PC Market Growing says EA

[mr.sly]

Source Article

"One thing EA tries to look at is the total business that's represented by PC game software. And we're seeing a growth business there. In fact, it's been growing for several years.

EA are making me quiet happy today.

 

[mr.sly]

PC has and always will be a niche gaming platform. Is it really any wonder? Console - take it out of the box plug it in. No blue screens, no os, no crashes, no patches, no installs, no hastle.

Are you living in 1991 or something?

No crashes? No installs? No patches? No OS?

 

[mr.sly]

lol, just lol.

Is that why the PC game shelves at nearly all computer game stores are tiny now?

Did you even bother reading the thread or the article linked in the OP?

 

[mr.sly]

He probably did, and disagrees with it, claiming games stores have less selection of PC games now more than ever, just because MMOs and The Sims are raking in the money does not reflect on the industry as a whole. Thats like saying the Dreamcast was a booming sucess because Shen Mu, Soul Calibur etc were so popular.
EA sees the profitable aspects of markets and exploits, so expect to see more Sims and more MMO.

That's not what the article says at all.

It says that retail is not a good way to look at PC sales. Because most sales are online or digital only. So just because the PC shelf in your local shop is tiny, it doesn't mean there isn't a lot of money to be made.

 

[mr.sly]

Precisely, they have the funds to revive a flagging market for their own benefit. A new Sims or NFS every year is not a sign of an expanding, vibrant market.

EA are out to make money first and foremost to think anything else would give them far too much credit.

Good point only The Sims and a NFS game came out on the PC last year. My mistake.

 

[mr.sly]

Yeah, sorry I meant to add, FIFA, NHL, NBA Live, Harry Potter, oh wait, whats the difference...

Try adding, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2 Episode 2, Call of Duty 4, Company of Heroes: Opposing Front, Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis, SimCity Societies, Hellgate: London, Age of Empires III:The Asian Dynasties, Flight Sim X, Time Shift, The Witcher...

I could go on, and I could add casual games and flash games, but I can't be bothered.

 

[mr.sly]

spektor perhaps i should have used the saturn as a comparison.

You'v failed to see my point, Iv made a few posts, you should read the others to get the jist of my arguement else you take things out of context.

My point is we dont really get anything new, MMOs might be booming, same for the Sims, the profits of PC games should therefore be taken with a pinch of salt, as theres a decrease in QUALITY new games of more traditional genres IN MY OPINION.
I freely admit that PC games market is profitable, my point was that its profits are not growing as fast as console, due to consoles becoming more and more popular - with PC users also buying them, the Wii encouraging people who would otherwise not buy to buy, whereas PCs are confusing for a lot of the market, due to the added hassle which comes to average Joe using a PC.

This in my opinion is a sign that the PC gaming market it not booming, and does infact risk dying, due to a lack of quality new games for the WHOLE of the market, and the focus on consoles due to the potential for more profits.
If this trend continued we'd end up only having PCs for MMOs and strategys/simulators, which im fairly sure would kill PC gaming for a lot of people.

"We don't get anything new" - PC gaming usually gets everything first.

"A decrease in quality new games" - 2007 was probably one of the best years for PC gaming in a long time. If anything it's going up.

"I freely admit that PC games market is profitable, my point was that its profits are not growing as fast as console" - And they don't need to, the whole market is growing each year, just because Halo 3 sold a few million it doesn't mean PC gaming can't grow.

And again, PC gaming isn't dying, there's plenty of quality titles around and I'm sure we'll see a lot more this year.

 

[mr.sly]

Pull a random guy (or girl) off the street. An ask them the run GTA IV on the pc and console. Most will struggle to get the pc working, what happens if drivers need updating?

Your here on a pc tech forum hardly qualifies as being Mr average.

The general population who play games (because that's what we are talking about) will be able to load a game on a PC. And if they have never played a PC game before, it's not hard to open the manual and read. If they fail at that, then they fail at life and don't deserve a PC. If drivers need updating, Vista will handle that for them, its not the best the best way to handle driver updates but it works.

 

[mr.sly]

Can we just point out that most Joe Public always use the sit on the sofa infront of TV playing games arguement and say theyd rather just put the disc in and play as to why console > PC?

a lot of people are turned off with the million+1 things that could go wrong with a PC for playing games, or need updating etc, as well as the fact they dont understand components and buy from high street shops.
So the whole 'get vista to do it' etc etc malarky is rubbish.

I dont even own a console for the record, I guess my problem is that i think most games nowadays are utter crap.

That gamespot top games of 07 sums it up for me, nothing I really like other than orangebox, which tbh i cant get into tf2, still havnt bothered finishing ep2 and replay portal once in a while.

People like the ease of putting the disc in, logging into PSN/live and letting it matchmake for them. Consoles are much more automated which is why Joe public prefers them.. Joe public also has a lower standard than PC game-players in my opinion, meaning its easier to shift crud onto them.
I laughed that gears is in the 2007 top PC games.. dull dull game.

Mr sly what comes out on PC first? Just you said PC gets things before console.. GTAs? Gears? Assasins Creed? We dont even have the next gen Fifa on PC.

You need to read what I was quoting as well, otherwise it's out of context. The point was PC gaming usually innovates before anyone else. FPS, RTS, RPGs all started out on PCs. Online gaming has been a must for PC games for years now, but we're only just starting to see console games come with MP with the 360.

Then you have downloadable content, digital distribution, MMOs, simulators, mods.

 

[mr.sly]

Ulf im saying IN MY OPINION i dont really rate many of those games, and half of joe public havnt heard of them unless they are console games aswell.

Consoles are much bigger business than PC games and my arguement is that its probably going to turn into a case of the market being saturated with unorigional clones, the proven money makers.. ie. MMOs and The Sims.. Basically EA.

ahhh I get you sly, sorry didnt see it that way. Yes the PC does lead in innovation.. but that doesnt mean that PC gaming will survive, as downloadable concent, digital distribution etc is available on consoles now, so the PCs losing a unique selling point there.

I admit the PC games market isnt in bad shape, I can just see it getting bad due to the fact EA flood the market with rubbish, everyone seen how much MMOs can make and want to jump on that bandwagon.
Few devs are jumping ship due to consoles being easier to handle, more widely available, less pirated etc.

thats how i see things nowadays atleast, as someone who prefers PC as a platform.

I understand what you're saying.

But I just don't see PC gaming going anywhere. Consoles are getting closer and closer to PCs each generation so in the future I think we'll see a bigger push on PCs and maybe people like Dell, HP and others setting a minimum hardware requirement on the PCs they sell for the GPU included, making it much simpler for developers to know what to code for.

Also, I don't see consoles as being a bigger buisness either. I think you're forgetting about casual games that PopCap make. There are millions of Windows users around the world and a lot of money to be made. Even Battlefield Heroes can run on an intergrated Intel chip, and that game is looking very good indeed.