PC gaming market healthy, shows signs of growth

by Conrad Quilty-Harper { Feb 24th 2006 at 4:00PM }

Research firm Forrester's latest report on the video games industry, entitled "North American Video Gaming: Surviving a Midlife Slowdown", summarizes a video game related mail survey of over 10,000 US and Canadian households. The report provides numerical evidence that PC gaming is not declining but is in fact already the dominant platform for video gaming and the penetration of PC gaming into North American households is expected to rise.

According to the survey, 39% of all households use PCs for playing video games - this group makes up the vast majority of the 48% of households that have any sort of video games hardware. For comparison: 30% of households in Canada and 37% of households in the U.S. have some form of console based game hardware. The reason that PC gaming is more prevalent is probably due to the multi-tasking nature of personal computers. If it's there (for whatever reason: word processing, doing the taxes), why not use it for playing games as well?

The second major statistic that the survey uncovered was that 53% of all households that own PCs play games on the PC. We're not sure that this is a positive statistic. This means that a vast swathe of PC owning households do not play games on their PCs. Publishers should aim to target these non-gaming PC owners and there's certainly a lot that developers and publishers can do to solve this problem. At the moment, PC gaming is a complex affair that can confuse even the most hardcore of gamers. The PC gaming experience must improve if a greater PC owning audience is to be captured.

In the area of online gaming, PC gaming is strong. 60% of PC gamers play games online and 82% of these play online for free. The PC is the primary portal to the Internet for many families and once PCs are set up to browse the web, there's usually little configuration required to play online games. The fact that 82% of these online games are free is one area where PCs beat the console sector. The closest console to this adoption rate (the Xbox with Xbox Live) has less than 1 in 5 owners playing games online.

Finally the report predicts that PC gaming is expected to increase to 44% of North American households by 2011. The report cites more powerful PCs, Intel's Viiv platform, Dell XPS gaming PCs and increasing broadband adoption as the driving factors. We just hope Dell's up to the task.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

SuicideNinja @ Feb 24th 2006 4:10PM

PC gaming's problem is it cannot appeal to everyone with a computer. Failing to have the minimum hardware and software requirements can really be annoying. Consoles are plug and play; you are essentially guaranteed compatibility. They are much cheaper than a high-end PC as well, although you can upgrade a PC. Then again, these statistics may include web-based games.

Personally, I loathe PC gaming, but I'm biased. I strictly use PCs at work and for personal business at home. Being locked to a mouse and keyboard is not something I want to permeate my entire day!

Stu L Tissimus @ Feb 24th 2006 4:22PM

I have to wonder what they consider a computer game... I mean, hearing that 50% of all computers in the U.S. are used to play PC games is a bit strange to my ears. I mean, do they count solitaire and Flash stuff as games?

PuffMac gamer @ Feb 24th 2006 4:23PM

WHat about Mac gaming??

Probot @ Feb 24th 2006 4:27PM

When the NPD says PC gaming is declining, they mean the Game Industry video games aren't selling well on PC. But they miss two big profit generators: web-based, casul games and MMO subscriptions. And I assume, that this study includes people that play ALL games.

The problems #1 listed are pretty limited to full fledged games. Web-based games are usually very easy to set up, with little or no cost, and you can pretty much pick up and play them anytime.

There's no reason for PC adoption to go down. And there's no reason why we'll see fewer games being made to take advantage of that.

Psygnosis2097 @ Feb 24th 2006 4:37PM

I didn't know you can play "videogames" on PC's but oh well :D

32_Footsteps @ Feb 24th 2006 4:46PM

Actually, I wonder how many people regularly buy high-end PC games. I mean, sure, I play games on my computer - more solitaire and Free Cell than I care to admit, some online sudoku, occasional bridge online... yeah, I play plenty of games on my home computer.

But the fact is, I don't touch high-end titles, and I'm not a source of profit for companies making PC games. The last PC game I even bought was You Don't Know Jack Offline, and I don't even remember how many years ago that came out.

It really does come down to the hardware race. It feels like I don't just need to plunk down fifty bucks to play a new game for my PC. I'll need another 50 to 100 for the video card to play it. Probably another 50 for a sound card to listen to it. Possibly however much I'll need for a new processor to be able to run it.

PC gaming ultimately suffers from an extreme version of what hurts console gaming often - the focus is on making things as pretty as possible, instead of innovating and making things as fun as possible. And yet, for all that they try to shove pretty graphics down our throats, the PC games I've heard the best things about are StarCraft, X-Com, and Sam & Max Hit The Road. And none of those are exactly new.

Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Feb 24th 2006 5:02PM

Actually, I'd suspect that Mac gaming would be counted as a PC. I use the term PC in the context of personal computer, because like it or not that's what a Mac is.

mofomojo @ Feb 24th 2006 5:33PM

For many houses, getting a decent gaming rig means going out and buying a $200 - $300 AGP or PCIe card for their computer and maybe.. maybe an extra 256-512mb or ram.

This, overall, turns out to be a cheaper alternative for many over next-gen consoles.

It doesn't really take much to install a graphics card, if you can plug in an outlet and install software on your computer : your qualified.

Jago @ Feb 24th 2006 5:49PM

"For many houses, getting a decent gaming rig means going out and buying a $200 - $300 AGP or PCIe card for their computer and maybe.. maybe an extra 256-512mb or ram.

This, overall, turns out to be a cheaper alternative for many over next-gen consoles."

How is that a cheaper alternative then buying a next-gen console? With a PC you get a very limited selection in genres. Most big sellers are RTS and FPS games while you have a much broader spread of titles for consoles (regardless of the system.) You spend $200-400 once and you are set plus you can take the system anywhere and hook it up to any TV versus having to lug around a PC if you want to play multiplayer at a friends house.

gnome @ Feb 24th 2006 6:22PM

And let's not forget the free games available. Mods, freeware, remakes, abandonware and whatever are a very real and of an increasingly high quality alternative... A console-gamer could never enjoy such an option. Cheers.

bynaryum @ Feb 24th 2006 6:29PM

"What about Mac gaming??"

If those numbers are too low to count, how does a company like MacPlay and the Mac division at Aspyr stay in business?

Jago @ Feb 24th 2006 7:03PM

They may make enough money to run a healthy business but Mac gaming is miniscule when compared to Windows gaming.

Brian @ Feb 24th 2006 8:07PM

The real winner is not big games like Doom and Half-Life. The real winner is and will always be casual games with mass appeal. Sure, most gamers scoff at games like The Sims, Myst, and Rollercoaster Tycoon, but those are among the highest selling games ever. None of them would be considered anything but a casual game(or sim). But let's face it, PC gaming is not growing because more people are playing FPS's. PC gaming is growing because more people are playing WoW(casually), The Sims, and those ever so popular games from PopCap - Bejewled, Zuma, etc...

Games like The Sims, Bejewled, and even WoW attract non "gamers" to play. That's right, the ever-elusive female demographic. I've seen girls playing WoW at coffee shops, which is bizarre, but is a testament to how inviting WoW can be to a non-gamer.

With the Xbox 360 having Xbox Live Arcade filled with games that non-gamers can enjoy I'd say that the Xbox 360 has a great chance of actually growing it's own little niche in the market.

Nintendo is pretty much shouting all of this from the rooftops with their "blue-ocean" strategy and obviously I think they are right and are enacting this strategy perfectly with the DS and the upcoming Revolution. If the Revolution's virtual console works like we all hope it will, then it will be a success and the Revolution will be a smash hit. After all, everybody still loves playing Mario Bros. even today.

Thundercizzle @ Feb 24th 2006 9:54PM

I find that hard to believe. If PC were the dominant gaming platform, then all of us would clearly see that in the industry. The vast majority of reputable studios develop for home consoles first and only some port their games to PC.

SeriousKriss @ Feb 25th 2006 3:05AM

@ Jago : limited selection in genres? I really don't know what you're talking about. The only genre that is basically dead on PC is 3D fighting games. On the other hand, I don't see many simulators, adventure games or strategy games on consoles.

Anyway, stating that "Most big sellers are RTS and FPS games" on PC is like saying that most big sellers on console are sports and action/adventure games : a gross over-generalisation.

Also, just take a quick look at the 2006 PC line-up (here for example : http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?board_id=314159267&topic_id=24145969 ) and you'll see that PC gaming is indeed alive and kicking. To me at least, it looks ten times better than what the 360 has to offer.

Jago @ Feb 25th 2006 3:58AM

You basically proved my point...most of those games are RTS and FPS titles.

As for the 360...just about anything will look better then the current batch of titles for it. Me personally, the only game I can see that really shows off what it can do is Gears of War. Everything else is either a minor upgrade of current gen stuff or a rushed "next gen" title.

calthaer @ Feb 25th 2006 4:24PM

If they want to sell more PC games, then they'll need to aim their harware requirements at more than just the top 25% of machines. One big reason the PS2 was so popular was backwards-compatibility - a ready-made library of last year's successes is a good incentive to pick up the new model. That's what made the PS2 my first console since the NES.

Because of the high price point, people don't buy PCs every 3 years like they do consoles. They buy them every 5 or 6 unless a technology comes along that they can't do without (like CD-ROM or network cards for high-speed internet). I love PC games, but I built my last good-quality (but not top-of-the-line) gaming rig in 2001 - and I already can't play any of the new games. But who cares? There are plenty of good old games around. The Natural Selection Half Life mod still doesn't run on HL2 - until it does, why would I upgrade?

NecroFile @ Feb 26th 2006 9:04PM

another thing that cripples the PC gaming world is that only a handfull of companys have the recources and cash to make decent PC titles. usually these companys start out with a decent game and then make ass loads of crap. EA, Activision, Konami, Blizzard, etc. they go about blatanty ignoring what pc users want and go about releasing their own crap knowing that they can and still make money off it. this has to come to an end. another thing is that the mojority of game players are huge idiots, the console fits those comsumers perfectly. we all know PC is the ultimate gaming platform and there is a small ammount of skilled devolopers who actually know whats up and have mad respect for the pc and wouldnt waste their time on console crap *cough* jowood *cough* ownz u *cough*