Who's winning: consoles or PCs?
When talking games, consoles always take the forefront of the conversation. However, this wasn't always true. PC games did have their own heyday. However, console games seem to be pushing PC gaming into obscurity.
After hitting a high point in 1999 of $1.9 billion in sales, the PC market has been steadily declining. During this time, the overall gaming industry has grown considerably. One could conclude that the console market -- which is slowly pushing itself to match the PC in terms of variety and graphics -- is making the PC an obsolete machine for entertainment.
The data is showing the console as the favored platform for our gaming desires. However, we may not actually see the death of the PC, but the death of the console. With the PS3, Xbox 360, and even the Nintendo Wii on the market, we're finding the console is quickly becoming a multi-purpose machine; quite PC-like. If anything, console manufacturers are beginning to produce proprietary computers ala Apple. Does the future of gaming hold the current PC and console differentiation, one winning over the other, or some strange hybrid?
