The Console War Is Over: The PC Already Won

MikeTheNative · 15 Jul 2014 at 13:51

Boomstick777 said:
Not sure how you deem it childish, the thread is titled from the Forbes article. Maybe you are projecting? Some people like to read positive things about PC gaming, as normally we get nothing but PC is dying / dead articles etc. Good that some positive articles are being written.

The title is click bait for people to get riled up about. As for me, I gave my 360 away and can't remember the last time I turned my PS3 on. I think it is great news that PC is doing well and I hope it continues to thrive as it's my preferred platform. Title is still stupid though.

deko · 15 Jul 2014 at 13:56

I love my PC and spent a fortune on it, and love my PS4 aswell, 2 different types of gaming. I'm 100% sure though that I couldn't build a "gaming pc" from scratch for £300, never in a million years.

Ayahuasca · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:00

Title makes little sense, the console war is between PS4 and XB1.

I'd still bet the console markets make far more from games than PC does just based on prices alone.

It's good to see that PC is doing well though and not in decline as some were suggesting in the past.

spoffle · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:02

Ayahuasca said:
Title makes little sense, the console war is between PS4 and XB1.

I'd still bet the console markets make far more from games than PC does just based on prices alone.

It's good to see that PC is doing well though and not in decline as some were suggesting in the past.

PC games make more for the devs/publishers per unit sold than console games, and that is with the higher console price being factored in.

cheesyboy · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:07

spoffle said:
PC games make more for the devs/publishers per unit sold than console games, and that is with the higher console price being factored in.

That may be true (source?), but games sell many times more on console than on PC.

Piesanfries · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:13

Sold my ps4 and build a good gaming rig never will look back there are no games on ps4 I wanted looking back I have no idea why I bought it.

So far iv spent well over 100 hours on dayz and iv only had the pc a month no idea why any one really into gaming would chose a console over a pc if they had the option

spoffle · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:19

cheesyboy said:
That may be true (source?), but games sell many times more on console than on PC.

Some do, but they aren't the rule.

I don't have a source right now, but one was with regards to Skyrim, and another was a talk by Lorne Lanning (founder of Oddworld Inhabitants) where he outlined the typical console release pricing structure, and how much they get due to various other parties taking cuts.

cheesyboy · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:23

spoffle said:
Some do, but they aren't the rule.

I don't have a source right now, but one was with regards to Skyrim, and another was a talk by Lorne Lanning (founder of Oddworld Inhabitants) where he outlined the typical console release pricing structure, and how much they get due to various other parties taking cuts.

Having searched for a few multi-platform games on the link I posted earlier, I've not yet come across any which sold more on PC than console (or any PC game which sold more than the bigger console releases). Even more "PC" games like Crysis 3 and BF4.

As far as I can see, it really is "the rule"

cheesyboy said:
Not sure how accurate, but you can compare games sales here;
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/

MikeTheNative · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:28

Valve don't release sales figures don't they? This would make most PC charts useless, as the biggest platform isn't included.

spoffle · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:30

cheesyboy said:
Having searched for a few multi-platform games on the link I posted earlier, I've not yet come across any which sold more on PC than console (or any PC game which sold more than the bigger console releases). Even more "PC" games like Crysis 3 and BF4.

As far as I can see, it really is "the rule"

I never said there are more sales on PC. I'm saying that PC sales make more on a per unit basis (considerably) than the console version, per unit.

cheesyboy · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:31

MikeTheNative said:
Valve don't release sales figures don't they? This would make most PC charts useless, as the biggest platform isn't included.

There's an element of guesswork "modelling" to the figures;
http://www.vgchartz.com/methodology.php

cheesyboy · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:35

spoffle said:
I never said there are more sales on PC. I'm saying that PC sales make more on a per unit basis (considerably) than the console version, per unit.

I was responding to you saying "some do" to my suggestion that games sell more copies on console. In fact, "all do" would probably be more accurate

Developers may get more per unit from PC, but what does it matter? They get more in absolute terms from console, which is why the market is shaped by console gamers' habits.

PC gamers have lost the ability to shape the market in any meaningful way since they started buying "console" AAA games more than they do "PC" games. That's why we get served such tripe in the big releases.

Boomstick777 · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:38

MikeTheNative said:
The title is click bait for people to get riled up about. As for me, I gave my 360 away and can't remember the last time I turned my PS3 on. I think it is great news that PC is doing well and I hope it continues to thrive as it's my preferred platform. Title is still stupid though.

The title would only rile up those with a fanboy mindset. The title is same as the article. Most of us here have PC and console, I am one of them. Great to see some positivity about PC gaming imho, especially from sites like Forbes.

~>Dg<~ · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:39

what people havent factored in is the price of the newer consoles !

wait till eggbox one and ps4 drop down to 200 quid a peice then youll see massive numbers of sales. they are still fairly expensive.

we are coming to a age where most people have what they need to entertain the replacements that offer little are too expensive and majority of games on all platforms are pretty dire. then they wonder why they struggle to sell.

studios cant gamble on being orginal as if it flops thats them done so they have to bang out tired old same ol same crap just becuase it normally sells.

spoffle · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:43

cheesyboy said:
I was responding to you saying "some do" to my suggestion that games sell more copies on console. In fact, "all do" would probably be more accurate

Developers may get more per unit from PC, but what does it matter? They get more in absolute terms from console, which is why the market is shaped by console gamers' habits.

PC gamers have lost the ability to shape the market in any meaningful way since they started buying "console" AAA games more than they do "PC" games. That's why we get served such tripe in the big releases.

But the point of contention was by how much, which is why I said "some" do sell an order of magnitude more, but it's not the rule for them to sell more on such a large scale.

The reason why it matters how much on a per unit sale they get is because it's actually lot more work for them to ship all the console box units, which is another factor. It's costly in terms of time, resources and production costs.

Macro · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:46

So what we're saying is between 360, XBOne and PC Windows Microsoft have won the gaming war vs Sony.

spoffle · 15 Jul 2014 at 14:52

Macro said:
So what we're saying is between 360, XBOne and PC Windows Microsoft have won the gaming war vs Sony.

No, because largely PC gaming has little to do with Microsoft.

Matteysan · 15 Jul 2014 at 15:13

spoffle said:
No, because largely PC gaming has little to do with Microsoft.

Apart from the vast majority of PC gamers having Windows on their PC's sure.

But I see your point

DaleTheWhale · 15 Jul 2014 at 15:22

Overall this seems to boil down to the fact that developers should recognise the potential of the PC market and stop with the console ports. The rubbish about the PC gaming industry dying (mainly because Windows 8 never sold very well to businesses) has pretty much been proven wrong over the same period of time & facts like this should be used by companies as they can still make a decent penny investing a little more time into PC version of games.

ic1male · 15 Jul 2014 at 15:25

I don't like being harsh but people who bought a PS4/Xbone at launch because they probably thought they were going to be missing out on something and have now sold it because they're bored of it are just idiots. Plain and simple.