If you buy the hype, the PS3's Cell processor--combined with an Nvidia-based RSX graphics processor--will offer stronger graphical performance than just about anything you can get in a current gaming PC. That means you're getting a whole system for less than what it would cost to buy a cutting-edge, high-end graphics card. But you don't have to take my word for it or even Sony's: the claim that the PS3 will offer the equivalent graphics performance of two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards working in tandem came from Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia. Current cost of those cards: about $500 each. Cost of Alienware's Aurora ALX SLI, which incorporates a dual 6800 Ultra configuration: nearly $5,000. And how many consumers are willing to pay hundreds extra for PC graphics cards that the manufacturer's own CEO admits are inferior? I'll let you do the math.

CVG: So you're not exactly predicting the death of the PC in the midst of this next-gen frenzy?

Mark Rein: You know, it used to be id, and Epic, and a few others aimed at all those high-level games, but now because everybody's doing PS3 and Xbox 360, they're all gonna be doing high-level games. So when they do bring them to the PC, they're gonna be great.

And we actually adjusted our pricing structure on Unreal Engine 3 basically to say "you're paying for all three whether you're using it or not, so you may as well do PC!"

We're evangelising to all our customers, we want them to do PC, because we make royalties, so the more they do...[laughs]