I'm sure you've heard that PC gaming is dead or dying, but a new report out today from the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA), a non-profit industry organization that is dedicated to driving PC gaming growth, released its third annual "Horizons" market report.

Among the findings:

• The PC gaming market reached a record $18.6 billion globally in 2011, marking a 15% increase over the 2010 numbers.
• No region that the report tracked showed a decline in overall PC game revenue last year.
• China continues to dominate in the growth rate, growing its market 27% over the previous year, but Korea, The US, Japan, the UK, and Germany all showed growth of 11% in combined revenue.
• Much of the growth came in the free to play space, with several F2P games and companies like Zynga, Riot, and Nexon having huge years in 2011.

More at the PCGA website.

Revenue would be twice as high if not for piracy which in the end hurts the smaller developers and publishers.  Why make a PC game when you can just make it for a console and not worry about piracy.

Anyone who has ever thought PC Gaming has been dead or slowly dying are {at least IMHO} just jealous they don't have a proper, custom built PC and can't fully grasp the epicness that is PC Gaming!  [mod edit]

Glad to hear it. I've lately been moving further away from console gaming onto the PC (although some games just play better on console, admittedly).

I have to say though, its hard to take any PC-related  site which has a positive story (on the front page, no less) about Alienware's overpriced trash PCs seriously.

Edit: I must also add that I'm not happy with the elitist attitude many PC gamers have. Seriously folks, knock it off. Just because you chose a certain gaming platform doesn't mean you're any better than someone who chose differently.

Disappointing to see that the aforementioned growth is powered by the trashy end of the gaming spectrum.

Originally posted by William12

Revenue would be twice as high if not for piracy which in the end hurts the smaller developers and publishers.  Why make a PC game when you can just make it for a console and not worry about piracy.

Ya, but they do have to consider the secondary market instead.

And from what I've seen, that is a pretty big revenue killer itself.

you do know most multiplatform games gets pirated 1-2 weeks before on consoles than its pirated on pc and in reality most people pirate games because they are too expensive, so if it took 5 mins extra to get it done on console compared to pc, they still would, even if there was no piracy people without money wouldnt buy games anyway

[mod edit]

why was pc gaming 30% of overall gaming media profits in 2010 ( not sure how that changed in 2011, feel free to find that info for me )  considering that there are 3 major consoles, tons of portable devices,  dying pc breed had 1/3, sure thing, piracy killed all profits

Originally posted by William12

Why make a PC game when you can just make it for a console and not worry about piracy.

That has to be one of the most BS statement I've ever read, as piracy on Consoles are just as bad if not worse than on PCs.  And if you look at the real numbers behind piracy and actual game sales, its barely hurting the major gaming developers!  The only numbers they look at are initial pirated DLs and assume those people will never purchase the game and immediately scream its a loss.

There are a ton of gamers, {and yes I'll admit to doing it too} that like to try a game first or see if it'll run on their PCs before purchasing.  And for some ridiculous reason most PC games don't get demos anymore.  In the past there were always demos to DL, or you could get a disk with 1/2 a dozen of them or more from a magazine purchase, etc!  

In all honestly though, I believe the biggest reason there are very few demos lately are because a large majority of PC games just suck or are a shoddy console port, {and yes the developers know this}, thus they don't release a demo because they know people wouldn't buy their crap then, and then when said title doesn't sell they blame piracy instead of owning up to releasing a crappy, unfinished game!  Le Sigh...

Anyway~!

Originally posted by William12

Revenue would be twice as high if not for piracy which in the end hurts the smaller developers and publishers.  Why make a PC game when you can just make it for a console and not worry about piracy.

Ah yes, the piracy card. Here's some food for thought: Perhaps revenue would be twice as high if they actually made better games?

pc gaming growing up with online gaming genre eventually console dudes face this truth :D 

reports from sept 2011 showed PC gaming overtaking consoles

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/97047-thank-you-farmville-pc-gaming-will-soon-overtake-consoles

Originally posted by Khrymson

Anyone who has ever thought PC Gaming has been dead or slowly dying are {at least IMHO} just jealous they don't have a proper, custom built PC and can't fully grasp the epicness that is PC Gaming!  [mod edit]

True, dat.

Even at 3 years old, I love my baby.  When she starts slowing down, there's tons I can do to speed her up again; and when THAT can no longer be done, I'll start over and keep the old as a file server. 

Meanwhile, the console folks can look forward to yet another box collecting dust down in the basement...

Consoles have their place, but they'll never have the versatility that PC's have.  And they're always advancing.

+1up for pc

Originally posted by ironfungus

Originally posted by William12

Revenue would be twice as high if not for piracy which in the end hurts the smaller developers and publishers.  Why make a PC game when you can just make it for a console and not worry about piracy.

Ah yes, the piracy card. Here's some food for thought: Perhaps revenue would be twice as high if they actually made better games?

Or make them cheaper, quicker.  The Steam guys talked a while back about how they'd heavily discount newer releases for weekend sales and make more profit than they did at launch.

Like when Subway introduced the $5 footlong, there IS a magic number for the cost of a game that will make up in sales numbers what they lose from the lower price.  Soon as they figure that out, they'll expand hugely, and kill most piracy right along with it.

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Edit: I must also add that I'm not happy with the elitist attitude many PC gamers have. Seriously folks, knock it off. Just because you chose a certain gaming platform doesn't mean you're any better than someone who chose differently.

This. Many PC gamers are intolerant folks. Sometimes it gets so bad that I feel ashamed to be a PC gamer.

Originally posted by fivoroth

Originally posted by Rednecksith

Edit: I must also add that I'm not happy with the elitist attitude many PC gamers have. Seriously folks, knock it off. Just because you chose a certain gaming platform doesn't mean you're any better than someone who chose differently.

This. Many PC gamers are intolerant folks. Sometimes it gets so bad that I feel ashamed to be a PC gamer.

 

 Seriously.  I'm most recently going back to consoles more and more lately and no, not because I think their games are better than pc game offerings.  The particular games I'm into are better for me on the consoles and most of the games I've liked for the past several years on pc have been of the MMO style.  Since I'm rather burnt out on MMOs and I don't see them getting much better of late, I'm taking a haitus from them temporarily (we'll see with GW2, disappointed in SWTOR).  But to my point. 

I hate the elitist attitude from either perspective, it lacks good judgement and wisdom.  The fact is that first off, I don't see either platform going away and gaming itself is just going to keep growing on all sides, if you ask me.  Again, some games are better IMO on console and others on PC.  I don't think anyone is ignorant to play on either exclusively that's their choice and I personally try to do both.  Just my 2 (or 3) cents!

Originally posted by William12

Revenue would be twice as high if not for piracy which in the end hurts the smaller developers and publishers.  Why make a PC game when you can just make it for a console and not worry about piracy.

Yes, those PS1 games in Kosovo, the ones with the faded scanned covers in a music CD case were original games. 

how much did blizzard alone general 1.5 billion 2 billion!i would say probably around 10% were generated by blizzard !then add activision!and they probably generated close to 15% of the revenue lol!

A 15% increase? That's good.

However, it would take at least a 400% increase for most developers to realize that most direct console to pc ports suck.