But now that we know both the question and the answer our universe shall be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable! Or has this already happened?

I can't say that I see the point of this. Usually games require the player to be involved in the process of playing the game, thus leaving little time for multi-tasking. Also, this spoils the point of games. When you watch a movie you don't want to read a newspaper at the same time, do you? (unless the movie is crap, but then why are you watching it?) There is only one game in existence that benefits from an in-game browser - EVE Online. And guess what? It's already there, and it's TRULY in-game, as in "integrated with the game's interface".