To all of those who claim that it is piracy that's killing the pc gaming. Boy do they have a short memory, i dond't think that there ever was a platform that had more pirate games then the spectrum. When the spetrum came out and over the years it had a vast variety of games and "software houses" making games.
It rulled (at least over here) for prety much the hole 80's decade. During all that time i don't even remember of seeing an original game (tape) for sale. All the computer stores, and not only those but prety much anywhere, had spectrum games for sales and all of them where copies of copies.
Everyone traded games, and who of us in this forum with more than 25 years didn't had at least one 90 minutes tape filled with games.
Yet many of those "software houses" resisted, evolved and made brilliant games.
Other platforms that had their share of pirated games was no doubt the c64, the amiga and the early pc's (8088 to 486), and yet many companies resisted.
What started to ruin everything in terms of pc gaming was when the $greed$ overtook some companies and they started buying all smaller ones and in some way or another started limiting their work. (actually greed is the reason why we are suffering from this economical crisis, but that is another debate)
Those big fat companies launch unfininished, buggy, with no story, no inovations games and then wonder why no one buy's them. Well instead of spending those huge budgets on marketins and advertising why not spend them on actualy making a better product.
An example: Crysis, when it came out (and pretty much still today) it did't run on most machines, yet they launched it anyway and with a big hype and marketing budget, then everyone was furious when the game was not selling to well ( i wonder why, anyone ever heard of code optimization, hmmm?).
All of this just to say, pirating was always present on the gaming industry, in some cases it even helped it in some way. I also bet that those anti-piracy zealots have, one time or another, pirated some piece of sofware.
So what do you think, what is your apinion about this crazy rant ( i never tought i would be wrting this much).

Its not piracy that is killing PC gaming, its crappy games that are killing PC gaming. PC game sales were down over 210 million $$ last year (according to NPD) and I don't think anyone in their right mind can say that is all due to piracy. If the publishers and developers were making games we actually wanted, we would buy them, but they aren't, so we don't. I, for one, am sick of everything being turned into the "next great MMO" or being strictly online fragfests. Make a good single player game for crying out loud! Add an online component if you must, but don't force me to play online or pay a monthly fee when I don't want to play that kind of game at all! I'm sure I'm not the only one who is sick of them shoveling crap games on us PC gamers; that's why I found this place. The games may be old, but at least they aren't utter crap!

There does in fact seem to be quite a craze going on for older games at the moment, what with the rise of GoG and the expanding catalogue of older games on Steam. You really (and by you i also mean developers and publishers) need to stop and question why.
These games have nothing near the level of graphics modern games do, very few have online components (or no longer have running servers) and a host of other things that would be seen as negatives in todays market. These games are selling however and, as far as I can tell, selling well. I don't think I've played a single game made whithin the last three to four years (probably longer now that I think about it) in the last six months or so.
[edit:] Actually thats not entirely true I have been playing and enjoying an awful lot of indie stuff too. There have been some fantstic developments in the Indie games scene recently. Somewhere else the big companies could learn some valuable lessons.[edit/]
Currently the PC games market is pretty stale whith only a few glimmers of hope in there. Alot of older games have a depth of content, writing, and art direction that most modern titles can't (or more likely can't be bothered to) match. Add to that the fact that the few decent games that get ported from console to PC are so horribly and lazily done that they just aren't worth bothering with. It really is of no surprise the market is suffering.
So what is the industries reaction to this? Apparently it's to flood the market with incomplete tat stuffed full of as much DRM as they can fit onto the DVD. Yeah, nice one. You win guys...

NPD doesn't count digital distribution. And I know that Steam supposedly saw a major increase in sales last year, so its possible a sizable part of that $210 million decrease didn't actually happen. I know that other than two new releases and a handful of bargin bin titles, all my PC game purchases were digital. Unlike the year before where I mostly bought retail. The same story could be said for most my PC gaming friends and family.

tl;dr
bethesda, epic, bioware, and many other game companies focus on making games for console, and think about PC as an after thought.
it's the developers who are killing PC gaming.

A good point by Cogadh, but I'll add a few thoughts as well:
It's not only the 'crappy game' syndrome. There are still good games being made, but they aren't advertised as heavily as some of the 'triple A' titles that are generally nothing BUT hype.
As well, there is the issue of retail shelf space. I've seen a trend lately when I go to various shops that carry games where the shelf space for PC games is getting smaller and smaller. Just a few days ago I went into a game shop (EB Games here in Canada) and they'd rearranged their shelves. The PC game shelf shrunk to one-third its former space. The pickings are slim. Same in the nearby Future Shop. That one had a really big double sided shelf for PC games, but it's been cut down to less than one half the space. I'm seeing this in other outlets as well all over the place.
The console market is booming and that's where the retail space is being devoted.
And then there's the issue of copy protection/CD keys. While I've nothing against trying to protect the games from being pirated to hell and back, the current DRM solutions and even the CD key requirements mean no game shop will even touch a used PC game. So there is no second hand sale market. But look at all the second hand console titles available in any game shop you care to check out. I know publishers hate second hand sales, but by killing that market, they're also killing the mainstream primary sales as well because people just aren't drawn into the shop to buy games, especially since the shops themselves just keep collapsing what little shelf space is devoted to the platform. It's a vicious cycle.
You can't return PC games if they're bug-ridden pieces of crap that don't work or if you can't get them to run on your hardware or, gods forbid, if you simply don't like the game.
Now, I know there is digital distribution, but that also has its problems. For one, you're saddled again with a DRM scheme (albeit some may feel it may be rather benign a la Steam) that prevents you from re-selling the game. There's also the issue of several DD platforms. Who wants to deal with a dozen different on-line vendors with different activation schemes and different rules on how many times and for how long you can DL the game? (think EA's dl manager, Atari's 'we'll be generously enough to let you pay to be able to DL the game you bought for a further two years' scheme with Digital River, Stardock's requirement to have Impulse to get patches for their titles, Steam being a requirement on some of the upcoming retail games, etc.)
Then there's the Steam price gouging of on-line distribution where US prices are translated one-to-one to Euros for the same game. Or people are being charged VAT on Steam games when they live in a country where that doesn't even apply.
Then there are the region locks that serve no purpose other than to make the potential customer angry.
And the staggered release dates where (in most cases) those in Europe, Australia, and Asia have to wait days or weeks before a title that's released in North America is finally available in their country.
Piracy doesn't hold a candle to all of the above. It's the issues above that are killing PC gaming (if it's really dying), not piracy, IMO. If publishers could just get their crap in gear, I think the PC gaming market could easily show some serious growth. But I fear that's just not going to happen.

i wouldn't say it's killing it, but I would say it has hindered it's overall success.
you might worry that piracy is killing the ds if it somehow undersells the PSP. which I don't think we'll ever see happen, because of the PSP's own piracy issues.

I think another reason PC games are taking a huge hit is because of Publishers.
It is the Publisher that more often than not requires DRM. It is the Publisher that forces games out the door too soon to make a buck, and it is Publishers that distance themselves from gamers turning and belittling them as a reason for lost sales.
Anyway, big corporations care less about the needs of the group they service for larger and larger profits.
To be sure Some Developers have a tendency to think along these lines as well. For example Bioware allowed talk about DRM on their boards (for a limited time), but they refused to ever consider No DRM in their games no matter what the users wanted.

It's yet another piracy rant with people claiming this that and t'other in it's defence ad others claiming the other way.
It's boring, been done to death. Is it stealing? No! Sure? Yes! Really? Maybe! Why? Well....! So it's stealing? No!
And repeat till the world ends.

http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/news/valve-pirates-are-just-underserved-customers/?biz=1&page=1]
Valve: Pirates Are Just Underserved Customers
[/url]
This article was on digg a while back, but I thought it was interesting/somewhat relevant to the topic.
edit: But from what I've been reading elsewhere in the forum. It doesn't seem they practice what they preach.

I don't think it could even be argued that PC gaming is dying; it is simply undergoing a market and business model shift. Overhyped triple A titles for the PC are on the decline, but lower budget yet innovative games from smaller developers look to be on the rise. The prevalence of digital distribution has aided in this dramatically by removing large publishers as the gatekeepers to the market, as well as dramatically lowering the costs of distribution. It's nothing new that business models and markets change as new technology becomes adopted, and that's really all we're seeing in the case of PC gaming. My prediction is that we'll continue to see fewer big-budget titles for the PC, while seeing more smaller titles aimed at narrower slices of the market, which while not raking in cash hand over fist will still turn a decent profit for the people behind these games. Piracy will still continue to exist just as it always has, and will continue to be pretty much a non-issue for those producing quality products.

PC GAMING ISN'T DYING! Sure, it's slowing, but what platform doesn't? I blogged about this (sorry if I'm being a media whore) a while back: PC Gaming Is Not Dead (Yet)

PC gaming Normally slows a bit with a combination of a bad economy, "recent" console releases, an increasing awareness of DRM, lack of innovation, too much innovation, ports, hardware cycle upgrades, increasing cost of the game product, yaddayadda and so on.
Most counting places don't take into account digital sales and MMO subscriptions, which really push up how well the PC is doing. Either way, many Web/Print-media outletswill cry the death of the PC every year as per the normal course.

I think it is worth re-iterating that the consoles are not so far behind the PC's in terms of piracy. If they weren't then more than a few companies would not be adding DRM to their console titles.
I'm also sure that if publishers have their way they'll do their damndest to ensure a decrease in second hand sales at stores like EB Games as well. Just like the PC before them. An effort to recoup costs of development I'm sure.
I think that gaming as an industry is suffering from games that cost so much to develop that they must sell an awfull lot just to break even. Like all other industries I believe that in an attempt to be more cost effective games are shorter in length, ports are rushed, and titles are released in a less than complete state with little support. Publishers must take some of the onus on the state of our industry.