PC Gaming: on the up?

By Ewa Grygier
12:21 Mar 2, 2011 | 14 Comments
Tags: PC | Gaming | PCGA

Reports of the death of PC Gaming may have been greatly exaggerated, according to a new report.

According to a report commissioned by PC Gaming Alliance – a non-profit organization that aims to ‘promote PC Gaming worldwide’ – recent panic over the demise of PC Gaming may have been slightly premature. The sector, says the PCGA’s annual Horizon report, is doing just fine, with a worldwide 20% increase in revenue to $16.2 billion in 2010.

A lot of that increase is thanks to China - where PC Gaming revenue in 2010 hit a massive $4.8 billion – but the report points out that more developed markets also grew. In fact, Korea, Japan, the US, UK and Germany combined saw a very impressive 19% increase in revenue to $7.8 billion. Surprisingly, no geographical market segment saw a decline.

In a statement released this week, PCGA President Matt Ployhar describes some of the biggest factors in the growth of PC Gaming as including ‘innovative business models making games more accessible with digital distribution, free to play, and online; along with game formats embracing the shifts occurring in the evolution of the PC ecosystem to remain more profitable.’

Digital Distribution seems to be the key, and the report predicts it will continue to drive growth in PC Gaming by an average of 9% a year until at least 2014. Currently, one analyst from DFC Intelligence – the market research firm who prepared the report – says, ‘outside of direct publisher digital distribution, Valve’s Steam service dominates delivery of large client size games.’ This is likely to change, though, as other players enter the field – and more choice equals more flexibility for gamers equals good things to come.

We couldn’t get our hands on the report itself, but the release from the PCGA – and more info about the organisation itself – can be found here, if you’re interested in reading more. All-in-all, even when you consider that a great chunk of this growth probably comes from the kinds of games that none of us here would consider ‘hardcore’, it’s an encouraging look at the state of our favourite gaming platform.

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14 Comments

Acintai Mar 2, 2011 1:20 PM	I've never really been worried about the state of PC gaming, there is just too much that consoles can't do and PC's can.
philo-sofa Mar 2, 2011 2:20 PM	As much as I do agree with the this (i.e. PC gaming is going well), and as much as I love you guys loving the PC, there does seem to be a little glee in y'all when reporting these kinds of stories ;)
Opy Mar 2, 2011 2:23 PM	I am still concerned about the development of PC games. There will always be games that are developed specifically for PC, but I get the impression that a growing number of companys are focussing on console gaming and then porting the product over to PC afterwards. Sometimes this is fine, but often it is badly done.
psyckle Mar 2, 2011 3:24 PM	Yeah well this preliminary finding is all but allegation until they provide more data as to what is actually being sold. One might say that with the growing popularity of online distribution that games are becoming cheaper so people are buying more games - but that says nothing about (as alluded here by other posts) the quality of the games being produced and whether they are actually console/pc ports. With the aging of the average gamer this may be more of a factor of increasing affluence of the average gamer as well. Too many factors in play, not enough details, too hard to draw solid conclusions. The sceptic in me says this is more marketing ploy to sell the research.
SceptreCore Mar 2, 2011 3:25 PM	The PC is alive. Long live the PC.
Ekythump Mar 2, 2011 4:07 PM	VIVA LA PC!
V1RUS Mar 2, 2011 5:49 PM	+1 to Ekythump :D And as for the Pc Vs Console War Both have there ups and downs but in the end PC will be on top and will continue to rise with the release of new technology and faster internet XD
GlennsPref Mar 2, 2011 5:59 PM	That's fantastic, But what about gnu/linux compatible games(with out cedega). "I'm all for it", the games industry usually attracts ppl who will pay for the product. I'll be getting HomeFront, just for the hell of it, seems/looks OK! Oh yeah, I meant to say, thanks for your input, and your work. (read this one on Frid'y, beers!) Regards Glenn
ThorAxe Mar 2, 2011 10:39 PM	Even in 2009 the PC had by far the largest games revenue of nay platform, this just means it obliterated the small competition it had in 2010. Console game sales declined while the PC had 20% increase. LOL!!
Ekythump Mar 3, 2011 10:37 AM	VIVA LA CONSOLE DECLINE? ;)
alexdtree Mar 3, 2011 2:39 PM	i always find the PC vs Concsole battle kind of funny, as lets face it a console is esentially a computing system that doesnt allow a generic Mouse/keyboard input and has a gaming oriented design.
somemadcaaant Mar 3, 2011 5:15 PM	Yeah I really don't understand the hype of the so called dwindling pc market, without the evolving pc hardware we wont have new and better console tech that feed off the pc market, higher poly counts/res texturing/effects for even current gen consoles (KZ3)... console games come from development on a PC and the tech comes from the PC hardware, cant have one with out the other. There will always be a want for newer and better hardware/games to drive the pc market. -smc
AnthraxPants Mar 3, 2011 5:49 PM	yes, PC rulez... ...and Mac, and consoles if you install GNU operating system
Brock Mar 4, 2011 3:59 PM	Another thing to take into account is generally console figures spike when a new console is released and the few years following. After a certain time, I think console game sales suffer a bit because people tend to go all at in the beginning, buy a lot of games for the heck of it etc... And after owning one a while, that trend dies off, and you only get people purchasing console games they [i]really[/i] want. Whereas a PC is generally quite steady due to the ability to upgrade and things like that. That's what I'm like anyway, I'd imagine there'd be others the same.

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