Chief among these concerns is the take that platform holders would demand from an MMO revenue stream, seriously cutting down on the cash-flow to developers of smaller projects.

"Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo is going to demand their cut of all ongoing revenue, and that cut is rumored to be between 25% and 35%," wrote Ludwig on his blog. "With one more player getting a piece the revenues shrink for both the publisher and the developer and it becomes harder to turn a profit from a 'modest success'."

Ludwig also mentions that while there may be 19 million Xbox 360s sold worldwide, there are closer to ten times that number of PCs equipped with graphics processors, making the install base of a PC MMO far larger than your average console.

"This entirely discounts the fact that every single game console was purchased to play games and every PC was not," he clarified. "It also discounts all those GeForce 2s and 4s that a PC developer really should use as their min spec."

The lack of a built-in keyboard, long certification times for patches, and long development times that can potentially eclipse a console's lifespan round out Ludwig's points.

While few MMOs has been specifically developed for consoles, companies are beginning to explore the largely-untapped market. Sony Online Entertainment recently restructured with a focus on developing for the PlayStation market. SOE's The Agency is being developed for both a PC and PlayStation 3 release.

Titles such as Funcom's Age of Conan and Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin are both expected to receive Xbox 360 ports following their initial PC releases.

"Eventually MMOs are going to come to consoles," Ludwig concludes. "It's just going to take them a while to get there, and they will probably never emerge in the same numbers as they do on PCs."