" @Yukoei: I thought it was "under consideration". Awesome, if it's confirmed. "

" @AntiSocialFatMan: Agree on all accounts.  You're right about the indie game scene. It's much easier for solo devs to get their stuff out there. Hell, look at 'vvvvvv'. It was made in Flash and it got a quick look on this site.  The PC will always have it's PC-focuses developers. I don't see Valve doing the console-shift any time soon and Bioware treated us nicely with Dragon Age.  It sucks a bit that shooters aren't starting on the PC any more and we only get so many of them. Hell, I can live without Halo in my life, but I hated what MW2 became. Battlefield BC2 should make things better, though :)   I'm happy if we get good story-driven games too. It was disappointing that Sony got the exclusive on Hard Rain. The first game was great. It sucks that they decided to ditch Alan Wake on PC. Here's hoping we don't have to wait six months for Dead Space 2. "

" Not until something replaces the non-game functionality of a PC.  The PC made the Amiga completely obsolete - nothing has done that to the PC yet. "

" @SeriouslyNow: right now amd is winning the battle in the video card market (in terms of quality) "

" Clarification on original post: I do NOT believe that PC gaming will "die", but there is definitely a shift away from it being the defacto standard for "bleeding edge" games.   Console games used to be one thing and PC games the other. Occassionally, a game would come out on both but it wasn't common until the original Xbox was released. Now, obviously, we have more and more franchises ditching the PC versions altogether in favour of the console market.   I was reminded of how this happened to the Amiga, but I reckon we'll turn out a lot better than that platform did. The insane shit that DRM is doing to honest PC game buyers now isn't helping, though... "

the funny thing is all you guys use the term pc when you are really refering to microsoft windows. PC simply means personal computer, the "PC" when its vocabulary is used RIGHT will of course never die, even still, it wont die, people still want something to distract them from work and procrastinate. The apple products are PCs in reality, and technically speaking xbox360 is a PC (you can infact load windows xp onto it) ps3 is a PC and even a wii is a PC. They are all computers, they compute things :P. the real big difference is 
they run under different effecient operating systems optimized to only play games and whatnot, and have specific hardware architecture for such use. I know im being a smart ass :P, but its true

Clarification on original post: I do NOT believe that PC gaming will "die", but there is definitely a shift away from it being the defacto standard for "bleeding edge" games. 
 
Console games used to be one thing and PC games the other. Occassionally, a game would come out on both but it wasn't common until the original Xbox was released. Now, obviously, we have more and more franchises ditching the PC versions altogether in favour of the console market. 
 
I was reminded of how this happened to the Amiga, but I reckon we'll turn out a lot better than that platform did.
 
The insane shit that DRM is doing to honest PC game buyers now isn't helping, though...

Yep.  The GPGPU model is more in line with their SoC ideals for the future.  Nvidia will at some point either by bought by Intel or sign some deal with a company like Intel, Transmeta, Hitachi or someone similar to eventually provide a complete complete SoC solution where the GPU also does mainline processing as well.  The GPGPU market at present is just as specialised as the professional graphics market is and there's very little profit to be had in contractual deals which are signed off for a minimum of 5 years. I'm hoping it stays that way for the foreseeable future but AMD's upcoming IGP Fusion range seems to indicate that it may not.

" When PC gaming "dies," Nvidia and ATI go on to continue the lucrative business of providing both enterprise-level graphics cards for 3D modelling and what have you, and continue to provide the graphics chips for mobile devices and game consoles.  When PC gaming "dies," the personal computer continues being relevant through the millions of other uses it has. It also continues to be the easiest way to emulate older game consoles. "

" When PC gaming dies, so does Nvidia and ATI no? "

When PC gaming "dies," Nvidia and ATI go on to continue the lucrative business of providing both enterprise-level graphics cards for 3D modelling and what have you, and continue to provide the graphics chips for mobile devices and game consoles.
 
When PC gaming "dies," the personal computer continues being relevant through the millions of other uses it has. It also continues to be the easiest way to emulate older game consoles.

When PC gaming dies, so does Nvidia and ATI no?

" So... this is a "Is PC Gaming Dying" thread, but just thinly disguised. "

 There's an obvious shift. The consoles have always had their exclusives. They have big companies backing them and stuff, gobbling up smaller companies.  Games like Alan Wake or Dead Space 2 not coming to PC isn't anything new. The consoles have always had their exclusives. EA reneged about DS2 by the way, after the outcry. They now say 'maybe', which I take as 'yes, but 6 months later'.
 
But with this console gen, it's become quite apparent that few developers actually want to create games exclusively for the PC. It's just not cost-efficient to exclusively release a big name game on the PC unless you're called Blizzard or Valve (not that Valve is PC exclusive any more), and with multiplat-centric engines like UE3 (bleh) and the upcoming CryEngine 3 and id Tech 5, not releasing games for the consoles makes no sense, assuming there's a market there.
 
That's not to say we aren't still getting fucking awesome games. Obviously we are. We just aren't exclusively getting certain games that previously were exclusive to the PC, now that the consoles have become PC-lite. That's the only change. The PC not getting certain games is how it's always been. People just haven't noticed because previously the games that didn't come to the PC weren't desirable to PC gamers, either because of genre or poor visual fidelity.
 
Now, firstly, I can live without exclusives. Only idiots who rally under the banner flag of a particular system and sound the horns of (system) war on the internet actually care about stuff like that. After all, it validates the utterly arbitrary (and probably random) choice they made when they were younger. 
  
But secondly, like I said earlier, those PC exclusives only hit the consoles when there's a market. You know what I'm talking about: the RTS and the 4X. They may get the odd Red Alert 3 or hilariously bad SupCom port, but until the consoles get mice, they will never, ever compete for RTS and 4X. Creative Assembly, Blizzard, Stardock, Firaxis, Ironclad - these guys are PC guys.
 
And, sure, we may have lost a bunch of the big developers to multiplatforming, but have you noticed that indie developers today are making incredible games? Take a look at Amnesia, from the guys who made the Penumbra series. It's incredible. Take a look at Frozen Synapse. Looks awesome to me, as does Snapshot. Or older indie games - Crayon Physics Deluxe, Aquaria - really good games, only available on the PC. 
 
Everything changes over time, and gaming is no exception. But the change isn't as dire as so many people seem to think. Not even slightly. Sure, we may get a bad port of GTA4 and have to wait 7 months for Assassin's Creed 2, and we may never see Halo 3, but the idea of playing Super Meat Boy or Amnesia makes my nethers throb more than any of those big games ever could. The industry is so rote today. Indie games are exciting.
 
And for everyone else, hey, there's still World of WarCraft.

What's all this about PC's being a dying breed in the casual market? Some of the most widely played games of all time (Half Life, WoW, Starcraft) are all on the PC, and $500 stock PC's nowadays can play old classics like Counterstrike and the Sims just fine. You see plenty of casual gamers playing PC games as well as console games, even if these games are older or freeware. PC's may be less profitable with casual gamers than consoles, but they are far from not being used for gaming at all.

Nosir.

So... this is a "Is PC Gaming Dying" thread, but just thinly disguised.

" Some video rental stores have a surprisingly big porn section. "

It'll just become kids on console and adults on PCs.
 
 
Yes that is oversimplified, but you'll never see something like Hearts of Iron on consoles.

I've seen a lot of games and genres move away from the PC over the years and it finally prompted me to buy my first console since my Sega Genesis. I've had my PS3 for a month and I still don't have a game for it, although God of War 3 and Red Dead Redemption will probably change that.  Try as I might, I'm just not as interested in console gaming as I am in PC gaming.   As long as they still make FPS and Mass Effect style RPGs for the PC, I will likely never play one, even the exclusive ones, on a console. 
 
I don't feel like I've missed out by not having a console all these years and looking forward, I feel better about PC gaming now than I did just a year ago.  It's good that some of the best developers out there such as Blizzard, Bioware, DICE, and Valve are serious about PC gaming .

" @Geno: Not that it's dying as such, but becoming a second-class citizen platform-wise. Dead Space is a great example. The first felt like a flawed console port (but I loved it). We don't even get the second one. "

Did you copy this blog post from your AOL home page from 1996 and add in some Alan Wake and Dead Space references?

"

The moment you decide to exclusively own a PC is the moment you should ask yourself if you're really a gamer :-S

There's too many console exclusives out to date already for a gamer to NOT own a cheap Xbox 360.

"

"

The moment you decide to exclusively own a PC is the moment you should ask yourself if you're really a gamer :-S

There's too many console exclusives out to date already for a gamer to NOT own a cheap Xbox 360.

"

Well if you think about it, the PC is more secure than any console when it comes to its gaming future.  Computers main function is not playing games.  It does not rely on video game sales to stay alive.  Maybe PC will never have the most games, but it will always have something.  And who knows, maybe the Xbox or PlayStation go under in the next decade or so.
 
Plus PC gaming is a lot more popular than people think.  Look at how well WoW does, and just wait to see the sales reports on Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3. PC games are more about quality than quantity.

Good read. Man i still have two working Amiga's 

@NoXious said:

"

The moment you decide to exclusively own a PC is the moment you should ask yourself if you're really a gamer :-S

"

The moment you decide to exclusively own a PC is the moment you should ask yourself if you're really a gamer :-S

There's too many console exclusives out to date already for a gamer to NOT own a cheap Xbox 360.

There are more than enough great exclusives on PC to play, my back catalog is already so huge that I wouldn't get to playing Dead Space 2 or Alan Wake for a long time anyway. Also, Steam has reportedly doubled its user base within the past year alone, so I wouldn't say PC gaming is dying if that's what you're inferring. 

Don't worry mate, PC gaming won't die out, in fact, it's feisty as ever. See those games on Facebook e.g. Farmville, Restaurant City? That's the future of PC gaming.

Not until something replaces the non-game functionality of a PC.  The PC made the Amiga completely obsolete - nothing has done that to the PC yet.

Some video rental stores have a surprisingly big porn section. Although the people who work there are usually crap at recommendations. NOT EVERYONE IS INTO FEET GOD DAMMIT!
 
But I don't think PC gaming will ever completely go away. It's just that the 360 is a uniform system, when you make games for the PC you have to think about every possible configuration of CPU's, video cards, and RAM.

Haw-haw, how do you think I feel?  I had an Atari ST!   Anyway, the truth of the matter is eventually the PC will be replaced by something else.  Maybe a Super-IPad or some other more powerful, more versatile tablet.  Nothing lasts forever and like the Amiga and the Apple II before it, things change.  The PC is integrated into our homes and workplaces so asking the majority of the population to change quickly is about as unlikely as asking everyone to switch from gas to electric cars.  However, eventually, everyone will switch to something else when the technology is perfected, the costs are cheap, and the benefits of change outweigh the difficulties.  I don't believe the console is going to kill the PC as a game platform, because I think that system is on its way out, too.  In the next 10 years something will pop up (if it hasn't already) that will take us all in a new direction.  But, these things take time and are often unpredictable. 

I'm sure my grandson will answer this same question 40 years later.

Pc games will have a MAJOR renaissance "next gen" when ps4/wiihd/360X2 only have small bumps to graphical power to keep costs down (hardware and software dev) and then even midline laptops will be able to handle big new releases.  *Of course there will be the segment who will play it on a high end pc with a crazy high res/framerate

I love my Amiga, it's sitting in my parents' house untouched an A1200 with hard drive. The frame has a big crack in it and the esc key has fallen off, but I don't care it's still beautiful to me.  PCs won't go the way of the Amiga, unless a new kind of SUPER Amiga comes out and replaces all PCs in buisnesses and homes. For a start PCs have Steam, there's plenty of games to buy on there. It's like a shop but on the interwebs, so you don't have to talk to any weirdos that work in real shops that sell PC games. Not that many shops sell PC games anymore, what's up with that? The 1C Company for instance still produce and publish the greatest selection of broken Eastern European PC games. And for that I'd like to thank the 1C company for much enjoyment.

Plus, a lot of overseas developers (excluding Japan) develop almost exclusively for the pc and come out with some kickass games "Call of Pripyat"
 
So no. Pc ain't dyin. Of course it ain't. Don't be stupid.

Nah, not completely dead since I run AmigaOS 4.1 on a PegII at home. 
 
But the PC won't become another Amiga. Mainly because the PC still got a huge market and will for quite some time, and I don't see any sign at all that that trend will change. Consoles will never get all the games we get for the PC and if they do, they're usually... 'consolidized', and usually the greatest games (that makes sense to play on a PC) sooner or later comes to the PC and vice versa.

Back in The Day - the 80's, yo - when polygons were pixels and games were something that only the nerds did, there was a games store near my house called the Hard Disk Café (I know, right?). The guys that ran it were a couple of bemulleted Amiga fans - and so most of the stock was Amiga games, with a fair amount of Atari ST and a small, video-store-porn-section-sized-(or-so-I-hear-never-seen-one-myself) PC section.
 
I remember walking past all the shiny Psygnosis posters to get to my corner of shame where, for all of 5 minutes - it didn't take long, I checked out the PC stuff. From time to time I'd get talking with the owners. Once, I suggested that PC support was improving every year and maybe, just MAYBE, the PC could be a dominant gaming platform some day.
 
They laughed in their snide, bemulletted way. 
 
Well, where are they now? I'll tell you where. They're DEAD!
 
OK, maybe not dead, but they were clearly wrong and are, therefore dead to ME.
 
But I got thinking, today. More and more games are being announced for the PC and Xbox 360, only to change to a 360 exclusive before launch. Just in the last week Alan Wake and Dead Space 2 have had announcements that they will only be made for consoles. Halo 3 looks like its never coming to the PC (don't actually care about this one, to be honest). Not to mention the Sony-exclusives. C'mon, guys. We're not the Xbox. Let me have Uncharted 2 and Hard Rain, dammit! I finished Indigo Prophecy and need to see what's next!
 
Does this mean that the PC is becoming the Amiga? It was the ubiquity of the PC that lead to its dominance over the Amiga, but surely that's happening with consoles. Console game sales are outstripping the PC all the time - even with genres born on the PC. I STILL can't do the FPS on a controller thing, I'm afraid.
 
Developers like Valve and Bioware give me hope for the future of PC games, but I still worry that one day, all we'll get (besides Valve and Bioware titles) is a parade of shonky console ports.
 
Actually, as long as Valve and Bioware stick with us, it might be ok.
 
Edit: This is not meant to come across as a "the sky is falling!" post. I was just remembering those smug Amiga guys and wondered if I'm feeling SOME of what they must have felt. There have been quite a few disappointing announcements regarding the PC versions of certain games, but the PC gaming industry remains strong. I'm not looking to change any time soon and I don't think I'll see the need. I DO hope they confirm Dead Space 2 on the PC, but :)