There is nothing niche about any genre of gaming. I like Empire Total War, Company of Heroes, but just bought Dragon Age, Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2. All of these games can keep me busy for years. I bet the the consoles will be hurting in the next few years however. Here is the reason: Last year devs were stating that they were pushing the Xbox 360 to its limits. This might be true or not, but they will reach that limit. Well the consoles will not see another release of a console for another 5-7 years. That is along time for a console, the PC hardware will pass tremendously.

What really gets me? Why not have all the games on one system.

You know, I remember when I had to screw around with dos load files to get my games to work. Back when we would buy our own games AND share them with friends.

It feels like I've been around for a long time and I just turned 29 last month. Things have come a long way, but some things never really change much.

Gaming has become a business, in the sense that the movie industry is a business. Art and passion always take a back seat to the profit margin. It's the nature of economics, social or otherwise. When things become a real industry with a real business nucleus, with things like stocks and boards ect. You have a change of how things are done.

Some day, everything will probably be server side, rather than client side, as that's perhaps the best hope that companies have for securing their investments. But, even then there are very talented people out there who don't care if something is hard to crack, in fact, they thrive on it...

There's that concept of the first lock and the first lock picked. As long as there is a will, there is a way. You can't safeguard against all forms of attack, because the human mind takes a generated concept and shapes its potential with thought. Thought for thought. Again and again.

There is a reason why pirating happens on the PC and Xbox platforms, as they are the most accessible platforms with large user bases. DVD's are a common format as of right now and before long, many people will have Blue-ray drives... there might even come a time when Blu-ray overtakes DVD's before something bigger and better comes down the pike. When things become cheaper and the proliferation hits a certain point, you will probably see PS3 games floating around for download. These console companies can put as many safeguards as they like in their systems, some of these people in their teams (primarily the marketing and business side of their company) will be patting themselves on the back saying, 'Look at how secure we are!', all the while those in their company who understand the tech will be saying, 'Look at how vulnerable we are!'.

The truth lies somewhere in between.

The true issue is, are you willing to sacrifice options for accessibility, potential for what can simply be shipped right now, and dedicated satisfied customers for people who will take what they get because they don't know any better?

Gaming started because of the innovative nature of man, with a dash of indulgence. Somebody decided to take something that was made for strictly business and military use and turned it into an adventure for themselves and fellow overworked coworkers. That's the spirit in which gaming started and it's that same spirit that makes humanity what it is today and all that it has accomplished.

No matter how petty we get on internet forums or how clever we think our t-shirts are, that won't change.

Enough of these articles already no matter how much impetus console gaming has PC gaming will never die. Look at the number of free playable titles out there. There are dozens of quality free mmo's, fps games, racing titles and rpgs out there that ppl can play. These are based on micro-transactions and are hugely successful. Look at perfect world. Its an amazing game and makes as much money as any other mmo out there. Look at combat arms. Those games really work. So what if one major developer takes out support for dedicated servers, so what if most games are multi platform and not pc exclusives. They are still there on PC's and u still get to play them. And lets no delve into piracy. See most games are pirated in countries like india and china. I know cause i come from india. Games are released a month to 2 months late over here. So ppl are bound to download and try them. And its not as prevalent as ppl think. Spore was downloaded a million times. But it sold wat like 3 million copies. Games just arent pirated that much. Its just that developers make games from a console gamers perspective. Pc gamers usually have higher expectations and want different things from their games. Look at dragon age. Am sure it is going to sell well on PC. Its just made for the Pc. The witcher, crysis, CnC3, spore, sims 3, COD4, L4D all sold extremely well for the PC. People need to stop writing such articles and just continue playing their games. The platforms can take care of themselves.

Another article created to make PC gamers feel like PC is dead and for the Console fangirls to milk.

They only succeeded on the Console fangirl milking on the article
PC gamers could not give a sh!t what developers have to say, they just enjoy gaming

Console fanboys enjoy paying more for worse game experiences and enjoy paying for DLC

11million+ people playing WoW. Enough said.

I'm trying to get into PC gaming but I have one major problem. None of my friends play on PC. All about the consoles these days.
I'd like more of them to play PC, It'll never happen though.

Pc gaming will be dead when devs stop making games for the pc, for now its alive so I wont see that in my life maybe my grangranchildren.

People need to stop entertaining the idea that somehow it will.

...Microsoft isn't looking to improve PC gaming. They want you to buy a brokebox 360 and pay for LIVE and more expensive games.

Windows needs competition (In computer-platform game support) to keep it in shape.

I don't know if it's collective IQs being lowered or standards falling, but when I was 8 years old I could look at a server list and not have a problem understanding what it was and how to find a good one to play on.

Long live PC gaming... if you can afford it!