Oh? And I always bought video game consoles to play video games on - exclusivity of titles was in my case actually a problem rather than an advantage as certain games in certain series span across various platforms forcing the user to purchase several consoles rather than just one.Isn't it because people want an experience on a console that they wouldn't be able to get on another? It becomes a factor in deciding which consoles to buy when two of them mostly share the same games (like multi-platform games on the PS3/360).
What's not to understand? It's all about competition and making a console more wanted to the public over the other. For people, it's a way to show which one is supreme (fanboyism).
Personally, I don't get this Utopian lovey-dovey can everything be the same no war peace for everyone tree-cuddling hippy attitude. It's not fun if everything was the same, everything offered the same experience. There would be no choice and there was no reason to build better games because well, someone else isn't doing a better job so we cba too.
Competition is good, choice is good. Etc.
Competition is great, sure, but why not compete on the field of hardware? I don't see how the multiplatform approach is in any way detrimental to the industry - to the contrary, it allows the game to be played by a larger number of users. Console Wars could easily be played on the hardware field - each console has a different set of services and add-ons, different input methods etc. and each version of the game could include specific, exclusive content. Of course that's a dream never to come true, but hey.