Study claims PC market is the largest

[Shrygue]

via Computer and Video Games (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=202121)


This year the PC gaming market is worth over $20 billion, that figure will rise to $34 billion before 2012, and since 2005 there has been more gaming PCs shipped than the Wii, PS3 and 360 combined.

This is the conclusion of a study from research group JPR. In the group's latest report - called The PC Gaming Market - JPR calculates that there are three classes of PC gaming machines and together, from Q3 2005 until Q3 2008, 196 million of these units were shipped. The study also estimated by comparison that 74.7m PS3s, Wiis and 360s have been shipped worldwide.

The research, however, does not include sales of Nintendo DS units nor PSPs, which together have sold around 125m units worldwide. Nevertheless, due in part to the mushrooming Asian market, the study believes that "the PC gaming market is bigger, worth more money, growing faster, and has better technology than the console market."

The study can be found in the latest edition of JPR's subscription-based newsletter, Techwatch.

[paul3100]

Seems good news for us pc gamers, though a lot of people won't be buying any of there games! (i do).

Funny how you get all these reports saying " pc gaming is dying due to piracy " been hearing this for over 10 years now and its still here.

paul

[JDvorak]

With reguards to PC gaming it used to be that to keep up with the new games you had to upgrade about every 6 months to a year, but now there is a whole market of puzzle/casual games which have only mid-level requirements (some even low end down to p500mhz or lower). Yes to play the latest online adventure/rpg is a little steeper requirement, but the prices of PC's are so low that even that is reachable by the masses. Most of it depends on whether or not it takes DirectX 10 and Vista or can be hacked to play on XP (with the hacked DirectX 10). I have had a PC since 1983 and have never looked back.

Even in the late 80's when everyone was praising the Amiga for its graphics and sound I stuck with the PC. I had a Creative Music Systems card when everyone was using Adlib. I got the first Sound Blaster that had digital sound just to hear one line of speech in Space Quest III. My first PC had a monochrome amber monitor and that is how I played Leisure Suite Larry 1. Later I had a 4 color monitor and then 16 etc. I still play those old games today!

Now we are on a whole new generation of gamers and PC's and nothing will stop people from buying and using console and portable systems but it is a great solace that I can do my spreadsheets and desktop publishing and take a break for a round of Quake 4 or Zuma on the same PC without interrupting the kids DVD's playing in the living room where I have my console systems.

The PC market will only grow stronger in gaming due to the fact that most people have a PC to do email and internet and haven't quite caught on to doing internet on console systems. Although we do it on our cell phones it is a pain to do it on the NDS and PSP (slow and poor browsers).

So if Aunt Edna has a PC and likes solitaire it is not a problem to pick her up a $10-$20 PC Solitaire Collection for Christmas. You don't need to sell her on the idea of getting a console when she just emails and plays solitaire and has a PC. Although you may want to drop a hint to her what systems you have so she gets the right game for you!

[kojiro7]

Pcs are only good for emulation purposes,almost all pc games suck...Quake and WOW shit....

[JDvorak]

Pcs are only good for emulation purposes,almost all pc games suck...Quake and WOW shit....
If PC's are only good for emulation then how come countries like Korea have corporate teams that do nothing but play Starcraft and make a hell of a lot of money doing it. Remember that consoles would not be where they are today in multiplayer if it was not for the PC's. We still need the PC's to hook up our NDS and PSP to the internet. Besides all the good online games are for the PC!

[gutbub]

Pcs are only good for emulation purposes,almost all pc games suck...Quake and WOW shit....

Woah, totally the wrong place to post that. So far as I'm concerned, and have been for quite sometime, PCs are far superior to consoles.

When a PC becomes outdated, I can almost always upgrade it for one or two hundred bucks. When a new console is released, I have to pay the full price for it. Nowadays, that's not cheap.

[JDvorak]

Besides if PC's are only good for emulation then why even bother with them at all? Most console systems and handhelds do good emulation of older systems. You wouldn't even need a PC. Wow that would really fly as an attitude now wouldn't it!!!!!