immortaldanmx
Digital distribution is not tracked, and until it is you cant say PC games are doing well. Look at Crysis. The flagship PC FPS of the year, destroyed sales wise by CoD, Halo, and even Gears.
PC gaming is becoming obsolete because of developers. Games arent made on PC then ported, theyre made for consoles then ported. Every year the majority of Publishers cut PC releases and opt for console versions as the lead, if not the exclusive, version. With consoles catching up to PCs and the high cost of maintaining a high-end gaming PC its only a matter of time before PC gaming is dead.
And your 300 million is an inflated joke. That must include non-gamers who play online games for free (pogo, flash games, etc). If there were really 300 million PC gamers Epic wouldnt be making comments about going console only, and PC sales wouldnt be piss poor. Also, Steam accounts dont translate into sales.
Yes, digital distribution is not tracked. But for something to have a 200% year over year growth you can't merely dismiss it as having no impact either. I have not gone out to a retail outlet and bought a PC game in over a year now. Nearly all the PC gamers I know are the same. As a result, these purchases are not listed by analyst groups. Instead, all I do is just open Steam (or another service), buy and download. Took about 15 minutes for Left 4 Dead to download at 4MB/s and for me to start playing. Even if you only take 10% of Steam's userbase as people who buy online, that's 1.6 million potential game sales there, just on one service alone.
Consumers have wanted digital distribution for a long time now, and they're finally getting it. 300 million is not my number, it's data collated by analysts Gartner Group. Even when you discount the casual/free gaming base, the number would most likely still dwarf console bases. What's needed is an effective method to reach that user base.
I'm not saying PC gaming has no problems. Piracy is a problem and does have a negative impact. But up until now, nobody has actually done a proper analysis of it. The PCGA is currently doing an in depth study of the effects that it has on revenue. It should help to answer questions as to how many pirates are actually lost customers. How many are cheapskates that would not have bought the game anyway? How many are customers lashing out at invasive DRM (ala Spore)? How many are people who want convenience? It should yield interesting results.
PC gaming has an image problem as a result of piracy, as can be seen by developers like Epic bailing out. Crysis did not have as many sales as CoD4, Gears, etc, but it hardly sold poorly (over 1 million copies sold if I remember correctly). Even in the console world, only a few percent of games actually make it to that number.
What PC gaming needs is some cohesion. Platforms like Steam are just what the PC gaming industry needs. It currently has around 500 titles available on it ranging from indie arcade games to new high profile releases. It allows the user to download games easily and quickly, and gives the developer a way to protect their IP without resorting to super invasive DRM. As a result, many developers and gamers are jumping all over it. The small developers are winning out the most, because they can reach a large audience without the need for investing in distribution/DRM.
PC gaming is not dead. The doomsday criers just don't see that it's changing.
<message edited by UnluckyOne on Nov 19, 2008 06:53>