I fail to see the purpose of this in today's world.
Actually, this is only really possible (and possible to be successful) in todays world.
There's all sorts of convergence going on here that could make it successful.
- Most target consumers have a de facto standard 'monitor' with a de facto standard input type; your HDTV and HDMI port.
- Console generational transition time; how'd you like a new more powerful console? P.S. it has a huge legacy library, including 'free' HD remakes of many games
- Microsoft Hubris;
- for years MS have bullied OEM partners around, because a new release of windows meant massive sales for them, so they pretty much had to take it. Guess what has recently happened that
didn't result in a big upswing in sales?
- Windows 8 store locking out other storefronts from core OS features; EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard and other publishers with their own DD stores aren't happy about that. I'd be surprised if it doesn't get support from publishers with their own stores.
- Android has proven that Linux doesn't scare people; it just needs to be user friendly with its UI enough to do what people need it to do, and let all the scary techy stuff run in the background. Like run games on a consolePC, right?
- What if the steambox is 'on par' graphically with the 720, but all of its games are cheaper to buy at launch, even at RRP / MSRP, it regularly has sales that go far below that price, and it has a far superior online service for free? What's the value proposition on the 720 look like in comparison?
- Broken publisher / retail model;
- Revenue Splits; traditionally you needed a publisher to make games, because they had the retail and logistics services setup that allowed you to sell those games to the public. In return you saw maybe a 30% return on sales, the rest being split between the publisher and the retailer. With Steam, you don't need a publisher to sell, and you get 70% revenue.
- Publisher funding; traditionally, most developers didn't have the cash to finance a project, so would spend their own money to create a publisher demo / vertical slice, hope it would get greenlit, and then get to work hoping it would be something a consumer would want to play. Now? Kickstarter. Except the people who choose to fund your game or not are the same people who would probably buy it, not a bunch of suits wioth business and marketing degrees.
- Platform owners beholden to bricks and mortar pricing; you know how DD costs less to produce than a retail copy does, but console manufacturers have to keep their DD titles overpriced so as not to piss off the bricks and mortar retailers that they rely on to sell their games for them and provide those long tail revenue streams? What if there was a console that doesn't give a fuck about bricks and mortar and lets developers price their games at what they think is fair? Maybe a console that has an already established DD storefront?