PC Games Sales - Has it really been that bad?

[YG_Bot]

Unless you've been living on Mars or you're not a PC gamer, you won't have escaped all the doom 'n' gloom that's been proclaimed about the sales of PC games. Various things have been blamed along the way: piracy, buggy releases, steep system requirements, cost of upgrading and so on. However, all of those factors have been prevalent for at least 3 or 4 years, so has it really been that bad recently?


Read entire article: http://www.yougamers.com/news/17520_..._been_that_bad

[Roy_Taylor]

One of the biggest issues is piracy. An investigation into that would be interesting. Anecdotally we know from the numbers registering to play on-line that the problem is huge. At the same time PC hardware sales are in excellent shape, see the results for Intel and others. So people are playing PC games and buying the hardware to do so - but where are they sourcing them from?

[Neeyik]

I've no doubt that piracy is a serious problem for PC game publishers in general, but it's unlikely to be the most significant reason for the poor sales during fiscal Q3 2008. Look at EA's figures for 12 months earlier - they're almost as good as they've ever been in the past 4 years, and Ubisoft's Q3 2007 wasn't poor (by their standards) either. Obviously Activision's PC revenue has been nose-diving since 2005 but it'll be interesting to see what their Q3 2008 numbers are like, as COD4 was a big success - they sorely need to stop the rot from going any further south.

All I know is that in the last 4-5 years I have bought few pc games but have been paying subsciptions nonstop for 1 or more MMO's.

[valtterieranen]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

All I know is that in the last 4-5 years I have bought few pc games but have been paying subsciptions nonstop for 1 or more MMO's.

Goes for me too.

[Morell]

So, WoW is to blame for poor PC sales. Curse Blizzard and their mainstream product. ;-)

[Nick[FM]]

Could the poorish sales be due to games being released on all major platforms these days? I mean most games are actually playable on consoles nowadays (referring to first person shooters mainly) and when you can get e.g. the XB360 Arcade for a fraction of the price of a comparable PC, it's no wonder that the sales start looking poor. I have no doubts that piracy is a becoming a huge problem (like it was with the Amiga) and if someone doesn't come up with something to stop it (or at least slow it down) the publishers will start to pour more money to the console versions and leave the "leftovers" to the PC conversions.

Just my 2c.


Cheers,

Nick

[HomeBrewPCiq]

Originally Posted by Nick[FM]

Could the poorish sales be due to games being released on all major platforms these days? I mean most games are actually playable on consoles nowadays (referring to first person shooters mainly) and when you can get e.g. the XB360 Arcade for a fraction of the price of a comparable PC, it's no wonder that the sales start looking poor. I have no doubts that piracy is a becoming a huge problem (like it was with the Amiga) and if someone doesn't come up with something to stop it (or at least slow it down) the publishers will start to pour more money to the console versions and leave the "leftovers" to the PC conversions.

Just my 2c.


Cheers,

Nick

Start??

[stealth_wing]

This might sound controversial, but it's a completely different view on the matter...

Piracy is a problem of all times and it will be a problem of all times. The problem is that the game industry, or even software industry, as a whole is only increasing the problem. Every single "protection" method puts the burden on those who really purchase the software and the burden is getting bigger every year.

From the constant nagging "do you really have a valid copy? Let's do another check" all the way to spyware like methods of installing as a Ring-0 kernel mode driver disabling all kinds of stuff that people might actually need.

Those who run the pirated copies do not experience that crap and simply laugh at those who have bought the software and have to go through all the hassle. And then the industry is surprised that people stop buying and start copying...

I also believe the industry likes to exaggerate the piracy problem. After all, it's the easiest victim when sales have fallen. I can find plenty of reasons: games are no longer exclusive to the PC, you need new hardware at an ever increasing pace, more mediocre games, life has become more expensive and games are luxury products,...

I'm quite sure consoles will go the same route as publishers seem to think it's less of a problem there. The more they go for the easy console money, the higher the chance of piracy becoming a real problem there too. And then we're back at a levelled playing field...

[Nick[FM]]

Originally Posted by HomeBrewPCiq

Start??

Well, there are still some games which are PC only, and developed for PC and then converted to the consoles. Not many, but some. Have a bit of faith here!

The thing with consoles and piracy is that people need to mod the consoles in order to play illegal copies, in addition to get a hold of an illegal copy of course. That's a thing very few know how to do, and I dare to say that most console owners in the world are youngsters and their parents would never allow them to void the warranty. Even if they would, the hassle to get a mod-chip is difficult, the chip isn't free, you need to know how to solder it and you risk of putting your console to RIP. Oh, and you need to find the illegal copy on the net.. All that.. is it really worth it? On the PC, you don't need to "mod" anything. Just get the game and you're off playing it. :/ This is just how things are.

My point is that piracy is on both consoles and PCs, but it's damn more difficult to "get into it" on the consoles. On the PC, it's just a download away..

Cheers,

Nick