While mobile gaming might be considered the future by many - it's certainly become the current big money making platform - PC gaming is fairing well too. While consoles took a 28 per cent dip in sales over the past year, PC games have been flying off the shelves. Compared to the same period last year, PC game sales were up 230 percent.
One of the biggest contributors to this swing was Diablo III, becoming the fastest selling PC game in history. Many would cite the growth of digital downloads as another reason the PC is continuing to dominate. The ease of which games can be bought and acquired now outstrips the three big consoles, since AAA titles as well as smaller indi ones can be bought and downloaded in a relatively short period of time.
It also needs to be considered that the current console lineup is old. The Wii has about four months before its successor appears, and both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are in their last year or so of life. This not only makes them less attractive as platforms for development, but means people are less willing to invest in new accessories and games, since they know the next generation is just around the corner.
PC gaming on the other hand, spans operating systems, hardware changes - it remains steady with regular tweaks and updates instead of the bi-decade refresh that consoles employ. Combine that with the fact that most console games that are available on the PC are able to be played with the console controller, and you have a platform that's far more versatile than the console offerings; while staying at the forefront of graphical and technological development no matter what part of the console life cycle we're in at the time.
While PC gaming is unlikely to take the top spot any time soon, it's certainly the work horse that continues providing a solid platform to game on and will keep doing so for the foreseeable future.
