Michlo Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/11/study-pc-gaming.html Despite the doom n' gloom reports painting PC gaming as a dying genre, market research firm JPR claims that the PC gaming market is vastly larger than that of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii combined.A recent study conducted by the firm reports that sales of "gaming PCs" over the last three years have outdistanced gaming consoles by a huge margin: 196 million PCs sold versus 74.7 PS3s, Xbox 360s and Wiis.Additionally, the report believes that the PC gaming market will top $34 billion by 2012.Notably absent from the report is any data on sales of handheld systems -- a sector of gaming that traditionally tops standard consoles by virtue of price alone -- or any examination of how many "gaming PC" buyers are actually using those computers to play games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WrathOfDeadguy Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 More of what we've known for years and the companies just don't seem to understand. They also need to look at the sales of gaming components, though. The true strengths of the platform are the ability to mod games and the ability to progressively upgrade a system. A great many people will keep the same basic system for upwards of 4 years, only upgrading graphics cards and RAM as necessary or as money allows- changing out the motherboard and/or processor only when they get worn out or become unable to handle the latest games. The sales figures are certainly impressive on pre-built "Gaming" computers, but I have a feeling that the PC market is a lot bigger than even those figures suggest. Those figures also don't include people who play games on midrange computers, or even those (like me) who keep thoroughly outdated machines around for the sole purpose of playing games that are not compatible with newer systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Wolfe Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 woot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michlo Posted November 21, 2008 Author Share Posted November 21, 2008 More of what we've known for years and the companies just don't seem to understand. They also need to look at the sales of gaming components, though. The true strengths of the platform are the ability to mod games and the ability to progressively upgrade a system. A great many people will keep the same basic system for upwards of 4 years, only upgrading graphics cards and RAM as necessary or as money allows- changing out the motherboard and/or processor only when they get worn out or become unable to handle the latest games. The sales figures are certainly impressive on pre-built "Gaming" computers, but I have a feeling that the PC market is a lot bigger than even those figures suggest. Those figures also don't include people who play games on midrange computers, or even those (like me) who keep thoroughly outdated machines around for the sole purpose of playing games that are not compatible with newer systems. Excellent point. I used the box I built quite happily for six years until I treated myself to a "super-box" in May for my 40th. heh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bben46 Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I have only purchased one desktop PC in my life. It was an IBM Model 5150, the original PC in early 1983. I paid almost $3000 for a basic box, 1 floppy, no hard drive, no monitor, 64k ram. And no operating system, that cost extra. It began morphing the day I got it home. There are no original parts left in it, everything has been changed many times, including the case. But at no time did I replace everything. So, It is still the same computer, just evolved. I have always had games on my computer, but never really considered it a gaming computer. It is a general purpose computer that can play games as well as do a lot of other things. My first OS on the IBM was a CPM called DR DOS (for Digital Research) that worked on the IBM PC. I installed PCDOS (A proprietary version of MSDOS) when I put in my first hard drive 20meg. The CPM did not support the HD. I am sure there are many others who build their own and are never counted on surveys like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halororor Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 I doubt that PC gaming will die just yet. The reason consoles die is because eventually games exceed the power of the console and console developers are forced to move onto bigger projects that are able to play the new games. The PS2 is a great example, it was the best-selling console for a long time, but in the end it just couldn't handle all the new features that games were busy implementing, for example, physics. Now to get to my point, PC gaming doesn't have these restrictions as you can just keep upgrading your components in order to play the new games and have the new features. So long as PC's can be upgraded they won't die as a gaming source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SickleYield Posted November 21, 2008 Share Posted November 21, 2008 What they may not have said - or you might not have noticed - is that the PC game market that's growing so hugely is mostly not for RPG/RTS/FPS games like Fallout and Oblivion. It's those addictive little flash games like Diamond Mine that are making the money because they appeal to a much larger market (including the old folks just getting computers for the first time) and can be played on many levels of hardware. Though I certainly hope other types of gaming are not dying out either - I would hate to have to switch to a console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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