14 DAY TRIAL // For a very long time, games industry pundits deemed that the PC platform would die a slow and painful death at the hands of consoles and, more recently, mobile devices like smartphones or tablets.
Despite these claims, the PC is now one of the healthiest platforms in many areas and, as we saw in recent weeks, next-generation consoles, like the already-announced PlayStation 4 and the all-but-confirmed Xbox 720, are stealing quite a lot of pages from the PC's playbook.
First up, let's talk about hardware architecture.
Both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720 will use custom hardware made by AMD that's quite similar to the future CPUs and graphics cards that will be released by the company.
For the PS4 this is a major change, as the PlayStation 3 used a custom Cell chip that, while pretty powerful, caused a lot of headaches for developers who had to perform many tricks and get over plenty of technical hurdles so that their games run smoothly on the platform.
The Xbox 720's CPU, as we heard last week, retains the same PC-like architecture seen on the Xbox 360, as Microsoft's apparent stance is to keep things simple and let developers worry more about their actual games instead of trying to get over complex technical issues.
Another key area in which next-gen consoles are treading on ground already familiar to PC users is digital distribution.
For years Valve's Steam, alongside other services like EA's Origin, have gotten PC owners used to buying games online, downloading them, no matter the size, and playing them without even touching a retail disc.
While both the PS4 and Xbox 720 will still feature support for Blu-ray game discs, both are expected to heavily focus on digital distribution through their new iterations of the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live online services.
Sure, each next-gen console is trying to bring new features, like the closer implementation of sensors like the PlayStation 4 Eye or the Kinect 2.0, or a better interaction with other devices, like the PS Vita or mobile tablets, but you can't deny that future consoles are becoming a lot like PCs.