I was out doing my shopping for Christmas, and as usual I went round various stores selling console and PC games. I've noticed the space given over to PC games is nticeably shrinking, and I'm now wondering, are the days of the PC as a mainstream games platfrom numbered? Is this a bad thing?

I think investment in big games will concentrate on the consoles - developers and retailers know what the platform is. It is probably easier to guard against conterfeiting, and the returns can be good.

Console players don't constantly have to upgrade to meet the demands of the latest games, and don't have to keep patching to keep it safe. Also they don't have to compete with the other uses of the system (internet and home office).

What though will happen to all the smaller games titles that used to go out on PC's? I think this will either die out (not enough money in it to bring to a console) or shrink to a smallernice group of consumers, poorer in quality because the investment is not there.

This will be bad news for those of us who don't necessarily like the 'Action' focus of the big market games, but that's market forces for you.

Perhaps I'll get a gaming console one day, it will be the first time since 'Pong' back in the (ahem, shows age..) seventies. I'll only be able to buy a few games I actually like to play but they'll be really good quality.