Personally if I went that route I would have an iPad for a tight user experience on a form factor which would normally never yield such a good experience. Anyway if the iPad was available in a laptop or destop form factor I would give it to my mother in a heart beat in order to stop getting called at random hours with computer trouble. "This thing has popped up and I don't know what to do".

Anyway the reason why the PC is cheaper is because the licensing fee is a one off and the producer of Windows has no stake in the content displayed. On a console the model has been ever since the NES that the producer of the console has a stake in the content and subsidises the hardware in order to make it up with in software, a more inflexible business model. If that model were to change, and it might, then you would see a change in the PC vs console dynamic. Microsoft for one doesn't need it anymore so long as they have marketplace fees and Xbox Live subscriptions.

Overall though it does seem that the PC as a platform itself is a dying breed. It far exceeds the needs of end users and both Microsoft and Valve ought to be concerned by this. This is the reason why Windows for ARM is going to be coming in 2012 and likely the reason why Windows 8 will be a different beast entirely compared to Windows 7. Computers are really for most people overpriced internet and word processing appliances which are too hard to use. Personally I wouldn't mind a system which overlayed a simple iPad like user interface for the average user and locked everything down unless specificially opened up by someone who wanted to be a power yser.

There are too many factors on that topic though. I'm interested in seeing what they will do for Windows 8 for sure though. If their aim really is faster performance at lower power usage, I'd be truly impressed since they haven't gone that route since Windows 2000.

Not too surprising, MS likes to keep things closed and under full control while Valve have basically lived off of offering engines and online distribution to other developers for quite some time now.

To whomever said something like "but there are so many indie games on x-box live"; yes there are (and a lot of them are damn good too), that does not mean that they were easy to put there or that the developers were treated fairly. The NES had tons of games but Nintendo were notorious for being hard to work with for 3rd parties.

I have heard several claims in the past from developers talking about their experiences working with M$ and how it was negative in a lot of ways. When David Jaffe came out and made his statement as to why he would rather stick with Sony and stay exclusive, I knew that it had to of been true. Jaffe has been in the videogame industry long enough that I believe everthing he has to say. He's one of the only developers out there who speaks his mind and I respect that.

OK now I know this is kinda off topic, but PSN does advertise their indie games through PS blogs where the developers themselves come and talk about it. Of course, not many people read it but PS blog does a great job of talking about their games. And they do this for all indie games, not just exclusive one's.

On topic: Don't really care. Valve is a publisher/developer themselves so they would know how to treat indie developers better, I guess.

A very scant few are "casual crap"

If you look at the reviews I did for this site you will find I reviewed a couple of really nice indie titles. There are tons more. PopCap might make millions off Peggle and Bejeweled, but they actually aren't that bad of games themselves.  And PopCap is an amazing example of an indie developer making it into prime-time. Same with Valve.

I really do get the whole anti-casual thing at all really. Most of the games are fun. Which is the point of playing games. Games without fun shouldn't be made, and most of the games that fall under this are mini-game packages and seriously broken games that come from the large companies like EA and Activision.

Really you want to see what indie devs made? Look up Eufloria, Zeno Clash, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Recetear: An Item Shop Tale, Greed Corps, Gish, and Misadventures of  PB Winterbottom. Just a few of many amazing titles.

Blah, blah...

Like I said, people don't buy HD consoles to play those type of games.

I dabble in them here and there. But nobody expects MS to put the spot light on indie games over big budget games the masses prefer.

I don't know what this clown is talking about... Super Meat Boy was like promoted all over xbox live and was a 33% off item on launch day. ITs a great game and all but it came out after summer of arcade...don't know what they were expecting.

Maybe putting it on the dashboard for like weeks wasn't enough.

Perhaps they were expecting some of that Halo and Kinect marketing.

It also sold better than anticipated and they are still bitching.

They are "bitching" that it was hard to get MS to do all the promotions that they promised, showing that those promotions eventually happenned does not counter what he's saying and is really only evidence that the Super Meat Boy guys kept at it.  They aren't whining that they shoulda gotten more, but that it shouldn't be that difficult to get what they were promised.