Quote: "the same boat that Nintendo has been familiarizing itself with for some time: fewer, higher-quality triple-A experiences"
I'm sorry, but I laughed so hard.
I am interested in the concept of a Steam Box, because Valve are speaking as if it will be a breed of console-PC hybrids, not a single unit available from Valve. Plus, Steam has 50 million registered accounts, 35 of which are active. XBL is the second largest with 40 million registered, and I'd warrant that their active user base is probably around 30 million.
So Steam has a lot more force than you'd expect, and those who say people will never abandon their PC for a console, even a Valve one are ignoring the fact that many people have both. And if Valve release something that uses your vast Steam library, plays high quality games in a sweet way, and doesn't melt itself like the 360 did, then plenty of them will probably swap their consoles for a Steam Box.
What I hope is that the age of exclusive titles dies horribly and brutally. Seriously, who actually bought a PlayStation solely to play Uncharted? That's just a dumb use of money, same as if you bought a 360 just to play Gears, or Halo. The hardware itself barely made any money, and I think they sold at breakeven or even a loss to get consoles out.
Right now, games are being created to justify the consoles' existence. I want a system where the box is irrelevant and purely down to pricing and controller design taste. Imagine how much money MS could have made, if Halo was PS3 ready? Or Sony, if they'd let Uncharted be an all-platforms title.
There's a reason Call of Duty is one of the best sellers year-on-year, it's big, and everyone can play it.
