LOTRO on Consoles
When EG7 bought the Daybreak Game Company over a year ago, they mentioned in a subsequent investor report that a console port was being considered for the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. This was met with a degree of scepticism by the player community who saw it mainly as speculative marketing. However, one year on and EG7 has referenced a potential console version yet again. Their Q3 2021 investor report lists a “release on consoles” as a medium term goal. The fact that this idea has been mentioned twice within a 12 month period is interesting. Investor reports are public information so EG7 no doubt knew that this “talking point” would find its way into the wider gaming press. It certainly means that the concept now warrants some serious consideration from LOTRO players.
From a technical perspective porting an ageing Windows based MMORPG from 2007 over to the latest generation of consoles is a major project. The UI as it exists in the game at present is cluttered and doesn’t scale well for higher resolutions. Plus the layout of skills is designed for point and click mouse access. The game textures also do not fare well at 4K plus the character models and animations are somewhat dated. Then there are issues regarding lag, hitching that are zone specific. Also tearing, the draw distance, the environmental “pop in”, clipping, loading times and possibly a hundred other issues. And if you are fixing all of these fundamental issues, wouldn’t it be wise to also address LOTRO’s long standing lack of comprehensive voice acting? Will a modern console audience want to play a game that still heavily relies on text driven dialogue?
Then there are further issues stemming from a successful conversion to both the latest Playstation and Xbox consoles. It is doubtful that crossplay is going to be implemented as it hasn’t been done so for other MMOs that have been converted. Both Star Trek Online and The Elder Scrolls Online have separate servers to accommodate console players. Thus a port for LOTRO would also require a new server system to support the game which no doubt comes at a significant cost. It can be argued that LOTRO’s PC server environment is lacking at present which raises the question as to whether there would be any changes to this infrastructure. In fact the more one thinks about this “project” the more it seems like a very capital intensive undertaking. Such an investment would have to be driven by some pretty compelling financial predictions. EG7 has referenced several times the potential interest the IP may receive due to the Amazon Prime Middle-earth television production that launches next year. Is that itself a big enough incentive?
However, there is an alternative train of thought to consider inlight of the choice of words EG7 have used in their latest investor report. Specifically “a major revamp to upgrade the visuals, modernize the experience”. Modernizing the experience may simply mean making the games overall graphics and systems work on the consoles. Cryptic have successfully done this for Star Trek Online by condensing menus, automating some skills and decluttering the UI. Their port to consoles has not essentially changed the gameplay or radically altered experiences between those playing STO on a PC and those on an Xbox or Playstation. Yet, there is scope to interpret “modernize the experience” as something akin to Star Wars: Galaxies New Game Enhancements (NGE). A revamp of that classic MMO that profoundly changed the game by taking a reductionist approach. Are EG7 implying that to port a game such as LOTRO it needs to be overhauled at source IE PC level first and then converted? Such a prospect is potentially troubling.
In the meantime, a console conversion remains a “mid-term” goal for EG7. One that I’m sure will be dependent upon ongoing revenue growth and senior staff being invested in the project. Something else to consider is that EG7 owns several game development studios such as Big Blue Bubble, Piranha Games and Toadman. A project of this kind would involve more than just Standing Stone Games. Although SSG have managed to keep the LOTRO alive and ticking over in the last few years, they have not exactly taken the game forward or in any way improved its standing. Bringing the game to a new player base such as console players presents a perfect opportunity to reset community relationships. However, all of this is a long way off, assuming that it ever comes to fruition. For the present the prudent LOTRO player would be best served focusing on playing the existing game and keeping an eye on the more immediate situation.
