PC Game revival

[cody8200]

NPD Group is reporting a 48 percent increase in the amount of computer games being bought the last 2 months this year when compared to the same 2 months last year.

Heres a NY Times article about it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/technology/23gaming.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

I hope Sega sees this and decides to bring their sports games to the PC. Oh, and EA decides to make NCAA Football for the pc again.

[Shkspr]

Would this include the Burning Crusade effect?

EDIT: Looking at the categorization of "first two months' sales through retail", it appears that it does...which would account for nearly half the sales of all PC software at retail for the first two months of the year. Removing WoW's expansion takes sales estimates from the $203 million range south of $120 million...at least a double digit drop.

[Marc Vaughan]

Its always amazed me the lack of attention and space given to PC games generally when you consider their sales figures.

In the American example given PC sales are aproximately a quarter of the total combined console sales - that is PS2, 360, Xbox, GC, Wii, PS-3 all totalled.

I'd almost bet that puts it in the sales bracket of the second most popular console same as in the UK, however in terms of store space few shops give it similar shelf space to its equivalent console - bah humbug ...

(yes I do know 'supporting' PC games is a tad more complex than console games, but ..)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Its always amazed me the lack of attention and space given to PC games generally when you consider their sales figures.

In the American example given PC sales are aproximately a quarter of the total combined console sales - that is PS2, 360, Xbox, GC, Wii, PS-3 all totalled.

I'd almost bet that puts it in the sales bracket of the second most popular console same as in the UK, however in terms of store space few shops give it similar shelf space to its equivalent console - bah humbug ...

(yes I do know 'supporting' PC games is a tad more complex than console games, but ..)

I blame Bill Gates. :)

As mentioned above, the WOW release is the reason for the boost. Take it out and it didn't go up at all.

[Marc Vaughan]

I blame Bill Gates. :)

As mentioned above, the WOW release is the reason for the boost. Take it out and it didn't go up at all.

Err my figures didn't come from the boosted WOW stats at all but from the 2006 year stats ..

The lack of significant growth isn't that surprising as retail don't support the PC at all well compared to consoles imho - however despite this the PC market has remained pretty robust despite numerous announcements of its demise in the past ...

By contrast, according to the NPD Group, retail sales for console games in 2006 were $4.8 billion; another $1.7 billion was spent on games for hand-held devices like Sony’s PlayStation Portable.

PC game sales in America are circa $1b (approximately) which is around 20% of the overall home console sales - hence a decent sized chunk imho.

In the UK at least the console sales chunk tends to split to in such a way that sales of this magnitude would place the PC in second place overall in the 'console wars' .... it might be a place lower in America (I don't know the figures here at present) but its still a pretty impressive showing imho.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Err my figures didn't come from the boosted WOW stats at all but from the 2006 year stats ..

Sorry. I was referring to the two month stat in the original post. Probably shouldn't have quoted your post.

As a sidenote, I don't usually buy games on the PC new. I usually get games that are a year or two old that were very successful but are marked way down. Civilization games are one of the few games that I will actually buy new.

[Tyrith]

One part WoW, one part The Sims, two parts being able to sell budget software to all the people that now have PCs in their homes...but I still don't see the high end PC gaming market coming back around. There's a big difference between raw PC game sells and a revival of what the top end PC gamer would call their gaming market -- the top end of PC gaming just isn't what it used to be, and it doesn't really look like it's coming back soon.

[Warhammer]

The problem is that PC game manufacturers need to focus on games in which the medium shines. Sims are great for computers. Heck, look at how many flight sim guys are out there. Guys that will spend $250 for a set of throttles, sticks, rudder pedals, and yokes for their rig. If you make games that cater to them, they will sell, if they are hard core enough. The problem is, that people try to cash in on console games and the like, and do not understand that the markets are pretty different.

But, don't expect your new FPS that you are porting over from the 360 to do great on computers because many people will either already have it for their 360, or aren't all that interested in the game, etc. Focus on what the computer does well and they would do fine.

[Ryan S]

But, don't expect your new FPS that you are porting over from the 360 to do great on computers because many people will either already have it for their 360, or aren't all that interested in the game, etc. Focus on what the computer does well and they would do fine.

Personally, I think that the PC is far and away the best platform for First Person Shooters.

[Warhammer]

Personally, I think that the PC is far and away the best platform for First Person Shooters.

It depends on how the game is developed. If it is designed for PCs then ported to the consoles I am fine with that. If it goes the other way, they typically suck.

[Tyrith]

PC FPS tend to be a lot more fun for me. It's just so much easier to get precise control on a computer -- a mouse is extremely intuitive and simple to control, while with the standard two stick controller design it takes quite some time to get used to the raw physical movements involved. The PC also has more buttons easily available, allowing the player to control many more options than are possible on a console FPS. Console FPS are however much more fun for in-person multiplayer, and generally much eaier to pick up and play.

[gstelmack]

PC FPS tend to be a lot more fun for me. It's just so much easier to get precise control on a computer -- a mouse is extremely intuitive and simple to control, while with the standard two stick controller design it takes quite some time to get used to the raw physical movements involved. The PC also has more buttons easily available, allowing the player to control many more options than are possible on a console FPS.

Agreed. I suck at GRAW and GRAW2 because I can't line up my shots with the sticks in the heat of battle. But I'm a killing machine on our PC titles...

Console FPS are however much more fun for in-person multiplayer, and generally much eaier to pick up and play.

Some of this is the antithesis of what you just said (they are easier to pick up because there are fewer controls), but a lot of it on the Microsoft consoles is because they are so much harder to go online with a hacked console / client, greatly reducing cheating. That makes for a more pleasant experience overall.

[Tyrith]

A lot of the cheating stuff has been taken care of by the better comp FPS companies. I know, for instance, that CSS has significantly less cheating than it did a few years ago because of the internal VAC stuff Valve has implemented.