fatslob-:O said:
Gaming as a whole is on the decline and PC gaming on an increase won't save anything ... |
It probably won't.
But it does mean we got more PC games. :)
Besides, it's when PC gaming tanks that everyone should worry, PC gamers help fund the yearly technological advancements found in the consoles.
Companies like Corsair, Razer built their hardware business's on PC gaming.
Dr.Henry_Killinger said:
I don't know if Steam gaining active users is indicative of PC Gaming increasing. Not only is Steam not mandatory for PC gaming but I don't know how Steam defines "active" and I doubt it accounts much for loss of activity. With regards to hardware, there is no such thing as a dedicated gaming component in the pc, tablet, or smartphone spheres. Only software can be tracked reliably on these platforms and then we arbitrarlly distingusih the hardcore from the casual with the former on pc and latter on tablet/smartphone when it could easily be the reverse. Rather than a diminishing of the market, I think that the gaming market is becoming more mainstream, in such a way that the movie industry in basically is in the entertainment industry. Of course there will be the dedicated gamers, just as their are dedicated movie goers, but once dedicated consoles have run their course and fully integrated into the digital realm. We won't have console sales to track anymore, or rather we wouldn't be able to measure the hardcore anymore. |
It's one indication of many that PC gaming is increasing.
Profits are generally up across the board from many PC gaming oritentated companies.
Corsair for instance has consistently increased profits and marketshare (To the point they filed for an IPO in 2012, whilst the PC was in decline and added more product lines.)
nVidia has seen increases in GPU sales.
AMD has seen stupidly large amounts of GPU sales. (mostly thanks to miners in the high-end.)
EA's Origin saw consistent growth in 2013, both in users and profits.
Also, I was actually wrong on the Steam active user account.
It's not 15% a year.
The jump was 15% over just a 3 month period.
That's 65 million to 75 million, the contrast to this is, Sony only tells us "registered" users on PSN, same goes for Microsoft.
http://www.joystiq.com/2014/01/15/steam-has-75-million-active-users-valve-announces-at-dev-days/
Steam calculates an active user as someone who has logged within the last 30 days and has ever purchased something, the contrast to this is, you can make a dozen accounts on Xbox live or PSN and Microsoft/Sony count those, without paying a red cent.
So a breakdown.
2009 - 25 million users.
2010 - 30 million+
2011 - 40 million
2012 - 50 million
2013 - 65 million
2014 (3 months later) 75 million.
That's not a sign of the times slowing.
--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--