PC gaming is hardly the cheapest form of gaming. A low-end gaming PC (which will play console ports on max settings) will run you $500, and you'll have to pay $100 for a graphics card upgrade every year and a half or so. Still, it's hardly dead.

As he said, PC gaming is just becoming the high end gamer location. It's becoming the core of core gaming. Is it making the market more niche? Yes, but it's not killing the market entirely. Especially not with big PC exclusives like Starcraft 2 still coming and certainly not as long as Microsoft continues to supply the PC with every one of their console exclusives.  

@Bottledspringwater, A lot of PC gamers (myself included) have LAN parties. Trust me, it's a blast.

Money was never the issue for me... and I don't think its an issue for PC Gamers. When you go into PC Gaming, you know your going to have to spend money to stay there...Just like buying a high-end sports car, you know you'll have to spend thousands and thousands just to keep that car

Most console gamers probably spend $400 every 4-6 years... (Yes I know some of you have 2 or 3 consoles, I'm just talking majority)

Compared to most PC Gamers who spend $300-$1000+ every year upgrading their PC's to play current games...Which I don't think any of them really complain about it, I think its more of a hobby for most gamers in a way... Like buildling a car, always want something better, faster, etc

I don't think money is the real issue why PC Gaming has died... I think Consoles are getting so much better with features/specs to the point where they can just about compete with PC Gaming finally... PC Gaming you will always have to upgrade your PC, this is how its always has been, and always will be...something that PC Gamers know and accept... and they are fine with it...

Id have to agree with integrated chipset comments, thankgod intel and ms screwed up so maybe intel will be foreced to stop doing that crap, (vista law suit hinges on intel memos about dumping intel integrated 9xx).

honestly with multicore chips all the integrated crap does is eat up ram since it does not have dedicated ram.

several things are holding pc gaming back, lack of uniformity is the biggest. they need to set a spec for a computer game gen and stick with it regardless of what comes out, say for 4 years, that way gamers wont feel as left out and they can have computers for more years.

theft by users which will never be countered its far more profitable to make games for consoles

also it will never die, because particular games just do not work on consoles world builders, real time stratagy, major sim games, they controls on consoles just never feel right.

fps have left because they can be played on the console controlers with ease, ive played both, and the mouse hass become unatural to me and i feel majority of modern fps gamers feel that too. the only haven for FPS on PCS was twiitch gaming, but COD4 seems to have changed that.

so I would have to say hail the King Slayer of the old King Hail the console and the console controler, what made the game more acsesible

console lan parties rule too... lesson learned in collage, halos popularity i think has more to due with that than anything, 16 player on giant projectors every thursday night multipe sets going. 

 True.

Me and my cousins used to go to a internet cafe to play CSS every day 2 summers ago.

Some other kids would go there and we would always compete. It was $1 per hour, used to pay $5.

The internet cafe later moved to a different location in the city becuase of high rental or something. Later I heard now it is shut down. 

BottledWater, I agree too... Personally a majority of my guy friends have consoles, and its very easy to have them over and splitscreen game, or bring their console and game with 2 tv's here...

Personally, I can't say the same with PC Gaming, I just don't know anyone that plays PC Games anymore...I used to, and I'll admit a PC LAN party is a lot funner then any Console LAN party... but sadly most my friends dont know a single thing about PC games, they are all just regular college students with a console and hdtv.

But yes, its a lot easier having 3 friends come over with nothing in there hands and being able to pick up 3 controllers and game on the same screen...

and naznatips, I agree that PC Gaming isn't dead, though I made it sound that way in my post... I just think it has decreased dramatically, which is true

That's incorrect Matt. PC gaming costs nowhere near those amounts. It's true that PC gaming is more expensive than console gaming, but it's greatly exaggerated by people like you who are misinformed and jump on the hype train.

A low-end gaming PC will play all console games on max. People like SSJ and I spent $500 or less for our gaming PCs, and still play all console ports on max settings. At most a PC gamer needs to upgrade his graphics card every year and a half to 2 years for $100 or so (about the cost of 2 years of Xbox Live incidentally).

As far as feature sets go, not even close. For example, you play Call of Duty 4 on a console in a 12 man server, 16 man at most in 1 game mode. I can play Call of Duty 4 in a 60 man server if I choose, and play it lag free no less. In fact, I do all this for free.

I also have Steam, which gives me instant access to free demos, trailers, friend chat, groups, voice chat, mod tools (things to make game mods) and a launch pad for all my games (no changing of discs). I can also set up a media center (add my favorite videos), track my stats and playtime (viewable by my friends and people in my community groups), and directly download all games I purchase straight to my hard drive. I can even purchase games before they are released, pre-install them, and they'll be unlocked instantly at Midnight on the release day.

Oh, and I do all of that for free.

This is pretty much my take on it. Consoles have always received PC ports, but they've very seldom been powerful enough to run them well; while PCs received Half-Life in 1998, for example, and could play it in 768p, it took three years for console gamers to get it, and then they had to play it in 480i with horrible jaggies on the PS2. Nowadays, the PS3 and 360 can achieve HD resolutions that are pretty much indistinguishable from those that a top-of-the-line gaming PC can muster, and PC/PS3/360 cross-platform titles look pretty much the same across the board.

And with most major big-budget games nowadays going the PS360PC route, it makes more sense foreveryone but "power users" (the type who would have a gaming PC in the first place) to pay $350 for a 360 or $400 for a PS3 that will last 5 years, rather than $600+ for a gaming PC that will have obsolete parts a year from its purchase. (Or they could just get a $250 Wii, but we won't discuss that here. =P )

You are wrong, consoles were always ahead of PC in terms of graphics at the beginning of each generation, and it always took a couple of years for the PC to surpass consoles. The reason Half-Life couldn't be released in 1998 on consoles was because the current console generation (PS1/SS/N64) was nearing it's end, with PC having already surpassed on graphics. Valve could only wait for the next gen to kick in.

But the console gen we are now is different. This is the first time the consoles didn't surpass the PC at the beginning, and in just a year the PC has already reached limits that the Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 will never reach..... Crysis and Settlers 6.

@Mattaaron

You are showing your ignorance about PC gaming. The usual gaming PC only needs to change the GPU once in it's entire lifetime and maybe 1 more stick of RAM, after atleast 2 years. There is no one in this world that would $1000 yearly... that's like buying a full PC each year. Mattaaron, have you ever upgraded your PC? If yes, how much did it cost and what did buy for the upgrade?

And PC gaming is not dead! It's showing signs of life stronger than ever, as being the most profitable platform.

wow guys theres no right/wrong answer here jeez... no need to tell me how wrong i am, how incorrect my theories are, or telling me im ignorant...its simply my opinion, my own personal experience...This is why I hardly speak out in forums, everyone will attack you no matter what you say... man... thanks for those that agree tho

I'll admit the $1,000 a year was a bit off, maybe way off for most people, but everything else I said is simply my opinion...you guys are harsh!

I said PC Gaming isn't dead, PC Gaming has just decreased a lot...Which most can agree with
I said Consoles are getting more specs/features... Which obviously doesn't compare to a PC's specs/features with online gaming having more players, etc...I'm saying compared to their last console, the new ones are getting more (HDD Installs, Better Online, Built-In HDD, HiDef capabilities, etc)

Think ill just stop there, ill save myself some time and let you guys win

My laptop is a POS. I bought it for $900 and it would be able to handle most games just fine... if it worked right. DO NOT EVER BUY HP LAPTOPS. EVER.

With every windows update more and more gets messed up in this machine. HP will not make any attempt to remedy this issue either. SP2 messes up the sound severely, and makes games run choppy, and things work slowly in general. Another update took out the mouse pad. Ive had to get a usb sound card and use a usb mouse on this thing. I pray to god the USB on this thing never gets taken out in a similar fashion. Someone said they might be able to fix my machine with hacked drivers, but for the most part every IT person to see my laptop has been left confused.

So I can't really play games on this, unless they are really old and don't need much to run.