PC game sales up 230%

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by FONismo, Jul 9, 2012.

  1. FONismo

    FONismo Registered

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    Tim or any of the mods would it be possible if we could have a general chat sub-forum or like for stuff like this as i assume this is not really the place for it to be? Somewhere we can discuss anything like other game genres etc?

    Source: http://gamesgoldenage.com/2012/07/08/pc-game-sales-up-230-console-game-sales-down-28/


    Since there are no replacements for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 coming this year, PC games have seen a resurgence with a convergence in demand for high-end gaming computers designed to provide ‘bleeding edge’ gaming experiences.

    A decade ago the PC was the system of choice for gamers who wanted the best graphics, the most cutting-edge gaming experience and the ability to play with friends online. Before the arrival of the Xbox from Microsoft and the PlayStation from Sony, the PC was the dominant system for multiplayer action games.

    Times have officially changed. As traditional gaming companies expanded their reach with new products such as the Wii and Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller, the PC was relegated to a niche mainly for the hardcore. Many articles were written that the demise of the PC was ‘just around the corner’. In fact, it was taken as an article of faith that the new consoles would demolish the venerable PC. Game sales have shown a remarkable switch in the decade old decline of the PC and rise of consoles.

    The gaming world is changing again as according to industry analyst NPD Group, sales of video-game consoles (Xbox, PS3, Wii), software and even accessories fell for a sixth consecutive month in May, tumbling 28% from a year earlier to $517 million. With the release of Diablo III, May saw the first time since July 2010 that the top-selling game was a PC-only title. That boosted PC video games sales up year-over-year to 230% or $80 million.

    Epic Games recently revealed its Unreal Engine 4, the next generation version of the graphics engine, and to get the full experience gamers will have to update their cards, and possibly their PCs. This could spur resurgence for those looking to purchase game-specific PC.


    Quite a turn around i would say and nice to see. I wonder now if the big teams will begin taking the PC seriously again now seeing as sales now show it's worth their while. We have been plagued with console ports now for years. DICE showed their hand last year and possibly see what was happening before the rest with BF3. I'm playing through now the latest Ghost Recon and it's brilliant online but it's so damn obvious it's a port with DX11 tacked on it's funny. The ui/menus and the servers are just so frustrating and so blatenly from a console. It doesn't pick up my mouse but WILL find a 360 pad instantly

    Who remembers the days when PC games come with LAN support as standard, and when do you see that today?

    Btw Ghost Recon is an amazing game online guys! Can't stop playing it atm.
     
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  2. erale

    erale Registered

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    Well the article only says that Diablo 3 was a huge success on the PC market. Sure it was, but it hadn't any real competitor out there. Also the tech-demos we saw at E3 were just that: demos.

    Also there is still a huge gap between PC and console sales. Really can't see the change just because of one huge blockbuster the PC market had this year and the lack of some killer AAA titles for the consoles because most developers are already working on their next-gen console games.
     
  3. FONismo

    FONismo Registered

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    Do you not think though that both Sony and Microsoft have somehow missed the boat this generation and dragged it out too much? I mean i was reading the other day that earliest the new consoles will be round is 2014, possibly even longer.

    I mean all the latest top console titles now are really at the limit of what the consoles can do. BF3 is a great example, the difference between the PC and the 360 version is huge. I have been playing through Gears Of War 3 the last week and the 360 really is struggling with it at times. So surely these PC figures are only going to increase now as the console crowd start to realise what is possible on the PC
     
  4. Mulero

    Mulero Registered

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    This is a cycle that never stops, now the PC is king but when they leave PS4 and new Xbox will return everyone to say that the PC is dead.

    Within 5, 6 or 7 when the consoles again fall short, everyone will say that the PC is king.

    So will continue until the end of the days or until all play from the phone or in the cloud with systems like OnLive or Gaikai.
     
  5. Jameswesty

    Jameswesty Registered

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    It looks to me like the games industry will be spread around with phones and portable computers being one of the bigger emerging markets for the next couple of years.

    PC gaming will just come to mean open platform gaming , the meaning of personal computer over the next decade will change from device that sits on a desk to a more literal "personal computer" I pads phones pocket computers that sort of thing.

    You will still have desk pc's as creative tools and specific games for them , and we will still have game consoles that sell well , we will also have more people building sim rigs and the market developing even more interesting nooks.

    I think that artical is slightly off in some ways (obviously its written to try and get views) , in that We have always had sudden sales boosts on pc over the last 8 years ( or specific one off products that have been massively profitable)

    For example there was a massive boost with WOW and free to play MMO's like rune scape , then there a massive boost with casual free to play kids MMO's like club penguin around about the same time that club penguin sold to Disney the casual market was growing massively each year with games like peggle and bejeweld making massive profits.

    Western developers over the last 2 years have especially started to try and match the Korean free to play model and micro-transaction models with games like tribes vengeance , and again within the last 3 years we have seen huge profits generated from social games on face book with games like farm vill.

    In the end I think sure games will become more virtulized/platform independent and more "games as a service" but we will still have Nintendo making specific game boxes. Companies like Microsoft and Sony will probably reposition themselves as gaming services with specific hardware that's more a media platform than it is a "games console". ( as they have already to some extent with people spending more time watching films and media on there x box than playing games)


    One thing devices like wii fit , and kinnect have shown is that there is also a market for specific gaming periferals and hardware and its hard to know what will be a fad and what will stick.

    Finally I think within the next 10-15 years we will see a huge development of VR glasses and proper augmented reality games. Maybe not VR glasses in the 90s sense but in a modern social mobile phone type sense. Google glasses might be a bit of a joke at first but if it functions to a basic level and does not cause discomfort it could pave the way to huge changes in gaming.
     
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  6. Boxorman8

    Boxorman8 Registered

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    I think pc-gaming is becoming more popular also because it's clearly the better choice, from every aspect, console exclusive bull**** is making customers upset, they don't like their content being locked and controlled by a corporation who can choose to turn of their servers thus making their games useless
    PC-gaming is where piracy thrives and people are waking up to the reality that the gaming publishers are evil bastards that are out of touch with the core of their customerbase, the "gamer" if you will.
    This is all good news.

    It makes a helluva lot more sense financially also, _everyone_ needs and has a computer, makes much more sense to put the money you'd spend on an overprized console + overprized games into hardware that ages better and allows you to customize it, overclock it and the like, putting you in control.
    I think/hope this will be an ongoing trend because people are becoming more and more adept in handling their computers.
    In the past it made a lot of sense for many people to go to consoles instead because it was basically plug'n'play right?

    Now that computers are everywhere and we'r on them more and more, it makes a lot of sense that pc-gaming is up, with the advent of steam and the like we'r likely to see more :)

    I don't hate on anyone for using the console, but it just makes 0 sense to me.
     
  7. Jameswesty

    Jameswesty Registered

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    There is a difference though in that the next generation of consoles will not be as significant a jump in performance as the last with the trend being more to innovate with social connectivity and with periferls rather than raw power.

    From a development point of view , personally I'm not going to risk 50 million or bother trying to get that investment for my studio when I can potentaily make the same if not larger profit margins by producing open platform games in unity that will work on phones , Ipads , android pads and browsers for less than 200k - 2 million .
     
  8. FONismo

    FONismo Registered

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    Very good post and totally right. PC's of today are literally next gen consoles. Plug and play now is as easy as it's ever been on a PC. Also with the use of pads and the inclusion of support for them in the majority of todays game makes the transition from console to PC easier than ever.

    I know when it comes to games alot of console players can't fathom using a KB/Mouse to game with and so being able to just plug a pad in and play makes it easier.

    The good thing with consoles is it's sociable platform, PC still needs to catch up in this area. Still too many games on PC lack the local MP support like the consoles have. The reason i still have a PS3 and 360 is strictly for the exclusives which are becoming less and less these days. But i have them more really for when friends are around and you just plug in a few pads and have a blast even if it does do damage to your eyes with the low res jaggie visuals
     
  9. 4L0M

    4L0M Registered

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    The reason people game on consoles though is the price. My 580 GTX cost more when i bought it than the price of a 360 and a PS3 combined. I don't think that the gaming "masses" as it were are ever going to entertain paying those kind of prices to game.

    I've always loved PC gaming for the diversity. I can't imagine a studio getting funding for a console Minecraft ( i know it's on 360 now, but only due to the massive popularity of the pc version ), stuff like the Total wars, The paradox interactive Hearts of iron type Grand strategy games, endless space, sins of a solar empire, i don't ever really see these games as being "doable" in any sense on a console.

    Consoles have had a hideous knock on effect though for our pc gaming though. BF3 is a perfect example. I think it looks phenominal on the PC, which is great after the terrible ports we normally have to endure, but we now have to put up with £40 premium accounts for the dreaded DLC. As anyone who has played BF2 mods like Forgotten Hope, AIX or project reality will attest, that sucks. No mod tools at all anymore.

    This is even more ironic as if it wasn't for the massive popularity of the Desert Combat mod, there would never have been a Battlefield 2.
     
  10. K Szczech

    K Szczech Registered

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    I guess 'cutting edge' just doesn't cut it anymore ;)

    I was actually fed up with that phrase, so it was about time for PR guys to come up with some new expression to describe allmighty and alljuicy awesomeness of their products ;)
     
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  11. jubuttib

    jubuttib Registered

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    PC is the cockroach. It'll never die. It'll survive everything that's thrown in it's face and survive, because it'll always offer more than any console (that isn't a PC in it's own right) can hope to, and can cater to different needs very easily. =)
     
  12. jubuttib

    jubuttib Registered

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    What is this the first time you're heard about it? =) I've seen the term floating around since the early 2000s at least, it's always been one step beyond cutting edge and two in front of leading edge. =)
     
  13. Crankee Stroka

    Crankee Stroka Registered

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    Traditional gamer: Hard core PC that you built yourself.
    Todays gamer: Mum bought me an Xbox or some other toy.
    Sad innit?
     
  14. 1959nikos

    1959nikos Registered

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    I was very sad the day Microsoft stopped production of Sidewinder wheel.
    It was my first wheel and it was superb. A dream come true at the time.

    It seemed consoles were the thing to go and not without reason.
    With just a press on the button (or whatever, I never played with one), you were ready to go.
    Gone were the endless hours of installing, setting, uninstalling, searching the net for solutions in forums and so on.
    Talking to people with consoles I got the impression they looked at me as a dinosaur of a veeery paaast age.

    It seemed like Sidewinder was the end of an era. I was sure the market was not proffitable for a proper steering wheel, otherwise Microsoft would have sensed it.

    Well, the new era started for me with a new wheel product, Logitech's G25.
    It seemed to me, that if such a big company produces a surely expensive wheel like that, that does the same things as Frex, an elitist company depending in a few wealthy clients, then things were unexptectandly bright!

    Not only this, but new products came, one after another.
    G27, Fanatec Porches, RF, LFS, GTR just at a time I thought the whole thing reached its limit. And now, we have three (!!!) fine racing sims in beta stage and hardware keep coming.

    For me, this whole situation is unexplainable.
    Pcs are yet extremely difficult animals to tame.
    Only reason I can thing of, is that current generation of users are so much more comfortable with pc usage, as mine never was.
     
  15. Knight of Redemption

    Knight of Redemption Registered

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    You know this whole Console versus Pc thing is so silly, I am a mature gamer who started playing computer games on a console...the game was Pong and it was two white lines bouncing a small square "ball" from side to side. Consoles came first. Then the Sinclare ZX81 made its way into my bedroom. Hours of typing in code from magazines, or loading in games from cassette. Then the BBC model B. 32Kb of memory who could wish for any more than that...Elite maybe the first game to sell hardware rather than the other way around, the first killer app if you like. Then a Commadore 64, an Atari ST and finally my first PC 133 meg processor 128k of ram and a 3.5gig HD...oh the power! Then years of upgrading, thousands of pounds thrown into bigger and better everything each time a new game came out.

    Then the Xbox, the first one. I looked at the specs, I realized it was basically a PC more powerful than the one I owned and to get mine as powerful I would need to spend more than the console would cost, so after 25 years I bought my second console. My PC's became workhorses, built to do certain jobs (recording studio and interweb) A few years later after not spending a penny on new hardware to enjoy my gaming a 360 arrived, same deal. More powerful than my computers at the time and once again years of gaming and not a penny spent on hardware.

    For the moment I am back to PC, the 360 is showing its age and the PC is at the moment the better option for the latest games (though I have had to spend more then the cost of a console upgrading it) When the new Xbox come out I will buy it for more years of cost effective gaming. So why insult consoles? after all as you can see they came first. A console gamer is no less a gamer because he/she play their games on a console, and a PC user is no more a gamer because he/she uses a PC. I am a traditional, oldschool decades old gamer and because I am I feel I can say with some authority this is a non argument. Gaming is Gaming.
     
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  16. privatebrian

    privatebrian Registered

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    Well mate,i think i have to agree with every word you have said,i couldn't have put it better myself.
    Also you have to consider console's nowadays as a stepping stone onto PC's,so why flame them and
    the people that use them.
     
  17. 1959nikos

    1959nikos Registered

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    No flame here Brian, I recieved a lot of flame using a pc from console guys.
    I accepted their arguments, about easiness of usage, I just commented that I was expecting pc simulation to be dead by now.
    I was pleasantely surprised that it isnt.
     
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  18. privatebrian

    privatebrian Registered

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    Sorry nikos,my comment wasn't aimed at you or your post (infact i hadn't seen it),but really the same goes
    for the console guy's,i mean after all Games are born on the PC.
     
  19. Knight of Redemption

    Knight of Redemption Registered

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    It's a blip. The long delay in the release of the next gen consoles has driven many of us kicking and screaming back to the endless upgrade cycle of PC's. Though if you have seen Microsofts plan for the next Xbox the whole argument is dead in the water, seamless integration between Console, PC, Tabs, Phones and TV. Games stored in the cloud and moving from platform to platform. Hardware independent...Is that a good thing? Who knows, but it will make the platform you game on irrelevant. Expect to game online with game enabled TV's, Console users, PC users, Tab users, and Phone users. All having the same experience together at the same time...We'll have to find something else to argue about...and from what I have seen in my short time on this forum I don't think that will be hard.:rolleyes:
     
  20. 1959nikos

    1959nikos Registered

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    All and all, Im not going to drive through my mobile, Im solid about it.
    I need a wheel and Im not going to accept virtual reality either!

    but who knows :( (common Jim, give some help here!)
     

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