PC Gaming Market Grow from $11B to $13.1 Billion in 2009

[Eastcoasthandle]

PC Gaming Alliance (industry consortium) state that the review for PC games grew in 2009 to $13.1 billion from $11 billion in 2008 and from $10.7 billion in 2007. They indicate that the increase in revenue is a result of digital distribution and paid downloads. While at the same time retail packaging of PC games saw a decline which was only 20% of total revenuw in 2009. According to research group DFCX Intelligence over 70% of PC games in NA and Europe were purchased online and 50% of them bought a virtual item.

With Onlive going live on June 17, 2010 with a fee of $14.95 for just the service I wonder on how popular this computer clouding server will be for gamers in general?
You can read more about it here

[kiwi]

As I said before onlive might work for casual gamers who don't care about gaming quality etc. But for more or less serious gamers it will be a big fail.

[Metroid]

70% of PC games in NA and Europe were purchased online

Truly awesome. I have been buying PC games online since 2004. Steam and MMO games are the greatest locomotive of this.

[Syn.]

Truly awesome. I have been buying PC games online since 2004. Steam and MMO games are the greatest locomotive of this.

I agree. I recently purchased Batman: AA over GFWLive for £5.99 and the system is very different to Steam. Basically its exactly the same copy of the game as retail but it doesn't come in physical form. I guess that makes games on GFWLive less dependent on it compared to Steam.

Either way i am all for digital downloads but for great games like the recent Mass Effect 2 i have to get a physical disc.

[zalbard]

Either way i am all for digital downloads but for great games like the recent Mass Effect 2 i have to get a physical disc.

What for?
To reinstall it at some point in the future?

[Luka_Aveiro]

What for?
To reinstall it at some point in the future?

No.

To just be able to touch and smell the box.

[Sadasius]

No.

To just be able to touch and smell the box.

and hope to hell it smells like chicken!

[prava]

What for?
To reinstall it at some point in the future?

Steam is just a PITA for mods and such things. I use steam for my online games but for my offline ones, no thanks, don't want to depend on their servers not wanting to log me in in order to play.

Besides, why paying the same for a digital game when the retail, boxed one costs the same? Its nonsense.

[endlesszeal]

wait, i thought they were predicting the end for PC gaming? (sarcasm).

but i do agree, if its a title that i hold dear, i love having the case and just the box. feels more "authentic" somehow.

[Zigosity]

I buy games that are only\mostly multiplayer on steam, everything else I obtain in box (or in 'box' D: ). I'm not surprised that the revenue went up that much. Awesome .

[bigKr33]

Now if they just stop porting console games to pc, I think we'll all sleep better at night.

[Teemax]

Steam is just a PITA for mods and such things. I use steam for my online games but for my offline ones, no thanks, don't want to depend on their servers not wanting to log me in in order to play.

Besides, why paying the same for a digital game when the retail, boxed one costs the same? Its nonsense.

You have yet to discover Steam's offline mode...
You do not NEED online connection to log on to Steam, which is really nice.

Steam is awesome for a gaming laptop. You don't need to be connected to the internet for a quick Torchlight fix. You don't need to carry all those DVDs with you to switch between games.


Still, I bought the box version of Mass Effect 2 collector edition. The metal box is pretty cool, and Amazon's price for the collector edition is cheaper than Steam price for normal edition...

[Piotrsama]

Update: For the sake of comparison, DFC Intelligence estimated that the worldwide gaming market--including console hardware--would hit $57 billion in 2009.

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!

[annihilat0r]

Wow, so PC accounts for 23% of the whole gaming market??

That's so much higher than what I thought

[Behemot]

Wow, so PC accounts for 23% of the whole gaming market??

That's so much higher than what I thought

Another at least 20 % are games which are not exactly bought and paid

[Nedjo]

Wow, so PC accounts for 23% of the whole gaming market??

That's so much higher than what I thought

apparently you're not only one: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...83&postcount=2

[Farinorco]

I love to see the numbers of PC gaming rising. And I love to see the PC gaming industry switching from retail to digital distribution. I think both things are great both for the gaming community, and the game developers.

I just wonder in what measure this is due to the age of the leading gaming platforms (AKA videoconsoles), and what will happen when the next generation of them is released. I think that to have a global vision about the growth or diminishing of PC gaming market we should compare from point to point regarding changes on the industry leaders. For example, 1 year after the launch of one generation of videoconsoles, and 1 year after the launch of the next.

Anyway I would like to see the PC gaming market growing more and more each year from now on. I hope that the digital distribution (much better for the consumer, and much better also for developers IMO, not so for the current biggest distributors, of course) will help on that in the near future.

[iTravis]

PC gaming FTW, PC gaming will never die, long live PC gaming.

[Razrback16]

Glad to hear the market grew. Just wish they'd clamp down on the dirty DRM that is being used with STEAM and online activations.

[cowie]

this is bad news cus then they will still make crappy games like the past few yrs.
addicts will buy any pos game now a days f'in console tarts ruined it all they will pre buy crap games then rant how great they are....very sad.

[randomizer]

Glad to hear the market grew. Just wish they'd clamp down on the dirty DRM that is being used with STEAM and online activations.

If people waited 2-3 weeks beyond launch before pirating a game, DRM would not be needed.

[cowie]

drm lol that will not stop a gamer addicts... console port np, online only ok no biggie, no dedi servers thats fine buy buy buy they are addicts(with po' taste mostly)

[prava]

You have yet to discover Steam's offline mode...
You do not NEED online connection to log on to Steam, which is really nice.

Steam is awesome for a gaming laptop. You don't need to be connected to the internet for a quick Torchlight fix. You don't need to carry all those DVDs with you to switch between games.


Still, I bought the box version of Mass Effect 2 collector edition. The metal box is pretty cool, and Amazon's price for the collector edition is cheaper than Steam price for normal edition...

Mate, I've been using steam since it started with CS, and I know its not realiable enough in order to trust it 100% when offline mode. Yeah, it works most of the time but I've had tons and tons of problems when offline, for one or another reason.

Besides, as I'm not on a laptop I have plenty of space to save my discs so is not a problem at all.

[Particle]

For someone like myself, it's fairly essential to have Steam. I reinstall Windows often enough to where simply not needing to ever reinstall my big pile of games is a big win.

[bfar]

Good news overall.

I hope Online Distribution reduces the influence of publishers on dev studios. Publishers have been severely punishing legitimate PC customers for a few years now. Crippling DRM systems, and the removal of mainstay features (such as dedi servers) are good examples.

It's also great to see the likes of steam and xbox live encouraging smaller developers and indys to get their stuff out there. It's these kinds of people who started PC gaming, and it's these kinds of people who are it's future.