Personally, I think he's wrong. I just think devs have to go about it the right way for consoles, specifically in the subscription department.

Control wise, there's no issue at all contrary to what so many people seem to think. I think it actually works better moving your toon around with an analog stick, and as for skills, you do it the same way ARPGs have been doing it on consoles for years X (on playstation) for basic attacks, and the other three face buttons for skills, with L2 and R2 as modifiers for the face buttons. That's 9 skills/talents/spells at the touch of a button. Which is plenty, and you can always remap whatever you want when needed. Or even adopt Dragon Age's pop up menu for quick access to sustained skills. That's not an issue and will be perfectly natural for any console player. It really doesn't matter in the slightest what PC players think about the console controls.

But as for the payment system, there's really only a few options for a successful console MMO. A one time reasonable fee for lifetime membership, say.....$80-100. Or a cheap monthly subscription. The majority of console players are NOT going to pay $15 a month. I think that's a rediculous price for server maintenence considering how many people play. $5-7 a month is the most I'm willing to pay.

But I think the most successful business model for a console MMO would be to take a page out of PlayStation Home's playbook. I'm a dedicated Home user, and I can tell you right now, first hand, that the amount of money Home is raking in with microtransactions is absolutely astounding. I, myself have probably spent about $100 on Home. And I don't spend NEARLY as much on there as alot of people do. Sure you will have some people just using the free content, but they usually/eventually get peer pressured into spending something to "keep up with the joneses". Back in the Home closed beta, I was the type swearing I would NEVER spend real money on virtual items......look at me now, what a hypocrite. And I didnt even get peer pressured......I just decided to spend and got hooked.

Micro-transactions are absolutely the way to go with console MMOs. And I believe in the longrun, it will actually make more revenue for the developers/publishers than the subscription model.

Throw a subscription card in the box and amp up the cost a little for that subscription charge. As well as sellling these cards for 1 month, 3 month, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months. To launch the game say it is released with 1 month subscription to kick start it. $15+60 = 75 bucks. If you want an MMO you know what to expect in terms of charges so its a model that could work. Thing is noone has ever tried it a different way then what is already out there. Innovate a little.

Pay to play is very risky for developers on consoles, but if you are not trying to make a great game why even sit at the table.

Why is this in Guild Wars talk though it is Free to Play.