The reality appears to be the opposite. EA, Activision/Blizzard, Microsoft, Valve and Sony have all gone on record saying how they’re going to continue to support the PC in the future, and some of them are planing PC only exclusive games.
Seems like a strange attitude to have towards a supposedly niche market, IMHO.
I loved PC gaming. And would still prefer it, because it would seem the mouse is so superior to the joystick for FPS games.
That being said, I gave up PC gaming when the first XBOX came out. I was tired of spending $$$$ on PC hardware. I spent about $300 on a graphics card to play Quake II. When Quake III came out, it was already obsolete. When I bought a new game it never was guaranteed to work, or I at least had to do a bunch of googling beforehand to make sure my hardware was compatible. Then I’d go online to get killed by a bunch of pre-teens using aiming bots.
Now I just buy the game and it just works. Plus with modern consoles, they have built-in networking for game updates and a hard-drive for game saves (so I don’t have to mess with those stupid memory cards). Also when my friends come over we can play co-op without having a 2nd console, and they are much more comfortable picking up a controller than using the mouse+keyboard.
PC gaming will always have its following, and probably always will have the best technology, but I don’t see it returning to the glory days.
I’m continually confused as to how myth the of myth of the death of pc gaming got started. It seems to have no bearing on reality.
PC gaming is much stronger now than it was 10 years ago in just about any measurement. It’s not zero-sum game, if consoles are doing well, it does not necessarily mean that PC gaming is doing badly. Yes, the consoles have had huge impact on many traditional genres, FPS for example. However, PC gaming has also expanded, and Farmville (casual gaming) or World of Warcraft (MMOs) are equally valid parts of the PC gaming landscape.
I think we are going to see an expansion PC gaming in the coming years. Not so much the so-called “hardcore” games such as Crysis or Call of Duty, but rather the games that fit between the casual genre and the more hardcore genre.
I base this on the fact that the the PC hardware is changing substantially right now.
Both Intel and AMD are vastly increasing the computing power of integrated graphics cards (the non-dedicated ones that comes with normal computer by default). Intel recently double the graphics power in their coming CPUs/chipsets (the so-called Sandy Bridge CPUs, to be released 2010 Q4, 2011 Q1).
AMD is about to release a fusion of CPU and a graphics card (called APUs by AMD), where the integrated graphics will be as powerful some of the cheapest, current graphics cards (such as the 5450 or the 5550)m i.e. maybe 4+ times as powerful as current integrated graphics. This means that in the future, probably from around 2012, the vast majority of computers sold will be able to play most games, albeit at a lower quality level. This will vastly increase the potential market for the non-hardcore PC games.
You answered your own question. The people who’ve been PC gaming for 20 years don’t care about Farmville, World of Warcraft, integrated graphics, or casual games. For those things to take over the PC gaming scene means that PC gaming is dying to its existing (and vocal) audience.
The console market is a $8 billion dollar market. The PC market, excluding digital distribution, is about $500 million. That’s a huge gap. Digital distribution is big, but it can’t compensate for that. When was the last time a new major player entered the PC market?
PC gaming will make a complete comeback when we achieve true hardware convergence somewhere around the year 2108.
The PC at this point is largely limited to strategy games (A little nichey, except when released by Blizzard), FPS games (Usually cross platform with consoles, these days.), and MMOs (not traditional games, but hey.) And the indie scene, which produce a wide variety of stuff most people will never hear about or buy. That’s fine if those are the sort of thing you’re into (I’m rather a fan of PC strategy titles, and I dabble in MMOs). You get some occasional stuff outside of that sweep, but I expect a lot of long time PC gamers feel a little bit disenfranchised.
Oh boy, you didn’t just bring NPD numbers to this thread did you?
The global PC gaming market (hardware + software) is VERY big: http://www.incgamers.com/News/24444/gaming-capable-pc-sales-estimated-at-546-billion-for-2009
Considerably larger than the console market for that matter.
It’s just a lot more varied. According to the latest figures about 50% of that market is made up hardcore gamers.
This actually makes me question your earlier assertion that the PC market will grow as more hardcore gamers get tired of console limitations. If the PC market has that percent of “hardcore” gamers now, I would tend to suspect there’s limited growth in that space, just because most hardcore gamers with interest in PC gaming are probably already PC gamers.
I don’t know if you’re joking or what. Last night I played some Braid, Batman Arkham Asylum, Street Fighter HD, and a few weeks ago I was playing through mirror’s edge and Mass Effect and today will be playing through the Dragon Age DLC.
How on earth can you say that the PC is limited to only strategy, FPS, and indie games? Specially since 9 times out of 10 the Pc is the superior platform to play all sorts of multiplats in?
As a ratio of hardcore to casual, it’s expected to drop. but the market itself is expected to grow. A LOT. Though, yes growth is expected to be larger on the casual side of things.
Unless you’re a PC fanboy in denial, it doesn’t make much though to realize why including PC hardware sales in a software discussion is stupid. A campus or office refitting its PC labs with Dells isn’t the PC gaming sale.
The PCGA is a joke. NPD numbers are fine, except for the omission of digital distribution numbers (which I was completely upfront about.)
But why would you exclude digital distribution?
Those are PC GAMING hardware sales. They are enthusiast level GPU’s, or systems that include them. not workstations with Quadro’s or built in graphics.
But fine, it does include hardware. Unfortunately we don’t know how much PC gaming software wise is making. The digital download sites aren’t saying much in terms of dollars. Though WOW alone generates over 2 billion a year, so I would not be in the least surprised if the total is not at least somewhat close to the console total.
Also a list of PC games (exclusive and multi-plats) available on PC rated 7 or higher for those interested: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pc5oLqpenpT78W87pMfgvBA&gid=0
You’ll note the high number of exclusives. Bigger than either xbox or ps3.
The powers that be don’t make the numbers available for inclusion.
Read your own article, chief. Their metric was any PC (laptop or desktop) shipped with a discrete video card. That isn’t limited to enthusiast level GPUs. It includes a ton of discrete cards that’d struggle to run 1.6 at 60 fps. It includes workstations with Quadros too. The only thing those numbers are good for is seeing how big of a joke the PCGA is.
And of course PC games have great reviews. PC games are way better than console games. Doesn’t have anything to do with making money, which is what every game company is trying to do.
Not required. Having recently tried out OnLive’s cloud gaming service, I’ll make this far-out prediction. In the not-too-distant future, it will be increasingly less important what platform the game runs on or the platform you’re accessing it from. You will just play whatever game you want from any device with the necessary inputs (and outputs?).
Sure, but doesn’t that pretty much render any possible comparison meaningless then? We don’t know how much of a sales percentage digital distribution takes up; that 500 million could be 5% of total sales for all we know.
Well, I was trying to highlight the massive gap between PC and console software sales. I didn’t believe anyone would figure that digital distribution sales might’ve been 5% of all sales. It’s been reported that, last year (the same time period as those numbers), digital distribution represented approximately half of the units (21.3 million vs. 23.5 million) units sold and approximately $250 million in sales. [cite]
So I guess I could’ve just said $8 billion to $750 million in the first place, but I didn’t know exactly what digital distribution did. I knew it was under retail, which is why I said it didn’t make up the $7 billion gap.
First of all, the people who’ve been PC gaming for 20 years don’t care about World of Warcraft? I have quite a few acquaintances who would disagree with you there.
It doesn’t take long to find a great many hardcore gamers who play or have played World of Warcraft or some other MMO.
I have to correct you on your second point, the PC market, excluding digital distribution is NOT about $500 million, the US PC market is (assuming we trust the stats). Let me repeat, the US market is not the world market. PC gaming is global, not confined to the US, and what happens (and sells) in Asia or in Europe has a huge influence on everyone, including american gamers.
Take Starcraft 2, for example, where South Korea alone accounts for 33% (give or take) of all copies sold.
All this ignores the fact that money is just one of many indicators. If you truly want to determine how PC gaming is doing, quality and quanity of releases, vibrancy of communties and hours spent gaming are much, much better indicators.
Beside the fact that much of the PC gaming revenue is basically uncountable, or unknowable due to it’s diverse nature, there’s also the fact that a very large portion of the time PC gamers spend gaming, is done playing games that are free, old and very cheap. Just think of all the people are still playing Counter-Strike 1.6 or any of the myriad of mods that exist for old games.
Untill Starcraft 2 was released, a great many people still played Starcraft 1. Despite the fact that a lot people spent years playing that single game, they all paid maybe $80 at most, probably less. Compare this to XBOX Live membership fees and planned obsolences (such as shutting down servers).
This is just one example of factors that skew revenue comparisons.
Ok, I knew there was a software cite somewhere: PC Gaming Market Worth $11 Billion (And Other Fun Facts)
$11 Billion for the PC gaming market world wide. No hardware as I understand it. From the PCGA but the report is from a third party industry marker.
As long as people have computers they’ll always want games to play on them.
Are computers going anywhere?
They’re turning into smartphones! Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!