Fils-Aime hopes for Rev MMOs

Nintendo executive Reggie Fils-Aime says he hopes to see massively multiplayer games on Revolution.

Speaking to CNN/Money's Game Over column during a recent Revolution controller playtest, Fils-Aime said, "I hope [MMOs] are really explored on this system. That's a genre, from the home console standpoint, that really hasn't been explored very well."

Fils-Aime's comments are another example of Nintendo talking about things it doesn't usually get into. Back at the Tokyo Game Show when the Revolution's freestyle controller was unveiled, president Satoru Iwata spoke of his hope that first-person shooters would prove popular on the system - something he also expanded upon in the CNN/Money column. "I've never been able to control a first-person shooter, but as soon as I used the Revolution controller, I found it very easy to control the game," he said.

Of course, both FPS games have traditionally done well online, and MMOs obviously demand it - another reflection, perhaps, of Nintendo's growing appreciation of online gaming, something it once decried.

Revolution, which is expected to launch sometime in the second half of 2006, will be fully detailed by Nintendo at its pre-E3 conference next May, with more details expected in the run-up to that event. Indeed, Shigeru Miyamoto recently suggested that we had more surprises to look forward to ahead of the console's release.