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Thread: Where have all the PC games gone?

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    Master Of The Universe CaseyV9's Avatar
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    Where have all the PC games gone?

    I've been looking in the shops for PC games.
    Is it just me or are the PC games slowly disappering? I can't find bugger all anymore.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    all those sims 2 expansion packs take shelf space, you know

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    Going Retro!!! Ferral's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Yeah I've noticed dwinding PC games on shelves.

    ASDA in the normal stores have stopped stocking them, as have a lot of the other supermarket chains. Our local independant have shifted them to a smaller stand in the middle of the floor.

    It does appear to be getting less support now.

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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Perhaps those buying PC games are more likely to be buying them online, so demand in shops has all but disappeared? I can't remember the last time I bought a PC game in a shop tbh.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Quote Originally Posted by CaseyV9 View Post
    I've been looking in the shops for PC games.
    Is it just me or are the PC games slowly disappering? I can't find bugger all anymore.
    It's just retail space because PC games don't sell as many as consoles (and generate less revenue when they do sell). Quite a few ace games coming up though.

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    Lovely chap dangel's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    "Blizzard on PC Gaming [July 02, 2008, 7:56 pm ET] -
    Blizzard's Mike Morhaime Q&A on Eurogamer has more on the state of PC gaming, as the chief executive of Blizzard Entertainment expresses his agreement with Valve's Gabe Newell's comments on the ongoing viability of the PC as a gaming platform:

    Yeah, and I agree with a lot of Gabe's comments. I think that it is just completely dead wrong to think about the PC gaming market and conclude that it's a declining market. It is far from declining. If you look at the numbers, there are probably more people playing games on the PC than any other platform. More than there ever have been before. If you look at the revenue, it's also growing. It's only not growing if all you're looking at is PC retail, and even then, I think it's just flat, I don't think it's declining very much."

    As a sidenote: this is the dry season - summer always sees few releases.
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    Blue Army Member spazman's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    I could put all my PC stock at 99p and people still wouldnt buy it. I was once a PC gamer, no longer though, seeing as a got a 360, PS3, wii and an LCD telly for the same price as my last PC build i know where i think my money was better spent. Also seeing as their are virtually no games coming out for the PC that interest me at all anymore (apart from maybe HL2:Ep3) i just cant see why people would spend the money. The only games PC does better are MMO's which i find to be mind numbing grind fests and RTS games which i prefer to dabble with as i suck so much at them. I would say that FPS were better online on a PC however the insane amount of hacks spoil it so much.
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    Senior Member Virtual Monkey's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Compared to consoles, I though PC games always represented a very small percentage of the gaming market? I'm not sure how much that's changed with WoW, but surely more gamers game on a console than PC?

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Virtual Monkey View Post
    Compared to consoles, I though PC games always represented a very small percentage of the gaming market? I'm not sure how much that's changed with WoW, but surely more gamers game on a console than PC?
    PC gamers outnumber console gamers about 20 to 1.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Quote Originally Posted by Virtual Monkey View Post
    Compared to consoles, I though PC games always represented a very small percentage of the gaming market? I'm not sure how much that's changed with WoW, but surely more gamers game on a console than PC?
    depends how you calculate your figures. if you include solitaire, minesweeper, and "casual" games like neopets or facebook apps, then sure.

    if we take this week as an example, the best selling PC game at retail (note the qualification at retail) was football manager - 33rd most popular game of the week, and even then multi-format). no pc exclusive got into the top 40 all-format charts

    and, of course, there's the question of "sales" versus "profits" - MMORPGs don't need a lot of sales to make a lot of profits, for example. console games are a "safer" bet for publishers and developers, since piracy is MUCH less (crytek's figures show 20:1 pirate:genuine for crysis, for example), and so are support costs (no compatibility worries means you can get away with pretty much no support staff, just someone to mail out replacements for scratched discs). it's easier to turn a profit with a console game - and whilst a couple of high profile examples buck the trend (e.g. WoW, or the sims), many PC games simply don't sell at all, certainly not enough to break even or turn a profit

    people like blizzard & valve are right to feel comfortable - blizzard because they have chests full of gold and diamonds from WoW fees, and valve because their steam platform significantly lowers the barriers to entry for PC developers (by eliminating the retail chain). but, the sad fact is, pc games don't need to be on shop shelves, because people don't buy them from shop shelves - either because they buy online, pirate, or just move to consoles to remove compatibility woes

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    PC gamers outnumber console gamers about 20 to 1.
    and are 9 feet tall, and have ten arms each!

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    and for historic raisins, looking at the per-format top 25 best selling games ever (an article from september LAST YEAR), the PC entries are:

    the sims (3rd)
    sims 2 (joint 7th)
    starcraft (20th)
    world of wardraft (21st)

    no other games feature in that list. half-life is almost, but not quite, on the list.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Quote Originally Posted by directhex View Post
    and are 9 feet tall, and have ten arms each!
    Heh, I was serious. Fact is the vast majority of them don't spend anything on games, and most of them are only casual gamers too. But even despite that, The Sims has 100 million sales (as of april 08).

    OK the success of the DS lite and Wii might mean the ratio is nearing 10:1, but it's still an order of magnitude.

    But yes, as we were saying, that figure is meaningless to most companies because of the general lack of revenue at retail for the PC.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    Heh, I was serious. Fact is the vast majority of them don't spend anything on games, and most of them are only casual gamers too. But even despite that, The Sims has 100 million sales (as of april 08).

    OK the success of the DS lite and Wii might mean the ratio is nearing 10:1, but it's still an order of magnitude.
    the sims 1, plus 7 expansions packs, plus the sims 2, plus 16 expansions packs, yes. all of those together add up to 100m.

    but pokemon alone adds up to 75m. the ps2 GTA games add up to 36m. if we assume nobody plays both pokemon and GTA, then i don;t think your 10:1 figure is anything other than a) made up and b) grossly wrong

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    Well I meant to imply that the Sims sales aren't representative of that figure - my point was that the vast majority of people who play a game on their PC don't buy games at retail. But you're welcome to your opinion (even if accusing me of making stuff up isn't very polite), we'll just have to agree to disagree.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    Re: Where have all the PC games gone?

    if the sims sales figures aren't representative, then what is? which games have been sneakily selling millions of copies (and earning retail space, which is the point of the original post), if not the sims?

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