You can play so many games on even bit older hardware these days, that there isnt such need to upgrade your computer every year - or even every three years like there used to be. Huge percentage of games are made console specs in mind - so naturally the games arent as HW heavy either. Maybe we'll see a bumb now as new console gen is coming, but i doubt it.

Also indie gaming is blooming thanks to internet and i dont see how that is going to decline any time soon.

Its just silly doom saying.

Sure mobile games are becoming more popular, but i doubt any "real gamers" are changing their pc's to tablets and cell phones for sake of gaming. Mobile gaming is most popular with people who havent typically played all that many games in the first place.

PC sales and pc as gaming platform arent exactly 1:1 things anyways.

That's why I don't judge GOG and don't accuse them of hypocrisy like some other GOGers did. I honestly believe that the GOG guys meant and still believe what they said - but heck, staying alive as a business is more important than proving a point (and getting crushed in the process).

Couple of thoughts I've been having lately, mainly whether PC gaming will attract new gamers, especially the younger ones:

1. Gamepads. Lately I've been starting to think that it is very fortunate that XBox360 gamepad has fully standardized the gamepad support for new PC games (more than what the varying PS2 gamepad lookalikes did earlier). When I see some potential new gamers trying to play some PC games e.g. on my laptop, the first thing they try is whether my gamepad works with the game, no matter what it is (and these are gamers who aren't necessarily even former console gamers). If they see the game does not work with a gamepad but would need the keyboard+mouse, they seem a bit disappointed and are more likely to switch to some other (gamepad) game than trying to figure out the keyboard controls, even with my help.

It just seems that trying to learn the controls from a limited number of buttons on the gamepad seems less daunting to them than trying to figure out the controls out from a keyboard. Even though I have also witnessed some fresh new gamers become familiar with e.g. the WASD setup quite fast (e.g. two avid Minecraft players, who had not played any WASD+mouse FPS game before), I have in practice had to shown another kid how he should hold his fingers on the WASD, especially so that he can use spacebar at the same time. Even after that lesson, he tried to use WASD with two hands at the same time. Too bad he doesn't have a third hand for a mouse.

2. Frankly, to me it seems Microsoft wants to transform PC gaming into (casual?) touch app gaming. In one of the Windows 8.1 preview articles, I caught a MS rep saying something along the lines that MS believes (=hopes) that PCs of the future are primarily touch-devices (basically tablets, since he also kept talking about "mobile computing"), but that he acknowledges that there are _still_ desktop users too without touch screens and they try to remember that with Windows 8.1. Still?

Anyway, even if MS wants to migrate all home PC users to Windows RT tablets (and PC gamers to XBone), maybe e.g. Valve is big enough counter force for that (and also GOG in a smaller scale), especially with its Linux initiatives.

I think there is somewhat of a bubble, but the one around AAA console gaming is in much more danger of popping. When that one goes, GOG won't really be hit as that isn't their target market. It will effect consoles and to a lesser extent steam.

For the constant sales and rock bottom pricing, yes I think eventually something will have to give. Have I bought games I'll probably never play more than a bit? Yes. I think everyone has at this point. When the market falls out from under it the steam key resellers will be the most likely ones to go. That's why no matter how much people beg here for steam keys, I don't think it's a good idea for GOG to get involved in that race to the bottom.

For crowdfunding/kickstarter, there will eventually be some massive screw ups where all the money is blown with nothing to show for it. That will start to turn people off from the idea.

Agreed. :)

This. PC market lost sales due to folks who'd rather use portable devices like Ipads. PC gaming on the other hand has only gotten cheaper, with more powerful tech. Include the thriving indie scene, competitive pricing, lack of regulations and restriction for developers along with the 'next' gen consoles having more PC based architecture, it's only going to get better. I suspect this is the last console generation that will vie with the PC gaming market.

This might be a stupid aside, but my feeling is that ergonomics will keep the PC around for a good long time... or neck and wrist injuries from prolonged tablet use will surpass obesity as the largest single health problem. (exaggeration, but you get the point)

Yeah and once I pop it, chocolate milk will flow and no one shall be thirsty no more. This, I promise you, my brothers.

I don't think there's much future in Kickstarter, it's kind of a dead end. Most of it seems to be "Person who made game X wants to make another game exactly like game X aimed at the people who originally played game X." It almost seems to say something to the effect of "THERE WILL BE NO NEW TALENTS EMERGING WITHIN THE INDUSTRY AND THERE WILL BE NO NEW IDEAS." An exaggeration, but I doubt any really groundbreaking coming out of it, just extensions of existing games and ideas. Not necessarily a bad thing, but... yeah.

The more I think about it the more I define a PC as a not-necessarily movable computer with a keyboard and a mouse and running a kindof 'open' plattform.

So danger can come from closed plattformes (consoles) or from tablets growing keyboards and mouses (android tablets with extensions) or from new ways for input.

LOL, that's what I was thinking when I saw two kids using their tablets in the airport, sitting. They were basically staring at their knees (the tablet was resting on their lap), backs arched like a C.

In bed in a semi-horizontal position, tablet is pretty good though IMHO.

Yeah, it seems like a real potential for disaster with prolonged use: either your arms are too high or the neck is bent down too low. Or both. For an extended period. I imagine typing on them a lot would add to the woes since the wrists might be confronted with another unusual angle.

The bed position is great - I wonder when those offices switching to tablets will start installing beds instead of desks? XD

Well, I find easier the consoles die in the future than the PCs. Or both come to some kind of fusion (maybe something like what Steam planned, Big Screen I think)

What is a "PC" game now anyway, apart from being a game which just happens to be made (nowadays) for the PC ? It USED to mean something, though I struggle to pin down exactly what it meant. but it was certainly a different experience. For me, coming straight from owning a a PS1 at the time it meant being able to play games such as Baldur's Gate, Civilization and Age of Empires, games which you couldn't play on consoles at the time and were a bit more complex. It doesn't seem to mean the same now, however.

For Age of Empires you are talking about the controllers. Keyboard+Mouse are different from those weird handles consoles use. You can't play a RTS on a console. So most new an old RTSs are still PC only.

Baldur's Gate was a strategy RPG. With SW:KOTOR (bioware) proving companies can make RPGs for consoles and PCs together, the strategy RPG as a genre was nearly abandoned. Of course WOW was a great contributor to the murder of this genre as well. The action RPGs from Diablo to Elder Scrolls just don't feel right.

Strategy genre as a whole is a PC only genre. See my other post about great big companies. They want people to buy not to think. Why teach them "STRATEGY" on their leisure them. God forbid, the next generation can be aware!!!