US retail PC game sales down $210 million in '08

I've always had one major problem with the NPD numbers, as they only track store purchases. Why dont they track online sales as well. With more people getting their games through Steam, Direct 2 Drive, and other services, I bet those numbers are higher.

Hold on... Why the frag is "Spore" the associated game!? Pah! This is an article about PC gaming, not Draconian DRM and simplification. I think there are two reasons for this decline... 1) Intel, who put crappy integrated graphics chipsets in 70% of PCs; 2) The inevitable -- piracy. 3) Studios who put better-than console graphics in games so few peo[ple can run them well, if at all. BTW, how come the PS3's RSX, which is based on the 7800GTX, can run games like Fallout 3, whereas the 7800GTX can't?

How can you say PC gaming is 'ahead of the curve'? That's nonsense its just mmorpg's and 1st person shooters. No innovation. Unless you're talking about Spore or the Sims. WoW has pretty much destroyed PC gaming. It is mainly the really cheap people I know who play it. Never having to upgrade their hardware these days means that the WoW subscription fee is simply a cheap way to fill in their bland lives. Along with the fact that no other decent PC games come out anymore, its just an easy way out for losers in my opinion.

Rubbish! All the data over the years has pointed out the fact that PC gamer's are ahead of the curve with trends that usually don't hit consoles until years later. The fact that downloadable games have been available for years, ( I couldn't say how many, but long before Steam) and has been accounting for many of the PC game sales since it was introduced. As Precyse pointed out, the market is still quite lucrative and healthy. The PC game makers and hardware sellers need to get their S**T together and get some representation and standards, and list the revenue of the PC Game market as a whole.

"it's not the fact of whether you want them or not. It's the fact that you will never have them on the PC." Which, once again, we will not care.

According to the pcga http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/008398.php pc games and hardware brought in over 10.7 billion in '07 more than half of all the consoles and their hardware in 07 so lets see what the figures are for '08 before we take in gamespots findings. jay summed it up best, good going man.

birdgang_1 "Mario Galaxy, SSBB, Uncharted, MGSIV, GT5, God of War 3, Forza 3, Halo 3, Tales of Vesperia or Star Ocean IV on the PC?" As if we really wanted these games. ************************************************************ It's not the fact of whether you want them or not. It's the fact that you will never have them on the PC. There are a lot of PC exclusive that no one would ever want to see on a game console as well. I wouldn't want Neverwinter Nights, Starcraft 2, Total War or The Sims on game consoles. Yet, developers will probably still try to get some of these game onto a game console in the future. Keep them on the PC. Of course none of this has anything to do with sales continuing to drop on the PC format. Steam is a cheap way to get older PC games for cheap. For games that cost $5-$10, it's a good deal. For full retail games, I want to be able to hold the product in my hands. Steam does absolutely nothing for people who want collector's edition of a PC game.

It's all about Steam. 90% of my PC games are Steam-based. Save gas, reduce the plastic footprint of one's game collection. You don't need stacks of PC game boxes to boost your ego these days. You just need a quality broadband connection and a big hard drive.

"Mario Galaxy, SSBB, Uncharted, MGSIV, GT5, God of War 3, Forza 3, Halo 3, Tales of Vesperia or Star Ocean IV on the PC?" As if we really wanted these games.

I don't usually waste much time buying PC games. There are a few that I will play on the PC like StarCraft 2, WoW series, Spore (eventually), Dragon Age and several PC RPG games like Neverwinter Nights, etc.. The majority of my gaming is on the XBox 360, PS3 and Wii. That's all you need. There are tons of exclusives on all 3 systems that will never be on the PC. Will we ever see Mario Galaxy, SSBB, Uncharted, MGSIV, GT5, God of War 3, Forza 3, Halo 3, Tales of Vesperia or Star Ocean IV on the PC? I think not. Even with Digital Distribution sales, PC sales have been dropping since 2004. Even with DD sales added it would still be a decline in sales for the last 4 years.

I bought some stuff retail last year. But I mostly bought my games through steam. I bought Mercs 2, Deadspace, Fallout 3, GTA4, Far Cry 2, CoD5, L4D, and some other stuff that wasnt even 08 release, like Witcher Enhanced, Garrys Mod 10, UT2004 on steam, so I always have it. Hell, even tho i coulda DL it free and DOS boxed it i Payed $5 USD to get the whole Commander Keen series on steam. Worth It !!! Yeah, this means jack all untill Digital Sales Records come in. Screw retail. It's not like Retail didn't screw us a long time ago......

Not that concerned. Stories like this always come up, nothing major ever really happens.

until they release steam sales this means nothing. about 2/3 of the games I buy are on steam and I reboughts some games on steam like mass effect since it avoids all the drm problems of retail games. until the drm is gone from retail game I wont but them unless they can be activated on steam. Any game that has securom activations in the retail version and has no activations on steam I wont but the retail version.

Well it's no secret PC gaming is going more and more towards digital download versions all the time.They should find some way to actually, y'know, report on it.PC sales figures are absolutely pointless to report on otherwise.

Let me preface this by stating that I too have a 65" 1080p HDTV, a XBOX Elite, Wii, PS2, oodles of peripherals, and other consoles dating back to my Atari 2600. That said, PC Gaming is *not* dying. The data in this article is poorly represented because PC Gaming's delivery method is changing due to many of those brick and mortar stores focusing more on Console games. Why? Several reasons: 1) Reselling used games. You can't resell a used PC game. You can resell a used Console game, and the profit on that resell goes entirely to the brick and mortar store. Developer doesn't get a dime. It's sickening and ingenious at the same time. 2) Marketing. For whatever reason, Console games have a vastly larger marketing budget than PC games (see: Halo 3). Why they are treated so differently I couldn't tell you -- perhaps it has to do with the fact that Console games by and large are more easily labeled with a target demographic than most PC games. 3) Supply/Overhead. The number and variety of PC games outstrips Console games by an order of magnitude. Everything from the insipid Barbie Adventure BS to the magnificent Fallout 3 all require space on the shelf and space in the stockroom. Per Gamestop managers I've asked directly, many brick and mortar stores don't want to deal with that kind of overhead on products whose profit margin is split with the publisher (see Reselling above). Whereas big box retailers like Best Buy and Fry's are able to more easily maintain that kind of supply. Note that if you want to buy from any 'brick and mortar' store *online* they always have it in stock and will ship it to you. 4) Amazon and online retail. Amazon, in my opinion, beats the snot out of brick and mortar for price and availability. a) they'll charge you less than the brick and mortar, b) they typically have everything in stock, c) they'll ship it to your door earlier than the brick and mortar will get it. Brick and mortar have been glacially slow in adopting a business model to compete with Amazon, and it shows. 5) Pirating. Digital delivery and DRM is a much better way of fighting piracy than a box on a shelf. And the whole entitlement BS attitude of, "Downloading 50 GB of pirated songs just makes me buy MORE albums than I otherwise would, so I'm doing the record companies a favor!" does the same damage to PC games. In short: Brick and mortar are behind the curve in marketing, distributing, stocking and selling PC games. Therefore, they're simply doing their best (albeit ignorantly) to make a buck given the situation they've put themselves in. The problem is that Digital Delivery is stepping into that niche, and it's only a matter of time before it nudges its way into consoles too. Don't blame PC games. They're doing just fine. There are still more PCs per household than consoles, and so long as that remains the case, PC gaming isn't going anywhere.

I myself have just about given up on PC gaming, I don't feel I have it in me anymore to keep upgrading my computer to keep playing the latest games. I'd much rather play consoles these days, which are much cheaper for gaming in the long run. Plus, I often find I much prefer a dual analog controller to play games over a mouse and keyboard. That's not to knock on PC gaming though, it's very very satisfying if you wanna pony up the cash, I just don't want to pony up the cash.

Painkiller: Well, you did confuse me. To me, it doesn't sound like a bad idea but then I'm always up for an upgrade, it's fun to me. thingta42: You cannot read, nor do you do any research either. If what we PC gamers are trying to say is so hard for you to understand, I'll put it in terms which you will find pleasing. "u no ned 400 dullurs tu pluy gemez smuthly!". Again, another person who uses that as an excuse for their ignorance. We don't care what you say because everything you say is completely wrong. If that is what you say about needing "$400", you are NOT a PC gamer by heart.

We seem to forget that majority of gamers are still young and doesn't have real disposable income. Mom and Dad won't understand why there is a need to shell out money to little Bob to upgrade his video card or anything about minimum system specs for games to play. But yet this same parents knows that Gamecube is now replaced with Wii and bought him a new one. All this technical jargon is what is slowly holding back PC gaming. Grandpa and Grandma who's planning to buy a game for Lil' Bob hasn't even heard about Steam and what the heck it does do. Goes to store and find a small line-up of PC games and not sure if it would even run in his grandsons computer when presented with the min requirements by salesman. He does see a Wii logo in one of the games in the shelf. Remembering Lil'Bob has a Wii, he is definitely sure it would play and picks it up. Less hassle. And Lil' Bob won't even care if its running less than 60 FPS. Parents happy. Grandparents happy. Lil' Bob happy. Now multiply this scenario a million times.

Thingta42 - You say PC gaming is dying thats just not true focus on the PC has shifted true alot more low budget games are coming through these days look at mount and blade that games friggin sweet. and saying you dont care what anyone thinks because we are wrong and console gaming is where its at makes you sound like a childish fool whos oppinion is biased anyhow. maybe you should read over what you type in future. PC/Console i have both I love my pc i use it for gaming and work i also love my ps3 and 360 all have merits. it will be a long long time before we see the end of pc gaming.

Well what is too be expected when retailers start removing the PC shelf space in favor of crap from DS/Wii such as the stuff Ubi makes for them. Besides the sales from places such as Gamersgate, D2Drive and Steam will more than make up for that drop. I myself moved to Gamersgate/Steam for more of my games than 07 and that number will increase no doubt this year.

damn pc fanboys trying to protect there pc gaming. Face it. PC gaming is dieing. theres too Many Pirates these days and other stuff happen that is destroying the market. I myself am a PC Gamer by heart but to get a Rig to run games smoothly at 400 or less is Impossible. I dont really care what you think because your wrong anyway. Console gaming is where it is at and its where the money is to be made these days. Sad but its a fact.

Who cares about your halo 3 "thingta42", im gonna go play some GTA 4 on my alienware with maximum setting that your consoles couldn't even handle.

People still have AGP mobos and their PCs still do everything find but high end gaming.

the best part of PC gaming is you can constantly have the cutting edge technology if you choose to, or you can back off and play less demanding games that a cheap system can run. But the fact that you can customize will always make PC gaming better, to me at least. It's annoying when I am playing an Xbox360 game and it clearly can't handle the graphics load that the game's creators intended. It takes away from the game. If PC parts would just come down in price more, which they already have recently, I think you would see this turn back to the other direction.

birdgang_1 i'm not playing my games on 7800 GTX my spec is: C2Q Q6600@3.0 GHz,Thermaltake MaxOrb,Asus P5B Mobo,2GB CorsairXMS2 6400,8800 GTS 640MB, Cooler Master Real Power M850, Creative ITrigue 3400 Speaker,Samsung LCD Monitor 19" WideScreen,Razer Tarantula keyboard,Razer Copperhead Mouse,Steelpad QCK heavy,XBOX 360 Wiraless controller for PC,Steelsound 4H headset. I'm playing Fallout 3 at 60 FPS but sometimes I try my old XFX 7800GTX in new games. you dont noticed that what I'm going to say,maybe it was becouse of my bad english,sorry. what I'm gonna say is if developers are abale to design games that can run on 3 year old cosoles well they also can do the same with 2 years old PCs too.what you think?

Thats my reason why i think pc market is sucking right now. And ofc no one has to agree but. each is entitled to their own Opinion. Anyway back to Playing Halo 3 on my 360 Elite on my True HD 1080p 42"Plasma TV,

There might be other wider reasons for this - the rise of people switching to Mac/Linux Platforms would also have an effect on PC Gaming Sales as well as the switch to consoles - the truth is, that when we talk about "PC Gaming", we're really talking about "Windows OS Gaming". PC gaming as a whole is unfortunately linked to the success or faliure (end stability) of MS Windows. Which over the last couple of years has had a rough ride due to Vista. My own feeling is that there should be a seperate open source gaming OS for PC hardware that will dual boot with windows/mac/linux OS's - then we would see the market really expand as it would take the gaming monopoly away from windows which is as much a hindrance as it is a help. Just imagine a virtually virus free environment with no bloatware ruining your game.... I see a lot of comments about hardware here - the hardware is not the issue, it's the OS, and how it's designed to use the hardware - hence why you can get vastly different performance from identical PC hardware running different OS's. And why console's seem to get more out of their hardware than some PC's with similar specs seem to manage. People don't buy hardware (unless of course they have a particular interest in it) - people buy a user experience, this transcends the platform and is why most of the revenue is console based - PC's can be perceived as a complicated user experience, especially with the millions of configuration options and 3 or 4 major OS's to choose from - so for a gamer with no technical knowledge it's just a hassle to go and buy something that he feels is not going to run the latest games in a years time - so he goes for a console because he doesn't have to check specs/ratings and he knows that the game that runs on his friend's console will also run on his.

Painkiller-jack: Hm, after searching I came across this. (http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/detail.php?board=918428&topic=45995909&message=504267814). Was it your video card? No. CPU and RAM? Maybe. You being retarded and trying to crank up all the settings on a not-so-great card? If it wasn't your CPU or RAM, definitely. Fallout 3 nor any port require "double" the horse power to run. And, me do my research? I've already. GTA IV was a "lazy PC port" because there was little/nothing new since it's console release, above other things. Your argument is rendered invalid.

birdgang_1 "Fallout 3 wasn't a port, do your research." Fallout 3 wasn't a port but Assasins creed was. about GTA IV Gamespot says LAZY PC PORT.you do your research FAN BOY.

cant wait to build my rig to play just about all of these games

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

birdgang_1 Says: "And another thing. You say that if the PS3 is based on a 7800 series card, why can't your 7800GTX play fallout 3? This is where I point out again, no research done. PS3 games are designed to work with the PS3's specs." and thats the point that im talking about.thats what i called a lame and weak port that need double horse power.

@ Gaming_Guru_Guy: I find very ironic that you go by that name when looks like you don't know crap about games, don't hate PC gamers just because you can't afford to buy a decent PC, I own the xbox 360, PS3 and a top of the line PC, I can honestly say that each system has it's own pros and cons and I enjoy each one of them, I don't like fanboys who hate other people just because they can't afford to buy all of the systems available and take their frustrations out by hating the people who don't own the same systems they own and claiming their system is the best ever.

Well I see this as revenge against the abomination that is limited installations per game. Don't punish those who are legit because some people are criminals. If we did that in stores people would be outraged.

@EddieTheGreat Yeah, no upgrades. But you have to pay for a whole new system 2 years later and shell out 3x times as much as the previous system.

leekong I really doubt about your 700$ PC can run Crysis in AVERAGE 55 FPS refer to newest benchmark at Firingsquad.com(Link:http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/asus_p6t_review/page9.asp) their system setup is : Core i7 920,ASUS P6T,3GB (3x1GB) Qimonda 1067 CL7 non-ECC,NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 ForceWare 180.43 150GB Western Digital Raptor Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit w/Service Pack 1 and they reach 35.4 FPS at 1600x1200 in Crysis DX10 high setting. and abuot my PC I have 8800GTS 640 MB and C2Q 6600 clocked to 3.0 GHz ,2GB of Corsair XMS2 6400 and seagate baracuda 7200 500 GB and crysis in my pc runs about 24 FPS at 1440x900 with setting set to high DX9.I dont know what setting and resolution you play at 55 FPS please let us know.

i don't know about the rest of you ...but i for one live in a country where a new game costs around 100euro and an old one about 50 euro .....when your income is 500 euro or less on which 350 goes on taxes and other household expenses (electricity ,water,heat,etc.) and sometimes during winter it goes all the way up to 400 euro per month ....then you are left with only 100 to support your family and bring food in the house ....hmmm gee i wonder what choice you make ..buy a game and let your family starve for 1 month ?? and the problem is piracy right ? not the fact that they put a price so high no one can buy it ....a solution would be to lower the prices on this kinda country's ...so the common folk can afford them ...but hey that's just one man's opinion ;)

@ birdgang_1 ?? it may be only $70 but still, with a console there is no need to buy new upgrades, you only need to buy it once then that is it.

@javier what utter tosh. moving from consol to pc made the performance difference rather glaring to me. it might just be that the pc i got is that good but when playing the likes of bioshock the orange box mass effect left 4 dead call of duty 4 &5 etc after playing them on consols then pc the difference IS that noticable plus most ports of pc games to consol are more often then not not upto snuff performance wise when compared to there pc counter part like the orange box port to ps3.

@PainKiller-Jack You sir, have no idea what you are talking about. Lame console ports? What, are you blind? Must you search on gamespot and look at the good ratings that the so-called, "lame" ports get? Besides, a lot of PC gamers actually like ports. From what you have typed, horribly, I assume that you have no knowledge of the PC and are just as dumb as the others. You console gamers always bring up "oMg my needz u 500 dullur vidio card tu pluy gemez!" which shows us PC gamers that you have not done your research and tend to use that quote as an excuse for your ignorance. Now, you can pay as little as $70 for an upgrade to play all the new PC games out. Please do your research before you spread your idiocy around the comment box. And another thing. You say that if the PS3 is based on a 7800 series card, why can't your 7800GTX play fallout 3? This is where I point out again, no research done. PS3 games are designed to work with the PS3's specs.

Painkiller-jack: Thats right, there is really no incentive beyond the $10 difference in price for a game to play it on a PC instead of a console. Sure the PC has nicer graphics but the differences in the console counterpart is not that abysmal and sometimes you cant notice it unless is displayed side by side. And I dont think the PC has reached for a broader audience like the consoles do; sure Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 are going to be smash hits....among people who played Starcraft and Diablo 1/2...and most South Korea.

they'll bounce back in '09 with all the great tiles. And the Pc is still strong.

in Italy I never buy PC games in stores, since they cost even 3 times the price I can find online. I think my country totally fails at exploiting such a profitable business as video entertainment is. On the other hand I see piracy is much more spread among PC gamers and it annoys me to see people pirating games like Crysis Warhead that includes 2 discs for less than $30, Crytek couldn't do any better. WoW is the most profitable since it's one of the most money draining games around, no wonder..anyway I am sure many pc gamers don't really like subscription fees games. I don't think figures alone tell everything

i forgot to say one more thing. you can also use the 360 controller on most of the PC games, but shooting games and strategy games are much easier to use with a mouse than with a controller. i normally use my 360 controller on Racing game like Grid, and sometimes Crysis(My Laptop Gets heated for playing it too long).

keep telling yourself its because of Digital distribution or requirements. You all know its because of torrents have you actually seen the numbers of people who download the games that's millions of dollars in lost revue.Why would people complain about DRM and scurerom most gamers play on 1-2 pc anyways. My suggestion to the game companies is to start cd key pooling and online actuation and signin then you wont need DRM and scurerom

pc gaming won't die, more and more people just prefer to get there games online. though i prefer getting it in a store...

pinkiller-jack: i disagree with you. Not very many people have experiences with PC than with consoles. If you know how to work on a PC then it clearly has the potential to do more than the consoles. Of course the consoles have already come with HDMI and good graphics. But a Gaming PC can overcome all of those no sweat, even my $700 desktop PC at home already runs Crysis 55 FPS! For your Information, New games that comes out on PC only costs $50, compare that to a new game for console, which comes at $60!! Its just like cars, if you do not know the specs and what parts make it go fast. Then there is no way you will know where to find good deals to get the parts that will make your PC go fast. People always complain that too much videogames on a PC makes it go slow, well if you do your research and find the right "Hard Drive" for it, then you shouldnt have any problems. The load times and the Graphics on my PC is 3-5X Faster than the Xbox or PS3. Hope this helps to clear things up a little.

some think that its all because of torrents but its not. PC games sales decrease because of policy of game developers for example Gears Of War,GTA IV,Mass effect and much other games coming to PCs about 8 or 9 months later than consoles. when developers are working on the new titles, PC gamers must play a lame ported version of Console games.and other reason is hardware PS 3 GPU is based on 7800 series and XBOX360 is x1900 series but why I cant play Fallout 3 on my GeForce 7800 GTX like consoles does??? yes I need to pay about 500 box to buy one or two brand new top of the line video card like GTX 285 or 295s. thats the reason that some of my friends going to buy a console while they have good PCs.....This is the rise of Consoles and fall of PCs.console gaming are cheaper,and they have more exclusive and time exclusive titles,they have HD gaming for less money.that's the reason for decrease pc games sale.PC gamers become Console gamers.

I only play Age of Empires 3 on PC, I just use my 360. And my PC is a laptop anyway. I used to play the Sims 2 a lot but stopped. Oh, and also Football Manager 2007/8 when theycame out, that is all I have ever played on PC. I just use me 360 for all things gaming, I find it so much easier.

" They need to Make PC hardware Cheaper or else the pc market is just going to die when people can pick up a 400£ Gaming console and have play the same game without having to fork out 6000£ for a Computer just to make the game look as good as its console counter-part." It's inaccurate misconceptions like this that also hurt PC Gaming. I bought a PC that can handle anything on the market today, including games like Fallout 3, UT3 and yes Crysis all maxed out settings with good framerates. Did I pay £6000? No i paid £350 actually, which at the time was far less than a PS3, this was over a year ago. My components are well balanced and reasonably powerful, such as a 9600GT graphics card and a Core 2 Duo processor. This is enough to run the most demanding PC games of today with good settings and resolutions. You'd only ever need a more powerful system for ultra high resolutions on large screens, or 60+ framerates, which is merely a nice-to-have.