PC Gaming Is Back... Just Wearing a New Suit

Back about 5 to 6 years ago the gaming media was flooded with stories about how PC gaming had died and that consoles were growing so fast that they would completely ellipse gaming on the PC. Well back then the numbers supported it. How does the PC look today?

[ATi_Elite]

The Glorious PC Gaming Master Race
Now looking back to the 2005 to 2007 era when people thought PC gaming was DEAD has always been funny to me especially seeing how the Orange Box, Crysis, World of Warcraft, The Sims, were Kings of The World then.

That whole time PC Gaming was completely changing how business is done, changing how we interact online, making way for more Indie Devs to get games out, and reaching out to bigger and better markets like Russia, Brazil, and China.

Now you have 250 million plus Online PC Gamers worldwide and China and Brazil have a version of World of Warcraft and Warface is huge in Russia to go along with the HUGE Asian and American/Euro PC markets.

Lots of Freedom, Creativity, Indie Devs, Mod Support, Public/Private servers and just having a Voice that Devs listen to make PC Gaming for me a wonderful Hobby.

I'm looking forward to the future of PC Gaming minus Microsoft and the upcoming rise of Voxel and Ray Tracing Graphics along side more Gamer driven games like Eve Online and DayZ!

[mandf]

Steam just said this year they have 35 million members. Where do you get 250 million gamers on pc? Sales on pc don't show those numbers at all.

edit steam is supposed to be the biggest thing on pc. So what other service even comes close on pc? These are all legit questions.

[Bladesfist]

Oh so steam released sales numbers to you privately then? and there was me thinking that valve does not hand those out.

[mandf]

Last time I checked there is no way to track how many people game on pc. And yes steam did report 35 unique steam users. Other than a mmo name a game that has even broke 10 million sales on pc in the last few years. The numbers just aren't there.

[Bladesfist]

@mandf where are you getting steams sales figures from? physical sales are a fraction of PC sales.

http://www.computerandvideo...

The most preordered exclusive is for PC according to VGChartz http://www.vgchartz.com/pre...

[mandf]

I am talking digital sales. Let's pick battlefield 3, how many sales does it have on pc? Less than 10 million on pc would mean at 250 million gamers on pc is less than half percent of pc users bought it. That's not a great sale for dice with 250 million users. I'm not bashing the pc but it doesn't have 250 million users. Steam is the top seller on pc for digital games. Name me ten other services on pc that has 10 million or more users you can't do it. Physical are a very small fraction of pc sales. So that leaves digital distribution. What sites add up to 250 million unique gamers? That is the question that is not being answered.

Um your link says bioshock for xbox is number 1

[DeadlyFire]

You fail.

http://www.gamesindustry.bi...

STEAM 50 Million users. As of September/November 2012.

Origin also has 17 Million users on the PC. Claimed 30, but Mobile is 13 Million making PC have 17 Million around same time as STEAM's 50 Million mark.
Xfire has 22 Million users.

Now yes some cross paths, but some never do. MMO gamers for example huddle around certain titles and never play anything else. Like WOW. They never need many updates to play the game so PC hardware could be anything really. Some do cross into other genres, but some live in WoW, and other MMO titles eternally. Now if you add up each MMO separately with their concurrent numbers. You could easily get another 10+ Million with just WoW. Others all bundled together could add up to 5 Million or so.

All together if unique users would equate to 104 Million roughly, but I know some lines cross in there. So its likely a little less than that realistically around maybe 70-85 million Globally with growth excelling forward.

There are also large retail PC game sales numbers in regions that never see Steam/Origin.

PC sales go up and down every year. Hardware for a PC lasts a long ass time if maintained right and not always aiming for super high end tech it doesn't kill your wallet either. I got my PC in 2008. 4 years later. You know the only thing it might need. An OS upgrade to 64-bit. Not bad really.

Not all sales are on STEAM/Origin.

Digital sales numbers are never released it appears, but they can't have bad sales considering I have a bottom dollar job and over 120 STEAM games.

Sure retail is slowish, but PC gaming crowd exists in small numbers in one area and massive numbers in another. Most have sided with consoles at first, but eventually move up to a PC at some point.

One thing people seem to forget is that a PC game can last forever really if you have a server of your own and enough interest from people around you to keep it alive and play that game for as long as you want online. Unlike many console games with 2-3 year server limits before it gets axe to gut servers.

Globally considering a possible rise of PC gaming in India(4.7 Billion 2012) and Brazil. Now considering 4.7 Billion divided by $1500 PC for example could equal up to 3 Million gaming PCs in 2012 for India. Expected to reach 7 Billion in 2013 for India so possibly another 6 Million on top of that in less than 2 years. Already high number of gamers in Russia, and China. It only grows with time really.

[Bladesfist]

You are stupid. You still have not told us where you are pulling sales figures from. I said PC has the most preordered exclusive which it does according to that link (and that is only retail). Steam does not release its sales numbers, nor do any of the big digital distributors.

[sonicsidewinder]

God bless voxels.

[cpayne93]

"Now you have 250 million plus Online PC Gamers worldwide"

Not bashing pc but where did that statistic come from? I agree with most of what you said but don't use fake numbers to support what you say.

[landog]

pc gaming is truly the gamers paradise

the level of freedom, customization, amount of free content, amazing titles only possible on pc

the mods, the communities, the clans, the guilds, the indie scene, the betas, the group projects, the mmos, the rts's, the space sims, the racing sims, the freedom of controller, keyboard or racing wheel/flight stick

the sick dedicaded 7.2 audio, the level of immersion only possible at a crisp 1920x1080 or 2560x1600 with 8x anti aliasing, 3d support of 1000's of games, peripherals in numbers that make you dizzy

the multi tasking, the ability to chat with grannie in arizona, and see your nephews on christmas morning while dowloading $5 aaa titles off steam and reading through your work emial and sending a quote for a job to a client all the while a window of shogun 2 total war up

heck on my ps3, when there's a patch, i cannot do anything except look at a stupid black screen, and half the time the patch is just for some stupid ass dlc i'll never buy in a million years

mods alone make pc 100x better than anything else and would be reason enough to make it my platform of choice, everything else is just icing on the cake

a delicious, sumptuous icing

ps4/nextbox will have NOTHING on the pc i have today, i'll grab them eventually, but honestly, i know what to expect, graphics and abilities that are less than what i had on pc 3 years ago

[Perjoss]

I've recently been checking out mods for Fallout 3 and GTA IV, yeah they are quite old games but the visuals you can squeeze out of them with just a few mods is amazing. I love PC gaming :)

http://www.3ona51.com/blog/...

[N0S3LFESTEEM]

T-minus 10 secs before console gamers flood the comments.

[Septic]

Haha brilliant. You can feel the horde rushing in.

[N0S3LFESTEEM]

Seems like a slow night tonight... The wave will come though.

[RememberThe357]

Sorry I'm late!

[RememberThe357]

It's the same cycle; the consoles get released then they push the PC for about a year and a half then PC starts pulling away again. Thats the way it has been and it's the way it will be.

But really when it comes to PC gaming I'm most excited by what I've seen from those Kickstarter games. I'm by no means a PC gamer but if I get back into it, it's going to be for those games.

[tubers]

I'm waiting for the next gen consoles as a gfx whore.. I know that'll affect PC game gfx positively as well..

What I really love about PC gaming is multi-tasking though.. I always alt+tab into several forums and YT vids after playing for 30 mins. or so.. :D

[Blackdeath_663]

yeah, one thing i don't understand is that almost all console gamers have a laptop or pc of some sorts i don't understand why they just don't get a gaming pc that can do all of that in one device its also cheaper. i also don't get it when people say pc gaming is expensive when they have mobile phones and tablets that cost just as much.

[peowpeow]

This is common. I know gamers unwilling to shell out cash for a PC, own a console or 2 and tablet/phones which aren't necessary as they are not in need of the business/productivity applications of today's smartphones

[Farsendor1]

have been an exclusive pc gamer since the ps3 got hacked and haven't looked back.

i have always been into pc gaming.

killzone 3 disappointed me and then psn got hacked sold the ps3 and about 100 games for new computer parts.

i have been a more happy gamer play and beat more games and overall a better experience

[pennywhyz]

PC will never die.Next gen consoles cannot do what a pc does thats jus facts. Consoles are for fun not raw power.Cmon my gfx card alone is the same size as a console and thats just the card.use your head peeps If ya want power go with a PC it will not dissapoint you and thats just in gfx.you also have to add in its superior physics and AI that cannot be duplicated on consoles.If your not familiar with a pc do not question it.And yes i own all 3 consoles for mostly fun and some 1st party games. not for power AI and physics.They lose by a huge margin.

[urwifeminder]

It was a big investment for me but im so happy with my gear and the cheap games atm the difference is exactly what i hoped for visually.

[CYBERHATER]

The PC never left and is responsible for designing all consoles to date. :)

[kevnb]

the media wants pc gaming dead. I think its because they see a high number of pirates. PC games sell, but they figure on console those pirates would be forced to buy as well.

[N0S3LFESTEEM]

The major downfall is all the DRM we're seeing in PC games lately... If you want to play BF3 your forced to use origin, if you want to play say Farcry 3 your forced to use steam along with Uplay but I am glad they have an offline mode in both those titles in lieu of the always online DRM in some past titles. Pirating is not limited to PC in the slightest... I think X360 has a comparable amount of it going on as well so as far as that goes Sony has been doing a good job keeping it at bay but it's still possible on their console just not for the average tinkerer.

[Splitterside]

Agree with most of what you say, except Sony has had even more issues with piracy than Microsoft has had with the X360.