"Retail" is the key word. NPD itself claimed the figures of Boxed Retail DO NOT reflect how the PC market is.

DFC reported that Console Software Revenue is $14 billions, while PC alone has $11.3 billions in revenue (almost the same as the entire console market)

Further yet, DFC is estimating a growth of 73% in the PC market, from 2007 to 2013.

Steam's sales increased 191% in 2007, supporting the idea that PC digital distribution is currently on a boom growth.

Not to mention I would think that figure does not include PC hardware, but does include console hardware.

Also, @weezy's list of console games, FFVIII was on PC.

I would imagine most console centric gamers couldn't care less about the majority of those titles. If they did, that would probably make them PC gamers.

Personally, I'd take one title a month on a console (better yet, one title exclusive to each console) if it was game I would actually play, over a random list of games on PC, most of which I've never heard about due to a complete lack of interest. You may as well add 500 games to that list because it would still be 500 games that will never even register on my radar.

And that's one of the problems with PC gaming, same as it's always been. Visibility. With that many titles available, many of which will never actually be seen on shelves at a typical retail outlet, they have little to no chance for commercial success. Commercial success being the reason for additional games from any developer naturally.

Direct to drive is probably the best hope a non-hyped PC game has of even registering significant sales, which is why PC game distribution will likely continue to swing in this direction.

Age of Conan is all I need on PC for this month. Of particular note with MMOs, while being a great business plan for developers due to the constant influx of revenues due to subscription fees, they tend to occupy most if not all of a PC gamer's game time.

But as for PC ports that show up on consoles... Different story. It's safe to say I'm just about done with those after Gears of War, Bioshock, Orange Box, UTIII and Mass Effect. The 360 is the one console that gets hosed the worst in that respect.

I don't really get the stupid console fanboys on this site. Even after you ignore all the digital distribution sales, I don't get why you say PC gaming is dying because of that.

Even if PC gaming is having a slow period, it will never mean anything. Consoles come and go, but there will always be PC gaming as long as PCs are around, which I suspect will be for a long time.  I'm not being some stupid fanboy...it just makes sense.  As long as there is powerful hardware available for computers, companies will keep making games to play on it, especially since gaming PCs are actually quite affordable.

And believe me, among my dozen or so closest friends, almost all of them play games somewhat frequently, most of us play once a night.

And someone mentioned PC not getting Bioshock and Gears of War? wtf? PC got those, it got the best versions of those. No question. They are technically better because of fewer glitches, better graphics, and GoW has free DLC that 360 gamers had to pay for, if I remember correctly.


And for those idiots that constantly talk about PC gaming being expensive, I'll copy and paste a post I made on some other topic a few days ago:

PC:
-- $800 PC (that's how much mine cost including a 22" widescreen monitor), it plays COD4 on max settings, Crysis with medium to high settings, TF2 fully maxed, etc.
-- Free internet usage and gaming.
-- Games typically start at $50.

Run that for 2 years, with, let's say, a $100 upgrade for something along the line, a hard drive, video card, whatever. I just bought a Radeon 3850 for $90, and that's pretty much my only upgrading in a while. Let's say you buy 12 games a year, once a month.

Add that up, that's $2100 in 2 years.

360:

--$350 console, no TV, you can factor that price separately if you wish, though to be fair we should throw in the same $170 monitor I factored into the PC deal.
--$50 a year for Xbox Live, right?
--Games typically start at $60.

Add that up, it's $1890 for 2 years, without the monitor. Throw in the monitor, or similarly priced TV, that's $2060. Throw in another controller, because who the hell owns a console with only one controller? You're now up to $2100, or $2180 if you buy 2 more controllers.

I was a little modest with both systems. You can overspend on a PC, get things you don't need, just as you can do with a console. You can buy used games on a console, but PC games drop in price REALLY fast so they're pretty much equal there.

and yeah, like greenmedic and others have said, if you want to buy a multiplatform game, of which there are MANY, PC is almost always the best option...both in controls and in graphics.  AND IF YOU DON'T LIKE KEYBOARD+MOUSE YOU CAN BUY A $20 GAMEPAD!  Had to caps lock that because for some stupid reason, console gamers think that keyboard and mouse are the only options in PC games, when in reality, I play lots of games like GTA, racing games, etc with a dual analog controller.

That's really the best thing about PC gaming.  You virtually have no options in console games, compared to a PC, where you can virtually do anything you want if you have the knowledge or tools.

actually Wal-Mart has a $3 gamepad that looks like crap but isnt that bad.

I stay away from the cheapo controllers.

Considering that the one thing I like most about the 360 is the controller, I bought a wireless dual platform (Windows/Xbox) 360 controller for use with PC games. $40 on Amazon. Closest thing to a standardized game pad with Games for Windows. Unfortunately, not all PC games are compatible with all controllers, Official MS controller or not.

Game pad support is entirely up to the game developer since the standard controller for PC is and always will be a keyboard and mouse.

Not that a game pad is the best controller for most PC games anyway.

what the hell? there arent more than 7 games on that list I ever heard of. seriously your trying too hard.

2 that I would buy. Spore and SC2. compared to atleast 20 games I would buy across all consoles.

It's just wierd I know atleast 30 gamers in real life and not one of them are hardcore PC gamers. Ya they play some PC game, like me(Blizzard), but none are as hardcore as Ben and ssj12.

Hmm...

That's the point: How can you criticise or evaluate a platform's lineup if you know nothing about the games?

The fact you only heard about 7 games from the list shows you know nothing about PC games. But I can help you with it, so I'll list atleast some info about the 12 BIG PC exclusives I mentioned:

SPORE - The Biggest Game of the Year and highly innovative, developed by the genius Will Wright (creator of The Sims, Sim City).

Starcraft 2 - Sequel to the most impressive and popular RTS of alltime, from Blizzard.

Empire: Total War - Sequel to one of the best RTS franchises, which rivals the Warcraft series in merit. One of Empire's antecessors, Rome: Total War, was considered one of the best PC games of alltime and won several SGOTY awards.

Crysis Warhead - Second entry of the Crysis franchise, and will ultimately be a more polished game, with lower requirements yet better graphics and promises a True Sandbox Gameplay, with no corridors.

Dragon Age - Bioware's PC RPG comeback, and is the spiritual successor of "Baldur's Gate".

Space Siege - Made by Gas Powered Games, and sequel to the Dungeon Siege games (second best ARPG series Imo), and will have many improvements.

Guild Wars 2 - Sequel to the multi-million seller, and unique CORPG.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning - EA's Huge Budget MMORPG, looking to rival World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of Lich King - Over 10 millions gamers are looking forward to this one.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Prequel of the Biggest Surprise of 2007. Amazing FPS/RPG hybrid gameplay and heavy atmosphere made the first game a memorable experience.

Storm of War: Battle of Britain - Made by Maddox, the veterans of Flight Sims, and SoW looks to beat the crap out of Warhawk.

GTR Evolution - More of an expansion to Race 07, but none the less, it will feature hundreds of cars and tracks on this newest entry of the GTR games, which are the best PC Racing sims of today.

I'd understand if you didn't hear about GTR Evolution, Storm of War or Space Siege... but everything else you should have known! Come on now: 1 Bioware RPG, 2 Blizzard games, SPORE, Guild Wars 2, Warhammer Online, Crysis Warhead, Empire: Total War or Stalker: Clear Sky. Not hearing just 1 of these is like not hearing about MGS4, Kingdom Hearts of Mass Effect.

Out of the 50 gamers I know (friends or more loosely), I'd say almost all of them have played PC games before, such as Diablo, Starcraft, or maybe things like Fable or perhaps Oblivion...whatever.  A bunch of them have Wiis and 360s, but they do play on PC occasionally as well.  Then I'd say about 30 out those gamers play PC games regularly, a couple times a week at least.

Perhaps it's my more nerdy group of friends, perhaps it's our age, our common interests, whatever...but in my close group of friends (a dozen or so), we basically play a PS2, my Wii, and our own PCs, the PCs being played the most.

We're having a LAN party in a couple weeks...we're gonna play TF2, Diablo II, Starcraft, and whatever else we feel like playing.