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PC Games Net $13.1 Billion in 2009 as Digital Distribution Grows and Retail Sales Shr

mindcycle

mindcycle

Golden Member
..and Retail Sales Shrink
The industry consortium known as the PC Gaming Alliance has unveiled details of its 2009 Horizons Report, offering an update on the worldwide state of PC gaming.

Among the key findings is word that "PC gaming software revenue" continues to grow, with the worldwide market pulling in some $13.1 billion during 2009. The previous year, 2008, saw revenue of "about $11 billion" while 2007 bought in $10.7 billion.

Most of that growth can be attributed to the growing popularity of digital distribution and paid downloads, as boxed retail games saw another downturn and accounted for "less than 20% of total revenue [in 2009]." According to surveys by research group DFC Intelligence, over 70% of PC gamers in North America and Europe indicate that they bought a full game online and over 50% have bought a virtual item.
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via.. http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/62729
 
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Sounds good to me. Steam might not be the perfect solution, but it has saved me a LOT of headaches over the years. Not having to track down patches for my various games, not worrying about putting a CD in the drive (or having to mount an image, download a crack, etc.), and not worrying about keeping the original install media handy = win in my book.
 
I stopped buying steam deals not because they weren't good deals, but because I just plain don't have time to play all those games!
 
PingSpike said:
I stopped buying steam deals not because they weren't good deals, but because I just plain don't have time to play all those games!
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Ditto. Here's a list of games I've gotten for dirt cheap over the last few months, roughly since black friday:

Borderlands - $20 amazon
Dragon Age: Origins - $22 (bought in India, legit copy), haven't even started it yet 😛
Left 4 Dead 2 - Steam...$20-something
Bully: Scholarship Edition - $4 newegg
Red Faction Guerrilla - $5 D2D
Batman Arkham Asylum - $25 Steam
Bioshock 2 - $34 Steam
Chronicles of Riddick Assault of Dark Athena - Steam...I think it was $10 or so
Mirror's Edge - Steam...maybe $5 or $10 tops?
Serious Sam HD - Steam...$7?

And here's a few other games that I still need to beat:

Assassin's Creed
Fallout 3 (got sidetracked by sidequests, need to finish Broken Steel DLC)
GRID
Mass Effect
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
 
Retail store game collections are usually so small that It's not worth the effort to go and see if the game I want is even available. It's easier to just open Steam and start the download.

Back when most stores had like 3 full isles front and back of pc games it was worth it.. not really any more.
 
I just wish Steam would allow us to "revoke" a game so we can donate/sell it to someone else [this applies to boxed copies as well - COD MW2 - I typically give my father in law games that I don't play anymore - tying the game to a digital account makes this damn difficult]
 
quadomatic said:
I can understand going B&M sometimes, like for Target clearances. But, that's about it...
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clearance is still cheaper on steam. 😀

I love steam... yeah they had some issues, but having a place where i can download the games i want anytime i want is pure ownage.

Also i reformat way too many times... I made it a habit to reimage every 3-6 months, so i wouldnt have to use any antivirus or spyware programs.
 
CurseTheSky said:
Sounds good to me. Steam might not be the perfect solution, but it has saved me a LOT of headaches over the years. Not having to track down patches for my various games, not worrying about putting a CD in the drive (or having to mount an image, download a crack, etc.), and not worrying about keeping the original install media handy = win in my book.
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I guess you didnt play Wings Of Prey. You gotta dig up the patches yourself, and they are a huge pain to find and download.

Also, many Steam versions of games have issues the originals did not. Like KOTOR crashing all the time, Jade Empire not even starting, and you have to remove anything in your optical drive to play Red Faction 2.

BUT, its still more convenient than anything else out there.
 
I enjoy Steam. A part of the industry finally realized that in order to beat the pirates you don't punish your consumers, you offer a better product then the pirate for a reasonable price. Good for them.
 
boxed retail games saw another downturn and accounted for "less than 20% of total revenue [in 2009].
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The Steam stalwarts certainly do have a point in the "offer valuable service in exchange for what digital distribution takes away" area, but frankly I'm shocked that so many people are so willing to go the all-digital route, even if it costs them (up front & obvious) the Fair Use & First Sale rights they'd get with physical media. Me, the only things I've bought digitally since wising up about the issue has been DLC and fire-sale-priced full games like Riddick: Dark Athena for $5 on D2D.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't be as shocked as I am, given what I know about consumers in general.
 
Update: For the sake of comparison, DFC Intelligence estimated that the worldwide gaming market--including console hardware--would hit $57 billion in 2009.
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So the PC market is much bigger than what some developers want us to think.
Start to develop more and better PC games, lazy bastards!
 
TheJTrain said:
The Steam stalwarts certainly do have a point in the "offer valuable service in exchange for what digital distribution takes away" area, but frankly I'm shocked that so many people are so willing to go the all-digital route, even if it costs them (up front & obvious) the Fair Use & First Sale rights they'd get with physical media. Me, the only things I've bought digitally since wising up about the issue has been DLC and fire-sale-priced full games like Riddick: Dark Athena for $5 on D2D.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't be as shocked as I am, given what I know about consumers in general.
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You just have to reform your idea of buying games when you use a digital service.
Or rather, you are forced to use the concept that they want you to use with most software.

Instead of buying a copy of a product which you can use however, you are buying a personal license for the software. It's an entirely different concept.
When I buy Windows, I install it on a computer, and people use that copy of Windows when they use that computer.
Imagine if I bought Windows and I used that Windows on whatever computer I was at, rather than using what was installed on it (if anything). It's a totally different idea. The product is not there for me to use, my license is there for me to access. That's what Steam is like, and other forms of DD are similar.

Some people (like you and myself) don't like this model, others seem to lap it up and drool all over it, to the extent of forsaking cheaper priced non-DD options in favour of buying a game through their favourite DD portal.
Personally I prefer my software to be more openly usable.
 
quadomatic said:
I can understand going B&M sometimes, like for Target clearances. But, that's about it...
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Limited bandwidth? When i only have 20gb a month to use, the B&M option is much better, not to mention slow download speeds...

/If i had traditional cable/dsl etc i'd actually prefer steam
 
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