I connect ... you connect ... we play

Hello to all ...

I would like to start a (broad) topic about connectivity ... between platforms, cross-platform, and games ... but also looking at the infrastructure needed to support this type of experience (development,administration,secure networking etc.) and the ongoing support (community management,patches etc.) and scalability it requires ...

Is this à road out of many, or THE road for the future?
Will there be a piece of the pie for small(er) sized companies, or are the total costs and efforts not worth it all? Would things be facilitated by a "service provider" (a bit like what Sega net tried to be) cutting out some of the initial investements? Does 'on-line' mean 'bigger teams' or is standarised middleware the magic word? Or will it come down to who can put the bucks down for the biggest server farm?

Hope this is not a waste of your time/my keystrokes, but I'm looking forward to your views,experiences and ideas, be it technical or philosophical !

Greets,
Stijn