I can't deny the business realities and what M$ does is no different than what $ony does in terms of buying out devs. Considering the R&D associated with console development, it's no surprise that the only two remaining consoles are products of global mega-corporations like MS and Sony. Don't take my $ signs to mean I'm anti-capitalist though. I just can't help lament the end of PC gaming as we know it.
Instead of Half-Life, HL2, Dues-Ex, System Shock 1/2, Max Payne and the many PC games I've left out that had cool/unique/memorable features about them, we'll get homogenized console games.
Regardless of how you feel about consoles; do you really believe that we'll ever see a console title with the level of innovation that Max Payne had? I don't.
I'm sorry now for all the Valve/Remedy/3DR bashing I have done over the years. All the delays/gaffes that we've seen from PC devs now look trivial.
This from the last good SW movie seems to fit the best:
"Only now, at the end, do you understand."