[citation][nom]marraco[/nom]Direct access to GPU, close to metal, allows consoles to match Windows on Crysis 2.Windows is burdened by layers and layers of APIs. Windows GPU have more than 10X the power of best consoles, so the burden of API means that we only enjoy 0.10X of the power of PC GPUs...But going closer to metal on PC will solve nothing. A developer may spend 2 years creating an amazing game for a given architecture, but after a GPU upgrade, the game stops working, because GPU can't evolution without architecture changes. That's what API do; API translate standard code to different architecture codes. Without API, there is no compatibility, no PC, no evolution.[/citation]
You're confusing the API with the device driver.
An API does simplify development, because it removes even the device driver from the equation, and allows one to write for NVIDIA, Intel and AMD all at once, but with overhead.
Also, you're incorrect about the compatibility. It assumes they change the instruction set, or more to the point, have it so existing instructions do not run. You can change an architecture without making old instructions not work. Look at the 386, and look at Sandy Bridge. And that's from 1986. If they're not doing it already, they'd have no trouble making a stable instruction set with what they know now, and keeping it for every generation without much, if any, sacrifice. They may be doing it already.