Valve: PC Market is Not Dying, PC Retail in America is

"We have really been outspoken lately about that. There is this broken story about the PC being on the decline, right? And that is one of these things like that we are really sort of being cranky about right now and being outspoken about and saying, it is not the PC market that is dying, it is the PC retail in the states that is dying."

[TayTayShaniqua]

"Valve: PC Market is Not Dying"

If I keep repeating it it will come true!

[Charmers]

well the same could be said for the "PC is dying crowd". They have been saying that since the PS1. How many generations of consoles do we have to go through before people get it into their head the PC is NOT dying ? We had the "dying rubbish" during the PS1 era, then the PS2 era, now the PS3 era, let me guess people will be saying the PC is dying when the PS4 comes out.

[dktxx2]

Its not dying its just not flourishing.

[donator]

I'd like to see someone else say that the PC market is not dying other than Valve. Of course Valve is going to say that, they have invested too much into the PC market. They don't want people to think that there is a problem.

[Charmers]

@donator

Ok how about Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, ATI, Blizzard and Epic. That is just off the top of my head. However do you want to know why other companies are too busy claiming the PC is dying ? It is because they have too much invested in the CONSOLES. It is in their interest to talk down PC gaming because they have been induced by financial incentives to concentrate on consoles.

[iamtehpwn]

But there is more That can be gained from consoles.
An industry like this is nothing with company investment.

[SCFreelancer]

I really do not understand this discussion. Why does everyone seem to think that it is dying? I know some major developers have been eaten by the console war however, the PC as a platform has so much more potential then the consoles ever have.

Fact is that way more people have a PC then a console. It seems to me this is more of a publicity spin off thing someone in the console industry invented to draw people in.

The PC clearly isn't without problems: it faces a huge hardware/software diversity and even with a monopolist as Microsoft the market is fragmented. Fact is that there are no figures supporting the fact that the PC gaming market is dying. The available figures only support the fact that the console markt is growing.

[Gorgon]

"Ok how about Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, ATI, Blizzard and Epic. That is just off the top of my head. However do you want to know why other companies are too busy claiming the PC is dying ? It is because they have too much invested in the CONSOLES. It is in their interest to talk down PC gaming because they have been induced by financial incentives to concentrate on consoles."

Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, ATI, Blizzard and Epic have vested interests in the PC gaming market, so it's obvious they will defend it. As for Blizzard, isn't it funny that MMO's are the only example PC-only gamers have to give for the health of PC gaming? We all know that MMOs and RTS are types of games that will keep going strong on the PC more than on consoles. Korea is also a good example of that. But what about the rest? The once mighty PC FP-Shooters are long gone. Look at Crytek, do to low sales of Crysis they already confirmed that PC exclusives are off from now on. I'm sure they know very well how much money they did with Crysis. If the market is so healthy, why say clearly that the sales were disappointing and that they will make no more PC exclusives after Warhead? Funny. And Epic, they are also deveoping on the 360, they are not a PC-only company. If they were forced to choose you can bet they would drop the PC in favour of the 360. Check out how many copies Gears sold on the 360 and the PC. Or any other multiplatform shooter for that matter. I'de like to see hard numbers on sales with the related games from Steam. Funny that they don't release those numbers. People make it seem like publishers don't know how much money they are making when they license a game for release through Steam. If they choose to give more resources to consoles it's because those publishers know they make more money out of those versions.

On top of that add raising costs in game deveopment with the coming of new and more powerful techology. Selling 1.5 million copies 4 years ago for a game that cost 10 million to develop was excelent. Now a AAA game can cost 50 million to develop; 1.5 million sales doesn't cut it anymore. And guess what? You sell 3x times that if you release on consoles instead. Do you people think that publishers don't know how much money they have on the bank, how much money they get from each game they publish? If they go for consoles is because it pays better. Simple.

PC isn't dying, but its changing. It's a platform for MMOs, RTS and flash-based games with adds, nothing else. Expect the trend to continue. And with more and more HDTVs beying sold and prices going down, gaming will become more and more mainstream...with consoles leading the way for their low price and accessiblity (except, again, in the MMO and RTS department).

Stick your heads in the sand and don't look, but that won't change the trend.

[aaquib5]

No one's buying PC games, no games are being made. It's as simple as that. Buy a PS3, get a Mac and throw that POS out the window. It's useless. The alternative are better.

THINK DIFFERENT.
PLAY B3YOND.

http://apple.com
http://us.playstation.com

[Charmers]

Really so what were the 300 games being released this year ? With at least 100 of them exclusive to the PC ?. Tell me why Volitian and Criterion Games are bringing their titles to the PC ? Oh wait you can't reply because you only have 1 bubble I don't think I need to wonder why.

[predator]

PC gaming will be around for a while yet

[BludoTheSmelly]

You just don't go to the store when you can get it right from the net. That's the way i bought cod4, ill get far cry 2 and others the digital route. Too bad I can't buy blizzards title through steam, have it all in one spot.

[Revvin]

It ain't over till the fat lady sings...oh wait Gabe Newell is singing

[Charmers]

Yep all the way to the bank, funny that isn't it.

[iamtehpwn]

it was hilarious =]

[Revvin]

I'm a Steam customer myself, bought numerous titles over the years but this is all about self publicity, first its 'the PC market is not dying' now its 'pc retail market is dying but hey guess what Steam isn't' C'mon this is just more sales fluff, this shouldn't be marked as an interview or article it should be in a banner at the side of the site because its just an advertisment. I actually like the Steam service but instead of constant chest beating why don't Valve and other PC developers get their houses in order and stop releasing unoptimised rubbish with a 'release now, patch it later' mentality just so they make the deadlines for the holiday sales periods.

[MonkeyOne]

Considering Sony and MS haven't figured out how to make money on their consoles it's absurd to think PC gaming is in bad shape.

What's the business plan for the Xbox 3 and PS4

Sell $2000 worth of hardware for $400?

Yeah ... that'll work ...

[Neddy]

Yea, their strategy just does not make any sense. I focus on PC gaming but I have a PS3 my wife got as part of some sale deal with our TV, to me that thing is just a media center and collects dust. PC gaming all the way, it will never die. How do they make any profit anyway?

[Revvin]

They may well make a loss in the first few years of the life cycle of the console but they make a lot of money on the games which is why when they launch new console's you can only usually buy them in a bundle with a few games. They make most of their money off software until production costs come down and then they make a profit on hardware which given the life cycle of 10 years that they plan for the PS3 and the fact the PS2 is still selling in large numbers its easy to see how they can afford to make that initial loss.

PC gaming isn't dead but more and more of my historically PC only gaming friends who I've gone to LAN parties with for years are also buying consoles. Like me they are fed up of the 'release now, patch it later' mentality on the PC format and while a few duds get through on the console format, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have certification processes in place to maintain quality. The PC format needs someone to step up and be that kind of quality control so that gamers don't get a raw deal and less users download pirate copies of games. As it stands honest users are treated like thieves with the draconian copy protection used on games that often cause users with legal copies of games problems using them.

[omni_atlas]

Valve should shutup and make games. At their rate they are going we're going to get half-life 2 episode 3 in 5 years.

[BludoTheSmelly]

doesnt matter how long episode 3 takes itll be awesome