http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=189159

The MMO genre has never really taken off on consoles in the same way as on PC. It's a puzzle for developers, but if anyone can figure it out, Nintendo can, says EA Mythic creative director, Paul Barnett.

The huge influence of World of Warcraft is the first creative problem for console MMOs, says Barnett, who currently busy working on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

"The number-one problem of a developer of an MMO these days is it's very hard to be creative and keep your eye on the target when almost everyone has only ever played one of these games and it dominates their thinking," he told CVG.

Given their deficiency in online gaming, I'm not too sure but if it could happen. I really doubt Nintendo would put in the resources to make the online epxerience smooth and fun but if it could happen, any guess as to what Nintendo might do? It could be an online Animal Crossing which they might announce at E3.

YEa, devs and fans have been pushing them to take Poke'mon to the next step - issue is Iwata already shot the bit down a year ago.

He said that until they could figure out how to make it fun then they wouldn't do it basically.

Which is probably why we now have Nintendo Channel - to help them understand the western market (maybe even their own).

What have we gotten that Japan didn't get and vice versa - understanding the expectations and working around them, while being true to the core game mechanic isn't an easy task.

I doubt that there will be any decent MMO coming to the current consoles but I hope that some crap ones will come so we can hope for some decent ones on the next consoles.

Anyway before having any MMO on the Wii they have to first add voice chat. In MMOs people chat a lot you know, quite often chatting is all they do.

Eh, IF they do it, expect something more along the lines of Animal Crossing than Zelda Online.

Frankly, I just don't see it happening... Nintendo is still using friend codes and while the newest Mario Kart is a step in the right direction, its communication options are still WAY to limited for a functional MMO.

Sony already has a studio dedicated to MMO/online game development. Granted they don't exactly have an awesome track record, but they DO have experience in the MMO market, which Nintendo doesn't.

last time I checked there was no voice chat in WoW...

FC have nothing to do with online play, the thing this guy is trying say is Nintendo could do "something amazing" that could destroy the current mmorpg mold over just making another WoW.

If you listened to most disinterested mmorpg players, they seem to chant grind, WoW clone, pfft @ community and so on.

You must have checked it long time ago because WoW has voice chat for quite a while. In the days when WoW had no voice chat people were still communiting by voice using 3rd party software like Ventrillo.

However a console MMO really NEEDS voice chat compared to a PC MMO where you can go without because you know ... last time I checked consoles had no keyboard.

And WoW being surpassed by a MMO not developed by Blizzard  has less chances of happening than PS3 passing Wii in sales, which I find impossible :)

I wasn't referring to voice chat, heck MOST MMO's don't support it. What I was referring to is the fact that Nintendo often doesn't even include TEXT chat in their online games.

Don't get me wrong, I'd probably actually PLAY an Animal Crossing style MMO. I'm sure they have the talent to make one, a good one to boot. I just don't know if Nintendo could pull off an MMO, given their online history. More of a corporate culture thing than a skill thing.

Doesn't the whole "MMO" thing defy the purpose of the way Nintendo's online is structured with the friend codes etc..

Either way without a hard drive MMO's are a no go area and if Nintendo where to release a hard drive it'd have to come cheap if a large % of the install base will adopt it.

Back when Everquest was booming, people said that too.  Funny how that works.