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?

To see how things have been for the big publishers, we took the fiscal reports from Electronics Arts, Ubisoft and Activision - arguably the three biggest in PC game publishing. We picked their net revenue figures for publishing only, and where possible, examined the amount accrued by the following platforms:

• PC
• PlayStation 2
• PlayStation 3
• Xbox
• Xbox 360
• GameCube
• Wii

It has to be said that this was a tedious task, not helped by the fact that publishers seem to change their reporting habits randomly, and in the case of one particular European company, change the reported figures too. Anyway, the following three graphs represent the revenue for all platforms for each financial quarter for EA & Ubisoft, and financial year for Activision (their quarterly reports were just too much to cope with, at this time of night...):

Just ignore the PC results for the moment, and look at those console figures - especially the PlayStation 2, as it's the biggest earner for EA and Activision by a huge margin (more so for the latter). Activision have yet to release their Q3 results, hence why their chart's lines seem to dive right down. The PS2 was a big money maker for Ubisoft too, but it's clear that they dropped that particular console quite quickly and have concentrated on the "next gen" machine. For all three publishers, the Xbox 360 is very much their favourite cash-cow. But what about the PC? 2007 had some fantastic releases (as shown in our review of the year) but it was also notable for the amount of games that needed NASA-grade PCs to run them - so let's look at what the claimed revenues have been like:

The key sections to look at are the Q3 results (sorry for not doing them for Activision but you try looking at their reports!), as fiscal years run from 1st April in one year to 31st March in the next, thus the quarters run as follows:

• Q1 = April, May, June
• Q2 = July, August, September
• Q3 = October, November, December
• Q4 = January, February, March

This means that Q3 = the big Christmas sales! Notice how Q3 2006 wasn't a great year for any of them, but that's because there was a bit of a dearth of decent PC games released around that time. EA have always had The Sims franchise to fall back on when it comes to PC games sales, but it didn't help them this time around. In fact, despite the glut of top releases in Q3 2007, PC revenues have been decidedly flat all round....

So if we return to the starting question - "Has it really been that bad?" - then the answer is a rather depressing yes. The real puzzle is just exactly why and what this bodes for 2008 and beyond. Aside from the issues raised above, there's a good chance that the relatively poor sales are down to the games themselves; look at what each publisher actually released on the PC during the latter part of 2007:

Electronic Arts

• Hellgate: London
• SimCity Societies
• Need for Speed: ProStreet
• Medal of Honor: Airborne
• Crysis

Activision

• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• Soldier of Fortune: Payback
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Ubisoft

• The Settlers: Rise of an Empire
• Blazing Angels 2
• Heroes of Might & Magic V: Tribes of the East

...plus a few others. Not a bad list, but not a great one either. The only two outstanding games are Crysis and COD4, but we all know what kind of a PC the former needs. The others bring phrases such as "too short" or "too buggy" to mind, so hopefully 2007 has been a bit of glitch. Perhaps if publishers and developers take more time over their products, we'll see a better end to 2008. Eidos has already decided to do this, so let's see what happens with the others.

Can PC gaming afford another year of weak sales?

Comments

	Roy_Taylor 2008-02-07 #1 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 2008-02-07 #2 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.
	Unregistered 2008-02-07 #3 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 2008-02-07 #4 Quote: 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 2008-02-07 #5 So, WoW is to blame for poor PC sales. Curse Blizzard and their mainstream product. ;-)
	Nick[FM] 2008-02-07 #6 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 2008-02-08 #7 Quote: 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 2008-02-08 #8 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] 2008-02-08 #9 Quote: 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
	wolf2009 2008-02-08 #10 Quote: Originally Posted by 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? Haha , nice point .
	admiralFlameberg 2008-02-08 #11 Quote: Originally Posted by 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... So you saying because I dont have problems with the protection that I didnt buy my games that uses starforce and what not . Just because you have those problems or some other folks do not mean I suppose to have them also. I bought all of the games I own, and I dont have those so called protection problems. I haven ran into one of them either. Maybe I dont have the hardware that it doesnt like , I dont know Or I just lucky. But back on topic, yea if people have money to pay 100+ for hardware. they should have more then enough to pay 30-50 for a game, and yea those people are hurting the sell of of pc games. If they think 50 dollars is too much, they should just wait for the prices of games to stop. then grab the game.
	Unregistered 2008-02-08 #12 There was an extremely depressing comment made about priacy and Crysis on GFW podcast. Shawn Elliot had talked to a producer or somebody at EA after the numbers were released on how many copies Crysis sold within its first month. Crysis sold somewhere around 86k units within its first month or couple of months. The EA representitive talked to Shawn about tracking piracy downloads. He gave an esimate or number at least of 14k copies were being downloaded. If that story is even half truth any number as large as 14k copies priated compared to 86k sold, that is just astoundingly depressing. I guess there are still plenty of jerks out there that have no idea what kind of work these developers go through (it is simply one of the hardest least thankful jobs out there bar none), and then when one of them bends over backwards to support the PC that get their whole arm bitten off.
	stealth_wing 2008-02-08 #13 Quote: Originally Posted by admiralFlameberg So you saying because I dont have problems with the protection that I didnt buy my games that uses starforce and what not . What kind of conclusion is that? I haven't had any problems either but software like starforce has a pretty big potential to cause problems. To name just one, it's possible you can no longer use daemon tools if you have starforce on your system. That's unacceptable in my opinion. The fact is that buyers of the software are the ones who have to go through authentication processes and, in the worst case, have to install some invasive software. It doesn't matter if it causes problems for you or not, it is invasive software if it has to install itself as Ring-0 software. All these copy protections also mean another thing: they're preventing me from exercising my legal right to create a backup copy for personal use. If I do create that copy, I would need to resort to cracks before I can use the copy. That would mean I'm modifying the software which is illegal. So how can I create a backup without going illegal? Perhaps the software industry needs a couple of managers from the music industry...
	Jarnis 2008-02-08 #14 Big part of this "PC sales are down" is that nobody is tracking online (digital download) sales, and Steam & Direct 2 Drive keep their figures close to their vests. Nobody is counting MMO subscription fees either. These two chunks of cash, while probably not a majority _yet_, will be that in the very near future. The statistic used (retail box sales) is getting obsolete, and while PC is the frontrunner, this is true even with consoles due to XBox Live Arcade and PS3 network thingy. Yet it is being pushed as the metric to follow - by the retailers, who face extinction in the mid-long term. You can be sure that GameStop and their kind will fight to their last breath to hold retail as the "real" sales channel. Remember - if game boxes go by the way of dinosaurs, their highly lucrative used game business will go byebye. Ten years from now, we'll laugh at the idea of buying a box in a store to get a game as every console and computer will have terabytes of disk space, and bandwidth capacities are such that (re)downloading a 10 gigabyte game is something you can do while you eat your dinner... In fact, if you want to see the future of game distribution, go get WoW trial. You'll be shocked how quickly you'll get to play the game... Same goes for direct online purchase of Guild Wars. (Hint: In both cases, all you get is a downloader that quickly grabs the bits you need to start playing, and the system keeps downloading additional content as you play, and with a reasonably fast broadband, it could all be done seamlessly - as far as the player is concerned, it took him ten minutes to buy, download and start a game) For PCs this is (slowly) happening today. For consoles, we need to wait for another console generation - possibly two, if old school retail dinosaurs lobby well - but it's coming.
	Neeyik 2008-02-08 #15 Quote: Originally Posted by Jarnis Big part of this "PC sales are down" is that nobody is tracking online (digital download) sales, and Steam & Direct 2 Drive keep their figures close to their vests. Nobody is counting MMO subscription fees either. Perhaps in terms of sale figures, but not for revenue - which has clearly been down this last Q3 for EA, Ubisoft and Activision, in comparison to the previous one.