Yea they will become more like PC's but with one major difference. They will always have uniform system specs and first party developers which will allow for massive budget games not possible on the PC and relieve developers of the headache involved with coding for multiple hardware setups.

If a console maker moves towards a more complex system where you can start to incrementally upgrade your console then I see that console failing since the creator of that console will have forgotten the essentials that made consoles so appealing in the first place, the fact that you can just pop in a disk and start playing no worries or hassle.

Couldn't help but notice the idie development discussion. The reason why LIVE is horrible for indie developers is because MS has to OK the thing to appear on LIVE to begin with. There are no such problems on the PC which can mean amazing results. For instance check out AI War: Fleet Command, that game is probably more indepth and complete and overall fun than most full budget priced games in the past several years, also it started kind of shoddy so i doubt it would have gotten a get-go from MS (assuming the 360 was even able to handle it).

"They will always have uniform system specs"

People always say this as a downside to PC gaming, but it really isn't. In fact, it's one of the biggest advantages to PC gaming.

Want to spend a token few hundred dollars to play games moderate settings? You're allowed to.
Want to spend a little bit more for a PC with much more power than the HD twins could ever dream of having? Go right ahead.
Want to drop three grand on a system with two 5970s powering six 1600p monitors playing games at such a resolution? You're more than welcome!

But with PS360, you're locked in with the same, old, underpowered, outdated hardware for as long as Sony and Microsoft want you to be.

I agree the PC is a better platform for Indy developers but what garcian said is that there have been no profitable or good indie games for the consoles which is just wrong. Flower, Fat Princess, Dishwasher, Undertow, Braid, Splosion Man, Geometry Wars were all great games and were all released on consoles. So yea PC is the better platform for indie developers but you can still have a big hit with amazing profits on the consoles too.

Which also means that developers have to take the time and make sure the game runs flawlessly with every possible hardware setup out there. Now I'm not a game developer but I would imagine it is far simpler to code for one set of hardware than it is to code for 50 different combinations of hardware.

Hah, too true. 

Or if you want to show your mettle in doing amazing stuff with hardware ( like Carmack) then it's a blessing that you aren't restricted to the same old games and looking like everyone else.

Which is why there are standardized APIs like DirectX.

And actually, there's the argument that you can make more potential profits, even with a small indie game, on consoles over PC.

Of course, it depends on the genre and how you release it.  A independent SRPG probably won't do well on XBL or WiiWare and fare better on PC.  However, many SHUMPS, action games and especially puzzle and platformers have done AMAZINGLY well on XBL and WiiWare when they probably would have hardly been noticed in the sea of indie self published and freeware on PCs.

Like with any game genre, from the very biggest to the smallest, like these, it all comes down to advertising and hype.  And since XBL and WiiWare markets the games for you on a worldwide console distribution service....

You can't really do platforming well on the PC, at least not 3D.