I'm for it. If there was one console box with a lifecycle of 5 years there'd be no more stupid PS3 vs Xbox 360 threads. No more ring of death threads. No more Wii is a PS2 with waggle threads. People wouldn't need to justify their purchases to complete strangers through making fun of said strangers' choices for a gaming console. Heck, people would have time to PLAY their video games rather than just chat about them.
Plus the software companies could truly optimize for one system and then we'd have competition based on gameplay....not on pushing the graphics, etc. Games would be judged by playability and innovation. If you have crappily ported controls...it's your own fault as everyone else is coding for the same system.
They could still make both styles of gameplay. Just because it's a powerful machine doesn't mean folks can't write cutesy platformers. You could have all levels of games...from Xbox Live type mini games to full blown disk games. Could still have full, feature rich games, and appeal to the masses.
The company that constructed could operate at a loss-leader on the hardware as more people would be buying it and then a small portion of games comes back to hardware. So maybe direct downloads of games and the money they were losing to packaging and what not goes to the hardware pool. It would be a nice system. Get back to the games and not have to worry so much about the console. If you game you can play whatever quality game comes out.
The only people who would suffer are folks who make mediocre games for smaller systems. Those companies right now get their half a games bought because there's limited selection on certain consoles so their crap rises to the top. Wouldn't happen if the pool was deeper.
Pippen!!!!
