Some consequences of this concept:
1) Machine is LICENSED, not sold. That means NO TAMPERING or else you lose your deposit.
2) Since the machine is LICENSED and all scores, trophies, etc. are stored on the net, if someone stole your machine, you wouldn't lose anything. And better yet, once you reported it stolen, the thief would not be able to connect it to the network because it would be identifying itself and its identity would be that of a stolen machine, rendering it useless.
3) Each machine would have its own ID, and tampering with the ID wouldn't do any good because only IDs of existing machines would work. If you tried to run the machine with some else's ID, the conflict would show up on the network and the "suspected" IP access automatically blocked.
4) No piracy. What is there to pirate? You already have access to everything just by being on the network. There's no way to have your machine able to log into the network unless you've paid the monthly fee. In addition,the only way to pirate would be to crack open the sealed case, which then causes you to forfeit your deposit.
5) Holding onto $150 from everybody enables the company to make $$$ in TVM (like interest), and yet makes the venture "risk free" to try for the user, making it all the more appealing.
6) The publishing companies would still benefit from doing what they do best -- marketing. No longer do they need to worry about distribution. They still get their share. If they want to buy the full rights to the game from the developer and pay the developer one lump sum, that's their choice!
7) Retail stores are the ones that stand to lose the most from this method, because they can't do the huge markup margins on the games anymore. Aside from selling the subscription for the consoles, and maybe gift cards for months of usage, there is really no other profit. The same is also true about game resellers, since they would not be able to resell any games for this console.
8) No DVDs to break / lose.
9) Requires an online connection to play any games. To this end, the console would probably need 4G and wifi built in. Everything revolves around a high speed connection, so that would be one of the primary focuses of this console.
