PC gaming grows 8% in 2012

“The PC Gaming industry showed strong overall growth of 8% in 2012, partly as a result of the Chinese market gaining traction in the $20 billion global market with record revenues of $6.8 billion,” said DFC analyst David Cole. “In spite of media focus on mobile games and struggling social network games, there are now over 1 billion PC gamers worldwide and that number will continue to grow as more PCs connect online. The ‘PCGA Pinnacle Report for Software’ describes this in close detail.”

[WUTCHUGUNNADO]

Keep this article in mind everytime someone tries to tell you PC gaming is dead... far from it.

[SilentNegotiator]

"Oh yeah?! Well the PC industry "not for profit" consortium, whose members pay $5K-$30K in dues, prepared stats that say its NOT! HA!"

I'm not saying that PC gaming is dying. I'm saying that industry fatcats claiming that their own industry saw growth in such a broad category as "PC gaming" isn't an "in your face" source.

They even point out that a lot of it is because of the growth of the Chinese market, where Pay 2 Wins are huge right now.

@kevnb
Special interest groups aren't in the business of telling the "truth"

[WUTCHUGUNNADO]

Didn't understand that first part... got the 2nd and the 3rd though.

[kevnb]

wll who else is going to tell the truth? Retail hates pc right now, but retail is about to lose consoles too.

[Pandamobile]

Lol, fatcats? Two of the main people behind the PCGA are game developers.

[SilentNegotiator]

@Panda

"LOL, fatcats? Look at two of the members! An entire two seventeenths of the main groups!"

The biggest members are mostly hardware and/or tech corporations.
http://pcgamingalliance.org...
(and might I remind you that Epic's stake in this is being one of the biggest game engine license salesmen in the industry? Not so much in being developers, where they have so often side-steped the platform the last few years)

A consortium of corporations and other persons/groups spending thousands of dollars on membership are GOING to warp stats in their favor to make themselves look good to investors. I know, it's hard to believe with how ethical corporations are, but that's something that they do.

[MikeMyers]

It's always good to see positive growth in gaming, PC or any other sector. I imagine the stalled release of new console hardware helped generate interest as well.

[Donnieboi]

@Wutchugannado:

Yeah but how many of these 8% are playing on souped-up gaming rigs? Or even half way decent rigs? Also, the inclusion of DRM is also putting a damper on bootleg games, thus causing the illusion that more people are playing, when in actuality, more people who have already been playing (though illegally), are now forced to have to pay up due to DRM which eliminates bootlegging as [their] prefered way of getting games.

Also, need I remind you that aside from some mmo's, and other game, the pc hardly has many AAA titles that require you to pay to play (many are free or microtransactions), and many of these free games don't require a great pc due to being Cloud or browser-run software.

Where is the evidence that the actual number of NEW gamers is up this year (aside from the illusion that more people are playing due to the decrease in bootlegging via DRM)? None.

[fermcr]

PC gaming has been growing and console gaming has been decreasing every year...

... so i guess PC gaming is dying. /s

[landog]

as consoles sink in the tar pits of obscurity, pc gaming rises to its rightful place as top of the food chain, it makes more money than ps3/36/wii combined

next gen it is going to dominate even harder, far less people will buy a ps4 than ps3, same with xbox720, it will not get anywhere near the sales the 360 did

look at wii u and vita.....esshhhhh....those things might as well be cancelled all together

pc forever!!!

[SilentNegotiator]

The Wii U isn't going anywhere because the price is outrageous and it doesn't properly pander to either casuals (the masses) or hardcore (the group that pays a lot more money). Vita has shown that price is a major barrier for itself, as a handheld, quickly increasing sales by price cut (in Japan).

Consoles "sinking into tar pits of obscurity"? Whatever helps you sleep at night, Elitist troll. Consoles are only seeing sales slow because the generation was dragged out too long and everyone knows that new hardware is on its way. And "PC gaming makes more than all the consoles" is only true because "PC gaming" covers a stupidly broad group from Facebook to Steam to etc.

Must you make all of us PC gamers look bad?

[punisher99]

Now thats absolute blasphemy. If it wasnt for consoles. There would be no gaming industry period. You PC elitist with all your pirating would have killed the industry. Big 3rd party publishers like Konami, capcom, Activision, EA make most of their money off of consoles.

[landog]

http://www.computerandvideo...

EA makes more money from pc than ps3

Activision is Activision/Blizzard, half of the entire company is pc only.....consoles are declining, as evidenced by the deplorable vita and wii u sales, ps4 and nextbox will not sell anything close to ps3 360 numbers...its just the way it is

don't get wrong, i love consoles....i have ps3/360/wii/ds/psp/ps2 and a ps1 even with the attached lcd screen....i love all games, but pc is dominating

consoles are far behind in every possible way....pc is already FAR beyond ps4/nextbox

1600p
16x anti aliasing
huge players base with 1000's on the same server
dedicated servers
60-120 frames per second
insane mods and community projects
kickstarter

its in a league of its own

[xPhearR3dx]

Oh really? Interesting seeing how Diablo 3 sold over 10 million copies in 6 months time as of November of 2012. Call of Duty is the only console game to pull numbers like that. You're just so naive due to consoles being mainstreamed.

I understand your jealous because you wish you had a PC. Maybe one day you will.

http://www.computerandvideo...

[SkyGamer]

landog has a point. Don't know what MS is doing and it may be in their best interest to make an entertainment cable box than a pc games console. Problem most people will face is that either you will spend 400+ on a ps4 or spend another 100 bucks and get a laptop with similar specs, at least the eight core and ddr3 laptop ram is dirt cheap. Maybe not the 7970m but at least a gtx630m which is more than suited to play most games. People just don't have the time to sit down and invest more than 2 hours into something. The mass normally would generally prefer spending a little bit of precious time just casually doing something, browsing the web, facebook, tv crap like that. Reason why shooters are popular because you can jump online, play a few matches then jump off. If the holodeck isn't real in the new Xbox, they will not do well either. Can't just have prettier graphics anymore. You should be rejoicing as this means more story and a different way to interact with the game instead of the tired old method. If the industry doesn't do something different, it will just be a distant memory. Like it or not but interaction is the new way to play. We have had a controller for about 30 years since the nes. Time to mix things up.

[Qrphe]

There is no such thing as 1600p; what you're referring to is WQXGA which is 2560x1600.

[CEOSteveBallmer]

Owning all consoles is different from favoring one system. You may have ps3 360 but clearly your a PC Elitist. Then dont buy PS4 and Xbox 720p. Lets see how many "exclusive" games you can play. Hell even Blizzard partnered with sony giving diablo 3. To counter your point...

Consoles Forever!!!

[punisher99]

The title of the article you replied to me said "EA is making more from PC than PS3". Thats probably true. But thats just one console. My point is that they sell more games on the consoles than they do the PC platform which is the #1 reason why consoles isn't going away anytime soon. And if they do go away, so will the gaming industry. COD Modern Warfare 3 have sold 14 million on the 360, about 13 million on PS3, and only 1.5 million on the PC. Another example, Battlefield 3 sold just over 6 million on the 360, and just over 6 million on the PS3. But only sold just over 2 million on the PC. Another example? Skyrim sold around 7 million on the 360. 4.5 million on the PS3, and only 2.8 million on the PC. There is no way the consoles are going anywhere, because there is no way the developers can survive without them.

[landog]

thats 1.6 million pc retail, the digital downloads from amazon, steam, greenmangaming, gamers gate etc are not counted.....though i do agree many AAA multiplat games sell best on console, more so the 360/////

skyrim did 2.8 million on pc RETAIL.....probably almost 5 million on pc total with digital

but the reason AAA mulotiplats don't sell as well on ps3 and pc is becuase the have more exclusives.....pc has more exclusives than wii/ps3/360 combined

plus mods and freetoplay........so many choices for a pc gamer.....call of duty is like a last resort....on xbox...lol...what else is there... halo or gears

pc has games like arma 2 and 3.....stalker....people are like "call of what???"

[Letros]

This freight train's only gonna get bigger with Steam Box.

[urwifeminder]

Im one of them so glad i moved to pc as my primary gaming device sure ive spent over $2,000 ,the steam sales are amazing when i get the next xbox i will only buy bargin games.

[tee_bag242]

Digital download sales are worth the move to PC alone. I don't care if I have to spend $2000 on quality hardware. I'd rather it go towards hardware than over priced software and paying to game online (again) etc.
I got a mean 'overpriced' Alienware m18x r2 crossfired June last year - no turning back for me. Since then, my 3 closest coop buddie went out and bought rigs too lol

[SilentNegotiator]

Alienware?

Tee_bag242...
Y U NO BUILD?

@below
Ahhh, right, that's a laptop model.
Still, don't go with Alienware. They're so over-priced.

[ninjahunter]

theres a nice convenience factor to laptops that makes it worth it.

[Truehellfire]

Agreed. Its not like he went and bought an Alienware desktop. I assume he needed a laptop for specific reasons. Probably needs to take it back and forth places

[SJPFTW]

except AlienWare laptops weigh like cement blocks. So essential they are desktops with a built in monitor LOL. For a fraction of the price you can get build a way better gaming rig and still have enough left over for a real portable laptop like them ultrabooks

[Qrphe]

Alienware? You never have to spend thousands to play PC games.

[kevnb]

if you follow tech you will see that alienware are inconsistent with pricing. Sometimes you get a really fair price for a great machine from them.

[tee_bag242]

Not arguing with you on that buddy

[tee_bag242]

All valid points fellas.
I did need the portability of it so a rig couldn't work for me at this stage Silent :( - otherwise I probably would have. Considering what I run and what I've done to it I couldn't have got anything cheaper unless I compromised performance - Ie Sager or MSI.
The thing I like about the Alienware (particularly the m18x) is its the only laptop that has unrestricted OCing and a cooling system worth bothering to do so.
I installed an Extreme processor and other components without Dell voiding my warranty which is the number 1 selling point to me about AW (laptops). We all like to tinker so not throwing my warranty away while doing so is a massive " +1 "
I'm now running a 3920xm 46/44/44/43 on the multipliers, so 4.3Ghz 24/7 stable on the IB.
Its disgustingly fast for a laptop - Mark 11 - 12000 + points.
Sorry to sound like such a douch but its good if I can let you know where Im coming from :)

[brettyd]

I'll never buy a gaming PC because I wouldn't want to be linked to all these PC snobs on this site. PC elitists are the worst kind of fanboy. Like we KNOWWWW your platform has the best graphics! must be compensating for something.

[WUTCHUGUNNADO]

You think your insulting anyone by calling them elitists... I feel flattered. People with Xbox's and PS3's go through the same arguments and I bet if you didn't come off with such an attitude towards us you would get much better feedback.

[PotatoClock]

To shun a gaming system just because of a minority of fanboys, rather than the merits of that system, is the dumbest justification I've ever seen.

Let alone the fact that EVERY system has their fanboys.
You obviously didn't shun your own system when you chose it because of fanboys, or are you a non-gamer on a gaming site?

[brettyd]

@potatoclock, I agree, that is a dumb reason. I was kidding, just making a point. Getting annoyed with all the fanboys on the site, PC fanboys seem to think their sh*t doesn't stink.

[Lone_Man]

thats sad man.....i am with you dont worry

[Peekayboo]

Consoles have the kid market cornered, If they're still gamers when they grow up they will get a pc

[tigertron]

and where is your evidence to support that? I'm an adult console gamer, I have a PC but it's not cut out for games and I don't see myself buying a gaming PC/upgrading any time soon.

[Lone_Man]

Big Companies focuses on consoles because they know the game will be cracked on PC one way or another...nd i think thats why that many games were launched before one month on PC....and a wise man shouldnt compare PC industry with Consoles one....on torrent websites i see new launched games cracked one day after the release and thats really sad... one of the ironic thing about the cracked game providers are that they write a thing in the end of there post that "if you like the game than buy it" ...WTF man!!!i work my @ss hard to make money to buy games (most of them were shit) and some chump download it for free and play them...and the thing is workers in gaming industry also have families and mouths to feed so they also think about it...people say they are mean because they dont launch exclusive on pc...but they also have to make money to keep going on...

[MeatAbstract]

Piracy exists on nearly all formats but yes, its far easier on PC.

You said so yourself though, you work your ass off to play games and most of them were shit. You probably felt ripped off and like you wasted your money. That's why some people do it - to try before they buy. People also leave comments like that because they're offering their opinion on it. People may be downloading because they haven't been paid or have no money at that time. I've cracked a couple of games for that very reason but did I end up buying them? Of course I did because they were excellent games and deserved my money.

But piracy will never stop but you can improve your numbers. Most people I know that pirate games do it because they feel the games aren't worth buying. They are inferior products. They'll buy games that genuinely are a great product and have been worked on and tested and released. I'm pretty sure the numbers for BioShock Infinite on PC will speak for itself and that's a singleplayer game, no multiplayer and probably the easier game to crack but so many people have bought it.

[Lone_Man]

but i think that's why we have review websites...to know about games quality...and i think the point of view towards downloading a pirated game is more of a morality issue rather than the logical one... because still people work hard to provide us with games and we should respect that by BUYING them instead of downloading them for free(its a risk to buy games though)...

[Martywren]

PC is so badass. I want Blade n Soul.

[MeatAbstract]

Great news. I built my gaming PC last year and have loved it since. I'll definitely be taking it into the next generation.

As for the debates and that always kick off around these articles - the games industry is HUGE and there will be always room for games and gamers of every type. Whether you play consoles, PC, iPhones, handhelds, whatever, everyone has their preference and whatever choice you choose is neither right nor wrong. Just enjoy what you do.

Personally, I like PC and consoles and I certainly look froward to what each one has to offer in the future.

Play nice, everyone.