NVIDIA: PC games sales to surpass console game sales by 2014.

[DominionSeraph]

In Europe and Korea, it's all about the PCs.

Koreans only play SC1 though, and I think that market is already saturated.

 

[Albatross]

I`d like to see the revenue by region,maybe Asia in the future will buy a lot more games.

 

[Stuxnet]

They're using a trend that's missing a TON of other factors to make this claim. I would love to see a PC game revival, but when the next gen of consoles are released in the next year or two, guess which segment is going to get gaped?

 

[Genx87]

I will be honest and say the F2P model has drawn me back into gaming. GF's son and I are playing World of Tanks and Age of Empires online a lot.

 

[JTsyo]

Still... so much for the "Death of PC Gaming" mantra sung around the Gaming Console Consortium campfires for the last two years.

Most of it was they weren't taking into account digital sales.

 

[blackened23]

Most of it was they weren't taking into account digital sales.

Except they have been. Even accounting for DD, which has been tracked for a LONG time now, PC game sales are sub-par. It doesn't take a genius to recognize this when Tim Willets of id software says that making a PC only game in this day and age is impossible - when a designer at epic says that DD sales are still a joke compared to console game sales.

NPD has tracked DD for a while now and the top selling PC game , starcraft 2, can't even crack the top 50 of all console games sold worldwide.

Do I like it? No. I'm a PC gamer too. But this day and age is far different than 10 years ago, when PC had exclusives such as C+C, dark reign, ROTT, descent, magic carpet, populous, etc. Practically everything these days, with a few exceptions (MMO) is cross platform with consoles taking first consideration and the PC version existing for residual sales.

 

[wanderer27]

Still... so much for the "Death of PC Gaming" mantra sung around the Gaming Console Consortium campfires for the last two years.

Yep.

My thoughts exactly.


Now if this truly is the case, then you'd think you would be seeing some Developers moving over from Console development to PC development.

At the least I'd really expect to see EA Sports games coming back to the PC - not that I really care for EA's heavy handed ways . . . .


.

 

[rivan]

They're using a trend that's missing a TON of other factors to make this claim. <snip>

It's hard to imagine a company like nvidia putting any sort of biased spin on research like this. I mean really, what have they to gain by doing so? :whiste:

 

[Imp]

They're using a trend that's missing a TON of other factors to make this claim. I would love to see a PC game revival, but when the next gen of consoles are released in the next year or two, guess which segment is going to get gaped?

I'm going to guess that the stagnation on the hardware front for consoles has made it easier for PC games to sell. Not sure how true Nvidia's claims are, but when your computer is almost guaranteed to run virtually all games because they've mostly been designed for a gimped/weak, 5 (?) year old consoles, it may make things easier for the consumer.

 

[crownjules]

Also the proliferation of digital sales. How many people on just these forums buy games because they're "only $5" that they'd never otherwise consider? And then how much play time do they actually spend on them, if any? It's extremely rare to see console games at that kind of price. There's also the whole physical vs. virtual/digital psychological factor.

 

[HumblePie]

Pretty much this. This forecast is laughable to say the least, as it takes social games (facebook), non gaming revenue and mmo subs into account. Whats more, steam does not release DD sales information to anyone except NPD and developers. The top selling PC game, starcraft 2, can't even break into the top 30 of all games sold.

Since NPD now tracks digital sales, its pretty hilarious that nvidia is doing this (has everything to do with them losing ALL THREE console bids) when PC DD game sales cant' even crack top 50 on all games sold. Unless its a blizzard game.

Stupid argument.

Who cares about number of "copies" sold. The model for PC sales has changed DRAMATICALLY to make that argument pointless. A fairer comparison is revenue generation.

Name one console game that has generated more revenue than World of Warcraft. Hell most of the Zygna facebook games are generating more revenue now than any of the Call of Duty games have. Let's not forget online poker as well.

When it comes to total revenue and market share in gaming the PC still generates more than the consoles. Always have and always will. PC games do not have as many "sold copies" as consoles but that is only an epeen statistic. Great, consoles games on average have more boxed copies sold than just about any PC game out on the market today. Whoop dee fricking doo. So console games typically generate all their cash on the "front" end of the market while PC games do it on the back end. PC games now are more like crack dealers. They do more of, try this out for free, and if you like more it's only X amount for the rest of the time you play the game. Over time that amount typically is much more than any console game sold.

 

[Nintendesert]

Here's a post from GeorgeB (who is a designer at Epic): :awe: (dated Sep. 8th)

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/16/epic-working-on-pc-as-a-primary-platform/


Brick and Mortar stores are DEAD. All over. Digital and Newegg and Amazon is the future. Gamestop knows it too, it's why they bought Impulse.

PC games have a LONG life on their digital shelf due to Impulse and STEAM and other distribution methods. Once that console game falls off the shelves at Gamestop the little console kiddies don't play it or buy it anymore. Not so with PC.

How many people bought Company of Heroes today? Those were sales that would have never happened but this allows the developer/publisher to still make profit off an older game.

This is why the transition is happening to PC again. Its potential is still magnitudes greater than the console market.

 

[aigomorla]

the cost of pc hardware is at its all time low.

So typically the mentality now is people have a PC capable of at least playing on a Unreal3 engine, which isnt very hard.. 8800GT class @ 1080p.

The Biggest fear for dev's is the pirates.
Thats why FF13 and Gears of war 2 and 3 never hit PC.

And the dev's are correct, its very difficult to make a game for the PC because not everyone's systems is the same.

So one system it will run flawless, another wont due to the different shadders on the video card.


But all in all, yet has a game which was available for BOTH look better on the console then the PC.
^lets crush this now... because with today's games, not even close... the PC stomps the console in Gfx sideways silly.

Why? Because Console cant get anything higher then 30fps straight up, while disabling vsync on a pc with a decient video card will push those frames to over 100fps.

 

[blackened23]

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/16/epic-working-on-pc-as-a-primary-platform/


Brick and Mortar stores are DEAD. All over. Digital and Newegg and Amazon is the future. Gamestop knows it too, it's why they bought Impulse.

PC games have a LONG life on their digital shelf due to Impulse and STEAM and other distribution methods. Once that console game falls off the shelves at Gamestop the little console kiddies don't play it or buy it anymore. Not so with PC.

How many people bought Company of Heroes today? Those were sales that would have never happened but this allows the developer/publisher to still make profit off an older game.

This is why the transition is happening to PC again. Its potential is still magnitudes greater than the console market.

I don't know why you keep bringing this up. We're all aware that PC has switched to DD, and NPD has tracked DD sales for some time.

Even with DD into consideration, PC game sales are a joke and they're generally released only for residual sales. This has been stated numerous times from big name devs such as Tim Willets from id software, project red, really, its not a mystery when witcher 2 barely moves 300k on PC (with DD) yet sells millions on consoles. In fact, the highest selling DD PC game was starcraft 2 that sold something 4 million and change. Thats magnitudes higher than any PC game yet it doesn't even crack the top 50 of all games sold compared to consoles.

You can argue until you're blue in the face but PC game sales are horrible compared to consoles, and thats WITH taking DD into account.

 

[HumblePie]

I don't know why you keep bringing this up. We're all aware that PC has switched to DD, and NPD has tracked DD sales for some time.

Even with DD into consideration, PC game sales are a joke and they're generally released only for residual sales. This has been stated numerous times from big name devs such as Tim Willets from id software, project red, really, its not a damn mystery when witcher 2 barely moves 300k on PC (THATS WITH DIGITAL DISTRUBUTION) yet sells millions on consoles. In fact, the highest selling DD PC game was starcraft 2 that sold something 4 million and change. Thats magnitudes higher than any PC game yet it doesn't even crack the top 50 of all games sold compared to consoles.

You can argue until you're blue in the face but PC game sales are horrible compared to consoles, and thats WITH taking DD into account.

Again, who cares about initial distribution SALES! It's all about total revenue. Sales is just one form of revenue. It's an epeen statistic. Also single stand alone PC games are never going to do as well in sales as single stand alone console games. So saying the Witcher sold like crap for the PC compared to consoles is a strawman. How many people play fucking farmville compared to the witcher? I'll give you a clue, the witcher doesn't even come close on the amount of players for it than farmville. No console game has. THAT'S the real deal. And it's not something tracked by NPD either. F2P games aren't tracked at all. They are counted as "sales", but I guess they should be so console backers like you would lose their epeen statistic. I promise you that farmville has made more money for Zygna that most console games ever sold. When you include all total revenue generated over a games life cycle (of which farmville is no one close to the end of it's life cycle) it's not even a remotely even comparison.


But go ahead with blathering about your stupid epeen statistic of console games generating more initiate box sales than PC games. It's about a useful of a statistic as the price of tea in China right now.

 

[busydude]

its not a mystery when witcher 2 barely moves 300k on PC (with DD) yet sells millions on consoles.

FYI, TW2 is not available on consoles yet. And they sold 400K in the first week.

Also, you don't seem to have a clue about gaming market these days.

You need to read this article. STAT!

 

[exar333]

FYI, TW2 is not available on consoles yet. And they sold 400K in the first week.

Also, you don't seem to have a clue about gaming market these days.

You need to read this article. STAT!

Haha! I was thinking the same thing.

Pretty much makes the rest of his post seem VERY suspect.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

And I doubt MS and Sony will subsidize them as much next generation. They both lost too much money to do that again.

No they didn't, Microsoft lost money due to RROD which had nothing to do with expensive hardware, it had everything to do with them trying to make it cheaper and cutting corners on the build quality.

Sony was selling a $1000 piece of hardware in 2006 for $600. The main reason was because they insisted on including a Blu-Ray player and they lost loads of cash at first. Now they are actually making a small amount due to process improvements.

They sell on a loss on the hope that people will jump on the hardware and then make the money back from the $20 or so per game they charge for it to be on their system.

It works well for them.

 

[homercles337]

It never seemed fair to compare the total of 3 separate console sales with just the PC.

 

[ShawnD1]

The Biggest fear for dev's is the pirates.
Thats why FF13 and Gears of war 2 and 3 never hit PC.

They won't make Gears 2 for PC because Gears 1 didn't sell well. It's a great game, but it's totally broken by DRM and GFW. I can start the game and half the time it doesn't remember that I have a save game, so it starts from the beginning.

But all in all, yet has a game which was available for BOTH look better on the console then the PC.
^lets crush this now... because with today's games, not even close... the PC stomps the console in Gfx sideways silly.

Why? Because Console cant get anything higher then 30fps straight up, while disabling vsync on a pc with a decient video card will push those frames to over 100fps.

The only graphics problem on consoles is that the developers sometimes have very weird priorities for what should be shown vs not shown. GTA4 is a prime example of this. I have the PS3 version and it looks terrible. The draw distance is shorter than my dick (very short). Targets that are far away often appear blurry, so it's very hard to see what I'm supposed to be shooting at. The PC version looks a lot better because I can turn off shadows and a bunch of other bullcrap I don't want and use that processing power for things like draw distance.
I really wish they would put the video options in the console versions. I don't want GTA to slow down to 5fps or whatever when action starts to happen. I would rather turn off the shadows and have it run smooth all the time.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Thats under the assumption pc hardware stays down in price.

Pre 2004 to get a pc as good as a console it would cost almost 5x the price if not more.

Now u can get the box core of a pc for the same price of a ps3... So hardware being cheeper will help the game community

I don't know if that's really a fair criticism....most people that own a console also already own a PC...a better question might be the difference in price between a console and the cost to upgrade a standard PC to a gaming rig, although that does involve much more technical know how.

 

[mingsoup]

Two reasons.

PC hardware parity. Processors and GPU's last longer and are cheaper than ever before. Graphical development seems to have stalled somewhat. (Totally not a bad thing.)

&&

Steam.

This is what I've noticed since my Pentium 3.
Its really never been a better time to be a gamer. Only bad thing I can think of *right* off the top of my head is the 60$ price tag of new releases these days. Major bummer.

 

[tommo123]

wait for a steam sale

 

[blackened23]

They won't make Gears 2 for PC because Gears 1 didn't sell well. It's a great game, but it's totally broken by DRM and GFW. I can start the game and half the time it doesn't remember that I have a save game, so it starts from the beginning.

Ah, yes. I despise GFWL so much that I will not purchase any game using it....although Batman: AC might be an exception. Thankfully most devs are switching from GFWL to steamworks.

I've had way too many issues with GFWL corrupting my saves, crashing and preventing me from playing games that I paid for

 

[PrayForDeath]

They sell on a loss on the hope that people will jump on the hardware and then make the money back from the $20 or so per game they charge for it to be on their system.

It works well for them.

That's what people seem to be forgetting here. Selling games on the PC can be more profitable for devs even if they don't match the console sales numbers.