i wouldnt doubt every game that Epic makes for while will be profitable when the first copy is sold. You have to remember that every company under the sun is using the Unreal Engine 3. 

What does that have to do with what I said? I said UT3 is probably a flop and is in need of the 360. Hell, I know UE3 is profitable.

And I'm also quoting you here:

 exactly, all games eventaully ake profit, even if its due to the company doiing other things to make sure it will be profitable. Like selling their engine as middleware. Thats why Crysis is profitable. the crytek engine has been sold to a good bunch of devs so the game is a tech demo for the engine and a game. 

Hmm, is it just me or are we arguing for different points here.

My point is, like it or not, the initial sales of UT3 suggested that it flopped on the PC and the PS3 as well. If it's not going to have a strong start, it'll be more easily forgotten and a lot of PC users have expressed their disappointment in the series. Just improved graphics, not major improvement in gameplay. CoD4, TF2 was simply better.

My second point, although I'm just making it now, is that while PC are profitable platforms, don't expect every game to be profitable. It is susceptible to bombs just like consoles not matter how online distributions change the strategy.

Most of my gaming is done on the PC so a decline in the PC market is bad for me. 

This is my conclusion. I'm done.

*looks at Nintendogs , GTA , Rssistance , Halo * yep , console games fade away afther a month ...

Seriously , I like your loyalty to PC gaming ssj12 , but the two examples that you showed are failures , no matter how you put it . Common , even Castlevania for the PSP sold more ...

No , PC gaming will never die , but less and less big exclusives will come to PC alone ... and thats a shame :(

 Lol, yeah gaming is not that big in North Korea...I think you meant South Korea

And why is it so incredibly much cheaper to develop for the PC? I can see that the profit margin is higher than for console games, but the development shouldn't be that different. Or am I missing something?

Hmm... I'll have to do some research on VGChartz to see if what you're saying about PC game patterns is correct.

@ mr-money
Researching on VGChartz won't do you any good. As already pointed out, the data is incomplete to say the least.

OT: PC gaming has been in decline recently, but it will never die. The main reason MS entered the console wars was because Sony were eating into the profits generated from Windows games (one of MS most lucrative revenue streams). MS entering the console market was a good thing for PC gamers because developing for Xbox is so similar to directX. Porting is so simple that almost all games released for 360 will eventually end up on PC.

At any given time, PC games will have the most bleeding edge graphics, physics, AI etc. and therefore most pioneering development will occur on the PC. Crysis sales have been slow because most people haven't got the hardware to run it, and it is also not that good (first half good, second half bad). UT3 has suffered from being released at a time when the FPS market is saturated, and offering very little to stand out from the crowd. But as already pointed out, UE3 will be used in everything and you can be sure we haven't heard the last of the CryEngine2. Therefore, the investment in developing these techs is sure to be recouped in the long run - with interest.
Also, the openness of the platform (shareware, freeware, open source, direct download, flash games) means that the PC will always see the most innovative game development (Portal, anyone?) and continue to thrive as a result.
And it'll be a cold day in hell before you catch me playing strategy games with a gamepad!

Let's not forget that the most profitable entertainment project in history across movies, music, theatre and games is a PC game; World of Warcraft.
Also, programming games for the PC is so easy and cheap compared to consoles, it's almost not worth a mention.

 @totalwar23

 PC gaming is rising again, because of the modern cheaper PC's and downloadable services such as Steam and Direct2Drive. And PC gaming is going strong, no doubt.
The main fault in your arguement is that you are basing it on articles from people who do not understand how sales work and on NPD numbers. You should NEVER use NPD numbers to base on success and compare it consoles because:

1- The US is the strongest console market while it's also the weakest PC market.
Console Market importance goes like this:
1º US
2º Europe
3º Japan

While PC market importance goes:
1º Europe
2º Asia
3º US

The Witcher, which made only 40k sales in a full month according to NPD in November, did 35k in the first 3 days in Poland and has over 110k sales already there... granted it was the fastest selling ever in there, but Poland is still 9 times smaller than US. The US is a weaker PC market than Germany or South Korea! The PC has the highest selling software in Europe and Asia (outside of Japan). And even though The Witcher did only 40k in the US, it already has surpassed 1million sales World Wide: http://www.n4g.com/News-81964.aspx
So you must not compare the US PC market with console Market.

The problem of PC is that it does badly in the US and Japan (and possibly UK?), the two biggest markets country-wise, and being both the most covered by the press due to the NPD and MC/Famitsu it gives the impression that PC is still dieing.

2- Downloadable Services AND PC hardware bundles are not counted on NPD or any other tracker, a BIG disadvantage for PC tracking. Steam has over 13million active accounts (source), which easily surpasses Xbox Live. Not only that, but if you add Steam to D2D and other PC download services you have a BIG cash cow. I heard that 70% of Orange Box's sales were made from Steam, so that shows how powerful it is.
According to alexa.org, 23% of the visitors of Steam are Americans, so that's a significant loss in NPD's tracking.

Also, Crysis is being sold on GPU bundles and on EA's Store, yet it both do not count for sales. How many people do you think have bought GPU's with Crysis? and downloaded from EA's? Same goes for UT3, which is on Direct2Drive. And other games,,,

3- Do not worry about the PC market, it's going stronger than last few years. And with in 2008 it's coming the biggest amount of AAA exclusives for PC than any console. Check this thread.

 Resistance? That PS3 FPS that had been several times bundled.And Halo 3? which sold 3 million in first 5 day than only 1 million in the next full month. Now go compare it to the Half-Life series that are still selling great on PC after so many years.

 GTA? I can't comment on as i don't know the sales details. Nintendogs is a casual+Nintendo+handheld game, a deadly combo, which isn't possible on home consoles nor PC. Though Sims sold a buttload on PC (Sims 3 is coming out next year too)

 Again, Crysis did not 'fail' anywhere, it most likely has sold 1million by now and it will have GIANT LEGS. Even in the weak US market it sold 25% higher than expectations.

PC is having the most AAA exclusives in 2008, more than Xbox360 or PS3 or Wii. So yeah, even though PC has less exclusives, the same goes for the other consoles. Infact, PC wins from that because eventually we will get games like Mass Effect and Fable 2. We also get games from Wii that PS3/360 do not, like Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 and other casual/party games. I'm still crossing fingers for Zack & Wiki port.