It breaks my heart to see a top-tier, quality (and profitable) PC development studio get shut down. Best of luck to all of those guys, though I'm sure they will all hit the ground running.

I think what is the most apparent but MSFT won't necessarily admit to is the discrepancy between what they're saying and how they're acting. They definitely have consistent messaging, but it's hard to see exactly how they're supporting PC gaming by closing down profitable PC developers and laying off a good chunk of the GFW Live team, including the former GM. Those guys were just at CES a few weeks ago!

They, more than anyone, should be the standard-bearer for PC gaming, since they have built a fortune on software and the PC business.

Another point is that I don't understand why digital distribution services won't release their numbers. NPD drives me crazy because it probably only reflects 60% of the market or so and is entirely based on retail. When you look at just NPD numbers of PC sales vs. console sales, it looks miserable and people start waxing off on how the PC market is dying (or is dead). I wish we could get some actual digital distribution numbers for the full picture of what consumers are buying, so we can honestly refute that PC gaming is a dead medium or confirm it.

P.S. Again, it makes no sense to me why Ensemble, known for their PC development, did not concurrently develop a PC sku for Halo Wars! Seems like it would be a natural fit and representative of their talents.

I'm very excited to see the guys from Iron Lore land on their feet, pending finding a publisher for Black Legion. TQ filled my Diablo withdrawal when it came out.

There was some valiant effort there in Soulstorm, but for me, the series ended with Dark Crusade.