Does traditional PC gaming have a future?

[Yurinka]

Ask yourself, if PC gaming is stagnating and not growing, why Microsoft and Sony would be so eager to launch their games on PC.

And...if PC gaming is dead, what does that say for games like Helldivers...is it dead too? (Hint: it isn't).

As seen in the graph above, PC gaming isn't dead or stagnting: it's bigger than ever and growing since decades ago.

This graph is excluding hardware & peripheral revenue, and including GAAS & MTX/add-on content revenue.

Though it is probably underrepresenting console revenue to some degree, and it doesn't give any indication of profit margins (where I'd assume console wins out, especially for new releases).

Yes, it's a graph of game revenue. So includes the revenue generated by games: via game purchase, subscriptions, dlcs, mtx, passes, etc.

Doesn't include console or PC hardware and accesories, which in most cases for console are unprofitable. Because the console makers make their profit mostly from games. Hardware is also a bigger market for PC, but in that case many people buy PCs not only for (or not for) gaming, so doesn't make sense to include it in the graph.

OP is talking about B2P sales of AAA and AA games. In that context, they are 100% correct: console is much larger than PC for that segment of the gaming market globally.

We have no data about paid games only split by platform. We have the total game revenue (what I posted) or a graph for game revenue splitting revenue per revenue source/business model but not by platform.

But for as far as I know, in most cases for people in paid indies and AA companies (not the few "cool guys" who sign witth Sony/MS/Nintendo/popular publisher) have PC as their top grossing platform. Nintendo has their own platform as the main one, and in case of AAA excluding some PC focused studios, most of them have PS/consoles as their top plaform, even if in recent years many of them are growing a lot in PC. In case of Capcom, had it as goal and now around half of their business is PC.

For starters, this is completely at odds with the 2023 chart posted earlier.

The previous one was for 2023. This one covers he indusry evolution until 2022.

The number for 2022 is slightly different because of different sources, but are mostly the same. At the end nobody has the exact numbers but instead estimations, and these are two of the most trusted sources. The reason on fhe first one being smaller in PC is because doesn't include games involving gambling/earn real money as reward.

 

[Cool hand luke]

We have no data about paid games only split by platform.

Yes we do, for the UK in 2023. Stats in the OP. 5:1

 

[Yurinka]

Yes we do, for the UK in 2023. Stats in the OP. 5:1

I meant total worldwide game revenue (which includes not only game sales). Not retail game sales of a country that doesn't represent even a sixth part of the global business.

Nowaday most of the game revenue doesn't come from game sales, specially physical ones.

 

[Cool hand luke]

I meant total worldwide game revenue (which includes not only game sales). Not retail game sales of a country that doesn't represent even a sixth part of the global business.

Nowaday most of the game revenue doesn't come from game sales, specially physical ones.

The figures include digital. It's clear you didn't quite understand the enormity of what was presented to you, or even read the OP, as you leapt to PC's defence. Console vs PC at retail is more like 80:1. Adding console subs and DLC doesn't even make it a fair fight.

 

[Systemshock2023]

Are we counting success as number of players or number of games sold?

PC gamers have a host of games to play, a crossing myriad developers, spanning decades. New games won't sell as well on a platform that has enough games to play to wait for a sale, Vs a console where releases are limited to that generation. (You can't play dagger fall on PS5, for example).

Ask yourself, if PC gaming is stagnating and not growing, why Microsoft and Sony would be so eager to launch their games on PC.

And...if PC gaming is dead, what does that say for games like Helldivers...is it dead too? (Hint: it isn't).

Yep, my thoughts exactly. Feel free to delete this post as I could have just thumbed up yours

 

[Gamernyc78]

Who is this? This guy joins the forum and immediately starts defending PC?!? Is this @flaccidsnake alt account?

Come Jah let ppl debate in peace. Making posts like this details and starts issues.

 

[JAHGamer]

Come Jah let ppl debate in peace. Making posts like this details and starts issues.

 

[Cool hand luke]

It's clear from this poll that the majority of people (63%) believe traditional PC gaming is shrinking or on its way out.

By that token, we can safely assume that the forum also agrees that any expansion efforts into this space are dead ends.

That's a shame for steam creamers - they've been salivating at the thought of Sony ports for years now and the reality is they'll dry up as soon as the money does.

 

[rinzler]

Doesn't the yearly steam survey show that the majority of the users have really bad specials. The people with high end 4090 graphics are a very small minority

What it actually shows is that people with hardware as good as or better than a Series X/PS5 make up roughly 47%.

Even for people with lesser hardware they can get the same experience at lower resolution.

 

[Cool hand luke]

What it actually shows is that people with hardware as good as or better than a Series X/PS5 make up roughly 47%.

Even for people with lesser hardware they can get the same experience at lower resolution.

Wow so the majority have a worse base experience, but even for those that have a better one, they don't buy anywhere near as many games. Makes you think if it's even worth investing in developing for that kind of hardware.

 

[rinzler]

Wow so the majority have a worse base experience, but even for those that have a better one, they don't buy anywhere near as many games. Makes you think if it's even worth investing in developing for that kind of hardware.

Weak troll game lol

 

[Zzero]

I'm under the impression that most multi-plats (and, indeed, most console only games) are made for PC with mVP stats in mind and then ported over. In that sense having a version on PC is very cheap and not going away.

 

[Johnic]

It's a bit of a silly question. Why wouldn't it have one?

 

[Cool hand luke]

Weak troll game lol

To be clear: it's not worth investing in PC for major games. There are no AAA exclusives for PC for that reason.

 

[rinzler]

I'm under the impression that most multi-plats (and, indeed, most console only games) are made for PC with mVP stats in mind and then ported over. In that sense having a version on PC is very cheap and not going away.

The games are also overengineered when made and scaled back via optimization for the console. Alot of the higher quality configuration seen on PC already exists from the original development.

 

[Wing84]

The cheating + costs of entry is why I only ever meet PC gamers online. Everyone I meet in the real world are either PlayStation and/or Nintendo gamers. I personally hope PC handhelds grow.

 

[Batzy]

Yea it has a future. For AAA gaming, it's the only platform with a future.

PC gaming in China: Everything you need to know about the world's biggest PC games industry

Your guide to what's happening in the world's largest PC gaming scene.

www.pcgamer.com

This doesn't help your case tho
300 million generated 15 billion in china, while playstation generated 12 billion in 2018 with 80 million ps4 sold.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/0...-high-in-2018-topped-nintendo-and-xbox-totals
Yeah, 300 million users, but they barely spend to just surpass what 1 console maker does.

 

[Nhomnhom]

PC is the last hardware you buy before you come to the realization games aren't your thing anymore and you rather just watch people playing on Twich and Youtube.

If all we had was PC single player games with a big AAA budget would be an extremely rare occurrence, the public just isn't there for those games.

 

[Polyh3dron]

Doesn't the yearly steam survey show that the majority of the users have really bad specials. The people with high end 4090 graphics are a very small minority

Somewhat similar to the existence of the Xbox Series S, but on a much grander scale, factoring in underserved countries with heavier weighting like India, China, and Russia, along with surrounding ex-Soviet countries. Also this is worth a view regarding the Steam Hardware Survey. Skip to 4:45:

 

[Systemshock2023]

PC is the last hardware you buy before you come to the realization games aren't your thing anymore and you rather just watch people playing on Twich and Youtube.

I don't know maybe it was just your experience. IIn my case it was exactly the opposite, the late 6th/7th generation of consoles was what got me out of the hobby for a long while until PC gaming got me back right at the tail end of the 7th/start of the 8th.

I have been enjoying gaming a lot during the last decade, even more than on the SNES/PS1 early ps2 days.