Yeah, there are some very valid points made in here and I do love me some steam bargains but I do think there is one thing that is really needed for PC gaming to take back off and compete with the consoles in the hearts and minds of gamers: a compelling gaming franchise.
For me, the choice of what to buy has always been to tell people to buy the system with the most games they want to play but if they want to play Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Halo, Gran Turismo, MGS then their choice is made for them and that is where PC gaming now falls down...there is no gaming franchise that is PC exclusive.
Yes, things like Flight Sim and Silent Hunter give a niche group a reason to go for PC but at the end of the day people (or parents
) will buy the system that has the game they have to have. Fix that issue and PC gaming starts to get back on some equal footing but it won't happen, budgets now are to the point where things have to go multi-platform unless they are first-party system sellers and that is a niche that can't be filled by any company that supports PC's.