Weekly PC Digital Charts - Mass Effect 2 sales go beyond

[shio]

Masakari said:

It's been the subject of countless articles, lectures, comments, etc. The PC having to re-evaluate it's model and transitioning to a digital model is precisely because the consoles were kicking it's ass at retail, this is easily seen on all format retail charts everywhere.

The industry reports are showing MMO growth, not retail growth. Furthermore, 99% of those MMOs are PC exclusive. I'd also go as far as , judging from the usual PC charts, a ton of PC sales are from MMOs, Blizzard games, and The Sims, there's been entire years that a new title enters the charts for a month, and disappears, and WoW/Warcraft/The Sims/Starcraft/Spore makes up the rest of the charts for all eternity (lol).

Dude, PC has not lost ANY ground!! The retail market is SHIFTING to digital distribution. And if you add both current retail + DD, they're crushing the PC retail market when it was at it's peak. For all purposes, Digital Distribution IS retail without the cut from retailers and manufacturing - it's the evolution of retail.

You're lying when you say that industry reports only show MMO growth. The only PC Gaming industry report available is the Horizons Report (and the occasional DFC press release), which clearly said that ALL forms of business methods on PC games increased except retail. And even then, the traditional venue of PC games increased (Retail + DD), which is exactly my point.

Again, Retail and Digital Distribution are considered TRADITIONAL business, and both work exactly the same. The digital distribution services work like retail stores, and Steam is the world's Gamestop!

Your problem in your reasoning is that you don't consider Digital Distribution the same as Retail, when essentially they're the same. Publishers and Developers certainly see DD services as stores.

Masakari said:

PC games have a higher margin, but also sell for much less, like I said and you ignored they get discounted heavily early on, much earlier than consoles titles, which are already more expensive by default, so it cancels out the higher margin. The success of Steam is because of dirt cheap prices, they might sell but they yeld lower revenue.

This part proves you don't know much of how the industry works. Those extra $10 of console games are eaten by the fees and royalties that console manufacturers enforce on devs/publishers. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo force publishers to cough up $10 to be able to release the games on their consoles.

Console manufacturers eat $10 for each copy of a game that is on their consoles (Ninty only gets $7 I think), which is why Consoles games are more expensiave from the start, and have much worse profit margins than PC games.

Masakari said:

Word of mouth is equally important, if I don't judge the state of gaming from everyone I know, i'm just reading stuff off the web without judging it first hand. They actually agree, like I said and again you seemed to have ignored, my friends pay for MMOs, everything else they either pirate or buy a console. That just confirms the current PC sales trends. The truth is PC retail is skewed by 4-6 insanely evergreen titles like WoW or The Sims, while DD isn't big enough yet.

You are judging PC gaming's health from a bunch of people instead of the hundreds of millions of PC titles sold every year. That's like saying "The Automobile industry is dying because my friends don't have cars and only take the bus". You seriously don't see where you're wrong?

And for your information, Digital Distribution IS BIGGER than the Retail market, as the next Horizons Report will prove it.

Masakari said:

I also work in the industry and know what people talk, what I hear. It really depends on what you're talking about, if you're talking about casual EA or Blizzard, then yeah they sell tons. Everything else? Not so much. Heck, everyone likes to say MMOs are huge, when WoW is half of the entire MMO space.

Finally, I really, really wish people stopped with the Steam excuse. Yes, DD is growing, Steam is growing. It's also not the second coming of christ and is still dwarfed by retail.

PC is in transition, but there's zero doubt that it lost ground in areas it was strong in, and is currently redefining itself with DD. Consoles have become huge and sell to both former PC guys, and newer gamers who can't or won't game on PC.

Unless you're a market analyst of the gaming Industry, yours and other people's opinions are irrelevant. Just because you're a Rally driver doesn't mean you know how much cars are being sold.

Dude, I will say this one last time, DD IS BIGGER THAN RETAIL ON PC, AND TRADITIONAL PC GAMES ARE SELLING BETTER THAN EVER!