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Squilliam on 09 January 2009
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shio said:
Squilliam said:
vlad321 said:
Moral: consoles are ruining the quality of overall games in some of the deepest rooted genres. I blame the fact so few of them have backwards compatibility.

Wow, that argument is like so old. So yeah you forget about sales numbers and everything else and resort to mud slinging...

 

Aren't you the one resorting to mud slinging? You should already know how pointless the retail market is becoming for PC. PC is in a transitional phase, from physical to digital, and in 2007 only 30% of PC Gaming's revenue was from retail. Now roll up 1 year later, imagine that digital distribution alone has surpassed retail in revenue, and let's not even bother thinking about subscriptions, microtransactions and advertisement revenue.

This is all circa 2008 again - I remember when people started screaming "bloody murder" when PC only had made $910 millions in 2007 on retail (US). Some people kept saying "PC gaming is dieing" and etc... then a few months later NPD makes a press release telling that games subscriptions were $1 billion in 2007 (US), more than PC's retail, and that's not even including revenue from digital distribution, microtransactions and advertising. What a great way it was to shut up some ignorants.

Then came the Horizon Report from PCGA and DFC Intelligence, and shut some more people up. Truth is online revenue should be increasing far, far more than what retail is losing.

mrstickball said:
vlad - What's ignorant about your statement is you boast that old PC games are selling so well - but totally ignore the fact that new games are tanking, or underperforming against ancient titles.

The biggest PC game this year, Spore, has sold far less than any one of the big console titles for any of the 3 major systems.

Oh hey! Guess what? Old console games sell well too - did you ever notice that Super Mario Bros. on Virtual Console sells thousands of copies a week? How about the 50th remake of Street Fighter 2?

The issue is that we don't have all the PC data available, because it's so fragmented, thus makes an impossible argument. PC owners argue 'oh, game X and Y are still selling years after their debut!' but offer virtually no tangible evidence other than sales rankings at Steam or Gamersgate. Such arguments are about as useless and stupid as VGC-ers posting Amazon data as 'proof' a niche game is doing well since we only have rankings, and not hard-copied sales numbers.

Tell me, what PC games tanked recently? Spore definitely didn't because it sold 2 millions in just 3 weeks, a strong 'The Sims' performance (in comparison The Sims 2 reached 1 million in 10 days, and now look where it is) and that's not even taking into consideration it's digital sales.

Expecting a PC game to outsell a console game with the same expectations in just a few months is, pardon my french, ignorance. PC games are not front loaded and never have been. PC games keep selling for ages, and with digital distribution this trend will be even more present because the games will have a permanent shelf space.

If PC was really dieing, then why is that all the third-party big publishers are more and more betting on PC than ever. Hell, EA and Blizzard Activision now are making PC their main focus, ignoring the consoles at a degree.

1. I was addressing the European market for a large part where PC gaming is considered to be much stronger.

2. I didn't say that PC gaming was dying, I merely wanted to discuss the trends in retail that we now have some hard data on.

3. Its the overall market not the one game I found as an example which is important. Rough estimates for market share @ retail in the U.K.:

Wii: 24,636,596 (42%)

Xbox 360: 15,468,907 (27%)

PS3: 8,932,496 (16%)

PC: 8,500,000 (15%)

4. The definition of computer is changing, soon your average desktop tower will be niche and people will be migrating in great numbers to mobile or alternative platforms. Even the idea that flash and online games are strictly in the PC space is false now that a multitude of different devices have now or will soon have browsers of their own.

5. Do you have a link indicating EA/Activision will be focusing on the PC space to the detriment of consoles? I seem to recall inspite of WoW revenue Acti-Blizzard had more console revenue than PC revenue and they would be expected to be on the high end of PC revenue.

6. Do you not concede that losing the retail space would be detrimental to the future of the PC platform? If most people grow up gaming on consoles then why would they suddenly switch to pc gaming at a later date?

 

 



Tease.