Ever since the console market became more than the pc gaming market the popular pc genre RTS is trying to make it’s way on the consoles. if we only look at this generation then we see that there is a market for rts genres on consoles. an original console game like Halo Wars sold really well, but on the other side End War did poorly. so how do we make RTS on console fun.

There are a few kinds of RTS games on consoles. we have the PC ports like Red Alert 3 and Supreme Commander 2. and we have that games that take the PC mind set and take only the basics of it like Halo Wars. these games are playable but most of them arn’t really fun. the biggest problem of RTS on Console is the unit selection. because most rts games use rock-paper-scissor, or another kind of counter system you need to select certain kinds of units. the way most games do that is by creating a cursor to mimic a mouse but that doesn’t work. other games use an “All Units” Button but that does not allow you to select certain kinds of units. Other games like Stormrise and Endwar try a different thing. instead of taking the PC mind set they just start fresh. they both use an interesting control mechanic. Endwar Uses basic units and locations and translates it into Voice Control, this actually works quite well and it makes playing an rts on console actually fun. And we have Stormrise that uses an analoge stick and bubbles of units around the edge of the screen to select units(Whip Select), that did not work as well. but it will be the things that we have learned from Stormrise that will help us create a perfect console rts hybrid.

The weird standout’s in all of this are Tower Defense games and “Dota” like games.
Were Tower Defense games on the console are Fun good and Playable, the Dota like games haven’t made it to consoles yet in there form. the reason is that it will have to give you direct control of the character and map ability to your face buttons, and that will  basically be Deadspank multiplayer. if anybody would make that that would be great, maybe it sounds kinda bad but it can actually work quite well and be a lot of fun.

RTS on Console has his ways to go. because of the lack of a mouse the unit selection is missing, that’s why they should make an RTS whit out units on consoles. if you look at games like Majesty they would be great for consoles. and while in 2008 there was an announcement for Majesty 2 on Xbox 360 after there has not been any infomation about that project. I fear that they cancelled it because of the bad PC sales for Majesty 2. So the Conclusion is that if you wanna make an rts on consoles really think about your controller, don’t mimic a mouse and make it fun.