You need to remove your head from your arse and think before talking.

1. PC game sales are not nearly as bad as everyone likes to make out, if they were no one would be making PC games anymore. Are they what they once were, no but that has more to do with the fact that consoles are now achieving graphics of at least a similar level to PC's while having a standardised hardware set then it does with the fact PC's use a keyboard and mouse. If you still don't get it it's basic logic a cheap standardised box which is guaranteed to play anything released for it over a 10 yr period at improving quality levels is gonna have better game sales then a box which costs 3 times as much up front and needs to be upgraded every 9 months in order to maintain the same quality level in new titles.

For that matter the piracy statistics in gaming are even more inflated then they are in the music and movie industries and we all know how much they lie.

2. Yes most people probably play their xbox on a tv and use their PC at a desk. That said if they have an issue sitting on the couch or in a comfy chair with a keyboard and mouse then they deserve to get their ass handed to them. Basically at that point it's your choice to be at a disadvantage.

3. The simple fact remains:

A. that probably 90% or better of PS3 and xbox owners already have the required hardware in their homes and the remaining 10% has at least half of it because not everyone has a USB keyboard. If they don't they can get it extremely cheaply.

B. A vast percentage of FPS gamers and RTS gamers grew up playing them with keyboards and mice so they realise that they are a superior form of control method for those games and gamepads annoy them. This is why they've been making things like the FragFX and a laundry list of K/M adapters for consoles since about 6 months after the PS2 got released. In otherwords console gamers obviously want the option so the sales are there waiting.

Also if you want proof of the fact K/M support would improve sales I suggest you look at the sales of Unreal Tournament III on both consoles. Here I'll save you the time - Xbox 360 460K vs the PS3's 560K. That's over a increase 20% when at the time the 360 had somewhere around a 9 million unit lead in hardware sales plus the 360 is the prefered console for FPS fans and the game in question had a system built into it to try to make it fair to the gamepad users.

Think before talking out your arse.

1) "K/M support it would probably improve sales by atleast 10%"

That's the most retarded made up fact I've heard for a while. Lets see PCs have keyboard and mouse support and guess what, sales are in the toilet and everyone is pirating.

Not only that but presumably most people play their XBOX on a tv and their PC at a desk with a monitor. I don't want to be sitting with a sodding keyboard on my lap in my living room.

Sales would decrease because anyone who doesn't have a KB/M will be totally at a disadvantage.

Probably the smartest move MS made with the XBOX is not splitting the users into gamepad vs KB/M.

This article is a few years too late and completely pointless cause no only does it ignore the fact multiple games on multiple consoles have had cross platform play to PC but also cause we all already knew that for most multiplayer game types PC has an unfair advantage in their controls.

This fact is not lost of devs either which has lead to a massive level of stupidity in not including them as an optional control method on consoles despite the fact both the PS3 and 360 are fully capable of supporting them. Seriously the PS3 supports both keyboard and mouse natively and the 360 at least supports keyboards natively and could be made to support mice fairly easily. The only developer that has had the balls to actually do something about this is Epic but only with one game, Unreal Tournament III, and only on PS3 for which they built a slight delay into the K/M controls to make it a little more fair to the gamepad users.

Incase anyone wonders why I say not including those control options is a massive amount of stupidity is for two simple facts:

1. The primary arguement against it is that its unfair to those with gamepads, which it is, but given the fact that 95% or better of people with a PS3 or 360 have a computer which they could borrow a keyboard and mouse from it doesn't really hold up. Not to mention if they don't have a computer they could borrow from a K/M set costs about half as much as a second gamepad.

2. FPS and RTS games suck with a gamepad and if they actually included K/M support it would probably improve sales by atleast 10%. In otherwords for less then a couple hundred bucks they could make atleast several hundred thousand in profit.

i have a controller in my pc for emulated console games and games like devil may cry and that. For that, controller is way more fun. RTS, FPS, keyboard and mouse are the best way to go. Car games, that's for wheel and that. I use the thing that's more comfortable for the game. Also, i crush every console gamer i know :)

WHAT IF YOU PLUG A USB KEYBOARD AND MOUSE INTO THE USB PORT ON THE XBOX, AND THE GAME WAS PROGRAMMED TO RECOGNIZE IT. THEN WHAT. I ONLY ASK CUZ MY PS2 LINUX CAME WITH A SONY USB KEYBOARD AND MOUSE.

"For example, the XBox could be integrated with the PC."

3DO Blaster anyone?

@Red Ronin

The only games PC gamers will only bother playing with console gamers are strategy games and FPS. Let's see you wiggle your analogue stick on your gamepad when I headshot you from the other end of the map with my pistol in MW2.

Surely it would work for the arcadey stuff? Y'know Street Fighter 4 type games, arcade racers, shoot em ups etc. I have a 360 joypad on my gaming PC for just those types of games. Obviously the kbm combo will be superior for FPS and RTS games so they wouldn't fare so well. Done right they could of linked Xbox live and gfw live together better.

The controller vs keyboard thing again? C'mon, man. It's like the electricity vs gasoline argument for cars. When you put years of research and expertise into getting the most out of the worst possible resource, why be surprised at the result? Attempting to map keyboard and mouse controls to a controller is never going to work. They are different components and should be accessed differently as well. Ever since the PlayStation and Saturn were released the options for setting up a controller for consoles have been relegated to presets that were designed by programmers who played PC games all the time. Naturally the result is that the controls suck. If someone would just sit down and design a game interface that focuses on the controller at hand instead of lamenting the absence of a keyboard and mouse, a lot of these complaints would evaporate. I'd much rather play Street Fighter II with a Saturn controller than a keyboard and mouse, thank you very much. At the same time, Command & Conquer belongs on a desktop. It isn't that adaptations can't be made - it just isn't often worth the painful effort.