Sunday, September 25th 2011
Sunday Special: PC Gaming On the Rise, Set To Outsell Consoles by 2014 - NVIDIA
Some claim that PC gaming is dying. However, recent trends as explained by NVIDIA, disagree and it is in fact console gaming that will soon decline, as PCs have some compelling advantages such as ever improving graphics and moddability, to keep the gaming scene thriving. Techgage held a conference call with NVIDIA, where the company explained why PC gaming is on the up and up. PC gaming software sales are growing fast, according to this comparative graph and the predicted crossover point is 2014:PC processing power is increasing rapidly and is now estimated to be around ten times that of consoles - a compelling advantage and one that will only increase:So, how long can consoles hold out with their static, aging technology? Not much longer, one would expect.
Another way to measure PC game sales success, is to look at the continuing rise of online digital distribution. As you can see, sales of retail boxed copies have declined, while online sales have shot up:While not shown on this graph, there's no arguing that the biggest online platform, Steam, is extremely successful and shows no sign of slowing down. PC hardware can now render near photo-realistic graphics that could only be dreamed of a few years ago, making them a much better platform for gaming from a technical perspective. Also, the PC platform is very amenable to modding, which can build huge fanbases for a particular game which helps to drive sales, something consoles sorely lack. Many gamers much prefer the control offered by a keyboard and mouse too. So, console gamers have long mocked PC gamers for the "decline" of their platform, but for how much longer? All this is excellent news for PC enthusiasts who like to play graphically intensive games and gives them a reason to upgrade their hardware regularly to the latest and greatest. No doubt, it makes hardware manufacturers equally happy.
Note that this is NVIDIAs take on it and they have an interest in selling ever more powerful graphics cards, so it's a good idea to watch market trends from various different sources. However, their information seems reasonable enough.
Head on over to the original Techgage article for more details and some comparative screenshots between Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 3. The improvement in realism is really quite amazing and makes BF2 look a bit dated now.
Another way to measure PC game sales success, is to look at the continuing rise of online digital distribution. As you can see, sales of retail boxed copies have declined, while online sales have shot up:While not shown on this graph, there's no arguing that the biggest online platform, Steam, is extremely successful and shows no sign of slowing down. PC hardware can now render near photo-realistic graphics that could only be dreamed of a few years ago, making them a much better platform for gaming from a technical perspective. Also, the PC platform is very amenable to modding, which can build huge fanbases for a particular game which helps to drive sales, something consoles sorely lack. Many gamers much prefer the control offered by a keyboard and mouse too. So, console gamers have long mocked PC gamers for the "decline" of their platform, but for how much longer? All this is excellent news for PC enthusiasts who like to play graphically intensive games and gives them a reason to upgrade their hardware regularly to the latest and greatest. No doubt, it makes hardware manufacturers equally happy.
Note that this is NVIDIAs take on it and they have an interest in selling ever more powerful graphics cards, so it's a good idea to watch market trends from various different sources. However, their information seems reasonable enough.
Head on over to the original Techgage article for more details and some comparative screenshots between Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 3. The improvement in realism is really quite amazing and makes BF2 look a bit dated now.