Speaking before the start of the Microsoft Big Picture gaming showcase in San Francisco, Jon Schappert, a Microsoft Corporate VP, took the opportunity to lay claim to Windows being the biggest gaming platform on the planet.

Not Microsoft, you might like to note. Not the Xbox. But rather, and specifically, the Windows-based PC.

I will reiterate that in his own words: "Microsoft and a growing community of the gaming industry’s leading publishers, hardware manufacturers and retailers have made the Windows-based PC the largest gaming platform in the world.”

Schappert was talking in terms of an installed user base, and Windows does have quite a few. Of course, truth be told, not all of them play games. Actually, I suspect that very few of them play games. Unless you count securing yourself against malware and the like.

“While the challenges we face as an industry are many, PC gaming has never been stronger, and we’re confident this trend will continue in the years to come" Schappert insists.