You people and your console wars never cease to amaze me. I mean, holy shit! Can you imagine if you could buy a game on a single platform and play against potentially any gamer in the world, regardless of the piece of plastic they chose to buy their game for? How awesome would that be? But no, you stand against it, because you don't like some mega corporatíon - or you just want some other mega corporation to be even more fucking successful.

You've fallen for the "illusion" of choice (we can all play together regardless. That would be awesome!). Competition, which is a good thing, means choice. Everybody having all the same things is not competition and therefore is not choice. 

With Windows Store, they havent made any significant effort to get attention before 2016. Only recently did they start bringing and announcing AAA games. Prior to that it was just mobile games. They arent even competing per se, Windows Store is instead coexisting. Windows Store doesent need to steal userbase from Steam, it can share their audience for the exclusives. I think many of us have Steam, Origin, and Windows Store content.

I think MS has been content with Windows and other PC related stuff making billions so PC gaming was never a focus. They are already in the PC business and even Steam help push their OS.

Xbox gaming has importance because that was a market outside of PC gaming.

Besides those bolded parts, you made no mention at all of backwards compat, you mentioned exclusives and funding, having less games these days than in the past which is entirely false.

Second part: Yes it does, because they share the same space as a PC within the same architecture. The fact that console games need patches a lot including system absed ones as well as downloading said games, installing them and using other functions like the web broswer, media and music playback very much makes them more PC like today than they were like a plug and play console from the NES/SNES days. Back then all you had a console for was to play just games and only games, no media, no music, no movies, no browser, no patches or downloads, no nothing that a PC could and still does to this day. You can deny it all you want with every fiber of your being but consoles today are trying to become more PC like by the years that go by. Until consoles stop trying to emulate what a PC does on a gaming or general every day basis then they will still be trying to be that which they were not. 

Sega megadrive was not a PC, it didn't do everything the PS4 does today (besides one single model version that tried to do Audio CD playback but we all know which version was the one that wasn't used as one). 

2015 and 2016 there was definitely an effort.  2014 they were probably planning their moves. 

Before that they were focused on their failed windows phone venture.  Hopefully they have more success with the pc store but as of now they've made very few gains.  

They are seriously trying to challenge steam and it's an uphill battle.  I wish them luck. 

I think you are givng the Windows store more credit then it actualy deserves, I know of it however I have never used it (even have 10 on my laptop) just my example. But as far as what ive ive seen and heard the Windows store is no where near the level it needs to be able to make this cross platform thing happen there needs to be a LOT of work done to even be in the same realm as other companies.

Everyone will not have the same things. There will still be "Windows" exclusives and Playststion exclusives. No cross-platform multiplayer there. For the abundance of titles that release on all  platforms, though? All gamers would stand to gain from that. Some more thsn others, of course. No one who prefers Sony's exclusives would be forced to "choose" to buy an Xbox because all thier friends have one, or vice versa. Your choice of gaming platform would be solely in your hands, and the platform holders can compete for your money with all the other features they uniquely offer.

I dunno, kinda sounds like you'll still have both choice and competition in a world where multiplats all support cross plat multiplayer.

Depends on the games, my most recent game Star Ocean 5 didnt have any Patches, Atelier Sophie only a tiny patch to fix some Text in the trasnlation. Japanese games in genral are a lot less Patch heavy than Western counterparts i noticed, and so are Remasters and Indie games. Its these AAA games who go overboard and a lot of them are even server based in the first place. But then again i am not fan of these types of games and wont support them, same way i havent bought SFV.

Why shouldnt a console have extra features, the PS2 could also play DVDs? Do you realize that even BlueRay/DVD players can go to the webbowser? Every device can these day, i dont understand why you think doing more is a step in the wrong direction? 

A console is still a console and does best what it was built for, gaming. While yes the PS4 does have a lot of things more reminisant of a PC it still gives you a way easier plug and play experience which PC gamers can only dream off.

- you can plug your disc and instantley install your games, no waiting for download.

- games ussually are installed in 1-2 minutes and you can start them while the rest is installed in the background (20 minutes) from the disc.

- Patches are downloaded and installed while you are even playing the game, you just need to restart the game in order make the patch effective.

- for digital games they are downloaded and installed at the same time. And you dont need the complete game in order to start it, like 10 GB of a 50GB is enough for many games even if it is just a Demo mode for some AAA games like NBA 2k2016.

- you can also just change the language of the game at any givene time to any language you want if it is on the disc or download. Even if the devoloper designed the game to be in the language of the system menu. Its very usefull for looking at item names in english to see in online guides etc. and even MS plans to implement it on Xbox One.

- you can copy and paste your save file when ever you want and for any game you want. Some grindy games like DoA3 its very usefull.

All these things isnt what i was used to when i was a PC gamer. While yes the downloads, installations and patches are mimicking PCs, the excuation is completley different on console or at least on PS4 it is as far as i know. 

On the Wii U it is still reading the games from the Disc.

Actually I believe MS turned it down because Sony did have an open MP platform while MS has always had a closed MP platform.  With that closed system, MS controlled all aspect of Network play and from my understanding of the time back then they were not willing to open it up with the potential of exploits and other stuff PC gamers deal with today.

Wouldn't that cannabalize the longevity of their exclusives, though? The argument for allowing all these games to be cross play amongst each other is that it increases the game's community, so people will play longer. There wouldn't be parity. Who's gonna still want to play Halo 5, when everyone is still playing some multiplatform game that still has a huge community? Nobody's gonna pick up Halo 5 in 2017, when you could just as easily pick up Advanced Warfare and not have a problem finding a match (I know Halo, itself, has longevity, but I'm just using it as an example) because people on PS4 and PC can play with you. 

I don't see how sabotaging your games' player bases would be beneficial to either the companies or the consumers.