And I am completely willing to believe that your experiences are overwhelmingly frequent. If I can see evidence to support it. Why is it so hard to believe that there are people who would enjoy playing these games if the hardware required didn't cost so much...?

And for a lot of people with a comparable setup (somehow the majority of people interested in playing Mass Effect 2, UT 3, Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age: Origins, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and F.E.A.R. 2., to you), upgrading that machine so that it remains capable may not be as appealing as using something like PlayOn.

So why can't the target audience be hardcore gamers who don't have the money to upgrade their computers? Gaming lounge patrons? Or hell, potential hardcore gamers that don't have the money, technical know-how, or desire to maintain a gaming-competent PC. You're right, there's no market for this. Everybody already has their dream gaming setup.

I knew Seropian formed Wideload games. Just didn't know how many left with him.

Haha, I was actually thinking of visiting Croatia, too. Might have to put it off if their board of tourism thinks spamming is a good way to get the word out.

The core of Bungie is working on the first title that will be published by Activision. I think the only one really missing is Alex Seropian.

It doesn't have the number one market share in units sold, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't number one in online gaming population.

In the Halo sense? Halo's aliens are bipeds with a social/religious system. I'm sure they're a lot different than the races in EVE Online, but Halo's hardly a good example to use as a comparison to Natural Selection.

Wouldn't... uhh, Aliens be a better fit?

Yeah, pretty sure it only works with Games for Windows Live (I think that's what it's called) games. Just saying that I find it odd that this closed system (Live, where MS mandates various aspects of online play for developers) supports cross-platform play when an open one doesn't. Interestingly enough, I was just talking about this to a friend regarding Dust 514. It's supposed to be a console game that interacts with the EVE Online universe. Well there's one universe so I'd imagine that the 360 and PS3 versions will technically be part of it at the same time. Of course, each platform could have its own planets where conflicts occur, it just might be a kinda crappy case of cross-platform... interaction in a game.

I agree with this, but didn't notice until now that cross-platform gameplay (PC-to-console) has been done on the 360 with Live (Shadowrun, FFXI) but not with the PS3/PSN. Even the Dreamcast let console players play in games with/against PC players. Just find it odd. As for the initial question, MS has a lot more to lose by letting PS3 players play online with players on the 360. It'd hugely tarnish the perceived value of Live if every game you joined was already full of people playing online for free.

Sony didn't make those games. They only came because of unwarranted hype and hardware that looks better on paper than anywhere else. This strategy is flawed and when it fails Sony, I can only help Nintendo will be there to pick up the pieces and lead console gaming where it should be going rather than fighting a losing battle against PC gaming.