Hot in the industry today is news that two technological companies have joined forces to package both animations and physics to developer companies. NaturalMotion, responsible for the motion synthesis technology in Grand Theft Auto IV, announced together with NVIDIA, new proud owners of PhysX technology, that they will offer "highly-integrated" solutions for developing games on all current generation gaming platforms, including the PC. Find out how at the full story.

Business and consumer computer solutions provider Hewlett-Packard, graphics industry contender NVIDIA, Microsoft's PC advocate Games for Windows initiative and even broadband game publisher Trion World Network released a whoosh of hostile air against the next-gen consoles.

They were probably outraged as many other hardcore PC fans were at the 2007 Game Developers Conference's "PC Gaming in an Age of Connected Consoles" panel discussion. Instead, the PC industry leaders formed their own panel, bringing in Microsoft's Games for Windows initiative's boss Rich Wickham and Trion World Network's founder Lars Butler, among other representatives of leading PC industry entities.

Lars was also quick to comment, "I believe the days of the console are numbered. There is one more generation of gaming consoles and that is it."

Backing Butler, NVIDIA's VP Roy Taylor upped the PC's ante by stating, "Our advantage as developers is we know what is coming. And what is coming is far ahead of the console. You will see a huge difference between what you can get on a PC and a console."

In line with this, Hewlett-Packard plans to enter the hardcore gaming market by rolling out a new line of gaming-related hardware, possibly even hobbyist PCs, within the year. It's even claimed that they plan to even provide a curved computer monitor for not only widescreen effect, but for full FPS immersion.

Whether or not the PC industry giants can deliver, we cannot tell, but with PC enthusiasts who know exactly how to make full use of their PC's power and console piracy looming over the horizon, consoles may never be able to say "the PC is dead" ever again.

Nvidia's VP of content, Roy Taylor, said in an interview that good graphics are the keys to good gameplay. And for now, the best gaming machine that could churn out stunning graphics is arguably, the PC. But Blizzard's Itzik Ben Bassat said in a recent interview that "consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room."

He also speculates that because of the development of the consoles, "maybe in five years you won't need a it (console) because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house."

He mentions that they are keeping a close eye on Sony and Microsoft, especially on the online capabilities of the PS3 and the Xbox 360. He also confirmed that Blizzard have no plans of bringing World of Warcraft to consoles. When asked about what he has to say about online console gaming, he said:

Online console gaming is still in its very early stages, and it needs to be developed further to provide opportunities of a scale which will be interesting to us. So when we come to develop a new game we will look at the kind of opportunities that exist out there and what we want to develop, and if it could be interesting on console. We should remember that a 360 is just a sophisticated PC.

The Blizzard honcho also divulged that he has not seen enough of the PS3's online service so he couldn't give his take on it. On the other hand, he has nothing but praises for the Xbox 360's XBLA. He believes that the MS folks have done an excellent job in developing it and that there are "lots of exciting things there".

Nvidia's VP of content Roy Taylor recently granted an interview with the folks from Next-Gen, and when asked about what he thought of the notion that "graphics don’t matter" in games, he replies that it's all "nonsense." (Hmm... we could have sworn that he was quoted for having said "bollocks" instead, but perhaps Next-Gen has toned it down?)

According to Taylor, it is "ridiculous to say that graphics don't matter," and that it may be the equivalent of somebody saying that "the quality of my TV screen doesn't matter." He went on to say that if graphics truly were unimportant, then you should "watch '24' in black-and-white on a seven-inch screen."

Of course, this doesn't mean that Taylor is a detractor of quality gameplay. He said that "sometimes graphics have been applied, not at the expense of gameplay, but without equal consideration to [gameplay]." Instead, what he tried to point out is that both are important.

He stressed that having quality graphics is the best way for a game to elicit emotions from the player. According to him, these emotions are the basis for emotional attachment towards a game, and these emotions can reach the player more effectively if you have detailed facial expressions and character animations.

Lastly, he expressed his sentiments regarding the necessary balance between graphics and gameplay. "I think we can do a lot better, but I think we'd like to see graphics encompassing the gameplay."