I don't think the PC market has shrunk, it's just changed. Only one vendor can sell games online for the consoles, but there are loads of them selling to PC owners. Steam, Strategy First, AdventureGamers, Dreamcatcher, GameTap, Direct2Drive, etc. And that's just what used to be retail games available online, I've not even mentioned the casual games.
As Plash already said, the PC isn't going anywhere. If all the big AAA developers stopped developing for it tomorrow, there's still going to be a huge potential market because most people need a PC for something. You could argue that it would get harder to distribute if that happened, but equally I could argue that there would be less products vying for attention, so it's probably even.
Yes you can.
Big indie developers who already have games on XBLA can't get their newest games on XBLA now, so what chance do you think a relative newcomer has? Even the indie devs who have been picked up by consoleland like the guys behind Flow and Everyday Shooter were developing PC versions side-by-side in case it never happened. It'd be one giant risk to develop something where you only have one potential outlet and that outlet is getting 10 times more submissions than it can handle.
As Plash already said, the PC isn't going anywhere. If all the big AAA developers stopped developing for it tomorrow, there's still going to be a huge potential market because most people need a PC for something. You could argue that it would get harder to distribute if that happened, but equally I could argue that there would be less products vying for attention, so it's probably even.
And can you backup such games (from steam) to other media ?
Yes you can.
The question is does one persist on the blitz route or move into the console indi market which (on the xbox at least) appears to be growing and has a distribution method already in place.
Big indie developers who already have games on XBLA can't get their newest games on XBLA now, so what chance do you think a relative newcomer has? Even the indie devs who have been picked up by consoleland like the guys behind Flow and Everyday Shooter were developing PC versions side-by-side in case it never happened. It'd be one giant risk to develop something where you only have one potential outlet and that outlet is getting 10 times more submissions than it can handle.