By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - PC Discussion - ELSPA to produce digital download charts

About time too.

From http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/34490/Industry-celebrates-might-of-PC-gaming

Industry celebrates might of PC gaming

Trade figures defend PC as gaming platform, new ELSPA charts to reflect true state of download market

In the wake of the record shattering StarCraft II launch, the relaunch of Duke Nukem, and Microsoft’s revival of key PC exclusive franchises at Gamescom last month, the UK IT trade has hailed the resurgent strength of PC gaming.

According to a recent report by the PC Gaming Alliance, annual shipment volumes for the PC gaming hardware market in 2009 were over two times larger than the combined Wii, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 console  units shipped in the same period. The report also estimates the number of gaming PCs armed with discrete graphics cards to be 212.6 million for 2009, and expects this to grow to about 322 million by 2013.

Key firms from the UK trade have come out this month in support of the sector, which through graphics cards, peripherals, networking, cooling, and other high-end hardware, plays a significant role in the health of the entire industry.

“World of Warcraft boasts over 11.5 million subscribers and The Sims 2 has shipped over 13 million copies,” said Craig Gore, graphics cards, processors and Microsoft product manager at KMS Components. “PC gaming is far from dead, and with companies like Steam working hard to protect the intellectual property rights of game makers, the industry will continue to grow.”

VIP product manager Matthew Parrish added: “I don’t know who’s been saying PC gaming is dead but we’re certainly not seeing that in our sales figures. New games that push the limits of performance always stimulate hardware sales, which is why the launch of category A titles in the run-up to Christmas will boost graphics sales.”

Consoles have seen the bulk of marketing and attention from games publishers in recent years, though many claim this is not indicative of the demand for triple A PC titles. “PC gaming is massive and will continue to thrive. What we are seeing is development houses trying to control costs by focusing on gaming consoles which, naturally, use older hardware,” said Craig Connell, AMD’s regional sales manager for Northern Europe.

Bill Donnelly, Sapphire’s global PR director, added: “The console market appeals to casual gamers, who can just hook up to the TV and play at very reasonable cost – but the experience is way short of the latest high resolution, multi-screen solutions that can run on the PC to give a much more realistic and immersive experience. The PC with its ability to be upgraded and tuned up (overclocked) really is the platform of choice for the hardcore gamer.”

In the past, the death knell of PC gaming has been sparked by declining sales of box copy games. However, this doesn’t take into account the explosive increase in digitally downloaded titles. Currently it is impossible to track how many games are being sold digitally – but regulatory body ELSPA is trying to amend this with new charts designed to reflect the true state of PC games sales.

“We are on our way to the first ever publication of a digital distribution games chart. But this is only the start of the process that will, we hope, lead to a chart that includes data from all sectors of the market on both PC and console formats,” said Sam Collins, commercial manager at ELSPA.

When asked if digital distribution will strengthen the PC gaming platform, Collins added: “It is already and it will continue to do so. Digital distribution allows greater diversity of products delivered to a variety of PC based gaming platforms. PC as a games format is being reinvented.”

You can read Andrew Wooden's blog entry about PC gaming here.



Around the Network

interesting stuff thanks for posting, will be interesting to see the charts. But I wonder how and what digital download services they will be tracking and whether they will be tracking global sales.



@TheVoxelman on twitter

Check out my hype threads: Cyberpunk, and The Witcher 3!

ELSPA are Europe only, so I'd imagine it'd just be those regions first. If they're including Steam sales data though (and let's face it, it would be completely pointless otherwise), then it should be fairly trivial to divvy the sales up by region and supply it to partners around the world.

As an aside, in all the furore surrounding the botched release of Elemental, it seems to have gone relatively unnoticed that it sold 82,000 copies in its first week or so. I know a lot of those would have been pre-orders from people who lap up everything Stardock does, but that's still quite remarkable for a broken mess of a game with bad reviews and terrible word of mouth in a very niche genre.



Foamer said:

ELSPA are Europe only, so I'd imagine it'd just be those regions first. If they're including Steam sales data though (and let's face it, it would be completely pointless otherwise), then it should be fairly trivial to divvy the sales up by region and supply it to partners around the world.

As an aside, in all the furore surrounding the botched release of Elemental, it seems to have gone relatively unnoticed that it sold 82,000 copies in its first week or so. I know a lot of those would have been pre-orders from people who lap up everything Stardock does, but that's still quite remarkable for a broken mess of a game with bad reviews and terrible word of mouth in a very niche genre.

Source?



About halfway down this post.

I think previously Wardell had posted that the game cost about half his original $5 million estimate to develop (could have done with the extra $2.5 million to be honest...), and many of those copies would have been via Impulse, so it looks like they've already broken even.



Around the Network

every PC sold = Gaming PC confirmed



Imagine not having GamePass on your console...

Your comprehension skills are atrocious- where exactly does it say that anywhere in this thread?



Foamer said:

Your comprehension skills are atrocious- where exactly does it say that anywhere in this thread?



Do you really think the "PCs armed with discrete graphics cards" are used for gaming? The article implies this would be the case.  322 million in 2013 is just stupid. Maybe 15% of the these machines are used for gaming. Of course excluding the people playing browser games or social network stuff. High budget HD games tend to sell less on PC for a reason. But yeah I know, those were crappy console-ports so they don't count. We already had this in another thread.



Imagine not having GamePass on your console...

They're capable of being used for gaming, That's the point, the potential market is huge and as you've been told repeatedly, the PC games market is about far more than just the one narrow segment of retail copies of high budget games. Within that market, there are going to be people with X1900's still playing the latest releases at low detail, people with GTX 460's who just play casual games and every cominbation you can think of in between. There's massive scope for tapping and exploiting that market and its myriad niches, and high-handedly 'excluding the people playing browser games or social network stuff' would be sheer stupidity on the side of developers and publishers.

Also, why is 322 million by 2013 stupid? There are over 70 million graphics cards sold every year, they're not being bought by businesses. The new Intel chips will have integrated graphics more than powerful enough to run 3D games at 720p. Seems a reasonable estimate to me.



Foamer said:

They're capable of being used for gaming, That's the point, the potential market is huge and as you've been told repeatedly, the PC games market is about far more than just the one narrow segment of retail copies of high budget games. Within that market, there are going to be people with X1900's still playing the latest releases at low detail, people with GTX 460's who just play casual games and every cominbation you can think of in between. There's massive scope for tapping and exploiting that market and its myriad niches, and high-handedly 'excluding the people playing browser games or social network stuff' would be sheer stupidity on the side of developers and publishers.

Also, why is 322 million by 2013 stupid? There are over 70 million graphics cards sold every year, they're not being bought by businesses. The new Intel chips will have integrated graphics more than powerful enough to run 3D games at 720p. Seems a reasonable estimate to me.


I don't doubt the 322 million number, but they won't be used for gaming and that is what the article implies. These numbers are given by the PC gaming alliance. Not an unbiased source IMO.

PC gaming is MMOs and browser / social network games these days. The rest is VERY small. Get over it.

There is not a 200 million userbase waiting for the hottes new releases on PC.

And they compare Wii, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 sales with PC sales just to underline their argument of PC being a strong gaming platform. Big parts of these sales are PCs used for business / work or are Netbooks, which aren't meant to play games on. You just can't say "PC has an gaming-userbase of XXX". It just doesn't work. I will buy one PC game this year (Patrician IV) and I can't play this one on my Notebook I bought 3 years ago. My desktop PC can handle the game easily though. My girlfriends PC can't handle the game either. So both of us (two people) are an userbase of 3, but only one can handle the game.

My parents run a business and they have like 10 PCs in their offices that could handle the game, but hell would break lose if someone played a PC game on these machines.

You just can't compare HW-PC-sales with console sales and make any educated conclusion for the gaming business. And if you disagree, there is no point in talking to you any further.



Imagine not having GamePass on your console...