Regardless of what theory you subscribe to, the result was a platform in decline. And then in 2007 we got Windows Vista, which certainly didn’t help. There are myriad reasons people like to throw around for that dark time: Microsoft focusing on the Xbox and paying less attention to the PC, Windows XP breaking compatibility with a bunch of older games from the ‘90s, fewer companies in the CPU/GPU markets, the increasing popularity of PC-centric genres (like shooters) on consoles, the fact that consoles actually provided the PC with some reasonable competition in terms of graphics, the rise of DRM, Steam looking like garbage in its infancy.
