After some consideration, I think the OP has written an interesting article.
Its true. The Xbox360 is originally marketed towards the hardcore gaming community (read: American community). It has seen many attempts from MS to open itself to a casual userbase. The price reduced Arcade model, NXE, a series of diversified and casual games (consider pussycats bundle, the childrens programming game shown at CES09), etc.
The arcade version is a big step towards the 'casual' market on its own. UNO on XBLA and several board games such as monopoly being adapted onto the Xbox360 are good examples.
Why, you ask? Quite simply because the Nintendo Wii has opened up a new market. And if you're not hogging up the casual market as quickly as you can then what ARE you doing? Also, Developing games for casuals require a smaller budget than full fledged core games.
The PS3, originally marketed towards the home-theatre enthusiast is also showing signs of shifting gears. LittleBigPlanet, a big one. Otherwise there are more and more casual games like Bejeweled and soon to come Peggle, even games like flow, flower and noby noby boy, can be considered advances towards the casual market.
Alas - they're charging way too much for a game that you can play for free on facebook.
I am guessing the Playstation 3 is, strategically speaking, in the most disadvantaged position to appeal to casuals.
What I don't agree with the OP is that puffy speaks about a 'fear for the future'.
Yes, all consoles would be identical in the next generation. He is correct here BUT ONLY in that they will have the same motivations and therefore compete directly against each other.
However I do also think that right now, the way forward is for the three gaming giants to embrace core gamers while continuing to captivate the casual audience.
(note the way they go about this will vary plenty. Let not your brain deceive you. Designers have brought things that never existed before into being. It will happen again. The next gen consoles don't all have to be waggle sticks with HD graphics believe me. Consider function does not equal structure, and structure does not equal function. you cannot perceive the structure of a designed object from its function alone. Nor the other way round.)
And would you really think that game developers will cease to put out the next ground breaking game or continue to revolutionize genres ever? Game developers have done so much amazing stuff in the last 2 years than ever before. The last thing in their minds right now is to let the industry stagnate and settle for mediocrity.
