You want to run 4-way split screen? How about >4-way LAN?
How are those two situations in any way comparable? People sitting in front of separate monitors, possibly in different rooms, is a completely different experience than a few friends huddled in front of the same TV, throwing down all sorts of smack-talk (and possibly the occasional bit of physical violence). For my money, at least, split-screen multiplayer is the far more enjoyable atmosphere, and I'll never understand why so few PC titles have implemented it. And on a related note, how many people out there actually have four gaming-caliber PCs at their disposal to LAN on?
As far as the raw power of console hardware goes, I feel like programming in that sort of environment can create certain benefits just by the closed nature of the system. Anyone who's played PC games within the last five years or so knows that there's a
ton of optimization that simply isn't happening...game developers as a whole seem to have eschewed tweaking and fine-tuning in lieu of throwing more RAM and beefier video cards at an engine until its flaws aren't nearly as apparent. When you're instead limited to a fixed slate of hardware, like in the 360 or PS3, you're forced to make as many of those optimizations as possible, so that your game can maintain a smooth framerate at 1080p. In fact, it's usually only near the end of consoles' lifespans that their true potential becomes realized, as the developers who have been working on them over the years have learned to push the hardware to the absolute limit.
And again, as I've said many times in the past in topics like this...if you've never played even a small sampling of console titles, you've missed out on the majority of the best gaming franchises ever developed. The bottom line for me is that a true gamer recognizes a great game no matter what platform it's on, and enjoys it accordingly.