I can see it useful as a rental service. For example, you can rent Assassin's Creed for 48 hours total playtime for 8 bucks *just pulling shit out of my ass here folks, please don't think I have any actual numbers*. And at the end of the playtime a message pops up and flat out says, "You are out of time, if you'd like you can rent again, or purchase a digital code for PC/Xbox/Sony/Nintendo, for a discounted price and you're save game will transfer over."
IF they did that, I think it could be really useful, as it would give people a chance to actually rent and fully play the game, and the company gets some out of the rental, AND they could sell it to you and you'd get you're copy. *maybe even add a physical option in there.. who knows*.
That way it would be a Win-Win-Win.
Until about 4 days ago, I would have said it wouldn't work, as I live in fuck-all Georgia, but Googles AC
beta was actually -very- good, so my old complaints do not appear to be valid anymore. However, I would at least like the option for the Digital Download.
Currently, I do not see it replacing consoles directly, as there is still a visual quality drop, and I don't expect 4k to be a thing anytime too soon. *of course I could be wrong*. However it may be a way to bridge the generational gap.