No, but the quality of PC gaming has flopped big time the past 8 or so years. & the quality of gaming in general. On disc DLC, day one DLC, appealing to a wider audience (in other words dumbing down even though they dont have to) PS3 and PC getting crappy ports, games seemingly not even tested before release anymore and much more.

I thought they announced the death of the PCs in the late 90s or something.
Anyways I don't believe it, Gabe Newell has some good opinions on PCs especially when it comes to gaming.
And let me see a good RTS game made for consoles. I think the PCs will live for quite some time.

You know intel predict that if no new generation of consoles is released by 2014/15, pcs are predicted to overtake the combined market share of consoles?

This is just nonsense.

Ah.

Welcome to the last 15-20 years, KEZI.

In the long term, perhaps. They will certainly outlast consoles though. I can see console manufacturers completely abandoning the concept of a dedicated gaming machine in the forseeable future. But as long as PCs are around, there will be people making games for them. Commercial or otherwise.

IIRC, outside the business sector, the desktop PC has been losing market for a few years now. The PC market has been held up by laptop sales which are now starting to slip.

I use a PC in the CAD field, I need to have a large screen its part of my work, also a computer that can handle auto cad, proe, and office. I also see the use for an ipad in situations when I need to travel and keep important files ready for view.

The latest killer of pcs are ipads well according to the yahoo story I read the other day. It seems the trend is to be mobile and use fingers (touch screen), move away from keyboards, mouse.

Like some have said there will pretty much always be some fields where people are going to have to use some type of computer with something other then touch screens to create their work.

As for as pc gaming is going I actually agree it is dying on the pc and a good portion of people are letting it happen because no matter what the industry does they follow happily. Look at the last 5-6 years the pc gaming industry now has an iron grip on their product in every way.

PC gaming is not dependant on a big corporate industry to exist though. Anyone with a PC can create a game, distribute it however they like, and use whatever business model they like.

It's a personal computing device. Same thing really, just much, much more simple. Granted, that's just arguing semantics, but still.

Exactly. In the early days, software was sold at conventions like comic books, made by bedroom hobbyists who are now industry giants, and relied on "shareware" to proliferate from one person to the next, with a phone number included to get an access code for the full game. In some ways, that model is still there on the internet now, despite all the corporations and their enormous budgets.

Just wait 'till PCs Ascend, then people will be saying "Consoles are dying!!!" lol.
To be honest, I like PC gaming for my single-player games, but for multiplayer I prefer consoles. I just can't shake the feeling that somebody is hacking on PC. And I know the possibilities of hacking are so much more slim on a console.

I agree that anything’s possible but in reality any modern good pc game is going to be sold by modern industry standards like limited installs, online activation, mandatory connection, forced third party to play, one of these or more.

Nah. Consoles are dying.

(Come at me, bro)

That's much more believable, really. Consoles are inevitably to going mimic (or at least attempt to) the diversity of a desktop PC, effectively blurring the line between them. The irony would be that while containing features a PC has, they'd have to impose some restrictions on what people can and cannot do on their systems, so it would end up feeling like you bought a computer with a plethora of things locked out.

I think at the rate phone and tablet technology is progressing, it will eventually make much more economic sense to make a device like that which can stream video to an external screen if needed. Consumer tech devices have been converging a lot these past years. Why have dedicated portable music players, calculators, palm PCs, etc. when you could have all of this in phones? I don't think stationary video game systems are going to be excluded from this development.

I don't think that's a sustainable business model, though. There's only so long that businesses can treat their customers as if they're the enemy and not have them become ex-customers. It's not so much a case of if more customer-friendly competition arrives as when. CDProjekt are already doing it, for example; the likes of EA and Ubisoft are dinosaurs and whilst they may become extinct, PC gaming will continue to flourish.

My response to this: LOOOOOL.

Depends on your definition of 'good'. If you mean the crap the AAA studios puke out year after year then yes you are correct. If you are willing to spend some time and look around there are a lot of small and indy studios putting out good games with little to no DRM. A lot of them use Steam, but that is almost always for the delivery platform more than the DRM part; they could turn it off, some do most don't though.

Good games like Skyrim, I consider Bethesda or zennimax a AAA studio and dont consider there work crap.

^this^ if customers en masse decide they don't want to deal with the likes of "limited installs, online activation, mandatory connection, forced third party to play" the publishers will have to adapt or die

One can hope, but I tell it like I see it, it dont mean I like it.

http://i.imgur.com/OCReC.gif

PC's (desktops) are not dying, imo....but they are becoming less needed for the masses. As time goes on, the great majority are probably going to be less and less concerned with the more complex software - indeed they may have never been very concerned about that in the first place. If all they need is email, basic/general web access, books, films, maps, socialization etc....they don't need a desktop pc at home. My brother didn't care about games or AutoCad or Photoshop, what use is a powerful desktop to him, outside of his office? It's a big email paperweight. So in a way, with phones & tablets and all these "apps" the day-to-day usability of tech has finally caught up with the masses....making the desktop market look piddly in comparison.

Desktops/PC's will be around a long long time to come. They just won't be/aren't the lion's share of the consumer market. This will likely have an impact on (non-indie) desktop software available, I'd think, as companies start wanting to cater to where the bigger, recurring revenue comes from (Win8..sigh). It'll take a while before we know exactly what direction that may take. Including PC gaming.

Then again, maybe I'm talking out of my butt while standing behind a curtain.

Personal computers might change in appearance throughout time, but we all have one, whether it's a tablet, a pad, a box, a phone, or a wrist watch. But there is only so much one can do with a phone or a tablet, and although that level of mobility accomodates an active, on-the-go lifestyle, it isn't comfortable, secure, or anywhere near capable of the power of a desktop computer. There's no reason for it to go anywhere, and it isn't going anywhere.