A look into how PCs will inevitably take control of the video gaming market, and how they currently rake in 42.5% of all global video game software sales.

Our review of 3D Vision PC gaming technology and our guide on how to build a $550 budget gaming PC have led us to understand that PC gaming's influence in the global video gaming market never waned, and -- in fact -- is growing, especially when the dichotomy between console and PC hardware is considered (believe it or not, GPUs will soon be 1000% more powerful than they currently are).

Source: DFC Intelligence.

We recently examined data presented by DFC Intelligence to NVIDIA about global PC gaming software sales and found that PCs currently bring in an estimated 42.5%of total video game software revenue. That's right: almost half of all video game-related money goes solely toward PC video games, with the remainder getting apportioned between all major consoles (PS3, Xbox360, Wii, and so on). 

"Would Minecraft with Samaritan graphics be better? I think so." -Tony Tamasi, SVP Content & Technology at nVidia.

A bold statement to make at the East Coast Game Conference (ECGC), but it does stir thought: as we approach evermore realistic visuals, when do we start hitting that wall of no-return? According to Tamasi, nVidia has real-time ray tracing, procedurally generated smoke, and video cards capable thereof on the horizon within the next five years. The technological advancements yield promising results for video game nerds everywhere (barring, perhaps, some competitive gamers -- as noted below), and some of the upcoming video card releases will be a dozen times more powerful than existing tech.

Venturing once again into the dark, dungeon-like halls of the Joystick Labs building in Durham, NC, I descended the stairs into a hallway lit primarily by the dim screens of laptops and monitors; in these halls stood some fifty-odd game developers and enthusiasts, each showcasing his or her respective work. This is where greatness comes to fruition. There was also free food.