One thing I worry about is game development. For example, if you use MW2 as an example, only 13% of the copies sold, if I remember right, were for PC. And even with "only" that percentage it was still a huge-selling PC title. I disagree with folks that say PC gaming is dying, and I will religiously defend my 4.0GHz i7 rig with all it's GTX and SSD and RAID 0 goodness (soon to be watercooled as well!). And I also agree with those that make mention of the digital distributors, such as Steam and D2D.

HOWEVER ... Even with all those above considerations, consoles are still king when it comes to overall sales. And from a profit maximization standpoint it makes sense. If you're a dev, don't you want to develop in an arena where you'll sell the maximum amount of copies possible? And as an aside, isn't it nice to develop for the SAME PLATFORM, year after year after year???

I know DX11 brings some cool stuff to the table, but with a stack of games on my "to play" list that don't even have DX10, I am starting to have a hard time agreeing with such aggressive pushes to new standards. Look at the spot dev's are in right now. If they want the high end enthusiasts' attention, they're going to have to go after DX11. But how many people out there have DX11 hardware? The number is growing, but there are still millions of PC users, and even games with decent hardware that lack support for DX10. So now DEV's have to make new games support DX11, the latest and greatest, support DX10 also, what's supposed to be the current mainstream, AND write in compatibility for the older DX9 if they also want to be able to sell to that market segment, which is still quite large????

ARE YOU KIDDING?

I hope this isn't having a counterintuitive effect on PC game development, and I know for some companies, it is not. They will go after that market no matter what. But I still worry that it's putting them in a spot where they are having to do more work for an even smaller part of the market. And if they want ALL the PC market, they're going to have to do even more work.

I'm all about leaving an older engine for a newer, leaner, more efficient one, but I wonder if we're pushing a bit too fast. Maybe it was ok back when consoles weren't such an overwhelming majority option, but today things are different.

Just some thoughts. I might be crazy though. Way past my bedtime.