In my humble opinion, PC Gaming is not growing. Most "sales reports" cover the major North American retailers... and that's about it As time has gone on, and with the move to the Digital Distribution, Sales are more easily tracked. Thus, it appears more games are being sold simply because they're now tracking sources from else where.
In my opinion, it's also not dying, however it honestly depends on your meaning of "PC Gaming." In terms of the platform, it's transitioning into something else - and, yes, that something is a focus towards more streamlined (read: dumber) games. Why? Because Developers see Call of Duty: Black Ops, with a budget of less than US$60 Million, pushing a billion dollars in sales in four weeks. And they want a piece of that pie.

In terms of "PC Gaming" most players actually mean "engrossing", "complicated", "in depth" and plain old simple "hard" games. This issue isn't the sole dominion of the PC platform. Old school console titles, like Castlevania, were insanely deep and incredibly engrossing. It's, as I mentioned, an issue of everyone wanting their game to chase Call of Duty's record setting success.
If you think it's bad now, imagine how bad it'll be when in a few years when the only developers left are owned by the biggest publishers in the industry. You can look forward to two Call of Duty titles per year, plus a steady stream of over priced DLC, five Sims expansions, a Need for Speed entry and ten new MMOs that fail and destroy the companies that made them.
The industry, as a whole, is heading back to 1983. I'll get the marshmellows; it'll be a hell of a fire.

After reading this forum for a while I say let it die, half of the people here are whinny ungratefull morons, the other half are pirates or cheaters and just the remaining 1% are gamers. Imagine you are a developer, you put all your hard work into something and then someone releases the game on the internet a month before release, then you release the game and people only whines about stupid textures and whatnot, and then hackers destroy your multiplayer, I would be depressed, I would have no interest in ever doing anything for the PC again, atleast as an exclusive.

Your numbers are way screwed and you should put down the EA\Crytek coolaid. Your starting to spout bullsh*t. Most people who pirate a PC game will buy it if they like it, if not they won't waste thier time playing it. You have a smaller portion who wouldn't have bought it anyways because they couldn't afford it (so no loss sales). Then you have a smaller portion who are the douche bags who don't pay for anything.
Most PC gamers prefer quality over quantity, unlike (it seems) majority of the console players. We prefer a quality of games vs the same game regurgitated 50 times slapped with a $60 price tag. Main issues PC Gamers have with Crysis 2 is that it was not what they promised (not just refering to the DX11 dead horse) and it is a slap in the face of the Crysis franchise.

No, Crytek gave me a fun game to play while I wait for BF3 to come out.

Yes I said a fun game, because unlike most retards in here crying about how bad the graphics and hackers are, I'm actually playing the damn game.

And hackers svck ass anyway even with hacks so who cares?

You may enjoy paying $60 bucks for a mediocre half-assed console port of a game. I prefer to pay for better quality, if I do not get what a company promises and get some crappy product then it is my right as a customer to complain about it. We payed $60 bucks for a beta half-assed console port. Even patched and working with DX11 this game is only worth about $20, $30 bucks.
Oh and it only takes about 6 or 7 hours on vet to beat this games SP (not wasting time with MP) so...plenty of time to bich about how mediocre this game is.

@Codebreaker

A piece of crap is a piece of crap. It doesn't matter that only a small portion of people who bought said crap voice their opinions.
Companies have risen and fallen because they DIDN'T know what they were doing. They got one thing right then f*cked it up and died. Crytek\EA are FAR from perfect. PC gamers got console left overs, that is very obvious. Make it easy, shiney, pay off a few reviewers and charge $60 bucks. Oh look! There go the console folks just eager to give up thier cash for another mediocre regurgitated game.
PC gamers to don't have all the recourses that console gamers namely, being able to return or sell back a game we purchase. We are basically stuck with what we bought because PC games are not a commodity that console games are. Thusly we get TICKED we we pay $60 bucks for a game that svcks or is one that they lied about how they built it. For most of us, it is a $60 bucks we cannot return or even recoup a small amount of the cost by "trading in".
People defending piss poor actions allows the continuation of such actions. Apalogists like yourself are one reason why PC gaming svcks right now. The companys know they don't have to try as hard to create a game, they can just half ass it, people will pay $60 for mediocrity and people like you will defend it.

Pc question is NOT dying..

Starcraft 2, Shogun 2, The witcher , Minecraft, world of warcraft ( 10 million people..), Diablo 3 soon and the witcher 2, .. etc etc

If they make a pc game good they can earn billions with it! They just need to take a side or consoles or Pc.
Sadly both witcher 2 and Diablo 3 are heading to console.

I don't think so. It's console gaming that might be dying, starting from hand-held consoles. The only thing that's 'dying' on PC is hard-copies of games.

But gaming? It's always been more alive than on consoles, *immortal* even. So you don't see big dollar marketing on PC games, like on consoles. So what? It's on PC that budding dev-teams like Crytek become known for the greatest games ever, no marketing whatsoever.

And most advlts realize that computer they use to surf or facebook can run decade's legacy of games, the great titles that were produced before it became all about money and the devs went hollywood/burger production (on consoles). Light on content, heavy on marketing. Just like C2.

I've only been hearing this 'pc gaming is dying' bull since Crysis 2 has come out, the generation of gaming on computers isn't going to end because ONE game didn't come out -EXACTLY- how you wanted it. This isn't burger king, you can't have it your way.

Console hardcoe gaming is on a timer IMO. Metaphorically speaking, I basically mean that the hardcoe games for cosnoles will soon die out. PC gaming (mainly hardcoe) will live with the hardcoe games and continue to grow. Consoles are becoming more and more casual. Gimmicks and motion sensing are on the rage these day, but people don't see this. Who knows, 10 years from now might just be Call of Duty and kiddy gimmick games. I'd rather it just be kiddy gimmick games on consoles tho, because the CoD series needs to **** die already.

PC gaming is dying, but not because of "dev abandonment" or whatever you want to call it. Because tbh its completely unrealistic for a games company to develop one version of a game for PC then completely a completely seperate version for consoles.

What is killing PC gaming very slowly is cheating. Yes you can hack consoles, but you pay a lot steeper price if caught. Wheras with PC very few companies have cheating locked down. Even the mighty blizzards game is infested with underground node miners and instance farming bots. FPS are full of aimbots WH's etc. No matter how much a dev tries, they will never completely stop cheating. So abandonment seems the best option, why spend money developing primarily for PC's when some nerd is gonna hack the game to **** anyway. Then you spend ages getting anti-cheat components that are overturned in a day.

Actually PC gaming market is very low as compared to consoles.

To save PC games---
(1)Sell every PC games under $30
(2)Gamers should buy at least quality titles instead of pirating each and every PC games.
(3)Shutdown the **** piratebay.The people who says piracy improve sales are either lunatic or need a minimum functional brain (check the sales status of PC games and compare it with torrent download).

PC gaming would die because of PC gamers for they are the source of PC gaming problem.

Console hardcoe gaming is on a timer IMO. Metaphorically speaking, I basically mean that the hardcoe games for cosnoles will soon die out. PC gaming (mainly hardcoe) will live with the hardcoe games and continue to grow. Consoles are becoming more and more casual. Gimmicks and motion sensing are on the rage these day, but people don't see this. Who knows, 10 years from now might just be Call of Duty and kiddy gimmick games. I'd rather it just be kiddy gimmick games on consoles tho, because the CoD series needs to **** die already.

This is something I can agree with you on.

Actually PC gaming market is very low as compared to consoles.

To save PC games---
(1)Sell every PC games under $30
(2)Gamers should buy at least quality titles instead of pirating each and every PC games.
(3)Shutdown the **** piratebay.The people who says piracy improve sales are either lunatic or need a minimum functional brain (check the sales status of PC games and compare it with torrent download).

There would be less pirating if people didn't feel the need to have to test every game that comes out before buying it. Its true, most people who pirate will buy if they like it, if not they won't and will drop the game like a hot rock. The fact is hyped up consolized crap is what makes people "try before you buy". Because returning a PC game is not near as easy as a console game (9 times out of 10, we cant return or even sell to recoup our lost money). So people get tired of being ripped off by EA and other companies that produce so much sh*t. The only real loss that comes is they get less money from people they would have ripped off without them pirating it first. The industry brought it upon themselves.

PC Game sales are up 19% last year plus read this its only Paradox Interactive CEO http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/01/21/digital-accounts-for-70-percent-of-our-sal/1 now if one compay is getting that much profit form 2003 is up by that much over the last 8 years then i think the pc is starting to grow again. I think most of the great pc game come for the medium size companys now anyway

Almost every Major Console Maker....always had this prediction "we will kill the PC market"...and every game release of a major title (for example:MW) some person will post "PC gaming is dying"....many will screw the facts to prove their point....and many, like me, will give facts to counter arguments......

but the thing is after 25 years of hearing the same thing......the thing is it hasn't died yet...and my opinion it will only die if you can find me a Console which emulates not only the gaming aspect of PC but all its aspects....that's the reason why PC has endure all those Neo Geo's, Sega, nintedo rigs, FAmily Computers, PS1 -3, Xbox ports...because a PC rig is not only for gaming its for business, social media, etc....Many will still consider PC for their gaming rigs because having a powerful rig not only means you can play a game with stunning visuals...you would have a powerful media sound system, fast internet access, etc....no rig can do that.....

and in speaking of gaming.....computer games like say Dragon Age I &II have a better community than Consoles..for one thing your community can only comment on a particular game or brag about your rank or whatever.....the PC community...aside from the social side....the PC community can create mods which will better (like what happened here in Crysis 2) the visuals of games or Grant you equipment (like elder scrolls) you will never see the day of light in your games, for example in Dragon age I we have a mod that will make all your character actually look like the game trailers not some water down version...and even add content to the games you will not see till the sequel of your game, you know the Changes of Dragon Age II, visuals i mean, and DOg summon.....the Idea came from us the PC community...i even contributed in the ELF designs........till the day a console can emulate a PC it will never die...seeing Folks like us will always have a better community and expertise than you folks because our rigs are FAR FAR FAR superior than yours

Pc question is NOT dying..

Starcraft 2, Shogun 2, The witcher , Minecraft, world of warcraft ( 10 million people..), Diablo 3 soon and the witcher 2, .. etc etc

If they make a pc game good they can earn billions with it! They just need to take a side or consoles or Pc.
Sadly both witcher 2 and Diablo 3 are heading to console.

I don't know about Witcher 2....but Blizzard has stated before DIABLO 3 will be a PC exclusive...maybe they will change their minds....but i am guessing its like what happened to STARCRAFT 1...it will comeout in a less stunning fashion, visually i mean

I'm not saying it is, or it isn't. But there are alot of things out there detrimental to pc gaming.
Shoddy console ports, no proper support, consolization, games not using pc's graphics potential, 6 month delays. Bad PR from media (cliiffy B/gametrailers for example). Horrible DRM and many other problems.

The qeastion here is, is Crytek now part of the problem?

Shoddy console ports are only shoddy because the producers push deadlines. There's always proper support, how do you even consider yourself a judge of proper support? Have you been working in the industry for years? That's the only way you'd know how. The "proper" way to give support is pretty standard. It has been for the last decade. Crysis 2 is no different. They've used the same uniform format every online community has since the beginning of time. Games don't maximize a PCs potential because it's not based on the enthusiast. Why should it be? Really? Why should it be based on 5,000$ machines? Do you realize how small the player base would be? No, you really don't. Six month delays are the same deal as your first "point", the producer decides on that, not the programmers. I'm glad you're so "informed."

Your DRM and PR points are mute. They go without saying.

You're a misguided and confused person. I can see you're angry about something. You seem to not realize it is misplaced anger. You're absolutely wrong about everything I've seen you post. Nothing is even posted informative or revealing.

Until you can form some sort of statement or thought that is based on facts, you're just a heckler in everyone's eyes. I'm speaking about everyone as in, everyone that knows the truth. Right now, you're just a heckler. And only that.