According to Capcom, the biggest challenge facing online console gaming is well, the consoles themselves. In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Adam Boyes, Development Director at Capcom USA, expressed his displeasure at the fierce competition among Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo and claimed that it is causing the multiplayer experiences of today’s games to be segmented, preventing further growth in the online game market.

"For us it’s about getting it to as many people as humanly possible. In an ideal world all the back ends would talk to each other so people could compete together and play together. Simply having a different platform segments the market for multiplayer.”

Boyes’ point carries some weight in the fact that on the console market, online communities are not necessarily built around individual games like World of Warcraft, but are instead reliant upon the foundational online services provided by each console manufacturer. Boyes states that it is the goal of Capcom to create a community around their products, therefore having to tailor different versions for both Xbox Live and PSN is proving detrimental to building a strong online community around the games themselves.

The fact that we’re not all in a single online utopia, playing Call of Duty 4 with all of our gaming brethren is unfortunate, as the communities on each system revolve around the platforms themselves, especially in the case of Xbox Live where players must pay for the privilege of being a member. But given the state of the console gaming industry, such a cross platform community simply cannot exist the same way it can on the PC, and even then, the PC is just another sub community right? Perhaps Capcom would be supportive of the “one console future” philosophy?