A semi-relevant piece of news: Despite the PC's lack of popularity and the widespread use of Steam, Empire: Total War still managed to go straight to the top of the all-formats charts in the UK, kicking Killzone 2 down to second place. That's pretty impressive, considering the fact that digital distribution is not counted.
[url=]http://www.vg247.com/2009/03/09/empire-denies-killzone-2-of-second-week-at-top-of-uk-chart/[/url]

And console gamers tend to be ignorant when bashing PCgaming.
Fanboys will be fanboys, you shouldn't expect too much from either PC fanboys or console ones.
Xbox has worsened it though, plenty of beloved PC franchises got "stolen and dumbed down", same with developers so it made for even more bad blood between fans

Ahh I'm sure the only reason that empire total war is charting so well is because the 3 remaining PC gamers are rich enough to buy a million copies each. Damn I wish I was one of those 3, I'd be able to buy the computer to RUN ETW...
And other consoles. Other genres. Female gamers. Foreign gamers... Its the internet, I don't know if you've noticed but it does have this tendency to bring out everyone's inner cunt.
Most games are getting dumbed down, its a sign of the times rather than the fault of any platform in particular. Things are pitched at a retareded level because the companies think it'll increase the audience. The same goes for TV & Movies. Long ago we had media that made people think, was a bastion of culture and challenged formulaic crap but now its all been stripped of its soul so it will appeal to the kind of useless human waste that thinks drinking 2 beers and then banging the cans together whilst giggling vapidly counts as sophisticated entertainment. You know the type, auedience on springer kind of people

Let me reiterate. I think that PC gaming is *not* dying, but that the things that the companies are doing are slowly choking off PC gaming's air supply. Dumbing down games and making games exclusively for consoles (Where is MVP Baseball?!!!) isn't helping it any.

I agree, there are very real problems facing the PC games market. It's a pity that these discussions tend to boil down to "PC Gaming is dying", "No it is not!", because I think that's missing the point - of course PC gaming isn't dying, but it's changing and not all these changes are for the better.

PC Gaming is not dying. End of story. All you have to do is glance over to a little genre called MMORPG's. Take WoW for example; sales for that are through the roof and they are only increasing. People might point to this as an isolated incident, but as long as developers like Blizzard, ID, or Valve will continue to give a damn about PC's, they will never die.

Digital distribution is becoming the method for all formats of media, reducing production costs, increasing profits, etc.
$50 for a game in store or downloaded straight to your computer. The developer makes more money of course off of direct downloads because there's no need to funnel it through retail but they can still charge retail prices. it's deplorable, but also, very interesting, because the cost for the consumer also goes down (no need to drive to the store and spend time looking for your game, it's typically RIGHT THERE).
but there's always going to be changes to everything, being afraid of change is like being afraid that time is passing, it's going to happen no matter what, it has to happen.

I categorize WoW as a business first, game second..doesnt count for me. Besides, its just one game. I dont think the PC dying thing is true at all but you cant say its alive and well because of one game..:P
But yeah..Valve is doing well, and EA...but aside from those three...only Relic and Creative Assembly come to mind for me as of late, and before the past few weeks they werent selling comparably as well to the other guys.
Capcom looks to be a contender though, and maybe Ubisoft...they have a bad rep on the PC but Prince of Persia I felt was superb. Too bad the DLC didn't come, though.

Over time I think we will start seeing some publishers offering their latest titles at below-retail prices. This would bring in new customers who like the lower price as well as snatching sales away from higher-priced new releases, and the publisher would still be earning far more than at retail.
Many gamers only buy one or two new releases per month and pick up the others later, but for the publisher it's the first-month sales that really matter. If a new release from one company was $5 or $10 cheaper than a new release from a competitor this could definitely convince cash-strapped gamers to get that one first.
This sort of aggressive price-warring could eventually result in all new releases being cheaper than retail. Cheaper online prices would certainly harm retail sales as gamers become increasingly aware of digital distribution, but PC gaming is dying at retail anyway.

The main changes that we are already seeing is an increased focus on multiplayer games that are harder to pirate, casual games that sell well regardless and lower budget niche-based games that cater to a smaller audience but does it well. The PC-only big budget single player games are in general a thing of the past, and those who like them, but dislike poor quality console ports will just have to buy a console.

tbh I don't much like single player games anymore.
I'm even having difficulty getting through Blue Dragon because despite actually being very well designed, it's boring compared to like Puzzle League, TF2, or Rockband. And granted it's not in the same genre (yeah these are mostly console games, but the point stands), it still has me falling asleep (literally) while playing.

A few years back I believed that multi-player would completely replace single-player. I don't believe that any more.
Just as there is a difference between a fun night out with friends and an evening alone with a good book or movie, there are times when you want to enjoy a well-told game on your own.
And to contribute to the main topic: Pc-gaming is shrinking, not vanishing. There's nothing more to it.

Good for you, I guess, but some of us still prefer them.

I play nothing buy single player games. The only multiplayer I do is coop on an otherwise single player game

I'm with AliasAlpha, Single player all the way. But then I was always an adventure game and RPG player, and they are a single player experience for the most part. When I did go for online gaming, I was part of a Counterstrike/Firearms clan, and organised my own for Anarchy online. All my experiences on public servers with random people were bad ones, so I quickly gave up.