Although much of the focus in gaming is placed on the battle between the three home console companies (namely Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony), today marks the third time this month that either an industry boss or company has stated that the end for traditional gaming consoles is nigh in light of competition from the PC.

This time it's an NPD Group analyst, Anita Frazier, noting that PC software sales in North America reached $203 USD million in the first two months of this year, compared to $136 USD million during the same period in 2006 - a rise of 48 percent.

"The robust performance we're seeing in PC game sales can be tied to several key titles across several genres," Frazier told the New York Times.

And she's probably right. While the home consoles continue to battle it out this year, the PC has seen the recent releases of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars selling extremely well, boosted by the massive, already-established user base and popularity of both franchises.

Saying that, the PC still has a long way to go if it is to match the likes of the PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, and Xbox 360 in terms of pure overall game sales. While PC software sales topped $953 USD million last year, console software sold through an incredible $4.8 billion USD.

id Software's Todd Hollenshead thinks that it’s the huge advertising budget of videogames that give the industry its edge over PC pulling power:

"I think with three consoles out in the last couple of years, it's natural to focus on consoles," he said. "There's a lot of excitement, a lot of marketing dollars and a lot of hype for consoles. We don't have any champion of the PC game business to step in and leverage those sorts of marketing dollars."

Today's report from the NPD Group is in line with news we brought you a few weeks ago, where both a Hewlett-Packard boss and other industry figureheads shared Anita Frazier's sentiments.