"Sony and MS don't understand MMOs"

Cryptic Studios' Craig Zinkievich has revealed that upcoming MMO Star Trek Online is pretty much finished, but is being held up by the business side of things. Cryptic has already confirmed a PC release of the MMO for March 2010, but is looking to get a console version of the game out too.

"When it comes to the business, I'll be honest, the business part of bringing MMOs to consoles has been really sticky," Zinkievich told Eurogamer.

"Trying to get Sony, trying to get Microsoft to really understand MMOs; really understand what needs to happen for MMOs, and then figure out all the business aspects of those games, has really been a difficulty for all of the MMO developers."

The one Xbox 360 MMO, Final Fantasy XI, is the exception that proves the rule according to Zinkievich, who said that so many exceptions were made as Microsoft tried to pursue the Final Fantasy market share that it's impossible to consider Star Trek Online following the same route.

"In terms of actually developing the game on the consoles?" asked Zinkievich. "I mean Champions runs on the console right now; Star Trek Online runs on the consoles right now; our engine - the Cryptic Engine - runs on the consoles..But it's that [business] side that I can't speak for."

Cryptic hasn't yet confirmed a console platform for the MMO - but as you can guess, they're definitely pursuing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Let us know your thoughts on console MMOs in the forums.