Why wasn't Gears 2 released on PC given Epic sold all copies of Gears of War PC?

wow, didn't realize there was so much hatred of Gears by PC users....

Microsoft an Epic put together a buggy port and didn't care about the PC version at all.

halo2_4_pc

Gee, I wonder why

[QUOTE="Cranler"][QUOTE="Barbariser"]

Fortunately the original game apparently sold poorly on the P.C.. This caused Epic to realize that the P.C. has a strong immunity to bad games and hence they stopped trying to infect us with crappy shooters.

GummiRaccoon

Coupled with the fact that it is a crappy game.

You are calling a game that got 9.0-9.5 a bad game? :?

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="Super-Trooper"]

The game came out in Nov 6, 2007, if anything the fact that it can't be found in a store speaks volumes for it selling poorly. When a game sells poorly there is no reason for a publisher to continue to manufacture copys and ship them out to retail to just sit there. I can also find tons of copys on ebay for 5-10 dollars with only 1-2 bids...

JangoWuzHere

It's $5-$10 dollars now but what are the prices when the bidding starts to end. I wouldn't be surprised if it reaches $15-$20. At least when I brought it last fall there was bidding frenzy for it. It easily reached close to $20. And the fact that it can't be found, doesn't that mean that it sold well? I seen plenty of copies of old games lying around at places like Best Buy that hasn't sold yet. At my local Best Buy store they had 25-30 copies AT LEAST and they sold every one of them. That probably doesn't even include the ones they replaced after it sold out. That's just at my local Best Buy store, how about all over America and the rest of the world for that matter?

Is there even actual numbers of the sales? Looks to me they sold all the copies they made which is not bad.

Did you skim over my post, or are you in complete denial here?

It didn't sell out, Epic games had to pull all of their copys off shelves. You can't sell a game that is unplayable.

First of all the game is not "unplayable". I used all the patches and ran through the game fine with no issues whatsoever. The only problem was the Windows Live crap which deleted my saved games, same thing happened with Dirt 2.

And the demand for the game says otherwise that it wouldn't sell on the PC. Did Epic botch yet? Yes. But that doesn't mean that PC gamers don't want the game.

And here is a link to e-bay for a copy of Gears that sold today that costs $20. It's a lot higher than your estimate that it costs only $5-$10 on e-bay.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

It's $5-$10 dollars now but what are the prices when the bidding starts to end. I wouldn't be surprised if it reaches $15-$20. At least when I brought it last fall there was bidding frenzy for it. It easily reached close to $20. And the fact that it can't be found, doesn't that mean that it sold well? I seen plenty of copies of old games lying around at places like Best Buy that hasn't sold yet. At my local Best Buy store they had 25-30 copies AT LEAST and they sold every one of them. That probably doesn't even include the ones they replaced after it sold out. That's just at my local Best Buy store, how about all over America and the rest of the world for that matter?

Is there even actual numbers of the sales? Looks to me they sold all the copies they made which is not bad.

Xtasy26

Did you skim over my post, or are you in complete denial here?

It didn't sell out, Epic games had to pull all of their copys off shelves. You can't sell a game that is unplayable.

First of all the game is not "unplayable". I used all the patches and ran through the game fine with no issues whatsoever. The only problem was the Windows Live crap which deleted my saved games, same thing happened with Dirt 2.

And the demand for the game says otherwise that it wouldn't sell on the PC. Did Epic botch yet? Yes. But that doesn't mean that PC gamers don't want the game.

And here is a link to e-bay for a copy of Gears that sold today that costs $20. It's a lot higher than your estimate that it costs only $5-$10 on e-bay.

You seem to be missing my point....again. Maybe you should read my posts better next time. I do not want to explain it again.

I never made any estimates about ebay. And he sold it for 20$? Big whoop, thats how much it costs to buy it at the GFWL market.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

It wasn't successful, it sold very poorly from what I understand. Epic was also concerned by the high rate of piracy of the PC version.

Xtasy26

....And what evidence do you have that it sold poorly on the PC? If it did so then why is there a bidding frenzy on e-bay for this game and why did all the copies at my local Best Buy were all sold out. It seems to me there is quite a demand for the game.

Was that really all of your evidence for it selling well?

same reason it was not released on PS3

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

Did you skim over my post, or are you in complete denial here?

It didn't sell out, Epic games had to pull all of their copys off shelves. You can't sell a game that is unplayable.

JangoWuzHere

First of all the game is not "unplayable". I used all the patches and ran through the game fine with no issues whatsoever. The only problem was the Windows Live crap which deleted my saved games, same thing happened with Dirt 2.

And the demand for the game says otherwise that it wouldn't sell on the PC. Did Epic botch yet? Yes. But that doesn't mean that PC gamers don't want the game.

And here is a link to e-bay for a copy of Gears that sold today that costs $20. It's a lot higher than your estimate that it costs only $5-$10 on e-bay.

I never made any estimates about ebay. And he sold it for 20$?

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

It wasn't successful, it sold very poorly from what I understand. Epic was also concerned by the high rate of piracy of the PC version.

Lololzy

....And what evidence do you have that it sold poorly on the PC? If it did so then why is there a bidding frenzy on e-bay for this game and why did all the copies at my local Best Buy were all sold out. It seems to me there is quite a demand for the game.

Was that really all of your evidence for it selling well?

Well, there is demand for it wasn't? My local Best Buy store had it all sold out.

It was released one year after the xbox 360 version was released, it was overhyped by Cliffy B(I think it was him.) Then when we got it, it was a badly coded port, with a bad certificate,it sold bad, People got pissed, then Cliffy B whined (Once again I "think" It was him maybe someone else?) And said that all PC gamers are pirates and they only have onboard graphic's cards.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

First of all the game is not "unplayable". I used all the patches and ran through the game fine with no issues whatsoever. The only problem was the Windows Live crap which deleted my saved games, same thing happened with Dirt 2.

And the demand for the game says otherwise that it wouldn't sell on the PC. Did Epic botch yet? Yes. But that doesn't mean that PC gamers don't want the game.

And here is a link to e-bay for a copy of Gears that sold today that costs $20. It's a lot higher than your estimate that it costs only $5-$10 on e-bay.

Xtasy26

I never made any estimates about ebay. And he sold it for 20$?

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

No...I didn't, You are simply putting words into my mouth.

I can find copys of Final Fantasy 7 on ebay reaching as high as 150$, does that mean that there is a high demand for a 13 year old game? Your logic is seriously flawed here...

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

I never made any estimates about ebay. And he sold it for 20$?

JangoWuzHere

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

No...I didn't, You are simply putting words into my mouth.

I can find copys of Final Fantasy 7 on ebay reaching as high as 150$, does that mean that there is a high demand for a 13 year old game? Your logic is seriously flawed here...

My bad, it was someone else. But that is just one or two copies of Final Fantasy 7. Almost all copies of Gears are going for $15-$20. Doesn't look like to me that PC gamers don't want Gear on the PC. It's been like that for a long time. It's blatantly obvious to me there is demand for this game on the PC.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

It wasn't successful, it sold very poorly from what I understand. Epic was also concerned by the high rate of piracy of the PC version.

Xtasy26

....And what evidence do you have that it sold poorly on the PC? If it did so then why is there a bidding frenzy on e-bay for this game and why did all the copies at my local Best Buy were all sold out. It seems to me there is quite a demand for the game.

And what does ebay have to do with teh game selling well?

Some of the highest priced games out there sold like crap when they came out, which is exactly why it costs so much to find them, lack of copies.

As for this "they sold all copies they had on the pc" crap, this is also meaningless, seeing as if they only made 5 copies and sold them they sold all there copies.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

Xtasy26

No...I didn't, You are simply putting words into my mouth.

I can find copys of Final Fantasy 7 on ebay reaching as high as 150$, does that mean that there is a high demand for a 13 year old game? Your logic is seriously flawed here...

My bad, it was someone else. But that is just one or two copies of Final Fantasy 7. Almost all copies of Gears are going for $15-$20. Doesn't look like to me that PC gamers don't want Gear on the PC. It's been like that for a long time. It's blatantly obvious to me there is demand for this game on the PC.

I typed Gears of War PC into the serach on ebay. Only one page of results came up. I type Final Fantasy 7 game into the search and get about 10 pages of copys going well over 100$.

I don't see anything here that makes it seem like it has higher demand.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

First of all the game is not "unplayable". I used all the patches and ran through the game fine with no issues whatsoever. The only problem was the Windows Live crap which deleted my saved games, same thing happened with Dirt 2.

And the demand for the game says otherwise that it wouldn't sell on the PC. Did Epic botch yet? Yes. But that doesn't mean that PC gamers don't want the game.

And here is a link to e-bay for a copy of Gears that sold today that costs $20. It's a lot higher than your estimate that it costs only $5-$10 on e-bay.

Xtasy26

I never made any estimates about ebay. And he sold it for 20$?

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

not really...actually most current gen games cost ~20usd at gamestop and other used game stores...and the fact that geow isnt at bestbuy doesnt mean anything...there are alot of games that my bestbuy doesnt stock in the pc section...as a matter of fact...they didnt even have WoW time cards(best selling and most populated MMO to date) and its not to say that they sold out...they didnt stock them...at all...there isnt that high of a demand for the game...or more people would play it...i just logged on it today...i took me 30 minutes to find a populated server...maybe it was you...cause u seem to be the only person who really plays the game or has a want to...the fact is...there are many better games on pc...and many more people play them...if it was in high demand...the rules of supply and demand rule that no one wants the game...else the stores would stock them...why would they be stupid enough to not stock somethin people are obviously dying to get...the pc community has great animosity to any company that does not offer dedicted servers(mw2)...so the fact that geow didnt either is enough to suggest that hardly anyone would buy it...and as to what other people are saying...a game that does not save your progress...especially a game that is as long as this one is...really is unplayable in my book...and the fact that u have to patch it to make it work in the first place (splinter cell chaos theory on dvd had the same problem) is just unacceptable in my book...and...the game was released a good time after the 360 version...most people who wanted to play geow probably already had...i know i had played and beaten the game with my friend on his 360 long before the game was ever released for pc...and 20usd for a used game is not a high price...it is actually standard for used games...

Fortunately the original game apparently sold poorly on the P.C.. This caused Epic to realize that the P.C. has a strong immunity to bad games and hence they stopped trying to infect us with crappy shooters.

Barbariser

Funny that your speaking this bout the same company that made ut2k4 which i suggest if you have the game , should be displayed somewhere on a pedestal preferably in the center of your house.

ow and to the guy above me: the "enter key" is your friend:)

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

No...I didn't, You are simply putting words into my mouth.

I can find copys of Final Fantasy 7 on ebay reaching as high as 150$, does that mean that there is a high demand for a 13 year old game? Your logic is seriously flawed here...

JangoWuzHere

My bad, it was someone else. But that is just one or two copies of Final Fantasy 7. Almost all copies of Gears are going for $15-$20. Doesn't look like to me that PC gamers don't want Gear on the PC. It's been like that for a long time. It's blatantly obvious to me there is demand for this game on the PC.

I typed Gears of War PC into the serach on ebay. Only one page of results came up. I type Final Fantasy 7 game into the search and get about 10 pages of copys going well over 100$.

I don't see anything here that makes it seem like it has higher demand.

But Final Fantasy 7 is a rare collectible item. It's kind of like the Voodoo 5 graphics card from 3DFX which goes for obscene amount of money. Gears of War on the PC is not a 12 year old game. For example, you could find Crysis easily for a much less price. The fact that there is a bidding frenzy for a used copy shows that there is demand for the game.

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

I never made any estimates about ebay. And he sold it for 20$?

lpjazzman220

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

not really...actually most current gen games cost ~20usd at gamestop and other used game stores...and the fact that geow isnt at bestbuy doesnt mean anything...there are alot of games that my bestbuy doesnt stock in the pc section...as a matter of fact...they didnt even have WoW time cards(best selling and most populated MMO to date) and its not to say that they sold out...they didnt stock them...at all...there isnt that high of a demand for the game...or more people would play it...i just logged on it today...i took me 30 minutes to find a populated server...maybe it was you...cause u seem to be the only person who really plays the game or has a want to...the fact is...there are many better games on pc...and many more people play them...if it was in high demand...the rules of supply and demand rule that no one wants the game...else the stores would stock them...why would they be stupid enough to not stock somethin people are obviously dying to get...the pc community has great animosity to any company that does not offer dedicted servers(mw2)...so the fact that geow didnt either is enough to suggest that hardly anyone would buy it...and as to what other people are saying...a game that does not save your progress...especially a game that is as long as this one is...really is unplayable in my book...and the fact that u have to patch it to make it work in the first place (splinter cell chaos theory on dvd had the same problem) is just unacceptable in my book...and...the game was released a good time after the 360 version...most people who wanted to play geow probably already had...i know i had played and beaten the game with my friend on his 360 long before the game was ever released for pc...and 20usd for a used game is not a high price...it is actually standard for used games...

Well, part of the reason they didn't restock after they sold all the copies is because Epic stopped caring and stopped making the game. So I blame Epic I don't disagree with the criticism that PC gamers make towards Epic. It doesn't change the fact that there alot of PC gamers that would want to play Gears 2 on their PC (granted that's it's a little to late now but even after 1 year after it's initial release I think there would have been great demand). I am willing to bet if they released it on Steam it would do quite well especially if it's one of those special sales. I do agree that Epic botched the launch. And it does save the game, the problem is with Windows Live. I played through the game in FULL HD 1080P with 8XEQAA and 16X Anistrophic Filtering with no issues whatsoever after the patch other than the save issue which I fixed, which was the fault of Windows Live not the game itself. Windows Live is crappy. Dirt 2 had the same issue. Becuase I am experiencing that now.

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

It wasn't successful, it sold very poorly from what I understand. Epic was also concerned by the high rate of piracy of the PC version.

warmaster670

....And what evidence do you have that it sold poorly on the PC? If it did so then why is there a bidding frenzy on e-bay for this game and why did all the copies at my local Best Buy were all sold out. It seems to me there is quite a demand for the game.

And what does ebay have to do with teh game selling well?

Some of the highest priced games out there sold like crap when they came out, which is exactly why it costs so much to find them, lack of copies.

As for this "they sold all copies they had on the pc" crap, this is also meaningless, seeing as if they only made 5 copies and sold them they sold all there copies.

That there is demand for a pretty new game. Games like Hitman Blood Money for example costs much less like $5, Gears of War goes from almost 3X to 4X the cost. Well, we don't have concrete numbers as to how many copies they made and how many they sold. But all indications are they sold all the ones they made.

[QUOTE="lpjazzman220"]

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

You said it you costs $5-$10 on e-bay, read the previous posts. $20 for a used copy for a 3 year old game is high.

Xtasy26

not really...actually most current gen games cost ~20usd at gamestop and other used game stores...and the fact that geow isnt at bestbuy doesnt mean anything...there are alot of games that my bestbuy doesnt stock in the pc section...as a matter of fact...they didnt even have WoW time cards(best selling and most populated MMO to date) and its not to say that they sold out...they didnt stock them...at all...there isnt that high of a demand for the game...or more people would play it...i just logged on it today...i took me 30 minutes to find a populated server...maybe it was you...cause u seem to be the only person who really plays the game or has a want to...the fact is...there are many better games on pc...and many more people play them...if it was in high demand...the rules of supply and demand rule that no one wants the game...else the stores would stock them...why would they be stupid enough to not stock somethin people are obviously dying to get...the pc community has great animosity to any company that does not offer dedicted servers(mw2)...so the fact that geow didnt either is enough to suggest that hardly anyone would buy it...and as to what other people are saying...a game that does not save your progress...especially a game that is as long as this one is...really is unplayable in my book...and the fact that u have to patch it to make it work in the first place (splinter cell chaos theory on dvd had the same problem) is just unacceptable in my book...and...the game was released a good time after the 360 version...most people who wanted to play geow probably already had...i know i had played and beaten the game with my friend on his 360 long before the game was ever released for pc...and 20usd for a used game is not a high price...it is actually standard for used games...

Well, part of the reason they didn't restock after they sold all the copies is because Epic stopped caring and stopped making the game. So I blame Epic I don't disagree with the criticism that PC gamers make towards Epic. It doesn't change the fact that there alot of PC gamers that would want to play Gears 2 on their PC (granted that's it's a little to late now but even after 1 year after it's initial release I think there would have been great demand). I am willing to bet if they released it on Steam it would do quite well especially if it's one of those special sales. I do agree that Epic botched the launch. And it does save the game, the problem is with Windows Live. I played through the game in FULL HD 1080P with 8XEQAA and 16X Anistrophic Filtering with no issues whatsoever after the patch other than the save issue which I fixed, which was the fault of Windows Live not the game itself. Windows Live is crappy. Dirt 2 had the same issue. Becuase I am experiencing that now.

windows live and geow go hand in hand...i dont have time to play thru the entire game in one sitting...if the service sucks->the game suffers...and its sad that such a "good" game that is in such "high demand" would only do well during a steam sale like u said...

[QUOTE="GummiRaccoon"]

[QUOTE="Cranler"] A year late, no dedicated servers and being released the same day as COD 4 had nothing to do with it right? We're getting Bulletstorm which is total crap. It would have been successful if it was released same time as 360 version and had dedi servers. Your lying to yourself if you think otherwise.Xtasy26

Coupled with the fact that it is a crappy game.

You are calling a game that got 9.0-9.5 a bad game? :?

Plenty of bad games score in that range. I thought Gears on the XBox was pretty good, but there was no way I was going to buy it on pc when it came out because I wasn't going to pay for Games for Windows Live.

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

[QUOTE="lpjazzman220"]

not really...actually most current gen games cost ~20usd at gamestop and other used game stores...and the fact that geow isnt at bestbuy doesnt mean anything...there are alot of games that my bestbuy doesnt stock in the pc section...as a matter of fact...they didnt even have WoW time cards(best selling and most populated MMO to date) and its not to say that they sold out...they didnt stock them...at all...there isnt that high of a demand for the game...or more people would play it...i just logged on it today...i took me 30 minutes to find a populated server...maybe it was you...cause u seem to be the only person who really plays the game or has a want to...the fact is...there are many better games on pc...and many more people play them...if it was in high demand...the rules of supply and demand rule that no one wants the game...else the stores would stock them...why would they be stupid enough to not stock somethin people are obviously dying to get...the pc community has great animosity to any company that does not offer dedicted servers(mw2)...so the fact that geow didnt either is enough to suggest that hardly anyone would buy it...and as to what other people are saying...a game that does not save your progress...especially a game that is as long as this one is...really is unplayable in my book...and the fact that u have to patch it to make it work in the first place (splinter cell chaos theory on dvd had the same problem) is just unacceptable in my book...and...the game was released a good time after the 360 version...most people who wanted to play geow probably already had...i know i had played and beaten the game with my friend on his 360 long before the game was ever released for pc...and 20usd for a used game is not a high price...it is actually standard for used games...

lpjazzman220

Well, part of the reason they didn't restock after they sold all the copies is because Epic stopped caring and stopped making the game. So I blame Epic I don't disagree with the criticism that PC gamers make towards Epic. It doesn't change the fact that there alot of PC gamers that would want to play Gears 2 on their PC (granted that's it's a little to late now but even after 1 year after it's initial release I think there would have been great demand). I am willing to bet if they released it on Steam it would do quite well especially if it's one of those special sales. I do agree that Epic botched the launch. And it does save the game, the problem is with Windows Live. I played through the game in FULL HD 1080P with 8XEQAA and 16X Anistrophic Filtering with no issues whatsoever after the patch other than the save issue which I fixed, which was the fault of Windows Live not the game itself. Windows Live is crappy. Dirt 2 had the same issue. Becuase I am experiencing that now.

windows live and geow go hand in hand...i dont have time to play thru the entire game in one sitting...if the service sucks->the game suffers...and its sad that such a "good" game that is in such "high demand" would only do well during a steam sale like u said...

Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be a Steam sale. I think it would done better if it was released on Steam right off the bat. Same thing happened with SFIV. But I don't disagree it's a GFWL is piece of crap service. All my Dirt 2 saved file is gone now because of GFWL. :( People who run GFWL at Microsoft should be slapped.

Gears 2 is so boring, the multiplayer is blocked almost everywhere and Epic sucks. 8)

I hope that the next generation we will not have anything related to UE or Epic Games. :P

they need to sell more xboxes, gears of war sells consoles like it or not.

they need to sell more xboxes, gears of war sells consoles like it or not.

TerrorRizzing

lololololol

The store shelves argument is a moot point, especially for an older game that is on PC, which has barely any shelf space anyway and what it does have tends to go to CoD and blizzard games with some of the more recent releases fighting for space. Just because I can' t find a copy of Titan Quest (as good as it is) or Leisure Suit Larry (as crap as it is) doesn't mean that they sold well, the same is true for Gears. Especially when their is no digital distribution on release (accounts for 50 odd percent of PC game sales now or something.)LethalEu4ia

You know the bidding frenzy for such a "crappy" game on e-bay says otherwise. I was just tracking a used Gears of War PC version and it had 21 bids and sold for $34 + $4 shipping. So people are willing to shell out $38 for a used game, it sure does show that PC gamers don't want Gears of War on the PC, right? (sarcasm).

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

You know the bidding frenzy for such a "crappy" game on e-bay says otherwise. I was just tracking a used Gears of War PC version and it had 21 bids and sold for $34 + $4 shipping. So people are willing to shell out $38 for a used game, it sure does show that PC gamers don't want Gears of War on the PC, right? (sarcasm).

Xtasy26

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

You know the bidding frenzy for such a "crappy" game on e-bay says otherwise. I was just tracking a used Gears of War PC version and it had 21 bids and sold for $34 + $4 shipping. So people are willing to shell out $38 for a used game, it sure does show that PC gamers don't want Gears of War on the PC, right? (sarcasm).

mAArdman

Well here's a newsflash. It's not just in this bid but there has been other bids as well. Where it has gone to obscene amounts. How is that doesn't show demand for the game especially one that is over 4 years old?

[QUOTE="mAArdman"]

[QUOTE="Xtasy26"]

You know the bidding frenzy for such a "crappy" game on e-bay says otherwise. I was just tracking a used Gears of War PC version and it had 21 bids and sold for $34 + $4 shipping. So people are willing to shell out $38 for a used game, it sure does show that PC gamers don't want Gears of War on the PC, right? (sarcasm).

Xtasy26

Well here's a newsflash. It's not just in this bid but there has been other bids as well. Where it has gone to obscene amounts. How is that doesn't show demand for the game especially one that is over 4 years old?

Microsoft dont want it on PC

Epic also realized Console gamers have really low standards and will buy anything that is advertised enough on TV, so they moved to consoles

Microsoft dont want it on PC

Epic also realized Console gamers have really low standards and will buy anything that is advertised enough on TV, so they moved to consoles

HaloinventedFPS

Or halo 3?

I have some theories;

To promote Vista. they included GWFL, Halo 2 and Gears of War as a selling point, most consumers were resistant to vista bcuz it just wasn't very good on launch (MS had to know the shortcomings, thats what quality control testing is for. Only gamers and graphic intensive users etc would foot bill for hardware upgrade prices.) Once vista flopped relatively speaking, there was no need to consider going with Halo 3 or Gears 2.

To save the 360. the ring of death issue could have wiped them out, but Sony bungles with the high PS3 price, and Nintendo got complacent with the success of the Wii instead of upgrading the graphics, and Microsoft stayed in the race with a huge Halo 3 launch and Gears 2.

Steam was/is still growing to become a serious threat. Steam has pioneered a successful business model for PC gaming that MS an EA are now coping; GFWL is offering sales and expanding the library as well teaming up with EA on some titles, so is EADM, that wasn't the case a couple of years ago.

I am optimistic though, I think Steam's success is going to force MS to release the entire Halo and Gears series on PC. Steam must keep applying pressure, a massive success with Half Life 3 on PC (6+ million copies sold)could kick open the flood gates.