I actually totally agree, going forward both Sony and MS need to turn into services rather than hardware boxes how long that transition will take who knows, but it will not be an easy road and winning over PC players who already have loads of services, Steam, Origin, Uplay, GOG, Humble Bundle will be very very hard.

I believe its a fairly scary path to take as well, as they wont want to just become 3rd party publishers on PC where people come to them just for there first party content as right now they take 30% of everyones games on xbox not just there own. 

Sony last night staked there vision out that they will now be bringing PS to other platforms via Gaikai ( PSNOW ), this offers the clear differnce in the market that you dont need powerfull hardware, but there is probably still going to be the issue of lag that they will need to prove to sceptics is not a big issue. 

I dont think for a second MS are going to stay on MS only platforms, so it will be intersting to see when they unveil there plans. 

So your saying a PC gamer would not be interested in Titanfall? Halo 5? Quantum Break? Forza 5? Black Tusks New IP? Killer Instinct? Fable? Banjo Kazooie? etc etc. All exclusive to Xbox Live. They would have sales just like steam and imo with MS portfolio would destroy Steam. What would Steam have to offer? Xbox Live would have all the 3rd party games also.

GFWL does not have an amazing exclusive portfolio that PC players would get from Xbox service.

I would be interested in more Fables and Halo games on PC. I would also be interested in Killer Instinct, but only if they're on Steam.

And Titanfall *is* coming to PC. (Unfortunatly only on Origin at this stage, so I won't be buying unless it's on Steam.)

The big issue that allot of people had with Games for Windows Live! was that it was a consolised interface on the PC, Steam does an interface right, it's PC centric on the PC, the way it should be.
Then you have the prices, no one beats Steams sales, not Sony, not Microsoft and not Nintendo.

Then you need to consider that the majority of PC games are on Steam in one easy location, lots of people have large Steam library's and don't feel inclined to fragment that across a heap of different clients, fact of the matter is Steam got in early, got hated early then did the right thing by PC gamers by making games cheaper and more convenient for every PC gamer and continued to innovate and evolve the platform and is now pretty much loved by all and deservidly so.

Microsoft was far to fixated on the Xbox, neglected the PC and because of it, they lost the Billions of dollars that Steam rakes in anually, they pretty much lost the PC gaming market to Valves empire, but that's Microsoft's own fault, I don't pity them one little bit, Valve has done more good for PC gaming than *any* other company.
Even Microsoft's ports are still horrible (Like Fable 3), they just simply don't care about PC gaming to any grand extent, they even closed down ensemble studio's which focused mostly on one of the best PC RTS franchises, Age of Empires.
They also closed down Digital Anvil responsible for freelancer even cancelling freelancer 2. (Big mistake with the 10's of millions Star Citizen is raking in.)

I could nag all day... But alas in the end Microsoft needs to do allot to win me over in the PC space as does Electronic Arts and a new game client is *not* the way to go about it they either need to make gaming cheaper and more convenient, not burden us with clones of Steam.

Titanfall is now Xbox Live Cloud only. They are no longer re engineering the PC version to downgrade the Cloud stuff. PC version has been allowed to use the same Xbox One cloud service and is FULLY Xbox Live. and Windows 8 only.

Its fair enough that you dont want to use Xbox Live, but I fully expect MS in the next few years maybe around 2015/16 to bring Xbox as a full service across devices. And it to compete right against Steam but with a HUGE advantage over Steam with 50 + exclusives like Killer Instinct and Halo 5. Sony are already changing to a service, MS will to but with Windows 8 as its back bone.

If that's the case... Should be interesting to see how much Titanfall flops on the PC. (I would be more than happy to be proven wrong however.)
Windows 8 is yet to command a decent amount of marketshare and PC gamers generally don't care for minor things like Xbox integration, GFWL was the proof of that. - It's already got all that working against it.

Now 50+ exclusives is a nice number, but they're still going up against Steam which has over 3,000 games with more being added daily.
It's like comparing the games library of the Virtual Boy against the Playstation 2 it's a laughable difference to say the least.

Then you have price, we PC gamers are cheapskates... we really are. - If they start demanding $100-$120 AUD a game like they do on console, they won't gain much traction.

Edit: It's not Windows 8 exclusive it seems, so this is really all moot.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/30/titanfall-pc-release-same-as-xbox-no-windows-8/

What the hell is Black Tusk's new IP?

That one service has a shed load of apps available and would save the TV manufacturer having to build any software to get apps on Smart TV. Xbox One software already contains Windows 8 and would allow any RT apps right there on the TV out of the box. And they wouldnt stream the games, the TV would contain the chipset the Xbox One has. Albeit revised at lower power consumption and heat. Minus the disc tray. PC would just require the service open to it. And TVs would finally actually have decent camera tech for motion and speech. Instead of the terrible options TV's have in comparison to Kinect.

Im not sure what you mean about the Steam games 3000+. Microsoft has every 3rd party game on Xbox Live also. Well between Xbox Live 360 and One. Theres around 6000+ games on 360 Xbox Live including the indie games. With Xbox One ALL releases are available day 1 on download. Id imagine Microsoft would converge the 360 list with The One list if becoming a full service on PC and other devices. Microsoft have a great 3rd party support. Much better than Steam.