PC: A dying gaming platform?

I just read an article, entitled "Did Consoles kill the PC as a gaming platform", over at Playfuls website. Unlike other articles with the same topic, this one presented plenty of statistics that are difficult to debunk and proves that PC gaming went downhill in the past years, and will continue to do so. But I don't think Console has killed, or will kill, the PC. It's the piracy, conformity, and the lack of technical know-how that is threatening the best gaming platform.

Piracy is probably the worst issue PC gaming has right now, and in the coming future. If people stop buying PC games and just starts downloading them, then sales will go down. Meaning, developing studios will start closing or, worse, budgeting will be tighter, resulting lower quality of PC games in the future.

Conformity is also a big obstacle, not just in PC gaming but anything. It really divides the gamers, bundles them up into groups, and PC gaming is left way behind. Why? because excellent games such as Neverwinter Nights 2 or Medival II: Total War don't garner much attention from the media as much as Final Fantasy XII or Zelda: Twilight Princess. So they're not the "IT" games that people play.

The lack of technical know-how is another reason that many people, the so-called "gamers", jumps into the console wagon. In gaming forums, you'll usually see a lot of bitching and whining like: "my screen turns black" or "the game won't start". While other systems indeed do have problems, most are just caused by an old graphics driver or dirty installation of the game. People, the "gamers" once again, usually complains about how long the installation, the defragging, the downloading of the what-nots. But really, if you call yourself a gamer, that would glady quit your job just to line-up and wait for some $600 hardware, which eventually will become obsolete five years from now, I'm sure you''ll have the patience for installing, defragging, and downloading the what-nots.

But my two cents, even if someone presented me with a fool-proof analysis that PC gaming will die eventually, I won't believe it, I refuse to, because it's all speculations. We've been here before and tackled various consoles that came and went. As long as developers will give us games with toolset like Neverwinter Nights 2, in-depth strategy games like Total War, Company of Heroes, and Civilization IV, PC gaming will stay alive.