With over 300 PC games collecting dust in numerous CD towers in my den, its safe to say I was an avid PC gamer at one time.  I subscribed to PC gaming magazines like PCGamer, CGW, and the now defunct but sorely missed PCXL, and i was excited to check out gonegold.com to see when i could expect the next diablo/doom/janes clone.  Now i'm subscribing to GI and X360, i'm trading in games every other week instead of amassing a huge room-filling collection of titles, and my bi-weekly trips to gamestop are all i need to be up to date on the latest release dates for the hottest new CONSOLE games. 

What happened to the PC?

When was the mouse and keyboard replaced by the dual analog sticks and L and R triggers?  It seemed like just yesterday i was reading in my copy of PC gamer about a game developed by Bungie coming to the PC.  Bungie delivered but the game was not exclusive to the PC and it was a PORT.  This game was Halo: Combat Evolved and i believe it was the harbinger of the death of the PC.  It was most certainly a slap in the face to PC gamers and it was the start of the decline of my enthusiasm for the personal computer.  Not to mention updating a graphics card or motherboard/chip combo or RAM every 6 months at prices large enough to buy a third world nation, why not spend three or four hundred dollars on a console that will last at least three years and most likely will still be delivering on the goods seven years after its release.  Throw in backwards compatibility and downloadable content and you won't even miss your 450watt typewriter.  Obviously the PC isn't DEAD, but how long are games like World of Warcraft or the other good game released this year, Company of Heroes, going to keep the PC's life-support plugged in?  There isn't much more a PC can do that a console can't or that a console won't be able to do in the very near future.  With innovative technologies (Wii-mote) to pushing the boundaries and re-defining what games should do and look like(PS3, X360).

Console gaming has already seen its death back in the early 70s and its rebirth in the late 80s by a single company from japan.  Maybe PC gaming isn't out of breath just yet since its proving its worth with cross platform titles and you can also expect to see less exclusive titles with more closely related hardware.  There will always be the MGSs, and Halos, but games like assasin's creed, Crysis, Oblivion, are reinforcing the probability of this future. 

See you in 5 years when we see the release of the Nintendo Us, the PS4.5, and the X Box 720...