Source: GameSpot
We are sitting in the age of consoles at the moment; I don’t think anyone can deny that. Ever since the PS1 came out, every console fan boy and his mom has been telling me the same thing; “PC gaming is dying.” Of course any PC gamer worth his high priced rig knows that is simply not true. Despite piracy and console domination of the gaming market, PC gaming remains more than profitable and cutting edge.
Backing me up are the NPD Group numbers that were released today for PC US retail revenues, which should make a few people bite their tongues.
Check out the sales numbers and what an NPD analyst said about PC gaming after the jump!
The NPD Group numbers for retail boxed PC games clocked in at $910.7 million for 2007. That’s down compared to PC gaming’s peak, $1.1 billion, in 2004. Still, just under a billion is definitely not chump change, especially when you consider the numbers are for the USA only.
Another HUGE factor in the sales numbers is online distribution, which is not tracked by the NPD. Almost every major publisher gives PC gamers the opportunity to purchase titles online and download them straight to their had drives. I know that I always take that route when available. That said, I think I can safely opine that PC sales may have surged far above the posted $910.7 million. All you naysayers are right though, I’m sure the industry will realize that a billion dollars is not enough reason to keep making PC games (<- sarcasm).
Find out what an NPD analyst had to say about PC Gaming on the next page.
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dying?
Oh, I see what you did there. I do good making an ass of myself
Holy image typo batman
HAHA…I read this post several hours ago and wondered when someone would fix the “Dieing” that was going on all over the place.
Back on topic, that’s still less than 10% of the console gaming market… which is around $12.8B and expected to reach over $60B in the next four years (if you believe some reports).
See: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/07/09/console-game-revenue-to-hit-66-billion
Anita Frazier, thank you for having common sense, another one FTW!!!! I’ll play some Crysis with ya when the whole current generation consoles burn out.
Then again, i still play NES…..
@rothbart
Sure, it´s 10% of the Total console gaming market. Which includes I belive Handlhelds. 10% of a market that still have about 10 active consoles,if handhelds are included, I think is pretty fair.
The entire US gaming industry went from $13.5 billion to $18.8 billion in the last year, according to the NPD Group. Does anybody know how much of that is Wii related? I think this has got a lot to do with those casual gamers.
And isn’t $911 million less than 5% of that $18.8 billion? How was this 14% calculated?
Sure, it’s not dying yet, but how long can the PC hang in there with so much more piracy, low revenues and marketshares?
Besides, did you see the top 10 list for PC games in 2007? Mainly WoW and it’s Burning Crusade and 4 The Sims 2 related games. CoD4 is multiplatform, so the only reason to boot up your PC would be Command & Conquer. Let’s hope for the dodo’s sake Starcraft II will boost PC gaming sales in 2008.
I think in the past several years PC games are starting to target a niche market… actually three niche markets.
1. There’s the hardcore somewhat elite group of people playing RTS and FPS games. People looking for perfection in both graphics and controls (stuff you can’t find on any console to date in RTS and FPS agmes)
2. Then there’s the MMO bunch, willing to waste thousands of hours in a game that frankly doesn’t challenge neither brains nor brawns. Hey guys, get a live!!
3. And finally the most casual types of gamers – the type who would play the 12th iteration of Sims or some gem-dropping ‘puzzle’ game every now and then on the family computer. These guys are more casual than the Wii bunch – think of it – they don’t even buy a specific device to play their games on.
Outside these three (mostly incompatible) types there’s very few people left who play something else on the PC. And that’s where the console scene comes – it’s where we find diverse games and experiences – RPG’s, platformers, fighting games, sports, racing, party games, weird crossovers and experimental, innovative games…. Yeah sure you can find some of these on PC but there’s far too many such titles available for consoles only. This gap between game types has always been there.
Hardcore FPS players will never be satisfied with consoles and the sims-playing type won’t care much about buying a dedicated gaming device (although the Wii is doing hell of a job to change that). So no, PC games industry won’t be dying any time soon.
I love the PC vs Console comparisons, mainly bacuse there are 3 Next-Gen and 3 Last-Gen consoles which are compared to PC. The PC is just 1 platform, while the consoles are more than 1. Compare it to one system at a time please.
Another thing people miss is the PC Market isn’t just Unreal Tournament, Crysis, WoW, and Command and Conquer. There’s lots of websites where people can go to play free games. The casual game market is fairly big in PC. While computers are missing more console-based genres like 3D Platform, and Third Person Adventure games, online games and Mods make up the rest of the pie.
@FlintSteelton
That’s exactly my point! Most of the PC-only gamers are either too hardcore (FPS, RTS), or far too casual (Sims, free games), or too dorky (MMO’s)
Of course I’m leaving out of this everybody who’s ok with playing games on multiple systems (including PC)
@Iffo
What is with the stereotyping of MMO players? Because somebody likes games in this specific genre they’re “dorky”?
It’s not dying, it’s just not as popular as console gaming right now
crysis, i mean come on.
everybody debated on the requirements for the game.
There will always be PC’s for work for play for whatever.
and people will make games and play them on the PC’s
it will slow but never die or change.
Graphics card, ram and gpu
s cpu’s do more than just games and they will buy them.
“Retail sales in the PC game software industry reached $911 million in 2007, bringing the total console, portable and PC game industry to $18.8 billion, a 40 percent increase over the $13.5 billion generated in 2006.”
That’s pitiful, really.
Microsoft won’t allow Windows gaming to completely disappear even if it’s unprofitable for publishers. They’ll subsidize it if they must. Windows lock on consumers becomes rather weak without the games.
PC gaming may not be dying, but it sure isn’t what it used to be. I’ve already made the switch over to consoles for the majority of my gaming and I love it. Being able to sit back and relax on your couch and play games on a massive HDTV is much better than huddling over a computer screen.
Though for whatever reason, lots of people still prefer huddling around a computer.
If you have a wireless keyboard and also a wireless mouse you can do that even better since PC’s graphics will be shown much better on a HDTV, PCs can process anything much faster than any console.
PC gaming will never die and guys who say that are simply stupid. You keep complaining about piracy like as if XBOX 360 never had any hacked iso uploaded on a torrent site, I simply found every game from that console ever released like 2 days before the release, what about that huh? Besides, playstation 3 games aren’t all that cheap if you buy quite some of them while PC games are much cheaper which means you save money for the hardware and have a high-ending game machine that can simply own ANY console graphics mainly physically talking since even my PC can own PS3’s GTA IV physics which lag the fucking game like as if I was seeing slideshows…