PC gamers fuel hardware sales in otherwise stagnant market

[Jos]

There’s no denying the market is increasingly moving away from desktop computers and towards mobile devices. We see reports highlighting this quarter after quarter along with several explanations for the trend; from price sensitivity to maturing markets and longer PC hardware upgrade cycles. But despite the gloomy headlines forecasting the death of PCs there’s one area of the market that’s still thriving: PC gamers and enthusiasts.

According to Jon Peddie Research, PC gamers continue buying and building PCs “with a fervency that could be compared to motorcycle, 4X4, and sports car enthusiasts, always looking for more speed, power, utility, and handling.” The market research firm says that they are expecting growth in the most expensive discrete graphics products, while embedded graphics offerings should do well in this and future generations.

Overall -- save for a year-on-year drop from $18.3 to $17.8 billion in 2013 -- the global PC gaming hardware market is forecasted to grow every year throughout 2016, reaching a $20.8 billion valuation.

JPR notes that gaming is becoming an even more important purchasing influencer of PC sales, and with some titles pushing the envelope on both the CPU and GPU, hardware upgrades often involve more than just swapping out the graphics add-in board. Using Bohemia Interactive's ARMA 3 as an example, the company says it is estimating over $800 million of PC builds influenced primarily by this title.

The group concludes that while consoles have a place in the living room and mobile devices are indeed moving into gaming territory, they just can't compete with the PC's control precision and power. Of course there’s just one important aspect JPR failed to mention and that is developers’ continued support for the platform, so here’s hoping we’ll see a healthy stream of titles optimized for PCs and less of underwhelming console ports.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/53536-pc-gamers-fuel-hardware-sales-in-otherwise-stagnant-market.html

 

[wastedkill]

Shut it now not every pc gamer has enough money to buy every single product that gets released its common sense sales will drop once customers are fine with what they got but once its "upgrade time" then sales will increase.

How people don't understand its not a dying market its just how the world works if one has a gtx 660 he might not want to spend money he might or might not have, if I had enough money of course I would keep up and spend a lot to upgrade it.

 

[TomSEA]

"PC gamers continue buying and building PCs with a fervency that could be compared to motorcycle, 4X4, and sports car enthusiasts, always looking for more speed, power, utility, and handling."

Great analogy and I fall into that category. I love souping up and tinkering with my gaming PC - it's a never ending hobby. In a typical 10 hour block of PC usage, 60% goes into gaming 20% into other activities (surfing the net, ripping music/videos, etc.,) and 20% into tinkering with the various installed software, operating system and hardware to keep it running at max speed. I also spend more money on computer upgrades than I do on other forms of recreation such as going to movies.

If I had more money, I'd do even more of it. It's addicting.

 

[avioza]

wastedkill

I am not a huge stickler for proper english on forums, but your post made my head hurt. That was one hot mess of run-on sentences and lack of punctuation.

Also...

Long live PC gaming!

 

[oldikes]

I dont think the PC/pc gaming market is going anywhere soon, as long as people like us are around. the analogy in the article is a pretty good one, always looking to upgrade and such.

 

[VitalyT]

Substantial part of premium PC hardware is purchased by IT professionals who is ahead of the curve on what's available and how to put it together. And I wouldn't put them on the same bench as PC gamers.

Myself, I just purchased a premium system, even though I barely ever play anything on it, it's just for work.

 

[Jad Chaar]

PC trumps all.

 

[Xenite]

The death of the PC is one of the greatest misinformation lies perpetrated by the mass media.

 

[amstech]

The vehicle analogy is a good one. I just sold my bolt-on LT1 Z28 but a Terminator (03-04 Cobra) is next on the list. My X58 build is still kickes a$$ so no need to upgrade...yet.

 

[howzz1854]

I've been putting off upgrading my gaming CPU/mobo for 5 years now. they just don't make it as affordable as it used to anymore. on top of that, gaming is on the pretty bottom of my list when other things in life take priorities. I miss the good old days of AthlonXP and Nforce mobos.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

The group concludes that while consoles have a place in the living room and mobile devices are indeed moving into gaming territory, they just can't compete with the PC's control precision and power.

This is true in the summer of 2013 because the consoles are at the very end of their life-cycle. However, when the PS3 came out it was a steal for the hardware you got for the price. When the new consoles are released they will be comparable to perhaps a $600 - $700 gaming machine, not a $200 gaming PC like today.

The advantage to PC gamers though is that they get to upgrade hardware almost as frequently as they like, while consoles generations are 5+ years apart.

 

[Dawn1113]

By now, I am a full blown PC gaming addict. And I love upgrading my hardware just as much as I love gaming.

I even love the smell of new hardware -- and, oh, the joy of unboxing and putting all the stuff together! The experience feels exactly like Christmas morning when I was a child.

I'm planning a major upgrade next year -- the full sweep. I'm counting the days!

 

[soldier1969]

I'm about to fuel it some more tomorrow as its time for my every 2 year upgrades. Spending $800 + on a GTX 780 and more ram to make 16gb for BF4 thats coming in a couple months.

 

[Fbarnett]

Hard to believe this number is up. I am still using my 3 to 4 year old i7 12gb ram and 580. No need to upgrade. Most of my friends have kids and all are pre ordering new consoles. People cant afford $1000.00 each gaming rigs for 3 kids. I am going to be moving to the new XBOX my self. You buy a game pop it in and it works. No need to add a new video card and power supply every time a new game comes out.. I am sure people will make fun of this but I think PC gaming will die off in the next few years. Most games are console port anymore game companies will not spend extra to support this market. But hey to each his own happy gaming no matter how you do it!!!!

 

[Lionvibez]

Substantial part of premium PC hardware is purchased by IT professionals who is ahead of the curve on what's available and how to put it together. And I wouldn't put them on the same bench as PC gamers.

Myself, I just purchased a premium system, even though I barely ever play anything on it, it's just for work.

You gotta start somewhere friend.

I started off as a PC gamer in my teens and now I'm a IT professional that still game when I have time. And the hobby of building and never left me I still enjoy it alot.

 

[howzz1854]

Hard to believe this number is up. I am still using my 3 to 4 year old i7 12gb ram and 580. No need to upgrade. Most of my friends have kids and all are pre ordering new consoles. People cant afford $1000.00 each gaming rigs for 3 kids. I am going to be moving to the new XBOX my self. You buy a game pop it in and it works. No need to add a new video card and power supply every time a new game comes out.. I am sure people will make fun of this but I think PC gaming will die off in the next few years. Most games are console port anymore game companies will not spend extra to support this market. But hey to each his own happy gaming no matter how you do it!!!!

I am in the same boat. kids, house, wife, job, as much as I love gaming and have always been since the early 90's. I am getting less and less time now a days to game. I'd be lucky if I had time to sit down and game for 20 mins each week. hence I've been putting off upgrading the gaming rig for 5 years now. dropping $600 on a new CPU, mobo, and ram just doesn't make much sense now consider everything else that's going on. enjoy the times of being single and young kids. they don't last.

 

[Lionvibez]

I am in the same boat. kids, house, wife, job, as much as I love gaming and have always been since the early 90's. I am getting less and less time now a days to game. I'd be lucky if I had time to sit down and game for 20 mins each week. hence I've been putting off upgrading the gaming rig for 5 years now. dropping $600 on a new CPU, mobo, and ram just doesn't make much sense now consider everything else that's going on. enjoy the times of being single and young kids. they don't last.

Very good point.

I've been prolonging this event lol

I have a house,job,girlfriend no kids early 30's

Current build is from oct 2009 and got upgrades in the span of 3+ years.

i7 920 to i7 970 @ 4.2 April 2012
6GB to 12GB May 2011
Hard drive to SSD Dec 2009 now Raid 0 SSDs dec 2012
6950 to 7970 Ghz June 2013

I won't look at any more major upgrades until Haswell E possibly.

 

[howzz1854]

I am in the same boat. kids, house, wife, job, as much as I love gaming and have always been since the early 90's. I am getting less and less time now a days to game. I'd be lucky if I had time to sit down and game for 20 mins each week. hence I've been putting off upgrading the gaming rig for 5 years now. dropping $600 on a new CPU, mobo, and ram just doesn't make much sense now consider everything else that's going on. enjoy the times of being single and young kids. they don't last.

Very good point.

I've been prolonging this event lol

I have a house,job,girlfriend no kids early 30's

Current build is from oct 2009 and got upgrades as she aged.

i7 920 to i7 970 @ 4.2
6GB to 12GB
Hard drive to SSD now Raid 0 SSDs
6950 to 7970 Ghz

I won't look at any more major upgrades until Haswell E possibly.

the thing is you don't wanna wait too long if you ever want to have kids. I put it off for the longest time until I learned about all the disease your child can get if you have it too late. the longer you wait, the chance of genetic disease increases. I know growing up people always said gotta have kids when you're healthy and young, no one ever talk about why, or the science behind it. that and contemplating between dropping $800 on a new set of home theatre tower speakers, or trade in my car for a porsche cayman. $600 to play crysis 3 just doesn't sound that enticing anymore.

my current gaming rig is from mid 2008. Core2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz overclocked to 4ghz with my own customized water rig. needless to say that beast has held onto its last breath and took every game I threw at it. in the past year I've only had to upgrade the graphic card until Crysis 3 came out, which really brought the CPU down to its knees.

 

[GhostRyder]

Thing is, PC gamers are always evolving where console gamers buy it and only really purchase games and possibly a HDD upgrade every once in awhile. We PC gamers are always looking for ways to make the bigger and better rig so its no surprise that we fuel the market in that area.

I mean, I see something new come out, I start reading up on the power and performance, start drooling, then open my wallet to make sure theres more than moths inside

 

[dennis777]

PC Gamers + Steam Sale = PC parts sales stable

 

[Prosercunus]

I am a little bit more casual compared to some. I build by PC Gaming machine for its intended use (Gaming), but that feeling when you build your new rig and you see it boot up for the first time is great.

I don't go as crazy as some people with the whole overclocking, extreme cooling, modding, etc. It's cool stuff and I enjoy seeing what people do.

 

[nzdave]

I've got a really good gaming PC for not only gaming (which I still enjoy in-spite of my age )) but also video editing. Trying to video edit on anything less is fine if you have lotsa patience!

 

[ThanosPAS]

Gather up. We are millions and we want the best technology can offer.

 

[FLWrd]

I think most of the hardware development has already been fueled by PC gamers. Who needs a 2GHz quad core with 16Gb? Not the web surfers or Excel cowboys. 5 year old PCs are still perfectly fine for them. Number crunchers surely need it, but there are not that many of them, and they have relatively large budgets. But PC gamers? They love performance and there are many of them, but most of them don't have big funds. So I'd say they have been driving the market for ever increasing performance since the days of Doom.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

When everything is said and done and the dust settles, there is nothing that comes comes close to the experience a PC affords.