So you haven't read anything?! Spore did NOT flop, it is selling at 'The Sims' level (maybe even better)

1. Are you seriously comparing UK to the rest of Europe??!!! UK is like a smaller version of US, while the rest of european countries are smaller versions of Germany.

Germany? PC. Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Finland? PC. Ukraine, Czech, Croatia. Poland and Russia? PC. Portugal, France, Austria and Switzerland? PC. Luxemburg, Belgium and Netherlands? PC. The only european countries I can think of right now that are console-centric are the UK, Italy and Spain (and I even have doubts about Spain).

2. We already had data from this trend, and this trend will continue until all PC retail completely disappears.

3. As I said, UK is like a mini-US. But what does that data prove? If in 2007 the Digital Distribution nearly equaled Retail  revenue, then it's obvious it has surpassed now, especially after the more acceptance that DD is getting through Steam after the releases of Orange Box, Left 4 Dead and Football Manager 2009.

Hell, look at EA. I remember them saying they've made $90 millions from EA Store in just Q2 '08 (April-June), and that's a store from a single company that had bad rep at the time. There's so many digital stores spawning right now that it's silly. Even small developers are joining the fun: Paradox (Europa Universalis) made Gamersgate, CD PRojekt (The Witcher) has GOG.com and Stardock as their brilliant Impulse (Steam's biggest rival so far).

4. That's a silly thinking. Everything is changing. Consoles are changing too, and many people have been saying lately that consoles will be absorbed by PCs. PC gaming is also changing - today there's more laptops being bought than desktops, and the market is still increasing greatly despite this transition. DFC itself reported that by 2012 there will be over 320 millions PC gamers online.

5. For EA, just look at their future projects. For Blizzavision, PC DID outsell all the consoles' revenue, so you should double check.

6. How do you reckon most people are playing consoles? There are over 260 millions PC gamers online, and that number no doubt will keep growing. If you are talking about children, all of my gamer friends (which I know about their gaming childhood) grew up from console games (including myself and my brother) and now all of them are full PC gamers or play PC games at some extent - afterall, PC gaming was niche compared to consoles until late 90's or something, and now there are more PC gamers than console gamers.

Who says they use their PCs for gaming?  Just because something can be used for games, doesn't mean it is used for games.  

The Incredible Machine has seen multiple attempts to do games like it.  

One of the latest, on the DS, is Mechanic Master:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ds/mechanicmaster?q=mechanic%20master

Tell me, what does that prove? If anything, it proves that PC games are very sought. A few companies are starting to catch up and giving features that pirated copies will never have, and the rise of social gaming will help on the growth of PC games.

Now all we have to wait for is the anti-piracy laws that will kick most pirates in their groins. Sweden is the first one, then the World!

Because I'm bored and fee like adding to a discussion I probably way to little about to have a solid flawless opinion, I'll add this.

Isn't there a certain irony about this 'rivalry' between PS360 and PC gamers, when in truth the 3 platforms are working together to make many of the great games we know and love financially viable? It's very common nowadays for a game to be developed on PC, and then ported to the consoles, broadening the market while keeping costs (reletively) low for the developer and publisher.

You certainly get developement which is focused on just consoles and devlopement focused on just PC, but a great bulk of games I don't think would be financially viable if they couldn't appeal to all markets, publishers certainly wouldn't be willing to put as much money up for the developement if it was just PC or just PS360.

And when you consider what the Wii is doing to console gaming and the potential handheld markets offer for generating revenue the more people this PC / PS3 / 360 developement cycle can attract the better, otherwise companies wouldn't be making these games.

I saw this thread was sort of tailing off so I decided to add another slant to it... hmm.

If anything, it proves producers are not losing massive amounts (like saying for instance that 90% of PC games are ilegally streamed) and thus, that nothing justifies the 20-million userbase behavior of PC gaming.

Only the fact that 90% of PC games sold or played nowadays are actually 5-6 MMORPGS and The Sims is already a big turn-off to producers. They need to make revenue, not make happy graphic whores.

Plus, Social Gaming are already in growth. Have you ever heard about Xbox live, DS and the Wii? If anything, social  gaming is killing PC gaming except for simulation and online multiplayers, not helping it growth.

How would developers be losing money when the games are selling better than ever, with cheaper development costs and a higher profit margin per copy? There's a reason why almost all small developers are flocking to PC than consoles, and also why there are far more PC games in development than all consoles combined.

Also, the 260 millions figure are probably taken from legal usage, just like any self-serving company would take from.

Xbox Live?? There are more Steam users than XBL members, there are more MMO subscribers than XBL members, etc...

How is that Steam increased over 140% in 2007??? Or that MMO subscriptions increased like 2000% in the last 8 years???

Even still there are so many studios losing money. If it wasn't for the consoles there'd be more good PC games, and good PC games do sell well. Assuming they are actually good by PC standards, not the low console ones....

If it wasn't for Consoles there'd be a much smaller market, which would ultimately lead to less good PC games, right? Common sense surely?

 The fact you say studio's are still losing pretty much speaks volumes, if console didn't exsist the situation would be worse.

 The PC market benefits from the PS3 and 360, it'd still exsist without them but undoubtedly be more nishe, have less games and most likely, have no one dare put the financial investments to make the big PC exclusives you seem to put on a pedestal above console games, for whatever reason.

Post how many people are playing on Steam right now.