We've all been hearing things about how PC gaming will eventually die, or in fact, is already dead.

There's one fellow who is pretty certain of this: Michael Pachter. You might be wondering who the hell Michael Pachter is, in case you're not familiar with GameTrailers and his show Pach-Attack! there. Viewers can ask questions to Mr. Pachter who'll answer them with his "expertise".

So, how can he be so sure about what he says? Does he know things we don't? Apparently. He's a "video game analyst" after all, he must know what he's talking about. Or does he? Let's take a look.

The first reason why PC gaming will eventually die of course is because of all these bad pirates who don't want to pay for their games and eventually download them for free. That's also why Mr. Pachter justifies Ubisoft's DRM protection which requires you to be online at all times while playing a game (so far used by Silent Hunter 5, Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Prince of Persia The Forgotten Sands).

Pach-Attack! Episode 118:

"I wish all games were like that because I think people who steal should be in jail." - Michael Pachter

And I think you want people's money, so don't give them reasons why they would rather download the game instead of buying it. As Eric Garland said:

"That's how you start to marginalize piracy - not just by using the stick, but by using the carrot." - Eric Garland

But Mr. Pachter doesn't even see problem with these consumer hating protections, the only thing he sees are thieves.

Bonus Round Episode 404:

"Authenticating the disc is being valid, that is the most fair thing in the world and everybody who complains - and this is one of the things, what was it? Spore? The game that was on torrent and like 500.000 copies downloaded in a day because people didn't like that you could only put it on - whatever it was - three PCs, five PCs, that's just - I'm sorry flamers - it pisses me off. It's like "I should have a right to steal" and "How dare EA stop my right to steal their property", that blows me away. So, so, yeah, I think you're going to have this online streaming Ubisoft is going to do to stop piracy and it's right." - Michael Pachter

Yes, it was Spore and the reason is pretty simple too. The game is limiting installation to 5 different PCs and requires an online activation. Bear in mind that when you change essential hardware of your current PC, like the mainboard, that's also considered a "different PC" and thus you have to reactivate the game. Most users apparently never actually install the game so often that they run out of licenses, but it's possible, and what happens after you run out? You have to contact EA support and ask them whether they can give you some more. That's a game you paid full price for. Again: a game you paid for. Any limit like this should not occur with a game you paid for, this is not about stealing property off a company, this is about the company treating their customers like shit. So they got what was coming to them: The game was cracked and leaked on the Internet five days before the official North American street date. The controversy about the activation limitation outraged people and thus the game was happily shared.

Also interesting is that pirating games on consoles such as Wii, DS and Xbox 360 is fairly easy to achieve yet nobody even mentions it. Get a modchip or special cartridge, download your games happily and you're good to go. Nintendo is trying to block this on the Wii but they fail miserably. Microsoft is also trying a little but in the end the worst that can happen is a ban on Xbox Live, which costs monthly anyhow.

So, why does Mr. Pachter make such statements? It's rather easy, there is lots of money to be made. This isn't actually about gaming, this is all about making money out of video games and a way to achieve that is selling consoles with paid monthly subscriptions to play games online instead of letting gamers use a PC, where nobody guarantees they're buying exactly the products the manufacturer wants them to.

Pach-Attack! Episode 123:

"A 250GB hard drive costs something like 25 bucks and they're really not expensive." - Michael Pachter

Wait, what? But Microsoft is charging like $128 for a Xbox 360 250GB hard drive. Clearly that must include some additional hardware that justifies the price, yes, there must be something. Oh no wait, there isn't. Microsoft just wants to make lots of money, sorry.

In fact console manufacturers like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo get money for each game that is being released and sold on their platform. It is clear why everybody proclaims the PC dead, because nobody except the direct developers and publishers of the games get money for them. No PC manufacturer gains money for sold games, they only get money for the hardware gamers buy.

So, the Dollar symbol and intro for Pach-Attack! are quite perfectly fitting in my opinion. If you still think this guy knows what he's talking about:

Bonus Round Episode 311:

"Nobody has a PC that's faster than PS3." - Michael Pachter

I rest my case.