"Um... isn't that always the case with purchased software?"
No more than one machine at the same time, right. But I hang on to software for years, and as I replace and upgrade old systems, I reinstall. Let's face it, PhotoShop from four years ago is as good as PhotoShop bought this year, for all but the most demanding professionals. Same with Word, etc. I bought it, I have a right to make a backup, and a right to move it from machine to machine. I am not paying a subscription fee or letting it talk to MS.com all day long with copies of my documents.
As far as games go, games on a console system are in no way the same as PC games. As a hardcore gamer who's been in the business for nearly a decade, take my word on that. On a PC I can play real-time strategy games and the best first-person shooters, with tons of mods and different team and free-for-all gams. I can play massively multiplayer roleplaying games, and use a keyboard to talk to people: typing to people in Phantasy Star Online with a Nintendo controller is absurd.
And I didn't pay $2500 for my PC, I paid $1200 for it three years ago, and I can upgrade super cheap today, hardware prices are as low as I've ever seen them. Nothing wrong with a Mac/Cube duo or a PS2/Linux box if that's what you prefer, I just happen to prefer PC games to console ones.
Anyway there are tons of niche strategy and wargames, offbeat RPGs, that you simply don't get on a console. Plus PC games are cheaper, you customize them, mod them, etc. Put it this way: PC games are to console games what Linux is to Windows (not the best analogy, and obviously PC games are not open source, but it's a good analogy in terms of their customizability and the freedom afford the gamer).
So I simply prefer the PC gaming experience, though I have a console too, for sports games and fighting games. Sure, consoles are coming around to PC genres (notice the new online console rpgs and a great FPS like Halo), but it's not always the same thing. There's no way you could do something like Neverwinter Nights -- where one player acts as gamemaster and makes scenarios for the other custom-made characters played by people around the country -- on a console today.
However, if Microsoft going forward decides to kill the PC gaming market -- trying to force everyone to their Xbox 2, which as I understand it will have all the PC gaming capabilities of a current PC (HD, DSL, 3D chip, headset, keyboard, mouse) -- then that's really going to kill PC gaming.
Blizzard, EA, etc. make millions each year on The Sims, Warcraft 3, etc., and Microsoft doesn't get one cent. And while MS does okay in PC gaming, they don't own the market, because it's a hit-driven creative business, and they haven't leveraged their monopoly as effectively. But kill the PC gaming market and force all the big PC publishers to shift development to Xbox and it's win-win. For them.
It's not like PC game programmers don't want to support Linux (a programmer-run company like id Software for example does), but most game publishers are big, publicly-traded companies that have other priorities. But if Linux grows the install base and Palladium and the next MS destroy the PC gaming industry, you could see the smaller/shareware developers moving their niche market software to Linux. I would hope this is the case.
Sorry, long post : )
