But Piracy's where the real problem lays, if they can do something about that, then the PC gaming will thrive, WOW style.

nope, pc gaming doesn't need saving, it just needs a little boost, all these pc gaming dying things have been there for ages, console growth has been exponential over the past few years, pc growth has been steady and hence consoles have overshadowed pcs making it look like pc is declining when in actual fact it is growing and doing better than ever, and i can't believe ppl still look or even cite NPD for pete's sake, crysis sold 1mill+ and they reported a measly 86k in US, cnc3 sold 2mill+ and they reported 300k that's about 17% of total sales, i think it's high time people know the truth about these sales figures used to defend these articles on the demise of pc gaming, orange box pc outsold ps3 and xbox 360 versions combined despite it being a rehashed game on pc with only 2 new goodies and a brand new franchise of 5 excellent titles on the consoles/best gaming deal ever/AAA status. Sales are just slow for pc these days cos of steep requirements but they pick up when hardware catches up. Piracy may or may not have a toll on sales but until someone pulls out raw figures and studies that show causation and not correlation, it is just another excuse for lazy devs to justify poor sales, good games sell nonetheless, some of the best selling games had no copy protection at all, and who says a downloaded game=lost sale, some ppl end up buying the game anyways, others do it to avoid draconian copy protection. eg. bioshock online activation where servers screwed up, some just pirate just because they can and not because they would have actually bought or wanted the game in the first place, until someone does an extensive study with real figures and proof, piracy is just an afterthought, it even happens more on consoles at times, check xbox360 image torrent downloads during release of AAA titles, popularity of ps2 modding/hacking, rampant ds roms etc.

@ the ox - from the article it looks like Roy Taylor (Nvidia VP of content relations) agrees.

"For another, publishers and developers are laboring under the illusion that PC gaming is in trouble, and the most misinformed are looking at not even developing for the PC."

It's all just a matter of perception and missinformation (which is kind of disconcerting given these people get paid for making these judgments).
love your posts btw, they're always spot on!

[edit] Just another quote from Roy Taylor:
"If I read one more article quoting NPD as saying the sky is falling for PC gaming I am going to scream!"

I think I'm really beginning to like this guy

are you serious? it's the other way around, the ps3 is trying so hard to be a pc and it's turning some gamers off to the 360, i have several friends who despite RroD still have the 360 and not the ps3 either because they are waiting for the big guns or because of the way it is so close to being a pc, most games install, i had heard installs were pretty short but i was dissappointed in Virtua Fighter 5 in particular and how long it took, what ever happened to easy plug and play for consoles? out the window thanks to sony and say hello to potential upgrading which has now started with just hard disks, say whatever you will but these pc features which moved most pc gamers over are slightly creeping over to consoles, i see a cod4 console patch coming up, a firmware update is to be expected, where have i seen this before? remember consoles are hardly anymore than gaming boxes that can also watch movies, pcs do a trillion other things useful, yes i know ps3 can run linux but we're talking general stress free experience without glitchy hacks or workarounds, if u use that argument then i can also use the argument pc games emulation as a point of superiority over consoles considering almost every platform ps2 and below has been emulated, crazy backward compatibility, also the greatest console video games of all time were made in those generations

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Let me be clear. This is sarcasm