id Software's Tim Willits has refuted Microsoft's claim that the first-person shooter genre is in its death throes on the PC.

Speaking in an interview with Game Informer, Kudo Tsunoda, Microsoft Kinect's creative director, said that the battle to make first-person shooters work on consoles had been won.

"Halo did an awesome job of building a first-person shooter exclusively for the console, and now hardly anyone plays first-person shooters on the PC anymore. It's all about the console," he said, highlighting what he saw as parallels with the scepticism about Kinect's responsiveness.

A bold claim? id Software certainly thinks so. The Texas-based studio virtually invented the modern FPS with Wolfenstein 3D on the PC in 1992 and then refined it with Doom and Quake. It has continued to support the platform ever since.

"The PC is still a very viable platform for not only FPS games but also all other genres," id's creative director Tim Willits told Eurogamer.

"In my opinion the PC will always be the core of the gaming industry - it is the timeless stable platform that as developers we will always be able to rely on. Unlike consoles, the PC doesn't disappear because one company decided it wasn't profitable or decided to make a new version. The PC platform is always evolving but staying stable.

"The FPS genre is still great on the PC, the input controllers are very responsive, the keyboard allows many more choices and options, and the social networking of the PC allows you to reach out and play with your friends much easier than any of the consoles.

"Plus, as any hardcore FPS gamer will tell you, the mouse is still the best device for aiming." he added.

id's next game, Rage, arrives on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2011, and is looking seriously impressive. Willits is heading over to the Eurogamer Expo next week to demonstrate it to you.

According to Steam statistics, as many as 75,000 users were playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on PC at any one moment yesterday, while 72,000 were enjoying Counter Strike: Source.

PC shooter fans have plenty to look forward to this year. Call of Duty: Black Ops, Medal of Honor and an expansion for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 all arrive in the coming months.