO - well, the interface would nbeed to be far less cluttered than the traditional MMOs use - maybe something like the console-oriented MMOs like FF XI or PSO/PSU.

disc

05/06/07 @ 03:54

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Wouldn't instanced style MMOs work pretty well on a PSP? You'll go off on your own in an instance with friends or even alone and then if you are alone you can play it without being connected. Then when you are leaving the instance you'll have to reconnect to the global servers.

Nobuo

05/06/07 @ 08:53

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"What is a portable game? One you can play on the go, which means ANY game on the PSP is portable."

Except THIS game, which would make you unable to move from a wireless hotspot, for most people meaning their own home.

But like this guy says, it's possible. It just occurs to me that once you've taken the portable out of the PSP the usually lame argument of "it's just a PS2" becomes valid.

dirigiblebill

06/06/07 @ 07:11

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"What is a portable game? One you can play on the go, which means ANY game on the PSP is portable."

Except THIS game, which would make you unable to move from a wireless hotspot, for most people meaning their own home.

They could bundle it with some sort of wi-fi hotspot deal, but that would be pretty cynical.

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