Most of the attention in the gaming world this year is being focused on next generation consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. But what about PC gaming? TwitchGuru turns to former professional gaming champion Dennis "Thresh" Fong, and Adam Boyden, Vice-president at Xfire, to find out why PC gaming still has a leg up on the new consoles, and why the future of PC gaming is bright.

a tired subject on these forums. still amazing how often they managed to plug xfire in the article.

Like Stranger said, a tired subject. However, not a bad subject. Re-name it and be more en-lighted about future projects, past problems and general wants and needs of the typical PC (and console) gamer and you'll get more traction and readership on this.

I've heard this same question in the 80's, 90's and now today. PC games will always survive and flourish. One of the first programs written for computers (in general) that had a following was a game, or at least entertainment, called "Life." We have always had an interest in entertainment on our PCs. Why? PCs are part of our lives. And, in many cases a semi-required part. Consoles are not required. Simple enough, right? So, as long as this piece of equipment is required, let's have fun with it. That's why PC gaming will live forever.

Sure, it has a LOT of ups and downs. Not all games can have the same impact as the Quake series, EQ or WoW. And, sure we'll have monumentous flops like Kiatana (sp?) and the recent GRAW is looking like a possible looser (hopefully not, but it's looking grim.) But as time and new technology progresses, both in hardware and software, new games will emerge that grab us by the shackles and shake us to the (dual) core.

Personally I can't wait. But as I do I'll remain advid both in PC and Console games.

Narg

Tired as well. Heard it with xbox , ps2, 360, now ps3. Even as of today, with what the ps3 can do, will obviously be nothing in 1yr, let alone, 3 years, before the next console can roll out.

People always forget, we play the games, for content, not for anything else. Evolution

nice article. Some like consoles some like PC's. Lets just leave it at that

PC gaming will always have a future...

Just look at games like Spore, no console could ever have that type of innovation in a game, It just wouldn't be feasable with a controller.

Biggest reasons why PC gaming won't die:
MMORPGs, Sim/Strategy Games, and FPS controls.

Like Hula Hoops pc gaming will be 'round forever.

Or something like that.

I agree that pc gaming will stay around no worries at all.

I point to one simple fact, consoles have been evolving closer and closer to a pc. Nintendo is about the only console that is still a console, not a crippled pc.

Xbox and PS3 now come with hdds, Xbox used usb for their controllers, they slapped in DVD playback, network capabilities, ect. Yeah consoles anymore are nothing more than a pc that has been put in a straight jacket for the sake of idiot proofing its use.

i am work in a game company,everybody who Interest in game can add my MSN marketA001@hotmail.com ,we can discuss anything about games.

The XBox 360 controller and some other asseseries works on the Windows platform, whichs actually helps PC gaming somehow, plus the game Crysis on DX9C is amazing, no console have that kind of power, let alone next gen console(e.g. errr Xbox 3? this generation is XBox 360, know what I mean?) can have power to run the full potential of DX10, the PS3 just only has a super powered Cell prosesser, single cored, hyperthreading proc minus the bottleneck problem like Intel's HT on the P4.

Sooo, PC is going on forever, we still need PC make contents, right?

now I would like to know where you get the idea that the Cell chip is single core... all the review about the cell chip talk about 8 core...

Example

for now the PS3 is faster than what we have in PC but the PC will catch up pretty fast and get a big lead in the near future. Until the next generation of Console.. and then we start again

Actually it's all in how you define "core". The Cell in the PS3 uses one master, or "core" CPU, and several somewhat limited function "slave" CPUs (can't do branching, for instance), while the XBox360 version of the processor uses three "core" master CPUs.

PC gaming will always be there .

Just like cockroaches .

I couldn't care less about the Cell in the ps3, but I would love to see it being used in future pc hardware(laptops especially).

I'm kind of interested in computers taking a different track. There's some interesting research in making multi-core processors look like a single core to the OS, and having the OS do all the thread scheduling instead of the CPU/chipset.

The Cell doesn't seem to be all powerful, but the possibilities of it's features (even more cores, more media executions, core designation etc.) may be underwhelmed by the software it runs.