Have to disagree with you on the piracy point, Dr Manhattan.
There is no evidence (in the public domain at least) to suggest that a pirated copy of a game is a lost sale. And by evidence I mean scientifically collected and comparable statistics.
The two data points that are in the public domain (World of Goo, Ricochet) suggest that DRM or no DRM, a game gets pirated the same, and that one has to prevent 1000 pirate copies to convert 1 into a sale, which means commericial anti-piracy measure are probably not particularly cost-effective.
That's all I wish to say on the subject and I don't want to derail the discussion, so here's a disclaimer to those that oppose my above statement: I've heard all the counter-arguments. Short of presenting trustworthy, verified evidence contrary to the above my opinion will not be swayed.
As a counter-hypothesis, what about the fact that most gamers own multiple platforms. Is it not possible that given the choice between a DRM-infected PC game and a simple "pop in and play" Xbox360 game the gamer will choose the Xbox version? This will account for the much higher console (and particularly Xbox360) sales while explaining the lower PC sales. I mean who would buy the same game for both the platforms s/he owns?
