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Forums - PC - So how big (or small) is PC Gaming?

As i played Console Games for the last 6 Years up until recently, PC gaming was that lil' thing lurking around somewhere, tho most big hits from numerous dev's simply just hit Consoles. (or were screwed up ports.) when i built my PC back then ( i think it was an Athlon X2 paired up with some cheap Nvidia card.. something 8600 maybe?) it felt like stepping into that weird realm that was actually HUGE. Same thing now, looking at a bajillion Parts you can buy, gazibilion Sites and YT channels dedicated to PCs, and communities filled to the brim with enthusiasts  just exploding in size. 

... yet PC Gaming is handled like some attachment that is bound to be there. just like gaming in general is handled by mainstream media - it isnt really there, but numbers show that pretty much anyone plays some kind of game, even if just on their phones. (when i go to work tomorrow EVERYWUN will play Candycrush.. and its like fucking 5 in the morning.) speaking about numbers, PC Games are said to be way, way less successful than Console Counterparts. 

i really dont get the problem, does the PC (/gaming) market just look huge once there, or am i missing something? 



I'm a Foreigner, and as such, i am grateful for everyone pointing out any mistakes in my english posted above - only this way i'll be able to improve. thank you!

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Crystalchild said:

As i played Console Games for the last 6 Years up until recently, PC gaming was that lil' thing lurking around somewhere, tho most big hits from numerous dev's simply just hit Consoles. (or were screwed up ports.) when i built my PC back then ( i think it was an Athlon X2 paired up with some cheap Nvidia card.. something 8600 maybe?) it felt like stepping into that weird realm that was actually HUGE. Same thing now, looking at a bajillion Parts you can buy, gazibilion Sites and YT channels dedicated to PCs, and communities filled to the brim with enthusiasts  just exploding in size. 

... yet PC Gaming is handled like some attachment that is bound to be there. just like gaming in general is handled by mainstream media - it isnt really there, but numbers show that pretty much anyone plays some kind of game, even if just on their phones. (when i go to work tomorrow EVERYWUN will play Candycrush.. and its like fucking 5 in the morning.) speaking about numbers, PC Games are said to be way, way less successful than Console Counterparts. 

i really dont get the problem, does the PC (/gaming) market just look huge once there, or am i missing something? 

PC Gaming is huge it depends on how companies decide to approach and at what price. In fact in terms of gaming culture MOBA > Other Genres, if you actually go things like Penny Arcade Expo and other gaming convention that isn't E3 (I don't even know if E3 has a cosplaying culture, or if it is all professional).

Indy games themselves, generally do much better on PC than other platforms. I will go on about other examples but I am work, and I can only really do short responses, while still able to do work.

 

PS: I hate MMO and MOBAs....
PSS: Also games can do better on the PC in fact, a lot of games do. I remember Battlefield 3 did amazing when it launched, and things like skyrim and other games have larger base at times on the PC.



 

The PC gaming market is actually a larger one than any single console.




However the big thing in the PC space is competitive gaming, StarCraft is a massive sport over in South Korea, where if you win a tournament you can earn over $100,000 and be broadcast on several television stations.

The game "League of Legends" alone has more players than exists on the entirety of the Playstation or Xbox Live networks, that cements how massive competitive gaming is on the PC, it's almost stupid.

DOTA 2 on Steam, accounts for 3% of the entire internets data everytime it is patched, League of Legends has more players than that, so it would probably be an even more insane figure. :P

There are also more games on Steam than exists on the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, by a massive margin.
I wouldn't be surprised if Steam had more active users than the Playstation Network. (It already does compared to Xbox Live, but Sony and Microsoft only advertises registered users, not active.)

Basically, publishers like Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Microsoft... Neglected the PC, called us all pirates and focused on consoles (Which also opened the door for Kickstarter and projects like Star Citizen).
And that's while PC-only developers were seeing massive success thanks to supporting PC-centric features like Arma with DayZ because of modding support, which ironically... Arma has sold more copies thanks to DayZ than when Arma was first launched.

It's only in the last several years after Steam started to rake in the billions and the active users count started to skyrocket that the publishers even cared for the PC and now the PC isn't being classed as a second rate citizen by companies such as Electronic Arts, they finally saw the dollar signs.

Another interesting part is, the PC gaming market also supports the R&D of the technology that is powering all next generation and previous generations graphics processors, the R&D isn't cheap, nVidia and AMD are competitive and spend allot of money in development, without the PC gamers those graphics processors would not have been made and you wouldn't have the Playstation 4 as it is today.

So it's not just the software that makes PC gaming such a massive market it's also the flow-on effect from all the hardware companies it also supports, which ironically the hardware companies that are supporting PC gamers are still seeing growth, despite the overall PC market being in decline.




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^^
Good points.
About indies, I'd add PC offers them a cheap and well known and documented development platform, without the additional burden of royalties and platform owner approval process that can make things more dfficult for them in more closed platforms, and with the benefit of total freedom for the dev in its production, marketing, licensing and distribution policies.



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