PC gaming is doomed unless something is done.

 Yes i know that there have been tons of people in the games industry and community that have been saying this for a while now., but i'm actually beginning to think this might be true.
 
More and more publishers/developers are scrapping PC versions ( Alan Wake and Darksiders ) and going to the consoles, now lots of silly reasons have been brought up for this such as the whole "a gaming PC costs $5000" bullshit but the fact is that this is because of the piracy which has always been rampant on the PC but due to the ever increasing development costs involved in making a game this piracy is really having a devastating impact on the industry with very few developers at this point focusing on PC development those being Relic, Blizzard, Valve and The Creative Assembly with the majority of those developers branching out into console gaming and lets be honest 5 developers cannot keep cannot keep the PC gaming industry going.
But lets look at what the PC gaming industry has going for it-

• RTS Games- despite the genres waning popularity the PC is the place to play RTS games although consoles are beginning to catch up.
• MMO''s - I think the genres popularity is beginning to wane whilst WoWs popularity just keeps growing whilst the genre branches out to consoles.
  
• Indie games - The PC is great for indie games like Braid, World of Goo and Torchlight although a good number of these indie games are making the move towards consoles in the form of the PSN and XBLM
  
• Mods- Thankfully one of the few things PC gaming has kept from its console brethren mods allow for a the customization of your games and can breath new life into old titles.
  
• Digital Distribution- At the moment i think only the PC and the Iphone have managed to nail digital Distribution, despite the process not being foolproof and having certain drawbacks.

• The Rampant Piracy-nuff said
  
• Hackers in online games- this also happens in consoles but is far more prevelant in PC gaming despite anti cheat measures like VAC and Punkbuster
  
• The lack of games being made due to the aforementioned piracy.

You're funny. And no. It's only been changing throughout the years just like any market. This generation of consoles is also different to the last in many ways, being primarily dominated by Western developers and online games now, which means former PC developers found a fertile new market to sell the same old stuff they had been making on PC the last decade, while PC gamers have had enough of a lot of it by now so don't fall for repeats that aren't special. That is part of what leads to the declining sales misinformation, PC gaming is not dead or dying even though we've been hearing it since the 90s. What would you expect the publishers and hot shot celebrity developers to tell you? That they fucked up, that they lost touch with what gamers want, that it's their own fault? Of course not, they'll pretend they're doing everything right, that the platform is at fault, and they'll pamper console gamers who haven't yet had enough and think gritty "realism" first person shooter #2328378 is a fresh new concept just because they weren't PC gamers to know how stale they are since last gen they all had a PS2 and played Eastern developers' games for the most part. That leads to another harm of the overall industry by the way, and that is people asking Eastern developers to change and provide titles of the same style. God will that be a shitty day for gaming when even they start doing muddy grey FPS titles. You'll have enough of those games soon enough guys, and there won't be anything else to play if you keep complaining like that. Sigh. Anyway, this is getting off topic.

If a single game can be a huge success, like Blizzard's games, Valve's games, some of EA's titles, niche games like Stardock's output, indie games like World of Goo, casual games, hardcore games and just about anything you can think of, then any quality game has the same potential to meet if it's handled right. The PC platform has provided fertile ground for a large number of companies who have grown immensely in the last years. Valve was just the developer of Half-Life, see what they've become? Several digital distributors are supported. Indie developers have made fortunes. Smaller publishers/developers like Stardock earned strong fanbases to support their niches. Franchises continue for decades. Online games are as strong as ever, WoW isn't the only success out there. Perhaps it's the only one that appeals or would appeal to you, but there's a fuckton of MMORPGs and more are being made all the time. Alternative payment methods are introduced for new markets. Some flop, others profit. If one doesn't last for a freaking decade like WoW is (an extreme case duders, not every game needs to do that) it wasn't necessarily a loss for the company, otherwise NCSoft would have gone bankrupt by now instead of develop even more titles like they keep doing.
 
If something needs to change further at all then that is the majority of the current hot shot publishers who don't know what the fuck they're doing on the platform. The market is there, people are paying for games despite piracy and they're paying a lot of money. If a company can't compete enough to get people to buy their products it's not the platform's fault, and PC gamers don't care if they leave since they weren't buying their games for a reason. Nobody's going to lower his standards and buy crap he doesn't want for the publishers to keep putting out crap instead of attempt to immitate the success of the previously mentioned examples through the quality and proper handling of projects. Whether they do that or not however, will not kill PC gaming. It is merely up to them to profit off of it. If they can't, it's their loss. Others do and more will come to join them. Maybe PC gaming isn't for you or the majority of users around here because you prefer the output on consoles. You aren't that important, PC gaming can and is surviving without you just fine. Play what you want and don't look back or worry, just don't kid yourself believing you jumped off a sinking ship.

Also, its greatest asset is nothing as simple as a given genre which may be popular at one time and hated at another. It's merely the fact it's an open platform where anything goes. That is all that's caused all the other things you think are its strengths, and it will lead to many more. Western type games were born on it, and only arrived to consoles in a big way with the Xbox. Online games were born on it and only arrived on consoles this generation. MMORPGs are the new big thing, those will probably show up on consoles in a big way next gen (or by the end of this one if it's prolonged enough as many speculate these days). The whole market is changing all the time as people don't dwell on the same stuff and the PC is usually leading the way. That consoles catch up doesn't mean it will die (or that it will die when/if there's no such big breakthrough to rely on), especially when computers will always be needed by tons of users, and those uses have the side effect of also making them capable gaming machines. Since those users are humans, many of them will be interested in entertainment and therefor gaming, so games will be made for them.

Final edit, over and out :-)

It has Modern Warfare 2 working against it. Everything that MW2 does wrong for the PC version will be done by others soon. (price, no dedicated servers, etc.) 
 
And it has Valve and Blizzard working for it.

The amount of money I've spent during the Steam sale says otherwise.

Wow you think that the stuff people in the industry have been saying for years might actually be happening? No way! 
 
PC games will most likely not die any time soon, they simply are no longer the major way to play games. More people play games on consoles now so developers shifted their focus to consoles. You put a disk in the console and it works, no min specs, no need to upgrade anything, no need to install it launch day to find out that your video/motherboard/sound card combo makes the game unplayable and you have to wait a week until it's patched. Games on the PC will not die any time soon, it will just be different.

"PC gaming will live as long as people use PCs, and there are a lot of people using PCs. PS3 gaming is most likely doomed since Sony can't even make any money of their console. "

" @Nemesis said:

"PC gaming will live as long as people use PCs, and there are a lot of people using PCs. PS3 gaming is most likely doomed since Sony can't even make any money of their console. "

Lol "

" The amount of money I've spent during the Steam sale says otherwise. "

Slowest death in history.  PC gaming deserves an Oscar for how long it's been dying.
 
True, PC exclusives aren't driving the industry anymore, which is a shame, but PC versions of games are still obviously selling well enough to warrant making them.  That said, there have been multiple 1m+ selling PC exclusives this year (eg. Empire, Sims 3, Wrath) - without counting digital sales - and I doubt many of those games had the budget that your typical million selling 360 or PS3 game has.
 
If the GB daily plays list is anything to go by, PC gamers haven't gone anywhere, they're just all playing WoW still.  Those WoW numbers every day amaze me.

" It has Modern Warfare 2 working against it. Everything that MW2 does wrong for the PC version will be done by others soon. (price, no dedicated servers, etc.)  And it has Valve and Blizzard working for it. " 

" Wow you think that the stuff people in the industry have been saying for years might actually be happening? No way!  PC games will most likely not die any time soon, they simply are no longer the major way to play games. More people play games on consoles now so developers shifted their focus to consoles. You put a disk in the console and it works, no min specs, no need to upgrade anything, no need to install it launch day to find out that your video/motherboard/sound card combo makes the game unplayable and you have to wait a week until it's patched. Games on the PC will not die any time soon, it will just be different. "

You know, it's late so I didn't really read all that thoroughly. 
 
What I can say is that the PC gaming industry is not looking too good, and it is a shame, because I love it. It's a shame to see how big companies with great titles, like Modern Warfare 2 completely disrespect this industry. It is crazy to see RTS and FPS titles NOT being released for the PC. They are meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard if you ask me. Consoles are inferior when it comes to videogames if you ask me. I much prefer PC's for every genre except rhythm games and platformers, and even when it comes to platformers I can utilize a gamepad on the PC, whereas I do not think you can use a mouse and key board in a gaming console. All in all, the PC is the most versatile platform of them all. It is also the most elitist and the most hardcore of them all! :'D 
 
Oh, and you totally forgot to mention dedicated servers.

If you only have a PC these days, then shame on you. Times change. Suck it up and get a console. I hate PC elitists anyway.

The fate of PC gaming depends on what happens to console gaming. If "cloud gaming" services such as OnLive get their shit right, they will essentially replace consoles.
 
PC gaming will stick around longer than console/handheld gaming if only for the "open nature" of the platform. By this I am referring to mods and the ability to write code.
 
Once cloud gaming has the infrastructure to make it work, almost nobody will own a console. They will own a device that works just like a console over the internet for a monthly fee. Except they will be able to hook a mouse and keyboard up to it for some click and drag action and play PC games through it (just without the modability). Dragon Age is a great example of a game that would flourish with such a service. People could play the game the intended way without having to own an actual gaming rig.
 
If anything, 'cloud gaming' will be the savior of the PC because the primary flaw with the platform is all but defeated for the mass of players: the stupid expensive hardware. Sure those that wish to keep their rigs up to date with all the latest gear could still do that and benefit from having access to the game data itself, but it's nice to not be required to do so. Hardware prices would surely be affected though -- not sure which way.
 
Watch Steam become its own true gaming platform once it allows full cloud instead of just a download service/store. GFW would merge with Xbox to create a single platform (hello again, monopoly) and Sony would either combine Viao into it's Playstation brand and try to keep afloat with the other guys or go the Sega route and focus as a publisher.
 
I'm tellin ya, Cloud will change everything. It may take 20 years. FF7 was like a metaphor or something.

Wow. Did people just all of a sudden forget Steam and Impulse?

Well, Blizzard isn't making any console games, so I'm sure PC games will still be around. Seriously though, where the hell is Starcraft 2?

I don't agree in the slightest - this idea that PC gaming is dying is the most tired cliche around.
 
Piracy is worse on the DS and PSP than it ever will be on the PC, yet nobody says those platforms are dying. It's a lazy argument. Piracy has been around since PCs arrived so why's it suddenly so much more of a problem? I don't buy that for a second.

Heck Facebook games are being measured by the tens of millions in terms of players. Presumably the bulk of those are PC users. These avenues may not suit the traditional hardcore gamer, but they are already much more popular (and potentially lucrative) than console gaming.
 
I think the truth is that PC gaming is ahead of the curve, as it often has been in its history. The free-to-play model, the browser and casual market, the games as art movement - all are principally based on the PC and leading the way forward for the industry in my opinion.

" Wow. Did people just all of a sudden forget Steam and Impulse? "

" If you only have a PC these days, then shame on you. Times change. Suck it up and get a console. I hate PC elitists anyway. "

" You know, it's late so I didn't really read all that thoroughly.  What I can say is that the PC gaming industry is not looking too good, and it is a shame, because I love it. It's a shame to see how big companies with great titles, like Modern Warfare 2 completely disrespect this industry. It is crazy to see RTS and FPS titles NOT being released for the PC. They are meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard if you ask me. Consoles are inferior when it comes to videogames if you ask me. I much prefer PC's for every genre except rhythm games and platformers, and even when it comes to platformers I can utilize a gamepad on the PC, whereas I do not think you can use a mouse and key board in a gaming console. All in all, the PC is the most versatile platform of them all. It is also the most elitist and the most hardcore of them all! :'D  Oh, and you totally forgot to mention dedicated servers. "

I've been a PC gamer during the entirety of this console generation and I never see where people are coming from when they say the market is dieing.  The PC hasn't been the focus since the late 90's/early 00's.  So what?  That hasn't stopped millions of PC games getting sold every year and through more open and diverse sources than any other console system.  It just seems popular to say this every once in a while because consoles seem to hold most of the market.  The reason is that there is definitive ownership of each console and so there is a vivid, defined boundary that people can talk and focus on.  That's why the E3 press conferences get so much attention and the PC doesn't because the PC by its very nature isn't a definitive platform and that's what sets it apart.  When it's been like for decades, how can I be surprised people say its dead when consoles have become the focus.  Sales numbers are very much affected by this because the industry standard, the NPD, doesn't consider digital avenues.  Arguably that's the most important part of the PC game financial market and it doesn't factored. So it gets less press.
 
I personally think PC gaming is growing and getting better.  Steam should be argument enough.  They are making piles of cash and guess what, someone has to be purchasing all those games.  In the last couple of years we've seen two major games from the Ukranian make it in the western market, Telltale single-handely reviving the adventure game market and making a new goddamn Monkey Island game, Valve making TF2 utterly bananas with its post release support, Bioware, Bethesda, id software, Valve, Blizzard and a number of other developers going strong, and the indie games...oh the indie games.
 
I personally have never run across someone hacking and if they secretly have, me noticing at all.  Piracy is the only deal but digital distribution's freedom has allowed for other incentives to be provided.  I certainly recognize the massive pirating issue but thanks to different services it is no longer as large a barrier of entry as it was in the past.
 
Besides PC games get discounted faster and more often than console games do.  As a cheap-ass it's my perfect platform.

" @Abyssfull said:

" @Nemesis said:

"PC gaming will live as long as people use PCs, and there are a lot of people using PCs. PS3 gaming is most likely doomed since Sony can't even make any money of their console. "

Lol "

All his posts are like that...i flag them every time I see them.  Don't think that does anything tho.  That's one of the tame ones actually. "

It's nuts that in a conversation like this I rarely hear people talk outside of absolutes.  Either PC gaming is dying or will never die, ever.  PC gaming is 'dead' or people have been claiming that since the 90's (and while that is true, not nearly as much as people claim it today).  People have to disagree with all the points, even if some are right, or agree completely and shout it from the mountain tops.  What ever happened to separating yourself from what you discuss and looking at things rationally?
 

@MrKlorox:

I think the market is changing, rather than dying. Most people still prefer FPS on pc, and RTS is still only playable on PC, anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. PC games are likely to change, to become more and more complex, where you need a mouse and keyboard. Essentially, the PC is still the smart man's console, it just seems there's more consolers these days who don't want to delve into a complex RTS or simulator, ergo, more money in consoles.
 
Also, the rise in indie games, aided by digital distribution, should be indicator enough. But I've noticed on Giantbomb the community here seems to be very console orientated.

I don't own a Windows based PC, but i'm still tired of hearing this thing over and over. PC gaming isn't going anywhere and from what i understand this year was a very good one for PC gaming. 
 
And the PC also gets some of the consoles block buster titles, only they are better on that platform, at least visually.

2010 will change everything.

" Slowest death in history.  PC gaming deserves an Oscar for how long it's been dying.  True, PC exclusives aren't driving the industry anymore, which is a shame, but PC versions of games are still obviously selling well enough to warrant making them.  That said, there have been multiple 1m+ selling PC exclusives this year (eg. Empire, Sims 3, Wrath) - without counting digital sales - and I doubt many of those games had the budget that your typical million selling 360 or PS3 game has.  If the GB daily plays list is anything to go by, PC gamers haven't gone anywhere, they're just all playing WoW still.  Those WoW numbers every day amaze me. "

" 2010 will change everything. "

" 2010 will change everything. "

" I've been a PC gamer during the entirety of this console generation and I never see where people are coming from when they say the market is dieing.  The PC hasn't been the focus since the late 90's/early 00's.  So what?  That hasn't stopped millions of PC games getting sold every year and through more open and diverse sources than any other console system.  It just seems popular to say this every once in a while because consoles seem to hold most of the market.  The reason is that there is definitive ownership of each console and so there is a vivid, defined boundary that people can talk and focus on.  That's why the E3 press conferences get so much attention and the PC doesn't because the PC by its very nature isn't a definitive platform and that's what sets it apart.  When it's been like for decades, how can I be surprised people say its dead when consoles have become the focus.  Sales numbers are very much affected by this because the industry standard, the NPD, doesn't consider digital avenues.  Arguably that's the most important part of the PC game financial market and it doesn't factored. So it gets less press.
 
I personally think PC gaming is growing and getting better.  Steam should be argument enough.  They are making piles of cash and guess what, someone has to be purchasing all those games.  In the last couple of years we've seen two major games from the Ukranian make it in the western market, Telltale single-handely reviving the adventure game market and making a new goddamn Monkey Island game, Valve making TF2 utterly bananas with its post release support, Bioware, Bethesda, id software, Valve, Blizzard and a number of other developers going strong, and the indie games...oh the indie games.  I personally have never run across someone hacking and if they secretly have, me noticing at all.  Piracy is the only deal but digital distribution's freedom has allowed for other incentives to be provided.  I certainly recognize the massive pirating issue but thanks to different services it is no longer as large a barrier of entry as it was in the past. Besides PC games get discounted faster and more often than console games do.  As a cheap-ass it's my perfect platform. "

" @Tru3_Blu3 said:

" 2010 will change everything. "

how?
 
@Tuffgong said:

" I've been a PC gamer during the entirety of this console generation and I never see where people are coming from when they say the market is dieing.  The PC hasn't been the focus since the late 90's/early 00's.  So what?  That hasn't stopped millions of PC games getting sold every year and through more open and diverse sources than any other console system.  It just seems popular to say this every once in a while because consoles seem to hold most of the market.  The reason is that there is definitive ownership of each console and so there is a vivid, defined boundary that people can talk and focus on.  That's why the E3 press conferences get so much attention and the PC doesn't because the PC by its very nature isn't a definitive platform and that's what sets it apart.  When it's been like for decades, how can I be surprised people say its dead when consoles have become the focus.  Sales numbers are very much affected by this because the industry standard, the NPD, doesn't consider digital avenues.  Arguably that's the most important part of the PC game financial market and it doesn't factored. So it gets less press.
 
I personally think PC gaming is growing and getting better.  Steam should be argument enough.  They are making piles of cash and guess what, someone has to be purchasing all those games.  In the last couple of years we've seen two major games from the Ukranian make it in the western market, Telltale single-handely reviving the adventure game market and making a new goddamn Monkey Island game, Valve making TF2 utterly bananas with its post release support, Bioware, Bethesda, id software, Valve, Blizzard and a number of other developers going strong, and the indie games...oh the indie games.  I personally have never run across someone hacking and if they secretly have, me noticing at all.  Piracy is the only deal but digital distribution's freedom has allowed for other incentives to be provided.  I certainly recognize the massive pirating issue but thanks to different services it is no longer as large a barrier of entry as it was in the past. Besides PC games get discounted faster and more often than console games do.  As a cheap-ass it's my perfect platform. "

I think you're correct about the whole cheap ass platform part but most of the devs you mentioned are multiplatform devs. "

PC gaming is only dying in the eyes of people who don't count Free to Play MMO's, and browser based games. Maybe less of the games you like to play are receiving PC ports, but there are more people playing PC games now than there ever have been.

" To continue the conversation it would be good to define PC gaming. Does it all boil down to modability?
 
@Diamond: Cloud computing might not necessarily be the future for home gaming, but it's most likely the future for handheld gaming. Something that could really blow up as a result. "

" The amount of money I've spent during the Steam sale says otherwise. "

Console only devs are just as rare as PC only devs and multiplatform developers are the reason gaming is what it is today.

" Wow. Did people just all of a sudden forget Steam and Impulse? "

" @ch13696 said:

" Wow. Did people just all of a sudden forget Steam and Impulse? "

And Good Old Games (gog.com) and Gametap and Stardock and so many other online retailers.  PC gaming is not dead.  Piracy isn't killing it.  Posts like the OP are killing my brain and patience though. "

Bungie games have been on PC, SEGA publishes big PC only franchises like Football Manager and Total War and have put out on PC some of their Japanese games too like Outrun, Konami has put out PC versions of games like Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid. Why not count indie devs? It's a legit newly rejuvenated field that's showing growth and some people are into indie games just as much as anything else. Then there are MMO devs, simulation devs, and other types that are primarily on PC, as well as a vast casual industry that puts Wii to shame with PopCap, MumboJumbo, etc.

@Diamond: Cloud computing might not necessarily be the future for home gaming, but it's most likely the future for handheld gaming. Something that could really blow up as a result.

Cloud computing will hit the PC first, that is a guarantee.

Bungie games have been on PC, SEGA publishes big PC only franchises like Football Manager and Total War, Konami has put out PC versions of many games, etc.

Konami has put out PC versions of games like Silent Hill and Metal Gear Solid.

Why not count indie devs?

It depends on what you mean by hit.  It could have the first major success on mobile formats, but odds are the first cloud computing ever was done via a PC (but that moment has already passed).

" @Tuffgong said:

Console only devs are just as rare as PC only devs and multiplatform developers are the reason gaming is what it is today.

I can't agree with a statement like that, especially if I replace 'devs' with 'games'.  Unless you're counting 1-man indie PC game developers against large companies like From Software, Nippon Ichi, Bungie, Naughty Dog, a plethora of JRPG games/developers, most Sega releases, Konami...  No doubt consoles have a much more significant exclusive development base.  That's part of the reason this kind of discussion comes up in the first place. "

" @Tuffgong said:

Console only devs are just as rare as PC only devs and multiplatform developers are the reason gaming is what it is today.

I can't agree with a statement like that, especially if I replace 'devs' with 'games'.  Unless you're counting 1-man indie PC game developers against large companies like From Software, Nippon Ichi, Bungie, Namco Bandai, Tecmo, Naughty Dog, a plethora of JRPG games/developers, most Sega releases, Konami, Rare, the first party development inside MS, Sony, and Nintendo...  No doubt consoles have a much more significant exclusive development base.  That's part of the reason this kind of discussion comes up in the first place. "

" @Diamond said:

" @Tuffgong said:

Console only devs are just as rare as PC only devs and multiplatform developers are the reason gaming is what it is today.

I can't agree with a statement like that, especially if I replace 'devs' with 'games'.  Unless you're counting 1-man indie PC game developers against large companies like From Software, Nippon Ichi, Bungie, Namco Bandai, Tecmo, Naughty Dog, a plethora of JRPG games/developers, most Sega releases, Konami, Rare, the first party development inside MS, Sony, and Nintendo...  No doubt consoles have a much more significant exclusive development base.  That's part of the reason this kind of discussion comes up in the first place. "

Those dev teams you list have ALWAYS seen consoles as their  primary targets.  PC gaming had a sharp increase during the 1990s due to the rise of  multimedia hardware and relative cheapness of the said hardware on PCs vs the first CD based consoles like the SEGA CD and 3DO.  The market for PC has just levelled off.  Very few developers need to target the PC as their first port of call but the good ones make sure their PC releases are PC centric, like Bioware or 2K and the bad ones like Infinity Ward with the POS that MW2 is on PC, do it as an Afterthought.

Not recently? Pro Evo 2009, 2010, Silent Hill: Homecoming in 08, Saw (lol) in 2009, and MGS: Rising may show up on PC. If we're mentioning tiny niche developers as more legit than indies then let's count all the Korean and Chinese MMO developers for PC and of course the casual developers like MumboJumbo and PopCap (whch I guess you may have missed since I added them to the last post after a while). Perhaps they don't come to mind because you're personally not interested in those games but then again someone who's been gaming on PC alone the past decade will hardly care for some of the niche console games either, yet they're most certainly worth the mention.

PopCap

Um, what? You won't count them if Konami assigned the port to another? The game was still developed by Konami and they wanted it on PC. True about PopCap, but the vast majority of their output isn't on consoles. If you don't count Konami for PC then don't count PopCap for their lesser fields. And lol @ now considering quality. Sorry, but what you're considering is personal interest. You don't care about Korean MMOs, hence you think they aren't worth as much as another... Then again tons of Asian dudes play them even though they can just as easily access WoW or other bigger (here) games. Well okay then, let's count company worth. How many console companies is Blizzard worth? NCSoft? Stardock? Where do you count Microsoft for providing the very technology games run on PC through? And do they make more money on consoles or on PC? Do we then exclude Sony from the field altogether because they mostly do other electronics so they fit neither on PC (despite Sony Online) nor on console? Do we exclude Blizzard from PC because they're alongside Activision who is clearly multiplatform orientated? Etc.

It gets pretty complicated eh?

I never said there aren't more console devs (though given all the different markets I have no interest in to watch and see how they grow therefor I'm pretty clueless about them I'm not sure at all, since you said mobile SEGA is pretty big on that field also for example), I just didn't like the way you confronted the other dude with those companies, implying there are so many it's unreal when even some of your big examples were already flawed. What I feel is in my first post and I've seen nothing that confronts it in a meaningful way.

Not being the biggest has nothing to do with dying in any case. Otherwise only one console would be alive too.

Multiplatform + digitial distribution = PC is doing just damn fine.
 
That's really the essence of my argument against the PC as a dieing platform.  As more and more developers go mutliplatform (including PC in that list) the PC is getting new games it otherwise wouldn't (Resident Evil for instance) and consoles are getting games they otherwise wouldn't (Oblivion, id software games).  It's a win-win I think and I certainly can play more games are a result and that's the end goal for me.  Outside of the exclusives for each console I can count on one hand, I am able to play just as many games on the PC as a console player.  Certainly a majority of games that are talked about and matter.
 
If one kid can see that PC gaming is thriving, how could it still be around if there was only a few other people like me?
 
 I will say that PC gaming has the worst PR in the world and that needs to change.

" @Al3xand3r: As far as Silent Hill and MGS are concerned, neither of those games were/are being developed by Konami. "

" If you only have a PC these days, then shame on you. Times change. Suck it up and get a console. I hate PC elitists anyway. "

This conversation has gotten rather sad.  People are only caring about defending the platform they're a fan of.  I'll make a few points but this sort of discussion is feeling more and more hopeless on Giant Bomb these days.
 
@Chyro said:

Not really.  I only have a PC and it's basically a better Xbox 360 if you prefer keyboard/mouse.  Almost all the games that come out on Xbox 360 release on PC.  And if you are not a huge fan of Halo or Gears of War 2 you won't miss much.

Outside of the exclusives for each console I can count on one hand, I am able to play just as many games on the PC as a console player.

If you don't count Konami for PC then don't count PopCap for console for the same reason.

" You're funny. And no."

" @SeriouslyNow said:

" @Diamond said:

" @Tuffgong said:

Console only devs are just as rare as PC only devs and multiplatform developers are the reason gaming is what it is today.

I can't agree with a statement like that, especially if I replace 'devs' with 'games'.  Unless you're counting 1-man indie PC game developers against large companies like From Software, Nippon Ichi, Bungie, Namco Bandai, Tecmo, Naughty Dog, a plethora of JRPG games/developers, most Sega releases, Konami, Rare, the first party development inside MS, Sony, and Nintendo...  No doubt consoles have a much more significant exclusive development base.  That's part of the reason this kind of discussion comes up in the first place. "

Those dev teams you list have ALWAYS seen consoles as their  primary targets.  PC gaming had a sharp increase during the 1990s due to the rise of  multimedia hardware and relative cheapness of the said hardware on PCs vs the first CD based consoles like the SEGA CD and 3DO.  The market for PC has just levelled off.  Very few developers need to target the PC as their first port of call but the good ones make sure their PC releases are PC centric, like Bioware or 2K and the bad ones like Infinity Ward with the POS that MW2 is on PC, do it as an Afterthought.

I don't think that changes much though because in addition to console exclusive developers staying exclusive to consoles in many cases, many formerly PC exclusive developers are now multiplatform.  Many of the cornerstones of PC gaming, Epic, id, Valve, as well as more obscure / niche developers like Maddox and Red Lynx. "