Digital sales of retail PC games now all but equal retail sales in the US.
US sales tracking organisation NPD announced PC game downloads to have reached 21.3 million units in 2009, 48% of the total. Physical sales lead with 23.5 million. However, these sales only amounted to 36% of dollar sales, suggesting lower unit prices.
Meanwhile, total game sales plummeted 23% in 2009 to $538 million, most probably due to the economic climate and ongoing decline of the PC gaming market.
Traditional game sales charts do not reflect sales of digital content well – NPD is reportedly investigating better ways of including these as the digital distribution market continues to grow.
NPD also provides estimates of the market position of the top “frontline” (non-casual games also sold at retail) digital gaming content sellers on the PC platform:
Top 5 Frontline Digital Retailers –2009 (based on unit % share)
1. Steampowered.com
2. Direct2drive.com
3. Blizzard.com
4. EA.com
5. Worldofwarcraft.com
Were consoles included in this ranking, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo would likely head the list.
Despite the healthy growth in digital sales on the PC, the PC gaming market is still a shadow of its former self – 2001 retail sales came to $1.6 billion, a decline many attribute to rampant piracy on the platform.
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Its no surprise Steam is #1....
(Note that this user is geographically isolated)
Let's see I buy something online with no taxes and wait a few hours for the download.
Or start coughing up sales tax. Then money for the gas. Then the possibility that the product isn't on the shelf when and if I decide to get there. Note it takes a week for either shipping to store or mailbox.
lets see here
60$ for game
lets assume 30 miles to store
that is 6-14$ there, possibly more
lets add 3-5$ tax
or lets look at 14$ shipping and another 5$ tax
its 69-79$
thats why when i buy a game, i always make sure to either have something else to get, that way i get more bang out of the gass$
Downloadable games like Doom back in the days when it was shareware you didn't get the full version you get the Demo version then they link you to there website to buy the full version of the game it sold very well.
They should of counted Epic Games as well <.<?
Without a worthy multiplayer component (cdkey = 100% protection), PC games don't deserve to be bought.
Proud steam user here.
No the pc sales didn't decline because of that, its because people has played it all, and the other big name titles are still in development, like what Blizzard is doing with Starcraft 2 (ps. if you move that july 27 date, i swear...)
hmm not surprising indeed.
would have prefer if majority of the console games(like demon souls,super street fighter IV,killzone 2 etc) appear on the PC but that's not gonna happen.
Perhaps if you guys stopped pirating every...
Oh fuck it, I know you all wont :\
Interesting. But then again the NPD study is flawed
- They don't take account of MMO subscribtion
- Development for the PC is cheaper since microsoft don't ask you to pay anything if you do it, unlike if you're developing fot the console, thus cheaper games
- Some of the good games are free indies
- DLC's are mostly free
in a PC Gamer report, they argued that the core market for PC gaming, that is FPS, MMO and RTS never changed, IE the market for them is still strong. Just that the other genres has gone cheap or free
That's what I was trying to say. The lack of subscription data is a major oversight by NPD considering the growing share of the market they account for.
Steam forever.
Am i the only one tired of hearing the same shit with companies blaming piracy for the low sales this year ?
Where the hell were they when the economy went down ?
They definitely don't seem to remember that the shit hit the fan and companies became going into debt,people lost jobs and the cost of living raised. Piracy is to the digital world as Prostitution is to the normal world, Its the oldest, so blaming it for this years low sales and not i don't know the recession, I find the rather retarded.
Next note: when it came to gaming the PC has always been better. The pc can do things that the consoles can't and if you build a good one, it can last as long as a console and not to mention can your consoles push the same graphics a PC has ? I think not, not to mention the things a PC can do that a console can't, the only reason i want a console is because of the exclusive games.
2nd Note:- All the protections the companies are using are getting overbearing. Like i have to download the entire game in-order to play it........WTF!!??!! do gaming companies think the world is full of godlike internet speeds ? Guess places that have DSL and lower can all suck it because your not fast enough to download a 3 DVD game, sure this way well create more profits and not piss of those who have to spend there money, but i guess thats the way things have to be right ? fighting the pirate war ? Like you can win.
The real question here is what counts as a "PC game download"? Would something like CakeMania or some other crap fit under that?
Used to be a pirate when I was a poorfag, then I got a job > Installed Steam, I'm having hell of fun playing original games and supporting the industry, most of the games I bought on special sales, I'mean c'mon $5 bucks for games like Fallout 3 GOTY, Fallout NV, Saints Row, Dead Space 1 & 2, & several great games, and some free2play, Team Fortress 2 rocks. Steam is doing great they give good prices for everyone around the world. I live in Mexico and payin $10 to $5 Dollars is more reasonable and more economical viable than paying $70 to $80 dollars just for one game.
not ONE of you mentioned that even if the total $ for online sales is down, MORE money goes back to the devs, apposed to if printed the discs and all that shit, shipped them to retail and than sold them retail.
Thus far I haven't seen many noteworthy PC games. Most of the games I found fun so far were all on console which most of the Japanese companies cater to. (And with good reason, their games are freaking good!)
Shows that Activision/Blizzard takes in more money than they pay for server upkeep on WOW.
How Much Has WoW Cost Blizzard Since 2004?
http://kotaku.com/5050300/how-much-has-wow-cost-blizzard-since-2004
Proud pirate here.
LOL That looks like my surroundings.
the forgot nr1 the piratebay
It probably has somethng to do with the economy downturn.
Pc gaming is realitvly cheaper to support.Games are made for longevity and arent 60$ - 40$
Instead you pay for internet fees which are much smaller to play one game in the same time frame it takes to play several console games.
They like to blame fucking piracy for everything.
Hmm console stores are after all what the name implies, only interested in console sales.
Every time I go to the local game store, you pretty much need to make a fuss to get staff to realize 'yes I actually want you down here in the PC game section'.
PC titles are considered an unwanted waste of shelf space, they're treated like the unwashed in gaming retail outlets.
So of course PC gaming is going digital sales, why not, I don't need a fucking store any way.
I've bought this year alone several PC titles as digital downloads. I mean, I don't need the fucking case the jacket cover and the disc, I just need the program. I also don't really need friggin manuals although some still obsess over the worthless wastes of paper.
Granted, I ONLY buy from two wargaming publishers, because only they seem to get it, I bought their game honestly and I won't tolerate DRM.
eLicense is a fuck off and die prospect. Inability to copy is a fuck off and die prospect. Need to go online is a fuck off and die prospect.
But Matrix Games and Slitherine both use ONLY a serial number and not one other method of annoyance. And guess what, I buy their games.
Respect the customer, and maybe they will respect you back.
And piracy will ALWAYS be there. Best you can do is not piss off the people that like you.
i probably spend more money on pc games then most people. but i am not going to paying $90USD for MW2 on steam fuck that. I am so pirating it.
Some games DESERVE to be pirated. Some games DESERVE to be bought. Thats why im totally buying sc2, diablo 3 and any other game developed by Blizzard or Valve.
I for one, love it when I get a good manual with a game, explaining units / stats / items / etc. in detail. Also good artwork is always nice. Too bad that nowadays if you want the above, you need to go CE.
PC game downloads and DLC is the way of the future.
If you mean FREE Dlc (like the ones for l4d on pc) then you're damn right
Factually flawed.
I recently bought Command Ops Battles from the Bulge from Panther Games published through Matrix Games. 80 dollars. That game cost the company a lot of money to develop. But it's a niche portion of the industry.
Not all great PC games are MMOs.
But as for longevity, that is something I can agree on.
I'm waiting in Civilization V to come out. And that title will likely be as great as Civ IV was.
one... more... turn =D
There is ps3 xbox and wii. In some years there will be ps4 and whatever the other ones will be called. But pc has been in the market for DECADES.
So true
I'm waiting Civilization V. And I want to see Mafia 2. Besides I'm sure a lot of you want to try Starcraft 2. Pc's not dead and will never be. Let the consoles for teenagers whose parents got too much money to waste.
Budget/re-released games that I missed 1st time around are decent enough entertainment not to worry about what is the most recent iteration of "FPS Flavour of the month that looks pretty much the same as the one that came out last year" whether its console or PC games- my game spending has plummetted.
I've not really "Stolen" and that itself is part of the problem. IMO, a bigger part than piracy.
There's frankly not that much out there that I want, a low enough number that I do buy what I like.
And I've made countless blog postings and letters telling companies what I'd like to see, getting zero response. Well, if my interests are too small for theirs, fine, no malice but they won't get my business.
But I love games. I'm actually playing with some construction kits to make what I do want.
And, btw, there's one new game I do want bad, but it seems to be XBLA only; "Limbo" You might look it up for some vids on the 'Tube...
All hail Gabe Newell!
I've never been much of a PC gamer myself...I'll stick to consoles.
Nintendo,Sony,and Microsoft offer DLC at some reasonable prices.PC market didn't bother to count the Free to play games where people offer donations for fast leveling items?
give it 1 week and Blizzard will jump to #1 with 5 million dl's for SCII
Yeah, probably. ^_^
Yeah, you can pretty much count on any of their games pulling out a record amount of sales.
I imagine Diablo 3 maybe next year?
Put out some good games and the sales might go up
On the contrary, good games does not really mean you have to buy it. Some of the most lauded games on the PC are free indies game
Maybe i'll consider buying PC games much like albums;
If it's good, I'll support by contributing to sales. Other than that, soft copy please >_>
Games these days are distributed electronically, which means the game devs are telling people from places with intarnet dl speed of barely 60kB/s to go to hell. Not to mention unstable servers and screwed up servers. I've given up on Steam because it refuses to run even with every single program known to mankind was turned off.
Gaming industry is heading to hell, YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
Not today, troll.
Blame the shit hardware youre running it on, not the program itself.
And that's what usually people reply to me when I say Steam is shit.
I can run my pirated CnC 3, RA 3, MW 2 no sweat, but Steam just fails.
It's all about fans.
congrats, steam has a big in it that you need to fix. it happens from time to time, and some times its hard to fix.
im taking a guess you are running vists or 7, and its a 64bit version? because both have known problems and known solutions.
PC game sales plummet? Well, of course, they are selling less and less good PC games.
I don't want to have a bill of 100€ in hardware -and tweak it- every 3~6month just to play ; only few games i've bought during the 5 last years are PC.
BTW, one of these few is CivilizationIV, and V is coming soon =)
you are a fucking tard.
i bought a gameing pc in 2004 and it worked great till late 2009 when the motherboard short circuited.
you dont have to upgrade a gaming pc, on pc games you have these things called options, and you can tone down graphics as far as you need to to play the games, see if you aren't willing to upgrade graphics cards than you don't get cutting edge.
a 500$ computer can play 1080p games at at aleast 4time the graphics that a console can, and thats all games. how many console games even hit 1080p or 1920x1080? or for that matter 1920x1200? most are barely 1280x720 and even than barely 30fps if that.
and just because they say 1080p on the box doesn't mean they are 1080p
500 isnt an understatement.
now this is all budget prices here, im not going for highest quality, just quality and cheap.
motherboard - 50$ or less depending n deals
psu - 30$ for a 550watt
dvd - 20-30$
case - 30$
windows xp - getting an old unused key online isnt to hard and its free than.
windows 7 - get a student edition, 30$
harddrive - 40$ you can get them as cheap as 20 if you look around and don't give a fuck about high space. but lets go 120gb
ram - 3gb or 4gb about 100$
cpu - dual core phenom, i think 60$ can go athlon for cheaper though
gpu - here is where you blow your wad. 150$ for a 5770 with mail in rebates and other offers, i have seen these as low as 120$
add the total up, (free windows xp assume, ad 30 for 7) and it comes to 480$ and this is assumeing 150 for the graphics card.
if you bundle the hardware together you may be able to shave an extra 10% off, and if you want a quad core, the athlon II 620 preforms in games ablout as good its its equivalent ghz phenom II however outside of games the phenom has the edge.
now this is also assuming you have the basics of a computer such as monitor, keyboard and mouse. any tv made in 4 years can be used as a monitor. not the best choice but a damn fine one on a budget. and keyboards and mice can be gotten freely if you ask around and are ok with not having the latest and greatest.
now psu, you can get a 450 crusiar (sp) for i believe 60$ and it will be capable of powering the above setup.
and in 3 or 4 years, all you will need to do is swap the graphics card, and probably the psu too, which will cost at most 200$ and you will have an upgrade that console wise would be the equivalent of going form the xbox to the xbox 360, if you have a quad core.
i have had to build extreme budget pcs for friends before who where in collage, i know what im saying when i say 500$
hell if you need to you can build a functional pc for under 200$
$500 may be a little of an understatement, but a $800 rig can last you for at least as long as a console, and you get all of the benefits of a PC.
My current rig is over 3 years old, and except for a defective video card, a lightning struck LAN card and a $20 RAM stick, it hasn't been upgraded at all. I can still run almost all games at max settings, although my poor monitor only allows 1280x1024.
For comparison, the video card took 3 days to exchange and the cost was $0 since it was still in warranty. I laugh at you XBox users who have to wait several weeks for your RRoDed boxes to be returned.
true, games are getting more and more complicated. Example is Company of Heroes. You can play the game via LAN, expansion came out, now you shall have to connect to the internet just to play multiplayer. More and more games are getting connected to the internet. There was also a rumor that Blizzard is taking away LAN due to piracy.
Battle.net is good. But the lag... I get trashed by noobs.
Whatever happened to the days where you just install and play?
This is true, however Starcraft 2 is coming out and you know that'll be popular because its starcraft 2. Will probably see a good 5 million in sales.
@Lonesnipa
I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition...I can't wait for Starcraft II to arrive at my house...
That said, that's the only thing I will play aside from Touhou since I mainly use my PC to download/archive/commission/fap to Hentai...
well that might help unless people just choose to buy starcraft II instead of another shitty PC game they planned to get that year.
It's the replacement effect. It's not absolute in every case but you cannot ignore that, too.
It will be a sure hit, that's true.
@05:25
Diablo III happens.
You can play ANY game on PC and you wont be frustrated about controls because for
RTS,FPS, MMO mouse & keybord works greats
Fighting, Adventure,etc the keybord is good enough or you can plug-in a controler
Sadly many companies develope games only for consoles because its a little bit harder to pirate them (only ps3 is safe for any game, FOR NOW) or because most of the games are meant to be played my more than 1 person and consoles are best suited for that (offline i mean). But i consider FPS really frustrating on consoles and RTS should NEVER be played on a console.
Still pc gaming will never die bcause 1 there still will be mmo and 2 pc is no only meant for playing
Tons of money will roll in.
You gotta laugh a bit.
WorldofWarcraft.com? Blizzard.com? They are both in the same company called Blizzard. Tell me what happens AFTER they produce SCII.
starcraft 2 is just like starcraft 1 with slight improvement in graphics . its only going to sell , thanks to all those koreans and its famed name . Not because gameplay had evolved .
Bitching is fun
Haters gonna hate.
It's a sequel. If you are going to bitch about SC, then you'd have to bitch about 90% of all sequels. At least the SC series have several unique things it introduces to the genre, unlike games like MW, CoD, MoH and a bunch of other shooters who look exactly like level/weapon packs for the same game.
A Korean friend of mine already has StarCraft II on his PC. According to his opinion, it IS different from the first game and also much harder...
Funny, cause while one group of people bitch that StarCraft 2 is too different from the original StarCraft, the other group bitches it's too similar. In the end they will both be annoying faggots yet still somehow buy the game.
I go by the rule "if it isn't broke, don't fix it". I heard "evolution of gameplay" worked wonders for C&C: Tiberium Twilight, amirite?
...slight?
Who wants to deal with drivers and compatibility when you can get a console for a 1/3 the price of a good PC. With the exception on MMOs, most people only play a game for a month or so, and you can't sell pc games to Gamestop.
For 1/3 the price of a good PC. You get 1/3 of PC's good quality.
Don't forget PC still rule in the graphic department.
So if graphics are everything for you, than go PC.
I'd say 1/3 the graphics is a fair comparison, but 1/3 the price? PC's are much more expensive, even if you build yourself, and you still have to upgrade/maintain it on top of that.
RTS's are better on the PC right now for several reasons, but you just have to add mouse support to get a good port to console.
game controles.
i despise fpses on consoles because no mouse and keyboard.
they have to actually break those games so they work on consoles.
As a console (the current ones at least, and even more so after sony banning Linux) doesn't replace a computer the costs are of your normal pc or laptop plus whatever is needed to run games on it.
That tends to be a much smaller difference in price unless you were planning to buy a netbook..
Also PC, up to as high a resolution as your hardware allows you vs consoles with the hardware of 5 years back, these so called HD consoles don't even play full HD with the majority of the games.
The both have their advantages and disadvantages, with a console you can entertain some friends that come over, and fighting/platform games tend to be easier to play.
The PC is great if you're a loner or simply want to enjoy the best that's out there.. and the controls lend themselves better for RTS, FPS and MMORPGs.
(PS clicking next next next next after clicking setup.exe isn't rocket science)
Well if you will buy a pc only for playing of course you are losing money. PC are more expensive because you can do more thing on a pc. So saying a console is better than a pc because of the price well its stupid bcause you dont realize the pc was not created especifically for games.
You don't usually have any trouble with software anymore.
Yes, and then you have to spend another 2/3 the price of a gaming PC for a glorified internet box, sacrificing all the conveniences of a PC, like being able to pause and google without physically moving.
And for that 1/3, you get the most unintuitive way to control video games that was ever invented. I always feel a little chilly inside, every time I watch someone play a FPS with a gamepad.
p.s.
Fanboy much?
I've been playing games like NWN, Rune, MW4, SC, WCIII, Civ, SoTS, Touhou, HL, TF and L4D for years now. The best thing about PC games is that they never die. If I go back and pick a random popular game, I can always find tons of awesome mods, some of which more fun than the original game itself. There are 10+ year old games who still have active modding communities around them.
p.p.s.
There is no eroge for consoles. 'nuf said.
It was kinda obvious Steam was gonna be the top on the list, the only place were u can get good games nowadays. Specially with Valve releasing free games like if they didnt care about the money.
Brilliant marketing on Valve's part.
I can still remember the bad old days of Steam those who bought Half-life 2 when it was first released will know what I'm talking about.
Steam has truely evolved since then tho.
agreed. I was like what is this steam shit and why does this game need 5 cd's.
Now i am like why cant i buy it on steam? i don't want to go outside.
but strangely Microsoft pull the plug on this Xbox Live+Windows Live service due to the fact, MS found that console gamers didn’t stand a chance against PC gamers.
http://goo.gl/tS1N
beside, i'll still be a PC gamer simply because they will have ero-scene in eroges whereas playstation doesn't. thanks to sony's part
They came to the brilliant conclusion that giving someone a keyboard and a mice gives an unfair advantage against those playing with a controller in the most popular games.
Well big surprise there!