Epic President : *PC Gaming Industry Is Dying* (so I guess it's official now)

it's more of a slow progression

sure the most high end technology comes out frequently and sooner than consoles

but for the average consumer, pcs are just now starting to be capable of handling full 3d games like quake3

and games like q3 can improve as the average pc enhances, by allowing mods to stress more polies on screen (8 yrs ago the average polycount was roughly  800 polies in q3, a few yrs ago mods starting making 1200 poly models standard)

so the average pc consumer can atleast now exist in the graphics of last gen, so you might be seeing the multiplat games from last gen finally starting to sell ... in a couple years maybe we'll even see a spike in the valve/hl2 userbase

if his company isn't making games that appeal to gamers, maybe these developers need to work on genres other than fps, mmorpg and rts...

it's really not expensive to own a usb controller(id say even 10-15$ you can get an adapter for two dual analog controller slots)  so maybe developers can start taking advantage of using them standard, that way they can explore other genres

[QUOTE="Platearmor_6"]

The PC game industry isn't dying, hes just making up excuses for a) being an idiot and b) being lazy. Last year all the console platforms combined as well as there games made just over a stagering $10 billion while PC games alone made $4.8 billion. You might think thats pathetic on the PC part but when you think that that is the PC platform versus the begining of the PS3 platform, the current the PS2 platform, 360 platform and so on. Also those figures include the consoles themselves while the figures for PC's only include the games. I mean World of Warcraft by its self makes $8.5 million every quarter of a year in net income, and has sold 15 million boxed copies of the game to date. Not to mention PC games sales are up by 48% this first quarter of 2007.

My closing statment is that the argument saying PC gaming is dying has been said billions for times for the last 25 years. And guess what, we are still here. So I think its official PC gaming is here to stay, and 2007 is gonna probably be one of PC gamings best years for quite some time.

BillGates_Money

outside of wow can you show some links to prove your claim

No sorry to say I can't remmember where the articles were. But bear in mind most of that 48% PC game sales rise is most probably the World of Warcraft expansion pack. 

he actually gave the sole reason why his company is failing on the pc.

System Requirements. Devs if you want "The Sims"  like sales make your games just as scalable and easy to play!! 

Well maybe if they didn't sell-out to companies like MS and Sony then this wouldn't be the case.ZeroAlarm

Money talks BS walks.

[QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="DSgamer64"]

[QUOTE="stuart69"]Human beings cannot afford all these top of the line pc parts that games are going to need.Hermits with no life other than pc gaming and who live at home with mommy and daddy,need not worry about bills etc.Platearmor_6

I beg to differ. One can build a gaming machine for less then 1500 USD with a DirectX10 video card like an 8800 GTX 60MB and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU with 2 GB's of RAM and overclock the damn processor up to 3.4 Ghz and that will still run games like Crysis on max settings and will do most games on max for at least a year. I doubt we will see any better video cards after the R600 line comes out for a while, same goes for processors. The last video card to come out recently was the 8600 line which is just a cheap DX10 card, doesnt perform great, however it was not even a year ago that the 8800 line was released. The prices are dropping rapidly, Intel is supposed to be cutting prices on their C2D line and Nvidia will soon be cutting the cost of the 8800 series down a fair bit if they havent already. Prices are dropping on CPU components, soon enough you will be able to build a great gaming computer for cheap. I plan on building one thats going to cost me 1800 CAD after taxes with a monitor, thats a good prices for a gaming computer that will play Crysis on max as well as Guild Wars 2, UT3, Half Life 2: Episode 2 and other great games.

Just as an aside, do the good online distro sites use true whitelisting (as in they check to see that the submitted key matches one they know they actually made)? This prevents keygens from working too well--the worst that can happen is unintentionally matching another key--essentially stealing a key.

Yes he sais $1500 instead of $500, but maybe you should try playing your 360 without a TV and see how much entertainment it is. 

[QUOTE="Platearmor_6"][QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="DSgamer64"]

[QUOTE="stuart69"]Human beings cannot afford all these top of the line pc parts that games are going to need.Hermits with no life other than pc gaming and who live at home with mommy and daddy,need not worry about bills etc.HuusAsking

I beg to differ. One can build a gaming machine for less then 1500 USD with a DirectX10 video card like an 8800 GTX 60MB and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU with 2 GB's of RAM and overclock the damn processor up to 3.4 Ghz and that will still run games like Crysis on max settings and will do most games on max for at least a year. I doubt we will see any better video cards after the R600 line comes out for a while, same goes for processors. The last video card to come out recently was the 8600 line which is just a cheap DX10 card, doesnt perform great, however it was not even a year ago that the 8800 line was released. The prices are dropping rapidly, Intel is supposed to be cutting prices on their C2D line and Nvidia will soon be cutting the cost of the 8800 series down a fair bit if they havent already. Prices are dropping on CPU components, soon enough you will be able to build a great gaming computer for cheap. I plan on building one thats going to cost me 1800 CAD after taxes with a monitor, thats a good prices for a gaming computer that will play Crysis on max as well as Guild Wars 2, UT3, Half Life 2: Episode 2 and other great games.

Just as an aside, do the good online distro sites use true whitelisting (as in they check to see that the submitted key matches one they know they actually made)? This prevents keygens from working too well--the worst that can happen is unintentionally matching another key--essentially stealing a key.

Yes he sais $1500 instead of $500, but maybe you should try playing your 360 without a TV and see how much entertainment it is.

YEah hermits keep on saying ...but but you need to buy an HDTV. Surpirse it's a TV and u can watch regular TV on it also but you can use a monitor also for your 360 if you perfer that. 

[QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="Platearmor_6"][QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="DSgamer64"]

[QUOTE="stuart69"]Human beings cannot afford all these top of the line pc parts that games are going to need.Hermits with no life other than pc gaming and who live at home with mommy and daddy,need not worry about bills etc.turgore

I beg to differ. One can build a gaming machine for less then 1500 USD with a DirectX10 video card like an 8800 GTX 60MB and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU with 2 GB's of RAM and overclock the damn processor up to 3.4 Ghz and that will still run games like Crysis on max settings and will do most games on max for at least a year. I doubt we will see any better video cards after the R600 line comes out for a while, same goes for processors. The last video card to come out recently was the 8600 line which is just a cheap DX10 card, doesnt perform great, however it was not even a year ago that the 8800 line was released. The prices are dropping rapidly, Intel is supposed to be cutting prices on their C2D line and Nvidia will soon be cutting the cost of the 8800 series down a fair bit if they havent already. Prices are dropping on CPU components, soon enough you will be able to build a great gaming computer for cheap. I plan on building one thats going to cost me 1800 CAD after taxes with a monitor, thats a good prices for a gaming computer that will play Crysis on max as well as Guild Wars 2, UT3, Half Life 2: Episode 2 and other great games.

Just as an aside, do the good online distro sites use true whitelisting (as in they check to see that the submitted key matches one they know they actually made)? This prevents keygens from working too well--the worst that can happen is unintentionally matching another key--essentially stealing a key.

Yes he sais $1500 instead of $500, but maybe you should try playing your 360 without a TV and see how much entertainment it is.

YEah hermits keep on saying ...but but you need to buy an HDTV. Surpirse it's a TV and u can watch regular TV on it also but you can use a monitor also for your 360 if you perfer that.

[QUOTE="turgore"][QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="Platearmor_6"][QUOTE="HuusAsking"][QUOTE="DSgamer64"]

[QUOTE="stuart69"]Human beings cannot afford all these top of the line pc parts that games are going to need.Hermits with no life other than pc gaming and who live at home with mommy and daddy,need not worry about bills etc.cobrax75

I beg to differ. One can build a gaming machine for less then 1500 USD with a DirectX10 video card like an 8800 GTX 60MB and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU with 2 GB's of RAM and overclock the damn processor up to 3.4 Ghz and that will still run games like Crysis on max settings and will do most games on max for at least a year. I doubt we will see any better video cards after the R600 line comes out for a while, same goes for processors. The last video card to come out recently was the 8600 line which is just a cheap DX10 card, doesnt perform great, however it was not even a year ago that the 8800 line was released. The prices are dropping rapidly, Intel is supposed to be cutting prices on their C2D line and Nvidia will soon be cutting the cost of the 8800 series down a fair bit if they havent already. Prices are dropping on CPU components, soon enough you will be able to build a great gaming computer for cheap. I plan on building one thats going to cost me 1800 CAD after taxes with a monitor, thats a good prices for a gaming computer that will play Crysis on max as well as Guild Wars 2, UT3, Half Life 2: Episode 2 and other great games.

Just as an aside, do the good online distro sites use true whitelisting (as in they check to see that the submitted key matches one they know they actually made)? This prevents keygens from working too well--the worst that can happen is unintentionally matching another key--essentially stealing a key.

Yes he sais $1500 instead of $500, but maybe you should try playing your 360 without a TV and see how much entertainment it is.

YEah hermits keep on saying ...but but you need to buy an HDTV. Surpirse it's a TV and u can watch regular TV on it also but you can use a monitor also for your 360 if you perfer that.

Exactly, and we can shove in a 30 quid TV card into the tower and hook satilite up to it, 2 monitors rock. 

Of course it's dieing.  Hermits don't want to admit it.  Think of it this way Hermits.  When games released 2-3 years ago are still in the top 20 games played today, then there is a problem.  "But, but, but those games are so amazing and have amazing longevity!" Yeah, whatever.  It just means that PC gamers are finding nothing else to play so they keep on playing older games.  Same dang thing happened with Gamecube.  Super Smash Bros. Melee was consistently in the top 10 games played throughout Gamecube's life cycle.  That is because Gamecube had droughts and several bad games released that NO ONE wanted to play so people kept playing SSBM.  Same thing is going on with the PC hermits! AvIdGaMeR444

I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Maybe all those games from 5, 10 years ago are GOOD GAMES that have good replay value and it is fun to play, did you ever think of that? As for me, I played Gears of War I got bored of it, nothing really keeps me into it. While PC Games, are fun and I always come back to them. Because they are fun to play.

What would be the point in dowloading a game like UT illegally?

What would be the point in dowloading a game like UT illegally?

TyrantDragon55

thats basicly my point, theres none 

Of course it's dieing. Hermits don't want to admit it. Think of it this way Hermits. When games released 2-3 years ago are still in the top 20 games played today, then there is a problem. "But, but, but those games are so amazing and have amazing longevity!" Yeah, whatever. It just means that PC gamers are finding nothing else to play so they keep on playing older games. Same dang thing happened with Gamecube. Super Smash Bros. Melee was consistently in the top 10 games played throughout Gamecube's life cycle. That is because Gamecube had droughts and several bad games released that NO ONE wanted to play so people kept playing SSBM. Same thing is going on with the PC hermits! AvIdGaMeR444

PC games had the most AAA exclusives this year, last year, last generation, you name a time, PC had the most AAA exclusives. 

[QUOTE="AvIdGaMeR444"]Of course it's dieing. Hermits don't want to admit it. Think of it this way Hermits. When games released 2-3 years ago are still in the top 20 games played today, then there is a problem. "But, but, but those games are so amazing and have amazing longevity!" Yeah, whatever. It just means that PC gamers are finding nothing else to play so they keep on playing older games. Same dang thing happened with Gamecube. Super Smash Bros. Melee was consistently in the top 10 games played throughout Gamecube's life cycle. That is because Gamecube had droughts and several bad games released that NO ONE wanted to play so people kept playing SSBM. Same thing is going on with the PC hermits! Danm_999

PC games had the most AAA exclusives this year, last year, last generation, you name a time, PC had the most AAA exclusives.

what he said plus, there are still games that i play on my SNES, it has a huge libary and are almost as old as me, but they are still great and better then most stuff around.

consoles gets lots of great games with short spawn life, pc gets tons of games with large spawn life, ive played warcraft and starcraft for around 5 years each and still play both, that dosent stop me from playng Company of Heroes or supreme commander, i played Unreal tournament for 2-3 years didnt stoped from playng battlefield etc etc. on console you HAVE to play X game, then when your done you HAVE to buy X game to make your consoe worth while, and iam sayng this as a console gamer as well as a pc gamer 

[QUOTE="AvIdGaMeR444"]Of course it's dieing. Hermits don't want to admit it. Think of it this way Hermits. When games released 2-3 years ago are still in the top 20 games played today, then there is a problem. "But, but, but those games are so amazing and have amazing longevity!" Yeah, whatever. It just means that PC gamers are finding nothing else to play so they keep on playing older games. Same dang thing happened with Gamecube. Super Smash Bros. Melee was consistently in the top 10 games played throughout Gamecube's life cycle. That is because Gamecube had droughts and several bad games released that NO ONE wanted to play so people kept playing SSBM. Same thing is going on with the PC hermits! Danm_999

PC games had the most AAA exclusives this year, last year, last generation, you name a time, PC had the most AAA exclusives.

Of course it's dieing. Hermits don't want to admit it. Think of it this way Hermits. When games released 2-3 years ago are still in the top 20 games played today, then there is a problem. "But, but, but those games are so amazing and have amazing longevity!" Yeah, whatever. It just means that PC gamers are finding nothing else to play so they keep on playing older games. Same dang thing happened with Gamecube. Super Smash Bros. Melee was consistently in the top 10 games played throughout Gamecube's life cycle. That is because Gamecube had droughts and several bad games released that NO ONE wanted to play so people kept playing SSBM. Same thing is going on with the PC hermits! AvIdGaMeR444

I've said this before and I'll say it again. PC gaming isn't dieing, people have been saying it is for the last 25 years but if anything its gotten stronger. Thats kinda a hint, I'm not being a PC fanboy but non of the platforms are gonna die, Nintendo might have but the Wii has been a success. Also "Yeah, whatever" isn't an arguement to games being good, nor have I seen any 5+year old games in the charts people just talk about them and play them occasional because they were great. The same way people still talk about Super Mario.

PC Gaming is dying?  Well, if it were true that would be real bad for all gamers.  But interestingly enough, on Gamespots front page today, there happens to be an article to the contrary.  Maybe the president from Epic should take note.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6169642.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

You want to know why PC gaming is dying? Vista. Nobody wants it, nor do they need it. Dell is now offering new PCs with XP instead of Vista because they stopped selling PCs when they went to Vista. Games for Windows and Live anywhere sounds good......if you're already an Xbox owner. If you're strictly a PC gamer, then it sucks because you're now going to have to pay to use voice chat and play online in addition to spending a lot of money on a beefed up rig and time invested into installing the game and making it work well. I'm sure inteped gamers will find a way around it, but that doesn't help PC gaming as a whole it just makes it harder.

To be fair, "console" gaming is changing as well, incorporating PC like features and becoming more of a media hub then strictly a gaming platform. In the future I think you will see a convergence of the two platforms into one. And that's the Holy Grail for Sony and MS.  

bullfrogj3

This is a superb post.  I'm inclined to believe that it is Microsofts primary goal to destroy PC gaming and force people to use their hardware for entertainment (gaming, etc).  PC gaming is not really controlled by any mega-corporation and that is a good thing.

I pray that one day everyone will migrate away from Microsoft products.  They are a nasty corporation bent on control of everyones entertainment.  The saddest thing of all is, they don't even make quality products.  They do it with brute use of their bankroll.

[QUOTE="bullfrogj3"]

You want to know why PC gaming is dying? Vista. Nobody wants it, nor do they need it. Dell is now offering new PCs with XP instead of Vista because they stopped selling PCs when they went to Vista. Games for Windows and Live anywhere sounds good......if you're already an Xbox owner. If you're strictly a PC gamer, then it sucks because you're now going to have to pay to use voice chat and play online in addition to spending a lot of money on a beefed up rig and time invested into installing the game and making it work well. I'm sure inteped gamers will find a way around it, but that doesn't help PC gaming as a whole it just makes it harder.

To be fair, "console" gaming is changing as well, incorporating PC like features and becoming more of a media hub then strictly a gaming platform. In the future I think you will see a convergence of the two platforms into one. And that's the Holy Grail for Sony and MS.

Subcritical

This is a superb post. I'm inclined to believe that it is Microsofts primary goal to destroy PC gaming and force people to use their hardware for entertainment (gaming, etc). PC gaming is not really controlled by any mega-corporation and that is a good thing.

I pray that one day everyone will migrate away from Microsoft products. They are a nasty corporation bent on control of everyones entertainment. The saddest thing of all is, they don't even make quality products. They do it with brute use of their bankroll.

Tesco is worse. But ummm, yer Microsoft is bad, and the day another OS takes over, preferable  media based OS is the day I'll **** a brick from sheer excitment.

Why did Epic boss said that PC gaming is dying? Here are a few reasons...

- Xbox 360 is a huge expense for Microsoft

- Gears of War is a system seller

- Microsoft wants to sell more systems, which means that...

- Epic needs to sell more Gears of War titles

- Epic boss suddenly says that PC gaming is dying, which means...

- that he wants to hype Gears of War even more, in order to...

- sell more of Gears of War and Xbox 360 systems

Any more hints from Epic boss? Of course!

- Since Epic boss says that PC gaming is dying, it also means that...

- he wants to make Unreal Tournament 3 a another system seller for Microsoft

http://au.gamespot.com/news/6169642.html?tag=latestnews;title;2

 No, its not. Also it has the best games this year so far.

So........PC gaming is dieing because we have the most exclusive announced titles, high quality titles, a positive increasing sales rate, and tons of third party titles......? Me love logic. *Bashes himself on the head*Vandalvideo

Well, that indeed is true, but I'm affraid that those exclusives are a pretty bad looking risk for those companies, and that is why I believe that sequels will not be PC exsclusive.

I really hope that I'm wrong, and I really hope that Games for Windows branding will help those PC exclusive games sell well.

[QUOTE="Vandalvideo"]So........PC gaming is dieing because we have the most exclusive announced titles, high quality titles, a positive increasing sales rate, and tons of third party titles......? Me love logic. *Bashes himself on the head*IgGy621985

Well, that indeed is true, but I'm affraid that those exclusives are a pretty bad looking risk for those companies, and that is why I believe that sequels will not be PC exsclusive.

I really hope that I'm wrong, and I really hope that Games for Windows branding will help those PC exclusive games sell well.

PC gaming isn't dead. High end PC gaming is dieing.

Developers should realize that they should make games for a wide range of user if you are making a game on the PC. The hardcore PC people usually have all the stuff they need to get games for free.

[QUOTE="IgGy621985"]

[QUOTE="Vandalvideo"]So........PC gaming is dieing because we have the most exclusive announced titles, high quality titles, a positive increasing sales rate, and tons of third party titles......? Me love logic. *Bashes himself on the head*Vandalvideo

Well, that indeed is true, but I'm affraid that those exclusives are a pretty bad looking risk for those companies, and that is why I believe that sequels will not be PC exsclusive.

I really hope that I'm wrong, and I really hope that Games for Windows branding will help those PC exclusive games sell well.

Well, excuse me if I'm wrong, but I believe that marketing is a pretty darn important component of sales strategy.

There's a huge, yes, huge number of fantastic PC games that noone played. Why? Well, because the company didn't had good (didn't had enough financial resources for) marketing strategy. That is why Games for Windows is and could be a pretty good thing for PC gaming.

Yes, PC patform is one that promotes originality and new franchises, but those new franchises and their originality will sooner or later end up on consoles; either simultanoiusly as the PC, or completely abandon the PC (sequels, for example) - if the (original) title doesn't sell well. 

Can you pirate UT3 and still play it online? I don't know much about piracy so I could be wrong but I was under the impression you couldn't play games you had downloaded online. If you can't play UT3 online there isn't much point in getting it.Paktahn

Offline you can play LAN games and against bots, if you are so inclined.

PC gaming isn't dead. High end PC gaming is dieing.

 

Developers should realize that they should make games for a wide range of user if you are making a game on the PC. The hardcore PC people usually have all the stuff they need to get games for free.

Crovax20

Bing!

I think this pretty much nails the issue on the head. However, I do think developers are tailoring more and more PC games to the casual market then the hardcore.

oh no, what shall we do? :oSir_Marwin

Run to the hills you fool!

[QUOTE="Crovax20"]

PC gaming isn't dead. High end PC gaming is dieing.

 

Developers should realize that they should make games for a wide range of user if you are making a game on the PC. The hardcore PC people usually have all the stuff they need to get games for free.

HatFried

Bing!

I think this pretty much nails the issue on the head. However, I do think developers are tailoring more and more PC games to the casual market then the hardcore.

Pretty much. Epic brags about how their going to make UT3 unable to be maxxed out on PCs until a year or so after UT3 is released then complain people are trying to take price shortcuts. 

So is it official now that PC gaming is dying?

Mystery_Writer

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6169642.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Nope, not even with supposed boogeymen of piracy and whatnot could keep PC sales from increasing, and that number doesn't include digital distribution, which itself contributed 500 million.

[QUOTE="Vandalvideo"][QUOTE="IgGy621985"]

[QUOTE="Vandalvideo"]So........PC gaming is dieing because we have the most exclusive announced titles, high quality titles, a positive increasing sales rate, and tons of third party titles......? Me love logic. *Bashes himself on the head*IgGy621985

Well, that indeed is true, but I'm affraid that those exclusives are a pretty bad looking risk for those companies, and that is why I believe that sequels will not be PC exsclusive.

I really hope that I'm wrong, and I really hope that Games for Windows branding will help those PC exclusive games sell well.

Well, excuse me if I'm wrong, but I believe that marketing is a pretty darn important component of sales strategy.

There's a huge, yes, huge number of fantastic PC games that noone played. Why? Well, because the company didn't had good (didn't had enough financial resources for) marketing strategy. That is why Games for Windows is and could be a pretty good thing for PC gaming.

Yes, PC patform is one that promotes originality and new franchises, but those new franchises and their originality will sooner or later end up on consoles; either simultanoiusly as the PC, or completely abandon the PC (sequels, for example) - if the (original) title doesn't sell well. 

The vast majority of PC titles never even go to consoles. About as many console games go to PC as PC to console. People overexxagerate because one or two high quality titles went to consoles. Those don't even DENT the PC catalogue.Vandalvideo

Yeah, but I don't like the fact that console manufacturers want every possible genre on their platforms, and even RTS is now making a solid transition.

If Command & Conquer 3, Halo Wars and Tom Clancy's End War sell well on consoles, I'm sure that even RTS games are going to be ruined (consolized) on the PCs. 

What about PCs? There are no fighting games, for example. Heck, I want Mortal Kombat on my PC. I have a great gamepad, I want to play it. I don't want to buy a console in order to play Mortal Kombat.

One thing about that Games for Windows program that I don't like, is the fact that, in the future, every GfW game will probably be ported onto Xbox 360 - simultaneously. What does it mean? Microsoft will probably ruin PC gaming experience in order to enrich a library of Xbox 360 games.

I'm affraid that Games for Windows "exclusives" (like Crysis, Hellgate: London, LOTRO etc) are exclusive because most of them are DX10, which means that Microsoft wants to push Vista sales. After Vista gets its place on the market as Microsoft wants it, Games for Windows exclusives will probably disappear.

[QUOTE="Vandalvideo"]The vast majority of PC titles never even go to consoles. About as many console games go to PC as PC to console. People overexxagerate because one or two high quality titles went to consoles. Those don't even DENT the PC catalogue.IgGy621985

Yeah, but I don't like the fact that console manufacturers want every possible genre on their platforms, and even RTS is now making a solid transition.

If Command & Conquer 3, Halo Wars and Tom Clancy's End War sell well on consoles, I'm sure that even RTS games are going to be ruined (consolized) on the PCs.

What about PCs? There are no fighting games, for example. Heck, I want Mortal Kombat on my PC. I have a great gamepad, I want to play it. I don't want to buy a console in order to play Mortal Kombat.

One thing about that Games for Windows program that I don't like, is the fact that, in the future, every GfW game will probably be ported onto Xbox 360 - simultaneously. What does it mean? Microsoft will probably ruin PC gaming experience in order to enrich a library of Xbox 360 games.

I'm affraid that Games for Windows "exclusives" (like Crysis, Hellgate: London, LOTRO etc) are exclusive because most of them are DX10, which means that Microsoft wants to push Vista sales. After Vista gets its place on the market as Microsoft wants it, Games for Windows exclusives will probably disappear.

All games for windows is...is a set of rules for instalation and such that all the games have to abide by....

MS still has no control over what goes on in the games. 

Games for Windows is a marketing program, for a start.IgGy621985

It is....for Vista.

But if you look at MS's official requirements for Games for Window's games....they are very broad, and only really mention easier instalation and support for Vista's game browser.  Nothing about MS live or any Consoles. 

 If World of Warcraft is the only reason Gamespot can say we are getting more sales/users then we are doomed, do you really think these WoW players will start upgrading to play Crysis and other future releases? no theyre hooked on a low requirments game thats so shallow, I can now see (Looking at the Wiis success) why such a mindless grind game has gotten as far as it has ...

 MMORPGs are poison to PC Gaming, get people addicted, less people are buying different games (Ive seen/done it) .... WoW is nothing to brag about and the truth is our gaming probably indeed is in trouble..

but all gaming is ...

Xbox360 - 10 million in a year and a half? 2 million gold members? Gears of War / RBsix Vegas (Half dead on the PC due to bad port online) / Halo's are the most played? whats the average ammount of people in the Lobbys on 1 game at one time? I dont imagine it being as high as PC Games, the system is also very expensive long term, kids for example dont have $50-60 to spend often on games, and adults often have other priorties.

PS3 - same as above, only 1/3 of sales and even less online players.

Wii - past Mario Galaxy / Zelda TP / Wario ware 12345678910 / Rayman / Smash bros / MP3 / wii sports 12345667 what will they have?

 Consoles are doing just as bad, different is a PC is important, a PC will have a bigger future, the only thing Consoles will pass onto the next is milked sequals & the online profiles..... 

[QUOTE="l_The_DetoX_l"]I geuss this means WoW means nothing to anyone?Liquid_47

 It means a lot to those who download it illegally too =]

No. Just click the link on my sig, then use google.

The lineup of games and the support is absolutely huge, more than any one console.