Phantom Game Console.. is it really all that?

[sde]

or just a pc in a cool looking box? I mean geesh .. it's running XP and featuring an ATI card. If thier idea is to order games online .. shouldn't they just setup something like Apple's new music distribution system for video games on regular pc's .. rather than make it only available for this phantom game console?

Maybe there's something I'm not understanding.

Check it out: http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/08/27/h...tom/index.html

[bdl]

From the article:

Because it's always online, he went on, you'll be able to "shop" for games just like you use your TiVo to shop for television shows. And you can "try before you buy."

Now is it just me, or are there several things wrong with this picture?

First off, its Win XP, which lately, hasn't had a great security status online. MS is constantly corking holes in the system. So in other words, 'because it's always online, it'll get owned about an hour after the next security hole is posted'.

Secondly, this goes back to the thread I posted about online gaming and not being able to play the game as a stand-alone. Is everyone going to have incredibly high-bandwidth connections and zero usage limits?

Third, because it seems to be another proprietary box, whats to say you'll actually get to play 'real' PC games? In other words, won't they just have new developers creating online only games for this platform alone?