Analyst claims PC game revenues have surpassed console game revenues

[Scorpus]

Market research firm DFC Intelligence believes that revenues from PC games have now surpassed revenues from console games, in what is an interesting call on a market that is often branded as "dying" by various people involved with the gaming industry.

David Cole, head of DFC, told UK website PCR that the shift to PC games as the leading revenue stream in the gaming market wasn't expected to occur until 2015, but free-to-play and multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) titles continue to perform strongly. Cole stated that MOBA games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends are the dominant force on PC, followed by a mix of MMOs, strategy games and first-person shooters.

Cole says that "among core gamers there is a heavy overlap with most console gamers also playing on a PC. The big difference is that consoles are now the luxury item and PCs are the necessity. Just a few years ago the reverse was true. This means PCs have the broader audience."

While DFC didn't reveal the numbers behind their statement - you'll have to purchase their $2,995 report for a detailed analysis - Cole did mention an interesting statistic. According to their data, no game released in 2013 made the list of top 20 most played games that year, although new titles Hearthstone, DayZ and Rust have entered the list in Q1 2014.

It's always good to hear that PC gaming continues to be popular around the world, and it's not too surprising that free-to-play games are leading the way. With that said, it'd be interesting to know how well paid AAA games on PC (like Borderlands 2 and Skyrim) sell compared to their console counterparts, and whether that gap is about to close any time soon.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56566-analyst-claims-pc-game-revenues-have-surpassed-console-game-revenues.html

 

[Darkshadoe]

But..but..but.. PC gaming is dead (/sarcasm)

 

[Experimentongod]

I think this also has to do with the huge number of PC game sales that happen every day. People start to realize that if they wait 3-6 months they can get AAA games for $10-$20 instead of $60 on consoles and with these prices a lot of people buy games they don't even play at all.

 

[theBest11778]

But..but..but.. PC gaming is dead (/sarcasm)

Duh, of course it is! Who wants to spend an extra $200-$300 on a PC instead of a console? Oh wait... that's right, grown ups. Being a part of the NES generation myself, and growing up with old school PC games, this makes sense for a few simple reasons.

1.) Grown ups have money, children don't. So a few hundred dollars is a big deal to them (and their parents.) This also means more games can afford to be purchased, especially FTP games. It's nothing to drop $5-$10 a week in a Free to Play game you really like at the time.

2.) Grown ups have jobs, which almost all of them require a computer, children have to do some school work on a PC, other than that, the rest is just recreational.

3.) For men at least (I'm not dumb enough to try and speak for women,) like their offices, man caves, whatever they call their escape room from their family/spouses (guys like their alone time.) Generally this is where all their work gets done at home, so it makes sense a PC would be there. The next logical step is play games on it instead of having another device.

4.) Nostalgia/Quality: Some games have a special place that remind us of our childhood. PCs can run, pretty much any game I owned, on any console, from my childhood. On top of that I can have all games look better and run smoother. Win, win, win in my book.

5.) Pricing: Steam price sales drop games I might want to play to a point where the money is inconsequential, meaning it might as well be free (Really $.99-$5.00, 1 meal costs more.)

It's really that simple. It's not rocket science. Grown ups need to have a PC regardless, so that throws out the whole consoles are cheaper non-sense at the moment. But that the end of the day everyone knows PC is the superior platform with more, and less expensive games that can even play my favorite SNES titles (yes I still have the cartridges somewhere.)

 

[Guest]

The PC gaming Master race is growing?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

But..but..but.. PC gaming is dead (/sarcasm)

Duh, of course it is! Who wants to spend an extra $200-$300 on a PC instead of a console? Oh wait... that's right, grown ups. Being a part of the NES generation myself, and growing up with old school PC games, this makes sense for a few simple reasons.

1.) Grown ups have money, children don't. So a few hundred dollars is a big deal to them (and their parents.) This also means more games can afford to be purchased, especially FTP games. It's nothing to drop $5-$10 a week in a Free to Play game you really like at the time.

2.) Grown ups have jobs, which almost all of them require a computer, children have to do some school work on a PC, other than that, the rest is just recreational.

3.) For men at least (I'm not dumb enough to try and speak for women,) like their offices, man caves, whatever they call their escape room from their family/spouses (guys like their alone time.) Generally this is where all their work gets done at home, so it makes sense a PC would be there. The next logical step is play games on it instead of having another device.

4.) Nostalgia/Quality: Some games have a special place that remind us of our childhood. PCs can run, pretty much any game I owned, on any console, from my childhood. On top of that I can have all games look better and run smoother. Win, win, win in my book.

5.) Pricing: Steam price sales drop games I might want to play to a point where the money is inconsequential, meaning it might as well be free (Really $.99-$5.00, 1 meal costs more.)

It's really that simple. It's not rocket science. Grown ups need to have a PC regardless, so that throws out the whole consoles are cheaper non-sense at the moment. But that the end of the day everyone knows PC is the superior platform with more, and less expensive games that can even play my favorite SNES titles (yes I still have the cartridges somewhere.)

In response to your points 1&2,
Why then are there a ton of games that are console exclusive that have a heavy age restriction and why are they a lot more expensive than PC games? and I'm not talking about that FTP garbage either. Surely if you buy 'cheap' (read way overpriced) consoles for kids then you'd want cheap games as well.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm a PC gamer through and through. If there weren't such a thing as video games on PC then I wouldn't bother playing video games at all.

 

[Mister_K]

But..but..but.. PC gaming is dead (/sarcasm)

Duh, of course it is! Who wants to spend an extra $200-$300 on a PC instead of a console? Oh wait... that's right, grown ups. Being a part of the NES generation myself, and growing up with old school PC games, this makes sense for a few simple reasons.

1.) Grown ups have money, children don't. So a few hundred dollars is a big deal to them (and their parents.) This also means more games can afford to be purchased, especially FTP games. It's nothing to drop $5-$10 a week in a Free to Play game you really like at the time.

2.) Grown ups have jobs, which almost all of them require a computer, children have to do some school work on a PC, other than that, the rest is just recreational.

3.) For men at least (I'm not dumb enough to try and speak for women,) like their offices, man caves, whatever they call their escape room from their family/spouses (guys like their alone time.) Generally this is where all their work gets done at home, so it makes sense a PC would be there. The next logical step is play games on it instead of having another device.

4.) Nostalgia/Quality: Some games have a special place that remind us of our childhood. PCs can run, pretty much any game I owned, on any console, from my childhood. On top of that I can have all games look better and run smoother. Win, win, win in my book.

5.) Pricing: Steam price sales drop games I might want to play to a point where the money is inconsequential, meaning it might as well be free (Really $.99-$5.00, 1 meal costs more.)

It's really that simple. It's not rocket science. Grown ups need to have a PC regardless, so that throws out the whole consoles are cheaper non-sense at the moment. But that the end of the day everyone knows PC is the superior platform with more, and less expensive games that can even play my favorite SNES titles (yes I still have the cartridges somewhere.)

In response to your points 1&2,
Why then are there a ton of games that are console exclusive that have a heavy age restriction and why are they a lot more expensive than PC games? and I'm not talking about that FTP garbage either. Surely if you buy 'cheap' (read way overpriced) consoles for kids then you'd want cheap games as well.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm a PC gamer through and through. If there weren't such a thing as video games on PC then I wouldn't bother playing video games at all.

F2P garbage? What F2P games have you been playing??

 

[MonsterZero]

Yea, you kind of have to wonder when some of the top 20 games of the year are available on console only, meanwhile this report concludes what I suspected all along, PC gaming is far from dead and has always had a stronger market foothold than consoles.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

F2P garbage? What F2P games have you been playing??

If it's free it's garbage, not worth a 2nd look as far as I'm concerned. If it was so great they'd charge for it. I'm yet to come across a FTP (and I've looked at a few) that's not a waste of time and bandwidth. Of course it's my opinion and taste only.

 

[Resp1ra]

F2P garbage? What F2P games have you been playing??

If it's free it's garbage, not worth a 2nd look as far as I'm concerned. If it was so great they'd charge for it. I'm yet to come across a FTP (and I've looked at a few) that's not a waste of time and bandwidth. Of course it's my opinion and taste only.

To say that "if it's free it's garbage" is a very ignorant thing to say considering League of Legends and many other great F2P games currently are the most popular games in the world by a large margin.

 

[theBest11778]

In response to your points 1&2,
Why then are there a ton of games that are console exclusive that have a heavy age restriction and why are they a lot more expensive than PC games? and I'm not talking about that FTP garbage either. Surely if you buy 'cheap' (read way overpriced) consoles for kids then you'd want cheap games as well.
Don't get me wrong though, I'm a PC gamer through and through. If there weren't such a thing as video games on PC then I wouldn't bother playing video games at all.

Last generation (X360/PS3,) I was 21 in 2005 when the X360 launched. I got one, same as most of my friends. I've always had a gaming PC, but most of my friends didn't and couldn't afford one (in 2005 they were still pretty expensive.) Now that my generation is 30ish, I've seen a MAJOR shift to PC. In fact, only my brother, who doesn't need a home PC for his job, plays console exclusive. This generation of consoles are up against an aging target group. 15yr olds play on tablets/phones more than anything, and the 30+ group is moving to PC. Sure there's still the 18-30 college crowd that will stick with consoles, but that's mostly due to money limitations. Targeting a financially unstable group isn't the best choice. With both new consoles being X86/X64 watch as most, if not all, of those 3rd party "Exclusives" disappear. 1st party games will always be exclusive as they're paid to be that way. Sony and MS will also pay a lot of money to make a game exclusive, but look at Titanfall. MS didn't even bother to pay the extra amount to keep TF off PC.

So, to your point with an 18-30+/- target audience of course you're going to have to produce mature games. It's a mature audience. To MonsterZero's point, why are many top 20 games of the year console only is simple. 1st party developers have to make quality. Sony/MS will not fund them otherwise. These games have to be SO good as to justify people buying these systems. 3rd Party games just try to sell huge numbers, and don't worry as much on quality. It's about money, not a platform/brand. PC will have a few exclusives in a few years that just can't run on XBO/PS4. It happens every generation, but with everything going X64 I doubt any 3rd party will pass up on cashing in on the PC market.

 

[theBest11778]

To say that "if it's free it's garbage" is a very ignorant thing to say considering League of Legends and many other great F2P games currently are the most popular games in the world by a large margin.

Blacklight Retribution was my favorite online FPS for 2012-2013. I think Titanfall's play style is better, but Blacklight's weapon customization cannot be matched. Blacklight is FAR better than any COD ever produced.

 

[treetops]

Pc games have to many hacks. You can't resale your games. You can't play it with friends that come over. Its anti social. I have a pc and gamed on it for many years but Iv realized its limitations.

To bad half of my xbox one games lack co op too. You can play co op online but you cant play with people at your house.

It seems like the 360 had way more split screen co op. Iv yet to buy a game that lets me and my gf both play online at the same time.

I own
Bf4 (single only)
Plants vs zombies garden warfare (offline co op splitscreen only)
Dead rising 3 (single)
Lego something (offline split)
Madden 25 (maybe you can both play online?)

 

[theBest11778]

Pc games have to many hacks. You can't resale your games. You can't play it with friends that come over. Its anti social. I have a pc and gamed on it for many years but Iv realized its limitations.

To bad half of my xbox one games lack co op too. You can play co op online but you cant play with people at your house.

It seems like the 360 had way more split screen co op. Iv yet to buy a game that lets me and my gf both play online at the same time.

I own
Bf4 (single only)
Plants vs zombies garden warfare (offline co op splitscreen only)
Dead rising 3 (single)
Lego something (offline split)
Madden 25 (maybe you can both play online?)

I agree. I miss couch co-op games. With the weak hardware in the new systems I doubt we'll see many games that support split screen or couch coop. Even COD Ghost only supports 2 players vs Black Ops 2 supports 4 on X360.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Last generation (X360/PS3,) I was 21 in 2005 when the X360 launched. I got one, same as most of my friends. I've always had a gaming PC, but most of my friends didn't and couldn't afford one (in 2005 they were still pretty expensive.) Now that my generation is 30ish, I've seen a MAJOR shift to PC. In fact, only my brother, who doesn't need a home PC for his job, plays console exclusive. This generation of consoles are up against an aging target group. 15yr olds play on tablets/phones more than anything, and the 30+ group is moving to PC. Sure there's still the 18-30 college crowd that will stick with consoles, but that's mostly due to money limitations. Targeting a financially unstable group isn't the best choice. With both new consoles being X86/X64 watch as most, if not all, of those 3rd party "Exclusives" disappear. 1st party games will always be exclusive as they're paid to be that way. Sony and MS will also pay a lot of money to make a game exclusive, but look at Titanfall. MS didn't even bother to pay the extra amount to keep TF off PC.

So, to your point with an 18-30+/- target audience of course you're going to have to produce mature games. It's a mature audience. To MonsterZero's point, why are many top 20 games of the year console only is simple. 1st party developers have to make quality. Sony/MS will not fund them otherwise. These games have to be SO good as to justify people buying these systems. 3rd Party games just try to sell huge numbers, and don't worry as much on quality. It's about money, not a platform/brand. PC will have a few exclusives in a few years that just can't run on XBO/PS4. It happens every generation, but with everything going X64 I doubt any 3rd party will pass up on cashing in on the PC market.

There are a million valid answers but at the end it all boils down to the individuals needs and preferences.

 

[Burty117]

I'm nearly in the same boat as @Skidmarksdeluxe on this one, I've played as many free to play games as I can and I've found TF2 and DOTA2 to be quite good, TF2 in particular, Planetside 2 was good for a laugh or two, same with Quake Live but lots of others (LoL, Star Wars Old Republic, World of Tanks, Runscape, Lord of Rings Online, Tribes: Ascend, The list just goes on!) just don't feel developed very well or very fun and try to make you spend money every 5 seconds.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I'm nearly in the same boat as @Skidmarksdeluxe on this one, I've played as many free to play games as I can and I've found TF2 and DOTA2 to be quite good, TF2 in particular, Planetside 2 was good for a laugh or two, same with Quake Live but lots of others (LoL, Star Wars Old Republic, World of Tanks, Runscape, Lord of Rings Online, Tribes: Ascend, The list just goes on!) just don't feel developed very well or very fun and try to make you spend money every 5 seconds.

I'm sure if you enjoy online/multiplayer games there may be a few decent FTP games but I'm strictly a single player only gamer. I'm not sure if there are any single FTP games around but the few I have had a look at were only online/multiplayer which doesn't interest me in the slightest. I've always been of the opinion if the dev's/publisher think they've made a decent game then people who want to play them should cough up.

 

[Burty117]

I'm strictly a single player only gamer.

Stop right there! FTP is not for you
In all seriousness though you are absolutely right, there are no decent single player FTP games.

 

[Guest]

Exclusives are the end result of a developer selling out for funding upfront. Think about it, why would you just sell your console game to JUST Microsoft if it was good enough to be on every other platform? COD is everywhere because the developer knew they had a game that would sell. Also most console exclusives are developed by studios that are owned by or in part the hardware manufacture.

 

[RenGood08]

Interesting....interesting...I do not plan on purchasing that report though lol. Anyone else have nearly $3k to pay for it? I prefer PC gaming anyway. I feel I have more control when it's on my computer than a console where I feel like I'm shooting from every which direction instead of at my target directly. Unless I am just that uncoordinated lol!

 

[Egon Spengler]

Steam sales of 66 - 75% off have gotta be helping PC gaming. I take a chance on games for a few bucks I'd never buy at full price, and many of them turn out to be great games. If you wait long enough just about everything goes on sale. Plus I like to play using a keyboard and mouse.

 

[Jad Chaar]

Yea, you kind of have to wonder when some of the top 20 games of the year are available on console only, meanwhile this report concludes what I suspected all along, PC gaming is far from dead and has always had a stronger market foothold than consoles.

Yeah you really wonder.

 

[CyberFlux]

We say PC Master race for a reason.