Maximum PC: Mobile gaming is already popular, but if new data from Juniper Research proves accurate, the number of game app downloads will steadily rise to more than 64.1 billion over the next four years. That would mark a greater than three-fold increase over the 21 billion game downloads that occurred in 2012, and it's thanks to a combination of free-to-play games, more capable devices, and a growing number of smartphones around the world.
According to a report published by market analysts Juniper Research — which itself titles its findings: “In-Game Gambling: The Next Cash Cow for Publishers” — loot boxes and skin gambling could potentially fetch more than $50 billion in revenue by the year 2022.
Well... I refuse to buy any game published by EA. I also rarely play FTP games or games riddled with micro-transactions. If I do, I absolutely do not purchase anything in game.
With that being said, I'm happy that I won't be a part of that $50 billion. Sadly, way too many do not have the same mindset.
Today, during the Games Retail 2020 Event in London, UK, Market Analyst Juniper studied and revealed its thoughts and predictions for the future of Gaming which is becoming very common in home entertainment.
It already is the leading games platform in most of the world, so it is a matter of time it becomes the leading games platform in all the countries of the world. We are heading towards a future where everything will be digital & the question is will it still be called a PC or something else entirely.
The PC fell from it's throne 10 years ago.
When the PC starts getting some decent AAA exclusives like the Halflifes/Quakes/Unreals/DuesE x's/Themepark/Dungeonkeepe r s/Civs/TotalAnnihlations/Noone l ivesForevers/AVPs/Kingpin again then it will be worthwhile.
The problem with PC now is its a shell of it's former self. As a 25+ year PC gamer with 3 rigs currently. I just watch all the new blood PC users scrambling to claim how great PC is when it's not half as good as the late 90's early 2000s for games.
Most third party stuff is trash, whats the point of making a bad game look better? I'm sick to death of MOBA, I had enough of that with Warcraft 3 mods and now they're everywhere. It's either indie, MMO, or Moba.
1 game i'm looking forward to, Star Citizen. But the PC just doesn't have any killer apps anymore.
Watch the disagrees roll in.
Oh look, it's one of the biggest anti-PC trolls on N4G. Well, we all know you are a massive Sony fanboy and will do anything to downplay other platforms, but you're full of crap.
I've gamed on the PC since the 80s and I feel that things are better now than they have ever been in the past. First of all, you are overlooking a lot of fantastic PC exclusives. There might not be something of the caliber of Half Life right now, but that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of great exclusives still to be found on PC.
But what has really improved dramatically is the overall diversity of games on the PC. Back then, sure, we got a few more high-profile exclusives, but the downside is that we missed out on hundreds of high-quality 3rd party games. The consoles got literally hundreds of awesome franchises that were totally absent on the PC. That doesn't sound like a good trade-off.
Your comment that "most 3rd party stuff is a joke" only shows what a joke of a gamer you are. Like most Sony fanboys you worship exclusives and overhype each new exclusive that comes down the pike. It's a disease of the mind. Any sane gamer can see that many exclusives are mediocre or even crappy games. They are no more special in general than any other type of game.
3rd party multiplatform games comprise the vast majority of games released each year. And by extension the vast majority of my favorite games are 3rd party multiplats. As far as exclusives, yeah there are a handful on each platform that I really love...but if I was forced to choose between the exclusives from one console or the huge number of multiplats that I love I wouldn't even have to think about it. The multiplats would win for me many times over.
The PC platform today is better than ever. Nearly every 3rd party developer from the smallest, most creative indies to the biggest budget AAA developers now make games for the PC. My favorite platform is always going to be the platform that gets the broadest variety of games and the platform that can play those games with the best graphics and performance.
uh, I have multiple xbox, playstation and nintendo consoles and also several gaming PCs. I may dislike Microsoft's business practices and have said so on multiple occasions, but I still have played a hell of a lot of Xbox.
Unlike you who seems to praise the PC in pretty much every comment. I personally cannot stand the quality difference between 3rd party trash and the likes of Halo, TLOU, Gears of war etc. I guess you have to put up with it though considering your stuck with your one platform.
Either way, opinion is opinion, the PC is a baron wasteland for me at the moment if you don't like unfinished crap and greenlights. 2000 was a much better era, better and bigger games. I still remember the day I installed my first 3DFX card and played quake 2, revolutionary. You just don't get anything gamechanging on the PC now, just trivial "been there done that" crap.
Oh, and you must be delusional "The PC platform today is better than ever. Nearly every 3rd party developer from the smallest, most creative indies to the biggest budget AAA developers now make games for the PC." I think you'll find most will come to PC LAST.
I don't even know why your arguing when you only play one platform, you really don't have a clue, as do other "PC only" gamers.
@FriedGoat
You're wrong. Most generations I have owned all consoles, even some handhelds, along with my PC. This generation I only own a PS4 so far, but I definitely have plenty of experience with console gaming.
You must not have read very many of my comments because I like good games on any platform and I have said lots of nice things about PS4 games, and even good things about games on Wii U and Xbox One despite not currently owning either of those two consoles.
That said, I don't hide the fact that if I had to pick only one platform it would be the PC. The PS4 is my favorite console, but the amount of exclusives I play on it will still be dwarfed by all the multiplats and exclusives I will play on PC. Like I said, my favorite platform is always going to be the one that gives me the most options and the best experience in the overwhelming majority of games, not the platform that has one or two highly-rated, brag-worthy exclusives I can point to to rub in the faces of gamers on other platforms. I understand that sort of thing really appeals to some of you, but I just don't understand it.
I mean, The Last of Us is fantastic. Definitely one of my favorites from last gen, but it's one game. Even if I include Uncharted 2 and the small handful of other exclusives I loved on my PS3, it's still just a few games. How does that change my experience on the huge number of other games I play each year?
You talk crap about PC exclusives and pine for the old days of Half Life, Quake and Unreal, but you seem oblivious to all the positive changes that have happened in PC gaming since then. Back then you basically had to own a console unless you wanted to miss out on over half of what gaming had to offer. Nowadays if you don't own a console you are only really missing out on something like 5% of what gaming has to offer. The vast majority of games now release on PC as well. I choose to own a console (PS4 in this case) simply because I can easily afford to do so and I would prefer not to miss out on Naughty Dog's games and a few of the other good PS4 exclusives.
But this isn't to say that only the PS4 has exclusives I want. Last generation I still found just as many PC exclusives I really enjoyed as I did on any of my consoles. Not to mention the incredible number of superb multiplats I played on PC that dwarf the small handful of console exclusives I really loved.
And I tried to play some of those multiplats on my PS3 or 360, but the experience was very often terrible to me. These games had so many issues like screen tearing, stuttery framerates, horrible aliasing, blurry low-resolutions, etc, and jumping to the PC version of each game felt like a breath of fresh air. The experience dramatically improved every time.
It absolutely floors me that you make it sound like 3rd party games are trash compared to games like Halo, TLOU and Gears of War. Some of my very favorite games are multiplatform games. There are multiplats I played last generation for example that are easily as good or better than those games. Actually Gears of War isn't even particularly amazing to me (good but not great). I'm a pretty big fan of Halo and TLOU, but they aren't any better to me than games like Mass Effect 2, Bioshock Infinite or Deus Ex Human Revolution.
Hell, I saw some comments from you bashing some of the Halo games if I remember correctly, so it's funny to see you now trying to put Halo on a pedestal. You even said: "Halo 4 was the worst halo in recent memory, destiny tops it for me especially in PVP"
...which goes to show that even you tacitly agree that multiplats can be better than exclusives.
There are so many multiplat games I have absolutely loved I could spend all day talking about amazing experiences I had with multiplatform games.
Deus Ex Human Revolution
Alan Wake
Dead Space series
Mirror's Edge
Dark Souls series
Mass Effect series
Grand Theft Auto series
Portal 1 & 2
Bioshock series
The Witcher series
The Chronicles of Riddick EFBB and AoDA
Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City
The Walking Dead series
Far Cry 3
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Max Payne 3
Splinter Cell Blacklist
Tomb Raider
Sleeping Dogs
Diablo 3
Child of Light
Mark of the Ninja
Rayman Legends
Metro 2033 and Last Light
Assassin's Creed series
Castlevania Lords of Shadow series
Dishonored
Enslaved Odyssey to the West
These games (and many others) are better to me than over 95% of the exclusives out there and it would be a cold day in hell before I would ever take the far smaller number of exclusives over all of these amazing multiplatform games.
And then you are talking all this nonsense about "most" multiplat games "will come to PC last". What a load of crap. In reality most games come to the PC at the same time as the PS4 and XB1. There are a few that come a little later to PC, but then again there are also plenty of multiplats that the PC gets long before the consoles. In about a week I'll be playing The Vanishing of Ethan Carter on my PC whereas the PS4 will have to wait until sometime in 2015 to get the game. Same story as with games like Planetside 2, Warframe and Outlast.
Hey that's fine, that's your preference. But I see it the other way round.
Your right about some multiplatform games, yes bioshock and mass effect are good but they are the minority is a sea of shovelware. I usually buy 3rd party on PC too when once in a blue moon something decent comes out.
Also you neglect to mention the PC had to wait years for some of these Multiplats, so much for leading platform (which is what this is about by the way if you've forgotten)
I think maybe one of us has higher standards than the other. My tolerance to substandard games has wained these past few years.
As for me bashing halo 4, what of it? I love halo I've spent hours and hours in the halo universe and I thought 4 was a poor attempt, this does not make my argument any less legitimate. Pretty desperate scouring my comment history, anyone would think you're obsessed.
It´s already twice the size of the console market, yet... it never has outsold or will outsell the consoles.
Every game ever released for console and PC later, guess which software version sold the most...
PC gaming hardware worth $21.5bn - twice that of console market
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/r...
Excerpt :
"Committed PC gamers are generally >>>not interested<<< in >>>pure content consumption<<< platforms.
They are power users and >>>pay thousands for the ability to play games at very high settings<<< and then do business, video/photo editing, content creation and other tasks with maximum horsepower at their disposal in a desktop ergonomic environment.
So... the PC Gaming remains a niche then, the majority of PC POWER USER use their machine for work purposes primarly.... i wonder how big the market really is, if they fancy to include everything that ressembles a pc in their final report :
- People that ugrade their pc to work/edit at home
- miniscule number of ppl. that upgrade to play at 4K
- Tablet user
- Smartphones / Android
- Printers with LCDs
- 60%+ Steam Users playing at 720p and/or lower
- MMO (RPG), MOBA market saturation < thanks to F2P
Since the PS1 days, it never has outsold the console version, not once. Watch_Dogs and Titanfall being the latest examples..
And like FriedGoat said :
"it lacks games, for all those MOBAS, DOTAS, Minecrafts and new clone iterations, there´s no need to upgrade your pc at all"
PC is like the kid getting bullied, thanks to the F2P "Mentality" meteorite that hit the planet.. they´re finally back in bizniz, compare it with the 2005-2009 and now, where everything on the PC comes with a F2P tag...
Do you think, people would have supported all those F2P games, if they had to pay $60 upfront first, not knowing what they would get or what the game was all about?
- DOTA 2 for $60?
- LOL for $60?
- MineCraft for $60?
... probably not.
PC Game revenue is clearly ahead of consoles, in fact they're the market leader globally. Consoles are technically more of a niche market.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/n...
Read the article. This has nothing to do with hardware sales. Games only.
@AndrewLB
If the pc was leading, Watch_Dogs, a game that was promoted for over 1.5 years straight, would have sold the most on the pc, and that´s not the case.
As with >>every other<< console port or simultaneous pc release, the pc version was always behind every other console on the market in terms of sales.
Selling these console ports for half the price, does probably not help much either....; i wonder how come can the pc make more cash?
Many of these PC players play LoL or Dota and drop few hundreds of dollars on new chars, skin etc.. and do not require a new gpu every 2 years or so.
And a select few (~80 Mn) Steam Users playing at 720p or lower, buying their games weeks after launch for -50% or less.
Steam survives because of all those $2 sales, millions grabbin tons of 5 year old games for the cheap and never play them.
These analyst probably use LoL, WoT numbers and extrapolate > PC is leader (in that aspect it is); there is a reason why all these analysts or article never state the most important data :
"How big is the PC (Desktop Dedicated Machine) market really, you know the one representing all those buying Titans and or 770GTX/290, the real gamers in my book that play GTA, FF and Co. on the PC (not those MOBA, F2P gamers, casuals).
Is it big enough to go PC only with a Dead Rising 4, Final Fanatsy 16 or Metal Gear Solid 6 and be happy?"
Answer is : NO!
They previewed that 2015 PC would be leading gaming in 2015.
http://www.pcper.com/news/E...
Yet in 2013 console gaming was earning more money than PC and is expected to do even more money in 2014...
http://www.gartner.com/news...
So I'm very suspicious when people do claims like this.
'PC games have surpassed console games globally', back in April 2014, quicker than expected:
http://www.pcr-online.biz/n...
Have you noticed the source that your article is using?
It's actually using my link from 2011 to justify what they are saying. Not quite up to date has an info. It's the part with "PC gaming market would exceed $25 billion in 2014.".
You can see that when they speak of the 25 Billions $ for 2015 being enough to eclipse console earnings in 2015.
Console earnings in 2013 are of 44 Billions and 54 Billions $ excepted for 2014.
How is it that 25 Billions would be enough for PC to surpass console earnings?
It doesn't add up.
That's why people should always look into sources of articles.
BG11579- How's NPD for a source?
Come again, please drive thru.
http://www.8cn.tv/content/c...
And all these comments about them being home pc's bought by daddy is a bunch of BS. NPD's research shows that PC gamers are an older demographic than Console gamers, are typically post-high school in age, and buy their own machines.
Intel says there are 711 million PC gamers globally. That's 1 in 10 humans.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2014...
@AndrewLB
Your so desperate to try and make PC gaming seem relevant. Who cares how many people own a PC, obviously more people own PC's as they are for work etc.
The people who decide whether PC will ever be a lead platform again is Publishers/Developers and it's FACT that Multiplatform games sell better on consoles.
Nobody cares about how many people play F2P trash and farmville. PC was lead platform in the early 2000s and it's steadily been moving away from that ever since.
Sure Consoles got a bit stale at the end of a 10 year life cycle and PC managed to gain a bit more focus, but with the PS4 selling like hotcakes, the money in GAMES is on consoles, the PC is just a second thought for developers.
@BG11579, I believe the problem and the disparity in the numbers is due to this (quoted from your Gartner source): "The worldwide video game marketplace, which includes video game console hardware and software, online, mobile and PC games" The PC totals are only including games while the console totals are hardware and games. That is heavily skewing their numbers towards consoles. If only game sales are totaled, then, PC games are ahead. Notice that is what your first source shows (software only). Also, if Gartner would have included PC hardware (at least graphic cards and higher end CPUs), then the PC total would be much higher and probably matching or surpassing the console total. However, PC hardware can be pretty pricey and would skew the total, so I believe the best comparison would be software vs software (your first source). Gartner's numbers are not a fair comparison.
No, they compare everything. It's right on the link.
Each time they do a study like this, they put everything in the mix, or else they wouldn't be a serious study.
People believe that PC hardware ways enormously in the income of gaming. It's actually a lie.
Take for example Nvidia that only does hardware and is one of the biggest companies in PC. In 2013 they had a net income of 60 millions for a revenue of 962 millions.
http://www.anandtech.com/sh...
That's pretty low when compared to Microsoft that is mostly an software companies;
http://www.develop-online.n...
You also have to say to yourself that Nvidia numbers include numbers from PC, arm devices and other things that are used in gaming. Hardware participation in the income of gaming is further reduced. Actually, you can even see in my link that GPU sales for nvidia for 2013 even took a small dump and the revenue is compensated by the increase in sales of Tegra, used in mobile devices.
Thinking that hardware income will balance the software in income for PC is an error. Most of the profit in gaming comes from software.
Another thing that creates this illusion is the numbers of PC compared. PC PR guys tend to relay the numbers of PC in the world. They often speak of 900-700 million numbers. Which is probably right. The problem is that they relay PC numbers and not PC gaming numbers. A good example of that is Steam, which is the best most popular used platform of downloading a game in PC. There are only 75 millions accounts in Steam. So were did go the other millions of PC? Well the other PC aren't being used for gaming.
To cover this situation, some analyst actually mixed up PC numbers and mobile devices numbers, to actually misguide people to believe that PC is actually more than it is actually growing.
@BG11579, they are still not including PC hardware in that figure and it clearly states "PC Games", yet their console figure includes hardware. The reason they don't include PC hardware is because it would be too hard to distinguish which is exactly for gaming and what's for general PC use. The same with mobile devices: the revenue shown is only for gaming software and not the phones. Console hardware shouldn't be included in their figures because it skews the results. So, its not an accurate comparison. It should only be a software to software comparison.
Also, your Nvidia revenue is for only one quarter. That would make their yearly revenue nearly $4 billion. That is just Nvidia; you also have Intel, AMD, etc. Income is irrelevant because Gartner's and the other studies are revenue only. If it was an income comparison, then a lot would have to be taken off the console total since most console hardware is sold at a loss or very low profit margin. Also, comparing them to MS? MS makes a ton of revenue from non-gaming sources. Their actual Xbox revenue is peanuts compared to their yearly revenue. So why compare Nvidia with MS?
Finally, only 75 million Steam users? That's quite a lot. Plus, not all PC gaming is done on Steam. There are lots of casual users and they still spend money on games....just like those on mobile devices, yet those still get counted as gaming revenue. If you look at just software game sales, the PC market is roughly the same size as consoles. The first link you provided is the more apples to apples comparison and the Gartner's numbers are skewed to consoles by including hardware for consoles only.
PC has such a large install base from years and years and years of ppl purchasing them , back when ppl actually believed they were buying the best PC and a week later it was out of date but still well capable of running games for the next five years on high settings (anything changed?)
If PC is still king, then why are consoles even a option?
That's the question...
I know , do you?
"If PC is still king, then why are consoles even a option?"
Because of course there can only be one king/s
There's a reason why there has always been multiple kings throughout history. Some of us can say PC is king while others declare the same for the PS4, Xbox One and the Wii U.
Each can cater to different interests and gather a user base.
As for it being a lead platform in 2019 I'm not surprised as most modern families need a PC for what ever , large install base more games sold , if a child's father buys a sick PC the child wants games on it , a PC is a indgenuis companion/tool that happens to do lots of stuff , including games.
But a console isn't prone to the short fallings of the PC , I.e viruses , crashes , bugs , less triple AAA games , I'm happy with my ps4 , I'd love a high end PC also tbh. But for me money can go elsewhere , I'd never be able to use a monster PC to it's capabilities , so what's the point?
If the study is accurate, then I guess that we have to upgrade our PCs now and get ready for that trend in 2019. But that doesn't mean that console will die, of course there are exclusive games on consoles. I'm just including this so that consoile fans won't get upset or mad.
I hope the games become less shallow...