With many gaming PCs being net-enabled--at least more so than gaming consoles--the computer gamer is seen as a big market for digital distribution.

"In terms of distribution, the way we look at a lot what's happening in the future is, we've got probably a billion PCs out there in the world," said EA CFO Eric Brown. "Very rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product."

read the rest here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ea-pc-games-console-downloads,7725.html
source; http://www.tomshardware.com

Moreover, Steam has played a very large part in the continuing success of the PC gaming market.

Exactly. Imagine if Steam didn't exist. I personally think that neither the console nor the computer will become obsolete in the near future. I enjoy PC, and console gaming.