Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition releases today, and the latest incarnation of Capcom's third-person shooter will allow owners of the Xbox 360 version to battle their PC gamer counterparts in online multiplayer.

The Colonies Edition, which had already gone gold last week, is an updated version of the original Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and features four new multiplayer levels, five new playable characters, 10 new weapons, three additional gameplay modes (Score Attack, Trial Battle and Off Limit) and the ability to play as a gigantic "marauding" Akrid. However, the biggest feature Colonies offers is the ability to bring PC and Xbox 360 gamers together in a multiplayer setting on either Xbox Live or Games for Windows Live. Capcom has emphasized the cross-platform multiplayer compatibility as the major selling point for the Colonies Edition, which features the original Lost Planet plus the additional content and multiplayer features for $29.99.

But according to Capcom, owners of the original Xbox 360 game will not be able to upgrade to the Colonies Edition via download packs and must purchase the enhanced version in order to play against gamers owning the Colonies Edition. "Unfortunately, the previous Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is not compatible with the new Colonies edition because of the Games for Windows Live-to-XBLA gameplay connectivity," Capcom told Tom's Games. "But the upside is that PC players can now play with XBLA players online."

While this is not the first PC to Xbox 360 game to feature cross-platform connectivity, Colonies continues to push the movement towards cross-platform gameplay. Halo 2 for Windows Vista helped close the PC/console gap by allowing players to communicate via voice or text with Xbox Live members. Last year, FASA Interactive and Microsoft Game Studios took the connectivity to the next level with Shadowrun, a first-person shooter that enabled 16 Xbox 360 and PC players to actually battle together online in one arena. But Shadowrun was widely panned and even the blockbuster Halo 2 didn't become the cross-platform success that many expected.

To this day, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI is considered to be the first cross-console MMORPG, initially released on the PC in 2003 followed by the PlayStation 2 version in 2004, and later on the Xbox 360 in 2006. In a recent interview with VideoGamer.com, Jorgen Tharaldsen of Funcom stated that they're shooting for PC-to-X360 interconnectivity with the upcoming console version of its MMORPG Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.

Despite PC-to-Xbox 360 connection, it will be interesting to see if this expanded version fares well with current fans as well as newcomers to the Lost Planet franchise. Lost Planet was originally released as an Xbox 360 exclusive in January of 2007 and earned solid reviews on its way to selling more than 1.5 million copies. The game was later ported to the PC with DirectX 10 support last year and more recently to the PlayStation 3, but both versions achieved significantly less success than the original Xbox 360 version.

Now with the expanded version hitting retail stores, will the inclusion of PC-to-Xbox 360 connectivity help the Colonies Edition? Will the cross-platform multiplayer support be a feature in other Capcom games as well? We fired over that question over to the publisher last week, and Capcom responded by stating that it would go into detail about future cross-platform multiplayer plans by the end of the day. So far that hasn't happened, but if and when the response arrives, we'll let you know.

Join our discussion on this topic