shio said:Retail Sales of PC Games Dropped 14% in 2008Sales of PC games at U.S. retailers were once again down in 2008, dropping 14% over the previous year, sales-tracking firm NPD Group has informed GameDaily. For 2008, U.S. retailers brought in a total of $701 million from PC games, down from the $910.7 million that retailers saw across 2007. And that 2007 total was a 6% drop from 2006, when retail PC games accounted for roughly $960.7 million. Meanwhile, console software sales grew 26% in 2008, totaling $10.96 billion. Shortly thereafter, NPD announced that it would soon begin tracking subscriptions. The PC Gaming Alliance later said that PC gaming was "far stronger than anyone has reported," with worldwide digital distribution sales for 2007 around $2 billion.
|
Only $2 billion of worldwide DD sales for the PC is kinda weak.
If retail amounts to just $700mill in the US, that would mean $2.5-3 billion in worldwide retail ----> $4.5-5 billion.
Add a billion or two for subscriptions and u arrrive at $6.5-7 billion for all PC game sales worldwide.
That's a lot less than the $25 billion or so for consoles. I believe piracy is a big reason for the discrepancy.
No wonder there aren't any PC big budget exclusives made anymore (xcept Blizzard).
