- The first snipes came from a panel of industry leaders that included Games for Windows boss Rich Wickham and other gaming bods. "I believe the days of the console are numbered," said Trion World Network founder Lars Butler. "There is one more generation of gaming consoles and that is it," he claimed. The broadband game publisher boss says that the gaming potential of PCs could render games consoles obsolete.

- NVIDIA vice president Roy Taylor also painted a rosy future for the mouse and keyboard side of gaming: "Our advantage as developers is we know what is coming," he said. "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."

- HP plans to roll out a new line of gaming gear later this year including a curved computer display designed to immerse players in the action.