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Forums - PC - Retail Sales of PC Games Dropped 14% in 2008

Final-Fan on 16 January 2009
shio said:
Final-Fan said:
shio said:
And PC games don't usually have huge budgets because they're cheaper to develop and spend little on advertisement. See Crysis, which only cost $22 millions, and is far, far more technically advanced than any console game.
That's because much of the cost of console games is in squeezing more performance out of the available hardware, whereas in the case of Crysis it seems as if they said, "Fuck it, juice the graphics/physics and raise the requirements!"
That's not true though. Crysis is extremely well optimized, and the minimum requirements show that. Of course you still need a beast to max the game, but that's understandable.

Sorry, I didn't mean to argue that they didn't optimize it (I'll leave that debate for people with more knowledge of that situation); I just meant to say that Crysis' technical superiority isn't due to PC being easier to develop for per se but rather to the fact that PC developers have the option of jacking up the hardware requirements to accomodate their beastly game -- whereas Killzone 2 (for example) does not have that option.



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JaggedSac on 16 January 2009

I don't think we can judge pc game sales until NPD releases their digital distribution numbers next week. There could be huge numbers in there.



Slimebeast on 16 January 2009
shio said:
Slimebeast said:

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).

 

In 2007 the PC gaming market was estimated to be $10.7 billions by DFC: $3.2bn from retail, $2bn from Digital Distribution, $4.8bn from Online and $800 millions from Advertisement.

Anyway, where did you get the $25bn figure from?

And PC games don't usually have huge budgets because they're cheaper to develop and spend little on advertisement. See Crysis, which only cost $22 millions, and is far, far more technically advanced than any console game.

 

 Yeah but I believe DFC overestimated the revenue from online subs and from advertisement big time.

Anyway, the $25 billion console game rvenue was my own ruff estimate.
(if US accounts for $11 billion, EUrope shuld have rufly $10 billion and Japan $5billion... but I can see now that I mite have low balled the numbers. It could be $12 billion NA, $11 billion Europe and $7 billion Japan/rest = $30 billion)

 



TWRoO on 16 January 2009

Ah... excellent, I hope NPD makes some of this new data (DD) public



Jo21 on 16 January 2009

har is mouse support is needed the ps3 support its.

but this was expected cheapest pc are around 400$. decent ones go up 700$-900$.

awesome pcs go over 1800$ everything over 300$ will require some thinking with economy as it's for some people.

 

And PC games don't usually have huge budgets because they're cheaper to develop and spend little on advertisement. See Crysis, which only cost $22 millions, and is far, far more technically advanced than any console game.

 

thats like gears 10 million they used a built up engine for multiuse in different games that epic can lincense to companies

yeah 10 million only game looks nice for third parties, but gears did cost 10 million if u add up what it took epic to make the engine.

 



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shio on 17 January 2009
Slimebeast said:
shio said:
Slimebeast said:

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).

 

In 2007 the PC gaming market was estimated to be $10.7 billions by DFC: $3.2bn from retail, $2bn from Digital Distribution, $4.8bn from Online and $800 millions from Advertisement.

Anyway, where did you get the $25bn figure from?

And PC games don't usually have huge budgets because they're cheaper to develop and spend little on advertisement. See Crysis, which only cost $22 millions, and is far, far more technically advanced than any console game.

 

 Yeah but I believe DFC overestimated the revenue from online subs and from advertisement big time.

Anyway, the $25 billion console game rvenue was my own ruff estimate.
(if US accounts for $11 billion, EUrope shuld have rufly $10 billion and Japan $5billion... but I can see now that I mite have low balled the numbers. It could be $12 billion NA, $11 billion Europe and $7 billion Japan/rest = $30 billion)

 

The US Console games revenue was only $6.6 billions in 2007, while the Japanese Games revenue was $3.3 billions (and includes handheld games sales I think). Much lower than you're thinking.

And the Online Revenue of PC includes not only subscriptions but also micro-transactions, which is very popular in Asia.

 



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Final-Fan on 17 January 2009

^ Everybody throwing these sorts of numbers around seriously needs to give sources, sources that identify what the numbers are actually counting.



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My advice to fanboys: Brag about stuff that's true, not about stuff that's false. Predict stuff that's likely, not stuff that's unlikely. You will be happier, and we will be happier.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Sen. Pat Moynihan
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The old smileys: ; - ) : - ) : - ( : - P : - D : - # ( c ) ( k ) ( y ) If anyone knows the shortcut for , let me know!
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Mudface on 17 January 2009

From Rock Paper Shotgun-

A number you might see a lot over the next few days is 14%. This is, according to the US games sales data compilers NPD, the percentage drop in PC game sales in 2008 from 2007, the market pulling in $701m. As reported by GameDaily, the figure suggests the PC has fallen in sharp contrast to the soaring figures for console sales. But of course this number doesn’t mean an enormous amount - it does not include so much of the PC market, including digital downloads, micro-payments or subscriptions. Which is a big deal.

As GameDaily mentions, NPD has recently started recording data that will hopefully give a better impression of the reality of PC game sales, and we might see the first of that as early as next week. And, as always, NPD is North America only, which is never the whole story.

But in the meantime, be ready for this 14% figure, that could be used as a weapon by those who want to imply the fall of PC gaming for many and various reasons. From the evils of the Big P to claims that the future’s all about consoles, it’s a number that meets the agenda of many. But it’s a number that, if anything, is likely to demonstrate the evolving nature of PC sales. Clearly we don’t know, and they could be falling, but this isn’t the data to show it.

It’ll be interesting to see how NPD calculates figures for digital transactions. Especially when companies like Valve are so peculiarly quiet about their numbers, and so much of the money changing hands for PC gaming is going directly into the pockets of independent developers, and not giganto-publishers who might need to boast such figures.

It certainly makes for interesting times. How interesting we’ll hopefully find out soon, as more relevant data becomes available. At the moment, measuring PC game sales by the number of boxes shifting from stores is like announcing a drop in album sales by the amount of vinyl being sold.



Mudface on 17 January 2009

Also, from the same blog-

We’re not going to let a little fact like us strenuously and repeatedly arguing against the validity of NPD’s statistics regarding PC Gaming cause us to not post something fun like this. NPD have provided IGN a list of the Top 20 PC Games sold in… oh, you can read the post title, yeah? You’ll find them and a little commentary beneath the cut…

1. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
2. Spore
3. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
4. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
5. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
8. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Exp Pk Collector’s Ed
9. Fallout 3
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
11. Call Of Duty: World At War
12. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
13. World Of Warcraft
14. Sins Of A Solar Empire
15. Warcraft III Battle Chest
16. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack
17. Crysis
18. Left 4 Dead
19. Diablo Battle Chest
20. The Orange Box

Yes, it appears that Blizzard are very rich.

Worth re-stressing that none of this includes online sales. That’s clearly going to impact people like Valve who you suspect have a more-than-average level of sales through that channel - Left 4 Dead’s actually a top 10 game on the 360 where there’s no online sales to worry about, for example (Which I suspect has surprised quite a few people - there was an assumption that Left 4 Dead would fall on its face amongst many console journalists I know. The power of a really fucking good game, eh?).

Back to Blizzard… yeah, they’re very rich. World of Warcraft’s positions are to be expected, perhaps - those millions of players have to come from somewhere - but seeing Warcraft III remain the second-best selling RTS of the year is enormously impressive. While it’s always been successful, you suspect that the Brand-value of the whole World of Warcraft phenonema is leveraging into Warcraft III’s continuing success. In the same way that they sell Warcraft books and comics and whatever, they’re selling Warcraft III. That it’s a really good RTS game, of course, can’t hurt.

Most heart-warming position has to be Sins of a Solar Empire. Also another big online seller by all accounts, but it being the biggest RTS game of the year is incredible news for Stardock and Ironclad. It’s about as PC a game as you can get, and a novel and unique experience. Yay them.

Biggest selling FPS? Call of Duty 4, which shows what a juggernaut it is. While not the monster it was on the 360, that’s a lot of money for them. Call of Duty: World at War also shows its face. And Crysis and Orange Box are two other 2007 releases which has continued to sell. I think it was Jim who suspected Crysis would have some legs to it, as people who buy PCs buy it just to see what their new beasts can do.

The third and fourth positions are interesting - Age of Conan beating Warhammer Online. Probably worth remembering that Age of Conan had a good five months lead over Mythic’s game to get those sales, but still noteworthy. With Fallout 3 down in ninth place, the predominance of the MMO over more traditional RPGs continue. And that Fallout 3 is the closest thing to a traditional RPG on the list also says much.

And people are still buying the Sims.



Slimebeast on 17 January 2009
shio said:
Slimebeast said:
shio said:
Slimebeast said:

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).

 

In 2007 the PC gaming market was estimated to be $10.7 billions by DFC: $3.2bn from retail, $2bn from Digital Distribution, $4.8bn from Online and $800 millions from Advertisement.

Anyway, where did you get the $25bn figure from?

And PC games don't usually have huge budgets because they're cheaper to develop and spend little on advertisement. See Crysis, which only cost $22 millions, and is far, far more technically advanced than any console game.

 

 Yeah but I believe DFC overestimated the revenue from online subs and from advertisement big time.

Anyway, the $25 billion console game rvenue was my own ruff estimate.
(if US accounts for $11 billion, EUrope shuld have rufly $10 billion and Japan $5billion... but I can see now that I mite have low balled the numbers. It could be $12 billion NA, $11 billion Europe and $7 billion Japan/rest = $30 billion)

 

The US Console games revenue was only $6.6 billions in 2007, while the Japanese Games revenue was $3.3 billions (and includes handheld games sales I think). Much lower than you're thinking.

And the Online Revenue of PC includes not only subscriptions but also micro-transactions, which is very popular in Asia.

 

In 2007 yes, but in 2008 console software revenue in the US alone was $11 billion.

Taken from the same news u posted in the OP:

"NPD broke down the year's total $21.33 billion revenue as follows:

 So it's logical to assume NA has $12 billion ($11 billion from the US, $1 bill from Can)
Europe slightly less (judging by VGC SW numbers for example)... ~$11 billion.

And the rest of the world includes not only Japan, but Australia, NZ, Korea, Taiwan, South America as well... should be close to $7 billion.

Anyway, how I see it, the problem with PC sales is that the type of games that I tend to like - FPS, RPG, RTS and adventure have declining sales (and I'm excluding Blizzard). And that market is $3-4 billion retail + $2billion DD (in 2007, but probably more than $2.5 billion in 2008). = just $5-6 billion.

So in my view PC market is still pretty big, but half of the revenue is from MMORPG subs, advertisement and casual games like The Sims (and both are kinda niche genres - for example, no one on VGC gives a rats ass about MMORPGs or The Sims).

So, basically it looks like Crysis is the only high budget PC exclusive game apart from a Blizzard game released every three or four years.