[rnemo]

The PC as a platform for gaming was absolutely dying around the time of the current generation console launch, the console was meeting it (price of games, internet multiplayer, AAA title selection) or beating it (ease of use, cost of hardware, marketing) in nearly every way. At that time the best advantage to the PC was the potential for better graphics, but the cost of a graphics card to do this was more than the cost of an entire console. Plenty of industry vets joked that the PC would soon be only for hardcore FPS or MMO players.

Since then no one thing has happened to bring the PC back to life, nor has there been a single moment where the course changed. Changing to digital distribution, spearheaded by Steam, has arguably been the biggest savior to PC gaming, but the declining price of both good hardware and new games, the rise of indie titles, and the spread of gaming to OS X have all been significant contributors.