I certainly will not be buying games online , anybody who thinks this is going to happen sooner rather than later are probably industry people in love with the DLC business model because then they can screw more money out of consumers, for patches, updates, subscriptions whatever. To me it's important that I can physically relate to what I am going to buy rather than an image on a screen. Piracy's no excuse for opportunistic greed, soon you won't just be paying for a game once; you'll have to pay some kind of monthly fee to be able to play and a subscription to a site to be able to down load it and then these sites will turn into the video game equivalent of a ring-tone download web-site , you'll be forced to buy a certain amount of games a year you may not even want. The whole idea that on line distribution is the future is a completely stupid idea, if you're not on the net what then, a continual reminder you're not?

nVidia seems to be anxious on PC game market. lol

Steam is over-hyped. The fact is only a small percent of games were sold via Steam.

Revenue stream from subscription and ads are simply irrelevant to nvidia.

here here! PC market is alive and well. Age of Conan managed to beat off Haze and Rock band last week which are both on single formats.

haven't you looked at the quality of Haze and price of RB? and what about PC installed base vs. PS3/X360?

The truth is, PC gaming is no where near is influential as it was four years ago, and in my mind never will be. There are two reasons. Firstly Piracy. Yeah i know, that old chestnut. However the fact remains, most PC gamers can get their games very quick ala bittorrent without all the straforce rubbish included. The oly things keeping it going are WoW because of its constant updates and subscriptions, but have a quick scan on google, and even you could find the burgeoning "pirate" servers and community that is growing. Everyone talks about steam and digital download as being this miracle panacea that is going to cure the PC's ills but it wont. Steam ins crackable, All Steam games are pirateable and available for free on the net.

The other main problem is Nvidia itself. I used to be a PC gaming nut, until i saw sense about two years ago. Spending 350 quid + on a new top-of-the-range, noisy gfx card every two years with my new built or existing system was the norm for me. Drivers, more memory, defrags etc. To stay in contention with PC gaming, gamers feel like they have to chase the hardware dragon. For the purchase of a gfx card, i got myself a lovely 360 bundle about a year and a half ago, and i wont be going back. well, maybe for games like Empire:total war, that consoles simply cant do well. I think Roy Taylor is just trying to keep his job and justify Nvidias existence to be honest. RIP PC gaming as a main format, it was a thrill whilst it lasted . . . . . .

I've heard the argument that PC gaming is dying and seen it defeated before. It's still going pretty strong and making quite a profit, especially outside of America. But I'm going to have to respond to a few comments here.

Magnus - There's nothing wrong with buying games through steam, its incredibly convenient and if they try to do any of the things you're suggesting it won't go unnoticed. They've become as big as they have because it is an excellent service that started out as little more than obnoxious and is already very popular. The patches are automatic and free, installing mods is easy and getting the game is a very fast download, providing you with a game that you have as much a right to use as you do your physical copy. In fact there's a number of benefits, such as steam now keeping your saves and game progress saved so that you can reinstall and access those saves without having to back them up. All of the differences you are imagining apply as much to your physical disk as they do a digital purchase. Theres nothing stopping companies from doing the same crazy sorts of schemes for patches/updates/etc., but the fact is that's not the way it works now, and I doubt it will ever be that way. It's very, very solid and I don't see how it can fail at this point. I've purchased a number of games for myself and others and am in love with the service.

Woodins - Piracy is as big a problem as ever unfortunately. But its a continuing problem for the 360 as well. GTA4 was pirated by thousands weeks before it was released and its not alone in that regard. You could say that those modders can't play those pirated copies online (although some get away with it) but that's generally the case for PC copies as well. Besides, this report gives details on the outstanding sells of MMOs. Good luck pirating those and getting onto a stable, updated and well-populated server to actually play it. You may have a point on the cost of a brand new PC if all you use it for is gaming. Those costs are flexible though if you shop around and go for affordability and length, and there are always new games developed that don't require heavy hardware. Personally I find myself upgrading my console(s) every 3 or 4 years, about as often as I upgrade my PC. The cost of the PS3 now is still around the price I put out to get a Crysis-capable upgrade a few months ago.

Yeah, valid point mate, but trying telling that to the big, main software developers. Even the peeps who made "crysis" were whinging about how quickly and how foten their games were ripped off of torrent sites. Sure, piracy exists on consoles (especially xbox 360), but a bit more tricky to implement. Opening the console, constant firmware updates to avoid the "ban hammer", all alot more intricate than donwloading a game, daemon tools and whatever no-cd patch you need. As you admit yourself its really the strength of the MMO's that are keeping it going. Believe me, i dont want the PC to die, but with all the big names favouring consoles over the PC (sure, i bet we will see a port of GTA4 on the PC a year and a bit from now, with the customary enhanced shaders, but thats after the consoles have made the money for the developers) its hard to stay loyal. I used to put up with all the crap of running a PC because it was the best games system, but not anymore. Its not perfect, i just ish they could release a IP secure "set-top box that i could download from SONY, MS and Nintendo. I begrudge having to pay new bits of plastic in order to play certain exclusives, and thats what was so great about the PC.

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