Report: Record PC Games Sales in 2011

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Despite what the doomsayers have been chanting lately, PC gaming is alive and well. Not only is PC gaming alive and well, it is actually setting records:

Per the press release put out today by the organization, PC game sales have risen globally by 15% year-over-year in 2011, reaching a record $18.6 billion. Also noted is the continued growth of the PC games market in China, whose year-over-year growth hit 27%, or $6 billion.
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Clearly this report must be wrong, because as we all know piracy is killing the PC games market :p
 
Reading the report, much of that is social gaming like farmville and the like. So while this is good news in a way, it isnt QUITE as awesome as it first appears.
 
Chihlidog said:
Reading the report, much of that is social gaming like farmville and the like. So while this is good news in a way, it isnt QUITE as awesome as it first appears.
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Damn no edit button -

To clarify, I'm overall encouraged by the article, but I hate the facebook games being classified as "PC".
 
Chihlidog said:
Reading the report, much of that is social gaming like farmville and the like. So while this is good news in a way, it isnt QUITE as awesome as it first appears.
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True.

Most sales statistics for PC gaming are wrong anyway, as they completely neglect digital downloads through services such as steam, Origin, etc.

They only report on retail box sales, which we know are tanking.

I cant' say for sure, but if I had to wager a guess I would guess that if you included data from all digital distribution channels for PC games, even traditional PC games would be seeing the biggest surges ever.

What's dying is not traditional PC games. It's the traditional retail box distribution model.

No one want's to deal with that old fashioned shit anymore, except a few Luddites on their little personal crusade against Steam, and they don't buy all that many games anyway, so they don't really count.
 
The problem with most of these pc-games and sales sites are that thing slike Steam/Origin, do NOT give out that data.

Steam has a ton of users, but no one outside of Valve and the specific publisher know how well the game sold.

I wish game sales could be seen clearly , digital and brick and mortar, to onc eand for all shut up this back and fourth of which sales more/is dead/alive, etc.

PC gaming I think would tak ea huge chunk of game sales if we could see how much sales they do digitally.

I mean look at music, can you imagine if Itunes wasn't "counted" as far as music sales go and only lcd's? That'd be a HUGE difference.
 
Stiler said:
The problem with most of these pc-games and sales sites are that thing slike Steam/Origin, do NOT give out that data.

Steam has a ton of users, but no one outside of Valve and the specific publisher know how well the game sold.

I wish game sales could be seen clearly , digital and brick and mortar, to onc eand for all shut up this back and fourth of which sales more/is dead/alive, etc.

PC gaming I think would tak ea huge chunk of game sales if we could see how much sales they do digitally.

I mean look at music, can you imagine if Itunes wasn't "counted" as far as music sales go and only lcd's? That'd be a HUGE difference.
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Agree with both you and Zarathustra[H]. I want to see steam/origin figures. Last time I bought a physical game it was because I had a gamestop gift card (Fallout: New Vegas). I friggin love Steam.
 
Well it is safe to say this was a foregone conclusion. Why? Simple. There's no reason for EA to build and then publish Origin if PC sales were a dying breed. As everyone here has already noted the dying element is the traditional box on the shelf DVD sales element.
 
The numbers sound fishy to me:
Total Global PC Game Sales: $18.6 Billion
PC Game Sales in China: $6 Billion

Isn't China where PC software companies claim that there's a >90% piracy rate?
 
I wish more developers felt the same way. PC is the superior platform... well for the consumer, still better sales on consoles, but they still suck BIG TIME!
skyrim and creation kit are keeping me busy and making duchebox/pms3 owners like my son, jealous!
 
We forgot to Factor in the MegaUpload has taken away $13,000,456,654 total dollars of pirated software sales, Well thats what the USA government claims.
 
Lately a lot of people I know are jumping on PC gaming. Mostly because of Steam sales. Serious Sam 3 for $13, and Skyrim for $40 makes for some good gaming. Especially after Xmas where there was a slew of sales on Steam. A lot of people still haven't gotten around to playing all the games they bought.

Like I've always said, console games shouldn't be pricing games at $60 when clearly not all games deserve that price tag. Their price model will be the doom of console gaming.
 
bbf said:
The numbers sound fishy to me:
Total Global PC Game Sales: $18.6 Billion
PC Game Sales in China: $6 Billion

Isn't China where PC software companies claim that there's a >90% piracy rate?
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This is why the market approach is quite different there. The focus in China (and similar Asian regions) is to market subscription or (and now more so) microtransaction based online games. The latter is also particularly interesting because China has a huge growing wealth and class gap.

There is now also beginning to be a trend where games versions reworked for this model are released for the Asian/Chinese market compared to a more traditional version released elsewhere.
 
bbf said:
The numbers sound fishy to me:
Total Global PC Game Sales: $18.6 Billion
PC Game Sales in China: $6 Billion

Isn't China where PC software companies claim that there's a >90% piracy rate?
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But there are A LOT of Chinese people :p

It only takes a small percentage of them each buying one game to make up the numbers :p
 
bbf said:
The numbers sound fishy to me:
Total Global PC Game Sales: $18.6 Billion
PC Game Sales in China: $6 Billion

Isn't China where PC software companies claim that there's a >90% piracy rate?
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Zarathustra[H];1038467523 said:
But there are A LOT of Chinese people :p

It only takes a small percentage of them each buying one game to make up the numbers :p
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Quite so!

It is obviously time for USA game developers to quickly pirate all Chinese made games and STRIKE TO THE HEART OF THE TIGER!
(copyright/pat pending...guaranteed to be as big a tag line as 'all your base is belong to us' Now accepting advertisement and buyout offers starting @ 1bil USD)
 
Zarathustra[H];1038466968 said:
What's dying is not traditional PC games. It's the traditional retail box distribution model.

No one want's to deal with that old fashioned shit anymore, except a few Luddites on their little personal crusade against Steam, and they don't buy all that many games anyway, so they don't really count.
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Luddites is a rough analogy. Well, that is not to say if gamers don't like playing video games, but do anyway because it puts food on the table.

But you can't blame us for questioning Steam when we have to load(And log in to) an application to load a game that can run independently. An application that tells me what's going on in their universe that I could fucking care less about, let alone trying to take more of my money by presenting good deals without my consent and eating up memory, and then update itself to become more of a resource hog. But why be bothered by this when I can get games CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP??? To ignore that this isn't killing the traditional way of PC games is baffling.

If you're clueless about PCs, then perhaps your argument could have some merit.
 
//[T.0.P]//;1038468687 said:
Luddites is a rough analogy. Well, that is not to say if gamers don't like playing video games, but do anyway because it puts food on the table.

But you can't blame us for questioning Steam when we have to load(And log in to) an application to load a game that can run independently. An application that tells me what's going on in their universe that I could fucking care less about, let alone trying to take more of my money by presenting good deals without my consent and eating up memory, and then update itself to become more of a resource hog. But why be bothered by this when I can get games CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP??? To ignore that this isn't killing the traditional way of PC games is baffling.

If you're clueless about PCs, then perhaps your argument could have some merit.
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You can turn off auto updates, you can run steam in offline mode (provided you've logged in within x time recently).

Steam in of itself is still a form of DRM, that's one of the reasons many publishers have moved to it, there's no disregarding that.

Hoewver in of itself, it's not that invasive and you can opt out/turn off many things some people say are an annoyance about it.
 
Stiler said:
You can turn off auto updates, you can run steam in offline mode (provided you've logged in within x time recently).

Steam in of itself is still a form of DRM, that's one of the reasons many publishers have moved to it, there's no disregarding that.

Hoewver in of itself, it's not that invasive and you can opt out/turn off many things some people say are an annoyance about it.
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I see what you're getting at, but I don't think it's any justification to the initial argument that the traditional way of PC games isn't dying, or to what you said about Steam not being too invasive when you have to do all those things to rid of their marketing practices in the first place. What's changed in the way we play PC games now from not even a decade ago is enormous. And, like you pointed out, most likely to DRM. And, from my perspective, the increasing popularity in console gaming to where console ports is the norm.
 
Stiler said:
Steam in of itself is still a form of DRM, that's one of the reasons many publishers have moved to it, there's no disregarding that.
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These days you are going to get DRM whether you buy a title in a store or on a download service.

If you go with Steam at least you know what your are getting, instead of having 12 different forms of DRM from 12 different game titles possibly fucking up your machine behind the scenes, like the Sony Rootkit.

Steam is - IMHO - nearly universally positive. It eliminates the need to manually hunt for and install updates, it has a permanent location online for all my titles, so I don't have to worry about scratched/lost discs, it has an integrated useful community and game browser making it easy to find your friends.

The only downside IMHO - and it's not a small one - is the inability to resell/give away games when I'm done with them or if I didn't like them.

Otherwise just about everything about Steam is positive.

//[T.0.P]//;1038468687 said:
eating up memory, and then update itself to become more of a resource hog
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Are you running a 486 or something? Steam uses almost no CPU cycles, and RAM use is pretty much a moot point in a world where you can get 16GB of good ram for under $80...

I think you have some sort of irrational anger issues regarding this...
 
//[T.0.P]//;1038468841 said:
I see what you're getting at, but I don't think it's any justification to the initial argument that the traditional way of PC games isn't dying, or to what you said about Steam not being too invasive when you have to do all those things to rid of their marketing practices in the first place. What's changed in the way we play PC games now from not even a decade ago is enormous. And, like you pointed out, most likely to DRM. And, from my perspective, the increasing popularity in console gaming to where console ports is the norm.
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From my experiences of playing pc games since the early 90's, as far as DRM goes Steam is one of the most un-invasive if you know what you are doing.

Bar that cd keys were the second best in terms of protecting the game and not hurting the end-user in most cases.

I'd take steam over early cc protection any day, like those old games where you'd have a wheel to use, or have to select "x" word from the manual on page "x" line "y."

There's advantages and disadvantages to digital vs physical. Having all games tied to your acount, being able to sign in from anywhere, on any computer and have access to your entire library vs having to lug around cd's or having to write down cd keys that can get lost/damaged.

I wish more digital distributions were like GoG, one of the only ones that sale games with zero drm in them, even going as far as releasing their first [party game The Witcher 2 on it just to show how much faith they have in it.

Man ypublishers just don't wanna risk it, so to me Steam is second-best.
 
Wait.. how can there be record sales when we are told that Piracy is rampant and it strips billions from creators' pockets?
 
To all you people that tried to argue why it was ok that they raised the price to $59 : *BIG MIDDLE FINGER*

The price should have been LOWERED when games became a mass market item. I don't pirate, but I say: go modchip makers, free the PS3 & X-Box 360, let the pirates thrive - screw the greedy a-holes charging $60 bucks a game and selling a million copies.
 
captainfish said:
Wait.. how can there be record sales when we are told that Piracy is rampant and it strips billions from creators' pockets?
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They're full of shit. They're greedy, and they'll gladly sell you any crap they can for $60 bucks a pop and convince retail stores to have a policy that makes it hard to get a refund when you find out it sucks.
 
I believe PC game software sales easily beat Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 game sales, even combined, based on many articles I've read. Unfortunately none of them are straightforward and concise, often showing only a couple of month timeframe and missing online/download sales just like they do with the PC. I would love to see a well written article with good sources compare each gamming device's (PC, Xbox 360, Wii and PS3) software sales.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038468863 said:
These days you are going to get DRM whether you buy a title in a store or on a download service.
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There are titles released which are DRM free themselves but services like Steam still retain their own DRM layer on top. Even for games with existing DRM you are still looking at basically having to go through both the publisher and distributor to access the game you bought versus just the publisher in many cases.

Stiler said:
I wish more digital distributions were like GoG, one of the only ones that sale games with zero drm in them, even going as far as releasing their first [party game The Witcher 2 on it just to show how much faith they have in it.

Man ypublishers just don't wanna risk it, so to me Steam is second-best.
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Amazon and Gamersgate also offer standalone digital services with no client attached.

captainfish said:
Wait.. how can there be record sales when we are told that Piracy is rampant and it strips billions from creators' pockets?
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Well first of all one isn't exclusive of the other. You can have record sales and also record amounts of piracy.

Secondly you will notice if you examine sales data is that the the biggest growing markets are online based, subscription based, and microtransaction based sectors. These are specifically more resistant to piracy. I even posted earlier why these types of games are the strongest being pushed in China.

bh192012 said:
I believe PC game software sales easily beat Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 game sales, even combined, based on many articles I've read. Unfortunately none of them are straightforward and concise, often showing only a couple of month timeframe and missing online/download sales just like they do with the PC. I would love to see a well written article with good sources compare each gamming device's (PC, Xbox 360, Wii and PS3) software sales.
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The issue is here regardless of the what the total revenue might be the split in terms of sales of the traditionally modeled and priced AAA games favor the consoles. Even if it favored the PC it would need to be a very significant majority to have developers not focus on crossplatform quality from a business perspective. This is why you will actually hear various developers favor differing platforms that are more suitable for them.
 
limitedaccess said:
There are titles released which are DRM free themselves but services like Steam still retain their own DRM layer on top. Even for games with existing DRM you are still looking at basically having to go through both the publisher and distributor to access the game you bought versus just the publisher in many cases.
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True, but games like these without DRM are pretty rare. For what it's worth, get those titles outside of steam! :p
 
limitedaccess said:
The issue is here regardless of the what the total revenue might be the split in terms of sales of the traditionally modeled and priced AAA games favor the consoles. Even if it favored the PC it would need to be a very significant majority to have developers not focus on crossplatform quality from a business perspective. This is why you will actually hear various developers favor differing platforms that are more suitable for them.
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I read that as console = McDonalds. PC = some other profitable business selling food I'd want to eat. Sounds like a reasonable comparison and doesn't change the fact that PC gaming is alive and well
 
bh192012 said:
I read that as console = McDonalds. PC = some other profitable business selling food I'd want to eat. Sounds like a reasonable comparison and doesn't change the fact that PC gaming is alive and well
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The "dieing PC gaming" belief really refers to AAA games (more so to AAA FPS games which were traditionally PC focused) becoming crossplatform (or some would say console) focused. This is what people refer to when they mean bemoan the state of PC gaming. No one is lamenting (well no one who is informed) the state of MMOs, web based games, indie games, etc. on the PC in this way.
 
limitedaccess said:
The "dieing PC gaming" belief really refers to AAA games (more so to AAA FPS games which were traditionally PC focused) becoming crossplatform (or some would say console) focused. This is what people refer to when they mean bemoan the state of PC gaming. No one is lamenting (well no one who is informed) the state of MMOs, web based games, indie games, etc. on the PC in this way.
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Sure, I see it as McDonaldization of previously ok food. They're not focusing on quality ports, just quick rehashes packaged cheaply as possible. It can make sense financially, but I don't have to like it, or eat there. I'll continue to seek the outfits that make quality products. Also, if it's just some section of AAA titles, why say "dieing PC gaming?" I think you're right about the reality of it, but the perception, especially certain groups is that if MW 3 only sells 15% as PC boxed copies, then we shouldn't spend time on making our FPS for the PC.

Which goes back to my original comment, wishing for better in-depth industry reporting. I think it would help clear up misperceptions.
 
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