At GDC Austin, the vice president for product development at Turbine said the next generation of MMORPGs will be on consoles, and if that wasn't concession enough, he went so far as to say consoles are a "superior" mode.
Specifically, in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, "We really finally have the hardware and the storage capacity to develop what we consider more traditional MMOs with lots of content," said Craig Alexander of Turbine.
In addition to theorizing that, because MMOs took a decade to mature on PCs, they're poised to grow the consoles in a similar way, Alexander held forth on development differences between the PS3 and 360.
• Different memory. He described PS3 memory as "256ish MB" and 360 memory as "512ish."
• Different tools needed for developing on both platforms.
• Migration from 360 to PS3 (Hello, Bayonetta?) is harder than going from PS3 to 360.
In case you were wondering about Nintendo, Alexander said, "The hardware in the Wii more closely resembles the previous generation than the current one. It's just not there yet."
Turbine: Easier to Develop MMOs on the Xbox 360 Than the PS3 [Joystiq via VG247]