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Forums - PC - PC gaming is bigger than ever - and likely bigger than Wii+PS3+360 in 2007

twesterm on 19 August 2008
guigr said:
twesterm said:

And if those three titles are really only 12% (still find that hard to believe, especially if you look at the Orange Box components individually) then what are the other big PC sellers? There really shouldn't be that many of them.

 

When I was tracking German sales for a major publisher the game ranked 300 for the week on PC sold a few hundreds. It was more than N°100 on any console.

Top 10 on PC was just the tip of the iceberg because PC games continue to sale for a LONG time and the back catalogue is huge.

Also COD4, Stalker, C&C3, Supreme Commander, The Witcher, Crysis were all released in 2007 along with genre games like Trackmania United, Silent Hunter 4 and Race 07, Broken Sword 4...

 

Yeah, but how much did those games sell?  Probably not enough to actually make money (which is *the* most important thing) or nothing close to their console counterpart (which goes against saying PC is bigger than console).

Though yes, PC games do sell for years but that's only for those huge games like the Diablo's and C&C's.  Do all those other smaller games really sell that much for that long of a time?  Any more than a console game does for a long time?



 

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Mudface on 19 August 2008

And you also cant forget the reason PC is going to be in a distant last place for a long time is because it's complicated. If I have a 360 I can play any 360 game. If I have a PS3 I can play any PS3 games. If I have a Wii I can play any Wii game. If I have a PC I cannot play any PC game.


You can if you buy a $175 graphics card every 3-4 years. The money you'd save on the cheaper games would more than pay for it as well.



twesterm on 19 August 2008
Mudface said:
Why would a game not make money on 400,000 sales? That's $10- 20 million in revenue, and it would all go straight to the publisher/ developer, rather than a console manufacturer taking a cut. Stardock's games have made a mint for the company on those sort of sales figures, and any company making a game with a budget of a few million will make decent cash.

 

Console games do cost more but it still costs a lot of money to make a game.  Not all of that money goes straight to developer, there are a lot of costs to recover.  I my home I have the costs for a last gen game (PC and console) sitting around and I can list those costs assuming I remember to come back to this thread (I'm pretty absent minded a lot of the times, especially after long days).



 

twesterm on 19 August 2008
Mudface said:
And you also cant forget the reason PC is going to be in a distant last place for a long time is because it's complicated. If I have a 360 I can play any 360 game. If I have a PS3 I can play any PS3 games. If I have a Wii I can play any Wii game. If I have a PC I cannot play any PC game.


You can if you buy a $175 graphics card every 3-4 years. The money you'd save on the cheaper games would more than pay for it as well.

 

Try actually reading the post next time, or at least read all of it.  Here, I'll show you the part you skipped and even highlight the important part.

I'm not talking about cost, that's another beast, I'm just talking about the fact I have a PC and I have to know something about my PC to know if I can play that game.  The hardcore gamer that buys the $2000+ PC knows this stuff, most people don't or know they don't and don't want to go through the trouble of upgrading.



 

mike_intellivision on 19 August 2008

I am missing 700M

2.0B from Digital Distribution
3.2B from Retail (30% * 10.7B)
4.8B from On-line gaming

That totals to 10.0B -- which is still pretty impressive.
To compare it, Nintendo sold roughly 5B in hardware last year (20M units at $250 each).

PC gaming is great for those who are into it -- many of whom are also into consoles.

I gave up on it because (a) I sit in front of a computer too much at work and (b) I got tired of losing my collection of games whenever I upgraded my comptuer.

Say what you will about backward compatability, but if you have an old console, you can play the old games.

Mike from Morgantown



      


I am Mario.


I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren't for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can't stay out of trouble.

Wii Friend Code: 1624 6601 1126 1492

NNID: Mike_INTV
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guigr on 19 August 2008
twesterm said:
guigr said:
twesterm said:

And if those three titles are really only 12% (still find that hard to believe, especially if you look at the Orange Box components individually) then what are the other big PC sellers? There really shouldn't be that many of them.

 

When I was tracking German sales for a major publisher the game ranked 300 for the week on PC sold a few hundreds. It was more than N°100 on any console.

Top 10 on PC was just the tip of the iceberg because PC games continue to sale for a LONG time and the back catalogue is huge.

Also COD4, Stalker, C&C3, Supreme Commander, The Witcher, Crysis were all released in 2007 along with genre games like Trackmania United, Silent Hunter 4 and Race 07, Broken Sword 4...

 

Yeah, but how much did those games sell? Probably not enough to actually make money (which is *the* most important thing) or nothing close to their console counterpart (which goes against saying PC is bigger than console).

Though yes, PC games do sell for years but that's only for those huge games like the Diablo's and C&C's. Do all those other smaller games really sell that much for that long of a time? Any more than a console game does for a long time?

Let's say that first week of C&C3 in Germany (ONLY) would be enough to put it on the podium in others this week on VGC.



Mudface on 19 August 2008

guigr- did you get to see any UK sales figures as well? I know Germany's a massive PC market, especially in strategy games, but I just wondered how we Brits compared.



Mudface on 19 August 2008
twesterm said:
Mudface said:
And you also cant forget the reason PC is going to be in a distant last place for a long time is because it's complicated. If I have a 360 I can play any 360 game. If I have a PS3 I can play any PS3 games. If I have a Wii I can play any Wii game. If I have a PC I cannot play any PC game.


You can if you buy a $175 graphics card every 3-4 years. The money you'd save on the cheaper games would more than pay for it as well.

 

Try actually reading the post next time, or at least read all of it.  Here, I'll show you the part you skipped and even highlight the important part.

I'm not talking about cost, that's another beast, I'm just talking about the fact I have a PC and I have to know something about my PC to know if I can play that game.  The hardcore gamer that buys the $2000+ PC knows this stuff, most people don't or know they don't and don't want to go through the trouble of upgrading.

OK, no need to get snippy. I'm just wondering why you consider the PC to be in 'a distant last place' given this report.

 



twesterm on 19 August 2008
Mudface said:
twesterm said:
Mudface said:
And you also cant forget the reason PC is going to be in a distant last place for a long time is because it's complicated. If I have a 360 I can play any 360 game. If I have a PS3 I can play any PS3 games. If I have a Wii I can play any Wii game. If I have a PC I cannot play any PC game.


You can if you buy a $175 graphics card every 3-4 years. The money you'd save on the cheaper games would more than pay for it as well.

 

Try actually reading the post next time, or at least read all of it.  Here, I'll show you the part you skipped and even highlight the important part.

I'm not talking about cost, that's another beast, I'm just talking about the fact I have a PC and I have to know something about my PC to know if I can play that game.  The hardcore gamer that buys the $2000+ PC knows this stuff, most people don't or know they don't and don't want to go through the trouble of upgrading.

OK, no need to get snippy. I'm just wondering why you consider the PC to be in 'a distant last place' given this report.

 

 

Because compared to what consoles sell it is in a distant last place?



 

Loud_Hot_White_Box on 19 August 2008
shio said:

(Taken from Neogaf)

At GC in Leipzig, the PC Gaming Alliance releases its "Horizons" report

- PC gaming was a $10.7 billion industry in 2007
- Previous reports show that $8.3 billion comes from non-casual games
- Therefore, casual games is a $2.4 billion market
- Only 30% of sales come from retail
- $2 billion from digital distribution (Steam, D2D, etc.)
- $4.8 billion from online gaming (WoW, other MMOs) - previous evidence shows WoW at $1.1 billion.
“Our analysis clearly shows incredible growth in online PC gaming, proof that this industry is far stronger than anyone has reported,” said Stude. “Today’s consumers shop where they live - online.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A total of $2 billions in Digital Distribution is HUGE. If the average game is sold at $30, then it means that over 65 millions PC games were sold online but not accounted for.

Interesting, and I fully expect very big MMORPGs with monthly charges to start appearing on PS3, since the PS3 affords devs the freedom to charge customers and make the decisions about their game unlike XBL.