Report: PC remains 'most lucrative platform,' worth $11b
by Ben Gilbert 
{ Mar 25th 2009 at 5:46PM }
The study itself was conducted by DFC Intelligence, a market research company specializing in the game industry, and reached some interesting conclusions. According to the study, expanded broadband penetration and adoption of digital download services (like Steam by Valve) lead the way for the PC gaming market's growth in 2008, as well as "the growing presence of game cards at major retailers like 7-Eleven." Unsurprisingly, the study also found that MMOGs are "the leading products for both revenue and profits," citing WoW as 9% (or $1 billion) of the entire PC gaming market's revenues last year.
We'll take this report, compounded by the NPD report that retails sales of PC games in 2008 dropped by 14 percent, as solid evidence that PC gamers are the first to take major steps towards exclusively downloadable games.
[Via Edge]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
FemaleOrca @ Mar 25th 2009 5:52PM
That picture brings a single tear to my eye every time.
Misfit Toy @ Mar 25th 2009 9:17PM
The left one.
baxtus @ Mar 25th 2009 5:54PM
Must steal that setup
shadowhowl1900 @ Mar 25th 2009 5:57PM
and also the platform that gets pirated software the most...dont forget that
Archon @ Mar 25th 2009 6:09PM
No, that would probably be PSP...
The Baron @ Mar 25th 2009 6:10PM
Why, does any story of success on a different platform to your own offend you?
You have a point though. Big, multi-million dollar games get pirated to shit on PC because it's so easy. I love PC gaming, I just wish that devs would give up on ineffective (but still obtrusive) DRM, and my fellow non-customers started buying games.
In effect, it's kind of a similar problem for hardcore PC gamers as it is to hardcore Wii gamers. Most of the money comes from casual games, and a gigantic tide of shovelware. At least on the Wii you have to get certified by Nintendo - literally anyone can develop shit for the PC and steal some of the money pie. Success stories like Valve and Blizzard give me hope though.
shadowhowl1900 @ Mar 25th 2009 6:20PM
ok not too sure about the PSP...
but @baron
im not offended by the success of the PC but if the PC is so successful, how come so many games that are released dont always come to the PC. Ex: Ninja Gaiden, Resistance, Little Big Planet, MGS4 (these are on the PS3), Fable 2, Halo 3, Gears of War 2, (On 360) Rock Band 2... I can name so many. GTA 4 took 1 year to get ported to the PC.
I really appreciate Steam for their digital distribution but ALL, except the online, pc games can be pirated. World of Goo, look at how their company got bankrupted because every1 pirated it.
LaughingTarget @ Mar 25th 2009 6:35PM
And all kinds of titles don't come to consoles either. List wars are lame. Just pick the platform with the stuff that you like and shut the fuck up about the rest.
BIGGEN (LIVE-PSN: BIGGEN1103) @ Mar 25th 2009 6:45PM
yeah, but when was the last time a mass amount of people that only owned consoles said, gawd, please let (insert PC only title) come to my console, PLEASE, or i'll just die!!! WoW, maybe? and when i say mass amount, i'm talking the joystiq community, i'm talking something like the 10 million WoW subscribers.
Ihavepants @ Mar 25th 2009 6:46PM
Shadow
World of Goo's retail publisher bankrupted. I think the fact that I don't know anyone who bought it in retail instead of Steam or the Devs website might have something to do with that.
BIGGEN (LIVE-PSN: BIGGEN1103) @ Mar 25th 2009 6:46PM
sorry, NOT the joystiq community
Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Mar 25th 2009 7:07PM
Crysis for one...Dragon Age for two...Stalker for three...WoW as you mentioned for five...The Witcher for six...and just about every major RTS/RPG provided it comes with K/M support.
Cosmo @ Mar 25th 2009 7:09PM
The Witcher is coming to the PS3 and 360 later this year called Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf. I don't mind it coming to the consoles but am unhappy it will have content the PC version will not, such as an entirely new combat system, exclusive DLC, etc.
Einhanderkiller @ Mar 25th 2009 7:37PM
I don't think DLC is something to brag about.
liquidmark @ Mar 25th 2009 9:40PM
"Crysis for one...Dragon Age for two...Stalker for three...WoW as you mentioned for five...The Witcher for six...and just about every major RTS/RPG provided it comes with K/M support."
Ok, WHAT console gamer has ever asked for any of those?
I mean, there's not a game on that list that interests me.
And Wow is just a barometer that measures the number of people with a lot of cash to spend year in and year out but too little life to do anything else.
Seriously, 12 million subscribers for that game means very little in the scope of the entire PC gaming industry. It pulled in 9% of the total revenue of the PC gaming realm. That's kinda sad, really...
jackal @ Mar 25th 2009 9:59PM
Liquidmark,
To be fair, hardly any of the exclusives you console fanboys get in such a pissing match over have enough appeal to remotely interest us as a whole. Every time a major console exclusive has come to our platform, it consistently rates 15-20% LOWER in reviews (professional and user) even if that game is ported properly. Why? We have better options to choose from. Your FPS are terribly over hyped and overrated; Halo 3 and Resistance might've gotten 9's from reviewers on your platforms, but they'd be lucky to get 7's on ours. Your RTS games are either nigh unplayable technical abortions unfit of being printed on a disc or they're somewhat engaging, but otherwise unremarkable, affairs that aren't worth writing home about ; you guys lapped up EndWar as if it was pure gold, but we find it to be a C- effort compared to others game in the genre (which are almost always exclusives TO OUR PLATFORM). We've basically got the MMO market cornered and our RPGs are some of the best in the industry. Your games aren't better, you guys on the whole just seem to have lower standards from your titles than we do.
Mike @ Mar 25th 2009 10:44PM
JACKAL TELL 'EM.
John @ Mar 26th 2009 3:36AM
@shadow:
A;; those PS3 games you listed would get laughed at by PC gamers, and all those 360 games you listed will be on PC, and we still have better than those to choose form anyway.
Halo is crap, so is gears, if you've played any PC shooter released in the last 10 years.
We tend to like deeper single player experiences with plain old deathmatch vs a tacked on single player cliche mode over 500 multiplayer maps.
Also, all the "innovative features" those games you listed have that made big news on consoles (ie:Forge, LBP, etc) are old news on PC.
Poisoned Al @ Mar 26th 2009 7:03AM
I didn't think someone would be stuipd enough to try to list war, with the fucking PC! It's like standing infront of an army with guns and nukes and all you got is a slightly pointy stick. It's not brave to take them on, just REALLY stupid.
juju187 @ Mar 25th 2009 6:00PM
looks like sausage fest setup, ill pass for a 70" HD setup
The Baron @ Mar 25th 2009 6:13PM
Well, the guy runs dozens of WoW accounts simultaneously and uses them for stuff like city raids. Besides the obvious cost of so many PC's, you have to remember than he's paying a subscription fee for EACH of the characters you see in the image.
The warning label on the back of his chair is because whatever he has might be catching.
shadowhowl1900 @ Mar 25th 2009 6:22PM
or a private server with no subscription
The Baron @ Mar 25th 2009 7:36PM
I think I read in the story of this guy when it surfaced that it was actually all on public servers.
juju187 @ Mar 25th 2009 7:38PM
if he's not making money i guess its a waste of life...
rohan @ Mar 25th 2009 6:07PM
WoW just WoW
AwesomeTown @ Mar 25th 2009 6:18PM
That picture makes me dizzy.
Lee @ Mar 25th 2009 6:19PM
So this, along with that BBC article about PC gaming should finally make the console kiddies keep shtum?
No. I doubt it will. But at least they know they're wrong as they do it.
tmacairjordan87 @ Mar 25th 2009 6:24PM
"In a study paid for by the PC Gaming Alliance"
That tells me all I need to know right there.
Mister Bogus (Mr. ESC) @ Mar 25th 2009 6:26PM
You forgot to sum the fact that most games this gen are for PC as well and some of them even play better on Pc.
Maverick Saturn @ Mar 25th 2009 6:26PM
Take that none-pc fanboys :D
Cammy @ Mar 25th 2009 6:32PM
Oh god, Joystiq legitimizing the absolute BS poured out by the PCGA...
Oil companies have more credible PR.
tmacairjordan87 @ Mar 25th 2009 6:34PM
That's what I'm saying. We're supposed to believe these "results" when they were paid for by the group the results just so happen to support? yeaaaaah ok.
Cammy @ Mar 25th 2009 6:40PM
Their purpose is to improve PC gaming in the eyes of gamers, it's not even for investors or business people. It's a propaganda group. They are well known to fabricate numbers completely. They stated in the past that there were 200 million active PC gamers.
The Baron @ Mar 25th 2009 7:39PM
The PCGA don't just lie at random. Sure, their motive is obvious - but it's likely that they had seen this trend from sales data and just wanted a more accurate and convenient-to-use-in-PR-flamewars version of that specific part of the sales data.
The PCGA includes Microsoft, who own a console. And I'm pretty sure there are laws against just lying outright in giant press releases.
Einhanderkiller @ Mar 25th 2009 7:40PM
Microsoft themselves said there were 250 million PC gamers worldwide.
Cammy @ Mar 25th 2009 7:57PM
PCGA's core is PC hardware companies that make most of their money selling to PC gamers, especially Nvidia and AMD. That's where the motivation of PCGA's drive comes from. I suspect they pay software companies like Capcom, and maybe even MS, if you take into consideration how MS has treated PC gaming for the last 8 years or so. Companies do things for a reason, and in the case of someone like Capcom, I'm pretty sure they have to be receiving money from the PCGA.
There's a legitimate reason for developers to want PC gaming to stay around, it's an open platform and they don't have to pay licensing, so I could see some game developers wanting it to stick around very much.
Besides the 200-250 million PC gamers figure that gets thrown around, which obviously includes every single person who has ever loaded up a flash program in their web browser as well as real PC gamers, I find the PCGA's sales data suspect. They say that WoW is only 9% of the market, but it's sales and subscription rates are MULTIPLES higher than any other game. WoW has 10 times as many subscribers than any other paid MMO, so how can these figures be right? WoW tops PC game sales almost every month in every region. I bet WoW is more like 30-50% of the PC games market.
WarcraftAddiction @ Mar 25th 2009 6:37PM
Just got my new core i7 powerhouse. That's what I'll be telling my kids, what I did with my money during the great recession.
Nikonov @ Mar 25th 2009 6:43PM
I am now expressing shock.
KillerBee @ Mar 25th 2009 6:51PM
Factor out WoW and you are left with 1 billion. PC gaming is so dead, assuming you don't like MMOs.
The Baron @ Mar 25th 2009 7:41PM
Assuming WoW brings in $120 a year from each of the 10 million subscribers, that's only $1.2bn.
jackal @ Mar 25th 2009 9:25PM
Killerbee,
Yes, I suppose that's why 9 out 10 multiplatform titles come to our platform (at a cheaper price with far better visuals) and why we also get most Xbox 360 exclusives. Keep pounding the "PC gaming is dead" drum, console kiddie; it makes you look just as much of an ignorant jackass as any hardcore Nintendo, XBOX, or Sony fanboy.
Cosmo @ Mar 25th 2009 7:10PM
I guess PCs and their fanboys are one thing 360 and PS3 fanboys can unite in hating against together. : )
I hope PC gaming never dies.
Sir Buzz Killington( The Artist formerly known as Jakka) @ Mar 25th 2009 7:14PM
http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/happilydyingsince1985.png
It's been dead since 1985!
LaughingTarget @ Mar 25th 2009 8:57PM
The gigantic ? over Duke Nukem Forever us chuckle-worthy.
Cosmo @ Mar 25th 2009 7:16PM
I don't mind if the PC doesn't have that many hot exclusive games the consoles have and even if the PC gets many console leftovers and ports like it will be getting Street Fighter 4 and Resident Evil 5 later this year. I use my PC for many other things like office productivity, movie watching and video editing. Personally, I just like having an all-in-one entertainment solution. Its also nice that so many PC games have mod support from the community, like the many mods that can really change Fallout 3. : )
The Dark Wayne @ Mar 25th 2009 7:56PM
I wonder do they count the sales of game customized machines like those from alienware or voodoo or ibuy or stuff like that?
Lennoko @ Mar 25th 2009 8:40PM
Good point, does this also include the sales of parts and the like from Newegg?
LaughingTarget @ Mar 25th 2009 9:00PM
Probably not. Custom sellers probably, but builders (like myself) who buy parts are unlikely included at all. It's impossible to tell if a video card being sold is an upgrade, replacement for going into the hands of a new customer. Doing something like this is easy for a console environment because it is rare that a person buys a second unit just for kicks (I'll personally iBeat the first guy who mentions RRoD).
On the flip side, numbers are skewed the other direction when a business buys a PC that happens to have gaming capabilities (though if my co-workers are any indication, there are plenty of PC gamers in corporate offices).
Misfit Toy @ Mar 25th 2009 9:19PM
I like to sit down in front of my 50 computers and play with all my friends...
All my...
Sniff.
edweird @ Mar 26th 2009 12:05AM
Why is there even a PC vs console discussion? Why would console gamers even bother getting defensive when talking about PC gaming? What's the point to all this?
This will be my first and last post on the matter.
Ahem...
Listen.. Consoles ARE computers, but computers limited to one very specific configuration and end-user experience. That limitation, that consistency, is the strength of consoles. It's the whole reason they exist. It allows developers to make games with confidence that each user will have the same experience. It allows users a platform on which they can get a certain type of experience without the fuss of a modular, ever-changing system.
That limitation, their very nature, is also what makes their comparison to PCs completely pointless. They are basically the children of PCs. They are based on PC architecture, but stripped of all the flexibility, power and control that a PC offers a user. Console games are developed on PCs. Consoles themselves are predominately developed, tested and debugged through the use of PCs. Consoles are, more or less, the PC's bitch.
What does this mean for actual gaming on the PC? Well, it's a less user-friendly market than consoles, making consoles a more commercial, consumer driven platform. A lot of sizable developers bypass the option of putting out PC games as a result. Console gamers are therefore treated to many slick, blockbuster style gaming experiences that PC gamers may miss out on.
The flexibility, closeness and articulate user control of the PC, however, means that when PC game developers get it right, PC gamers can be treated to much deeper, more complex gaming experiences than consoles are able to provide. PC gamers also tend to benefit from industry innovation faster, and have the whole world of non-blockbuster, indie, experimental and small-team development at their finger-tips. They can also try their hand at development themselves, on any scale, from user friendly gui-driven development, to the full blown development methods used by those on the cutting edge of the industry. They can also do a bazillion other things that I don't need to start listing.
Surely it's clear why PC gamers tend to (more or less justifiably) scoff at console-better-than-PC fanaticism - It's venturing towards being comparable to a battery fanatic claiming that AA batteries are better than electricity.
PC gaming will outlive and outperform any and every gaming console, because the PC is the perpetual parent of the console. You obviously don't have to use a PC to be a gamer, or to play awesome games, and there will always be games console gamers get that PC gamers don't, just as there are PC games that console gamers don't get. Please, just don't bother trying to argue for the superiority of your console over the PC as a platform for gaming. By all means have a favorite, but acknowledge the utter subjectivity of preference.