Australian game sales - a PC win!

The console makers might be claiming giant wins for 2010, but the real winner is... the humble PC. GO PC!!!

We reported yesterday on the claims from both Microsoft and Sony in the 2010 console wars. Both came out swinging yesterday on the back of figures from 2010; from our read of the situaiton, Sony made more money, but Microsoft sold more units.

However, what of PC sales? We had thought that maybe they'd dropped off even more, but according to the body that conducted the research, GfK Retail and Technology Australia, the opposite is in fact true. PC game sales actually increased by seven per cent year on year - 3.1 million PC game units made there way into folks shopping baskets last year.

Now, that doesn't compare in total numbers to console games - that total is 16.9 million units. However, overall console sales were down by 27 per cent.

And all these figures exclude online sales and DLC. Given that, PC sales could be even healthier, given the robustness and popularit of services like Steam.

But what's the overall number for Aussie game dollars? It was an impressive $1.7 billion for last year. And, according to PriceWaterHouse Cooper, we can expect that figure to reach $2.5 billion by 2014.

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32 Comments

neX Feb 10, 2011 11:07 AM	Yay a small win for the PC
orcone Feb 10, 2011 11:14 AM	If they counted micro-transactions for hats in TF2, it would be in the hundreds of gajillions.
jdog Feb 10, 2011 11:15 AM	TAKE NOTICE GAME DEVS!!
robjl Feb 10, 2011 11:32 AM	Hope the title sold weren't played on the picture in your article ...
bnew Feb 10, 2011 11:36 AM	Great news. Hopefully this will translate into more games being brought to pc. robjl, don't worry. The pc has a turbo button that can be activated when playing Crysis ;-)
Mademan Feb 10, 2011 11:53 AM	That turbo button would probably cause a crisis. "it's on fiiiiiiiiiiiiiire!"
slash22000 Feb 10, 2011 12:52 PM	Why are digital purchses never included in these surveys? It's like only counting items purchased via hand-written cheques. I can't even remember the last time I bought a physical copy of a PC game. Steam > All.
psyckle Feb 10, 2011 1:39 PM	So how many of these 3.1 game units were Australian gamers over charged relative to the exchange rate?
Meowkitty Feb 10, 2011 1:48 PM	All of them Psyckle. I wonder how many of those were WoW. December 7th. I wonder if e'tailers would be willing or able to provide online sales data. distibutors are not bound by confidentiality agreements like etailers are about their members informaton, including buying habbits.
KayDat Feb 10, 2011 2:24 PM	@orcone http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=300
qwakqwak Feb 10, 2011 2:31 PM	a beige PC?! when was the last time any atomican has seen a beige case?
Hawkeye Feb 10, 2011 3:11 PM	So much for a sense of humour...
KayDat Feb 10, 2011 3:26 PM	Cutting edge man! 32x CDROM drive! 20MHz! Turbo Button!
UberPenguin Feb 10, 2011 3:50 PM	Why use the 32x CDROM when you could load crisis through the floppy! I mean it might take a while but just imagine the sense of satisfaction after completing the install.
Hawkeye Feb 10, 2011 4:05 PM	UB, that post deserves a LIKE button :)
Alkahest Feb 10, 2011 6:34 PM	F###ing A I Say!
Athlonite Feb 10, 2011 9:26 PM	jeez arse where'd you drag that thing up from noahs ark and you could buy Crysis on 1.44MB floppy disks do you really want to know how many that is 26GB/1.44= a butt load (1805555555.5) you'd be there longer than it's taken to bring Crysis2 to market just doing the floppy shuffle and I always buy hard copies I don't trust shit like steam
Hoonbernator Feb 10, 2011 11:34 PM	Seeing as I only bought games on Steam in the last year I think it's time we included them in our statistics...
SceptreCore Feb 11, 2011 12:36 AM	Right on jDog. How about fewer port-to-pc games eh?
KameronG Feb 11, 2011 1:17 AM	Athlonite, there's no reason not to trust Steam. I've been buying my games off steam for years and it's worked a charm 100% of the time.
KayDat Feb 11, 2011 4:44 AM	@Athlonite My calculations say 18488.8889 floppies, not 1805555555.5. Assuming ~30KB/s transfer speed from floppy, and 5sec overhead for changing each floppy: 27262976KB/30KB/s + 18489floppies x 5sec = 1001210.87sec or 278.114131 hours or 11.5880888 days straight. Have fun. =]
qwakqwak Feb 11, 2011 9:12 AM	i like turtles
Tyno Feb 11, 2011 2:08 PM	if you provide the floppies, challenge accepted
natemans Feb 11, 2011 3:23 PM	"these figures exclude online sales and DLC" 90% my games and DLC was bought through steam. I think this would be the same for a lot of PC gamers, so that makes these figures Wrong. PC should be much higher.
KayDat Feb 11, 2011 6:08 PM	Last I checked, floppies were actually quite expensive...=[ Oh, don't forget you'd have to load the damn files onto the floppies first.
Takoma Feb 12, 2011 12:39 AM	I brought Quake home from school on floppies, the game files in a spanned WinZip archive across 40-something floppies. Had to do it three times thanks to bad sectors. Man was I glad when it finally worked. Quake, at home, to play whenever I wanted. Ran at 320x240, and ate a sizeable chunk of my 400MB HDD, but it was worth it. Oh. So. Worth it.
Nchalada Feb 12, 2011 4:10 AM	I had to install Microsoft Office '95 off of floppies... all 30 of them. Twice
azamoth Feb 13, 2011 12:29 AM	And who was it that said gaming wasnt good for the economy? Oh thats right-- those unibomber politicians that don't know what a cost benefit analysis is. Digital sales are harder to calculate since they are purchased from all over the world. We are talking Australian sales here... much easier to calculate physical sales! The fact that the exchange rate did not reduce the markets willingness to buy in fact supports the fact that PC game sales are strong even more!
Dazerath Feb 13, 2011 9:25 AM	Well i think Computer Games are like Art, they were created by artists, and we Admire them but get to interact with them such a more unique and indepth way than say Paintings and Drawings. Thinking like this always talks me into buying that new game that'll probably gonna take me over budget :P. Also Perhaps the increase in console gaming is starting to work in favour for PC gaming, Theres gotta be those console gamers who are looking for a new gaming experience...a better one :) and theres the fact that technology is getting cheaper so more people own computers and are getting a lil more Tech Savy. Now who wants to play DOOM?
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giftflowersusa02 Feb 14, 2011 3:30 PM	Send Valentine’s Day gifts and flowers to USA and add a zesty surprise to the celebrations of your loved ones. Visit www.giftflowersusa.com/Valentinesday_Usa.asp
hicsy Feb 17, 2011 12:56 PM	HIT THE TURBO BUTTONNNNN!!!!11

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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 137 | June, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

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