I think the market needs something like this badly. I have a pretty big Steam library and I've always used my primary PC both for work and gaming. There are some upcoming games that won't be available on PC (GTA V) that I want to play but I am also not ready to fragment my gaming library by buying a console now. Hopefully something like this will entice and motivate certain developers to start developing for PC/X86-X64 again.
And now that Valve will release an actual console, Steam will be able to cover a much larger population than any of the consoles. People satisfied with performance on the par with Xbox and PS3 will be perfectly happy with this solution, while people requiring more performance will be free to build a dedicated gaming machine and install Steam on it.
I don't know how no other console manufacturers have thought of this. One of the biggest reasons why I never bought a console (thought I wanted one at times) is because Microsoft and Sony don't allow you to access your game purchases on other platforms. I think we're finally heading toward a future where cross platform game ownership will be a reality.
And now that Valve will release an actual console, Steam will be able to cover a much larger population than any of the consoles. People satisfied with performance on the par with Xbox and PS3 will be perfectly happy with this solution, while people requiring more performance will be free to build a dedicated gaming machine and install Steam on it.
I don't know how no other console manufacturers have thought of this. One of the biggest reasons why I never bought a console (thought I wanted one at times) is because Microsoft and Sony don't allow you to access your game purchases on other platforms. I think we're finally heading toward a future where cross platform game ownership will be a reality.