Starleague is easily bigger than all console competitions combined. The average Starleague player gets hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, and the Starleague finals are watched by 50k people live in a stadium.

There is also Proleague, where one of the finals was watched by OVER 120,000 PEOPLE LIVE!

when I look at many of the Wii games, I see neutered PS3/Xbox 360 games

Wait... maelstrom play games when he's NOT bitching?

Dude, i played Spectral Force 3, and Ring of Red.

Those games are beyond obscure.

Also PC games are "made simple for the masses" as well. Hell fucking WoW has 10million players.

The majority of PC games are pretty simplified if for no reason other than that the average PC gamer is not the PC gaming enthusiast with a custom built system that PC platform fans like to claim is the norm.

It's actually the high end games that represent the much smaller niche market with the overall PC gaming world.

Barring RTS games (really not any more "hardcore" as a gaming genre; just has a very specific appeal), most of the high end games from a technical standpoint, are typically released on console simultaneously (if not on console first).

Even FPS exclusives on the PC pretty much start and end with Crysis; a 2007 game with a 2008 standalone expansion. And with CryEngine 3, Crytek is clearly emphasizing the console market with their next generation of games.

DX11 may well bring the next leap forward for PC gaming, but that remains to be seen. A DX11 killer app has to be developed, published and be a commercial success first.

It still boils down to the DX11 games and as long as we see a significant chunk of PC gamers clinging to Windows XP, it means they aren't buying the benefits of post DX9 developments, making it pretty pointless to emphasize the benefits of the most current PC hardware.

Uhm, its nothing new that console games are simplified PC games for masses. Anyway, I agree with article.

PC games ARE console games this generation.

About the only two genres that are still best served by the PC platform are RTS and MMORPGs. I hardly consider either "highly complex genres for the Gaming Elite."

Virtually every other top end game shows up on console and for good reason: they sell better.

Subscription PC games (MMORPGs) are about the only serious money making area left for the PC platform. Take a look at Activision's recent revenue break downs; they were the company's biggest revenue generator by far. PC games generated less than 1/10th the revenue which included WoW and WoW expansion sales.

Unfortunately most of games are made for consoles and then ported to PC. Those games quite much all suck big time. They are way too oversimplified to be entertaining. I would go braindead, if I would have to play those.

There are still some gems on PC that haven't been corrupted by consoles. For example is there anything like anno on consoles? No? Guess why. Yes, its because it would be way too complex for casual players. :)

Actually a lot of those games were PC IPs being developed for consoles.

Orange Box, Bioshock, Call of Duty, etc.

New IPs like Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield Bad Company would have been PC specific as well had it not been for the big jump in console hardware this generation and the continued shift by developers towards console gaming.

Anno's just another simulator/strategy game. Games like that belong on the PC platform. It wouldn't sell on a console the way a Civilization game would (which was not that great itself).

Unfortunately many IP has been turned into stinking turd by corrupting touch of consoles. I find it very ironic that even games on C64 are more complex than most of current console games. Take ultima 6 for example. It has free roaming, complex quests, complex party system etc. and it runs on 64kB!!

Oh, I forgot that on consoles better graphics mean better game, the one game that has best graphics is the best game and nothing else matters. Keep your hollywood games I just laught at them, haha...