Kevin Unangst, Games for Windows global director, gave an upbeat speech today regarding PC gaming. He used all the right buzz words (i.e., "exponential growth") and tossed out some impressive numbers (PC gaming made $11.3 billion while consoles raked in $14 billion) that seem to indicate PC gaming is anything but dead. Standard stuff for the most part.

What wasn't normal was the praise Unangst lavished on Valve's digital distribution network, Steam. Sure, it started off as backhand praise ("There were some rough edges early on, they took a beating,but they've done a good job."), but praise is praise. Unangst went on to say that their role is to improve the gaming experience by adding community connectivity, achievements, and "where it makes sense to add commerce on--whether it's full game distribution, whether it's selling add-ons to games, et cetera."

During the speech he addressed the 900-pound gorilla of PC gaming -- piracy. Microsoft is looking at it hard, and while they definitely want to do something about it they're just not sure how to go about doing it. Unangast mentioned how well Stardock's Sins of a Solar Empire is doing, but doesn't think the no anti-piracy feature "is the end-all, be-all answer." He assured gamers that we'll be hearing a lot more from Microsoft after E3. Let's hope so.