PC vs Console, has high GPU prices played a part?

andybird123 · 31 Oct 2021 at 14:54

Spending on PC gaming accessories grew 80% in 2020, spending on PC games grew 20% in 2020.
GPU's are selling out as fast as they are made.

The idea that PC gamers are giving up on PC gaming doesn't seem to be supported by the data.

HangTime · 31 Oct 2021 at 15:08

Grim5 said:
the performance per dollar of the PS5 and other next gen consoles being far superior to a PC is weighing heavily on the market. Lots of PC gamers are buying a console because PC parts cost too much

I'm not sure you can necessarily infer that. Why do so many PC gamers (30%) have a PS4 given GPUs weren't as expensive when PS4 launched? The reason is because they are gamers who want access to a broad range of titles and experiences.
Additionally, it could be that some PC gamers used to have a PS4 but then sold it when they got a PS5. I'm not sure how/if backwards compatibility works but I imagine there isn't much point owning a PS4 if you have a PS5. In other words, they aren't choosing PS5 over PC, they are choosing PS5 over PS4.
Furthermore, there's a clue in the terminology used in the stats. "PC Gamers". By definition, these are PC gamers, not people who have abandoned PC gaming.

DeliciousStorage · 31 Oct 2021 at 16:57

andybird123 said:
Spending on PC gaming accessories grew 80% in 2020, spending on PC games grew 20% in 2020.
GPU's are selling out as fast as they are made.

The idea that PC gamers are giving up on PC gaming doesn't seem to be supported by the data.

GPU's selling out as fast as they are made is irrelevant because they aren't all purchased for gaming. Can't draw any conclusions from that data either, how much of that was due to COVID lockdowns and how does it compare to the growth of consoles?

andybird123 · 31 Oct 2021 at 19:13

DeliciousStorage said:
GPU's selling out as fast as they are made is irrelevant because they aren't all purchased for gaming. Can't draw any conclusions from that data either, how much of that was due to COVID lockdowns and how does it compare to the growth of consoles?

Console games growth was 12% in the same period from what I can Google

NZXT30 · 31 Oct 2021 at 21:08

Ubisoft PC sales are way down after peaking in 2019. Could be because their games left Steam and the last Ubisoft game PC gamers were really interested in was The Division 2.

From my anecdotal experience one friend wanted a mid range gpu but he bought a ps5 instead. Another friend wanted to build a high end gaming PC and the high gpu prices did not stop him. As expected the mid range is most affected which is very worrying for the health of the PC gaming market.

Grim5 · 31 Oct 2021 at 21:51

andybird123 said:
Spending on PC gaming accessories grew 80% in 2020, spending on PC games grew 20% in 2020.
GPU's are selling out as fast as they are made.

The idea that PC gamers are giving up on PC gaming doesn't seem to be supported by the data.

I don't know why you think those two things are mutually exclusive. You can increase component sales and still not satisfy every potential buyer.

There is a few hundred million PC gamers. If every gamer decided to buy a new graphics card all at once, every single GPU AMD and Nvidia manufactured for the next 10 years would be sold out instantly. Components selling out does not mean there is a segment of PC gamers who can't afford to upgrade. I'll give you another example: 90% of all car drivers in the world today go to a dealership and order a new car and the other 10% decide to stop driving and scrap their car - every car the world can manufacture for the next 10 years would be pre sold instantly

And for the other stuff, tracking nominal sales isnt helpful. All you're tracking is inflation and other cost increases - when's the last time steam had a real sale, hasn't happened in years, so their game sales will be looking very good when not having heavy discounted sales means people are paying more for the same thing.

Sarge2255 · 31 Oct 2021 at 22:29

Well, a PS5 at £370 is just about acceptable, as games can cost £100 each.

Hedge · 1 Nov 2021 at 07:10

andybird123 said:
Spending on PC gaming accessories grew 80% in 2020, spending on PC games grew 20% in 2020.
GPU's are selling out as fast as they are made.

The idea that PC gamers are giving up on PC gaming doesn't seem to be supported by the data.

Surely this is because more people worked from home and justified buying pc items as they had more disposable income... And worked on their pcs.

It's not because people were rushing to game on their pcs like never before.

Hedge · 1 Nov 2021 at 07:21

Sarge2255 said:
Well, a PS5 at £370 is just about acceptable, as games can cost £100 each.

That's kinda silly because console gaming deals also exist. Don't pretend that digital games on official platforms like steam or epic are dirt cheap. They are only cheap through CD key sites. Likely bought by dubious means.

I've bought most of my xbox games for £30 or so. You've also chosen the digital version so you can avoid the suggestion of reselling a disc game after completion.

And to say "it's just about acceptable" smacks of pc fanboy talk because the level of hardware in a current console is more than acceptable for £370-450. So much so that it makes gpu pricing even more offensive (and I have a £479 rtx 3070 so speaking from experience)

_Cereal_ · 1 Nov 2021 at 07:27

Hedge said:
That's kinda silly because console gaming deals also exist. Don't pretend that digital games on official platforms like steam or epic are dirt cheap. They are only cheap through CD key sites. Likely bought by dubious means.

I've bought most of my xbox games for £30 or so. You've also chosen the digital version so you can avoid the suggestion of reselling a disc game after completion.

People always spread BS like this,I always manage my console games for decent prices, 90% of the times all you have to do is literally google it.

andybird123 · 1 Nov 2021 at 08:22

Hedge said:
Surely this is because more people worked from home and justified buying pc items as they had more disposable income... And worked on their pcs.

It's not because people were rushing to game on their pcs like never before.

People have been posting "the death of PC gaming is nigh" threads on here every 6 months for at least the last 10 years... 10 years on and PC gaming spending has increased EVERY year, not just COVID year.

From what I can find, PC gaming spending outpaced the increase in console spending.

So no, the OP's assertion that people are leaving PC gaming to switch to PS5 does not seem to bear fruit.

I mean, quite obviously you expect console sales in the 1st year of release to be good - PS4 sold 7.6m units in the first 12 months, PS5 has sold 7.8m... so 200,000 PC gamers switched to PS5 from PC? No it doesn't even mean that. The 2 figures are virtually identical, not exactly a massive increase on the console side.

andybird123 · 1 Nov 2021 at 10:55

Grim5 said:
when's the last time steam had a real sale

They had the summer sale, they had a sale beginning of October, the Halloween sale is on now, black Friday etc....

Hedge · 1 Nov 2021 at 11:27

andybird123 said:
They had the summer sale, they had a sale beginning of October, the Halloween sale is on now, black Friday etc....

Think he means a sale that actually has games people would want to buy at a decent price.

Steam sales for years have been the same old games and offers. It's not as if they are selling new releases for bargain prices.

HangTime · 1 Nov 2021 at 11:33

NZXT30 said:
Ubisoft PC sales are way down after peaking in 2019. Could be because their games left Steam and the last Ubisoft game PC gamers were really interested in was The Division 2.

From my anecdotal experience one friend wanted a mid range gpu but he bought a ps5 instead. Another friend wanted to build a high end gaming PC and the high gpu prices did not stop him. As expected the mid range is most affected which is very worrying for the health of the PC gaming market.

Have you got any more stats to back up the claim that Ubisoft PC sales are way down on 2019? When I look at their financial statements, it looks to me like the pie has got bigger (e.g. "Net bookings for full-year 2020-21 amounted to €2,240.6 million, up 46.1% (or 49.5% at constant exchange rates) on the €1,534.0 million figure for 2019-20" so even if PC games are proportionally a smaller share of income they are bringing in a lot more revenue overall to counter-balance that.

andybird123 · 1 Nov 2021 at 12:37

Hedge said:
Think he means a sale that actually has games people would want to buy at a decent price.

Steam sales for years have been the same old games and offers. It's not as if they are selling new releases for bargain prices.

I've just bought 3 games in the sale at 50-75% off, 2 of them were less than 12 months old...

I mean, I always wait for games to be on sale before buying, usually 50% or more off release price, there's only 2 more games I'm waiting on buying and they were both released less than 6 months ago so wasn't expecting them to be on sale yet anyway.

Hedge · 1 Nov 2021 at 13:42

andybird123 said:
I've just bought 3 games in the sale at 50-75% off, 2 of them were less than 12 months old...

I mean, I always wait for games to be on sale before buying, usually 50% or more off release price, there's only 2 more games I'm waiting on buying and they were both released less than 6 months ago so wasn't expecting them to be on sale yet anyway.

What games were they out of curiosity?

pagepack · 1 Nov 2021 at 15:24

I have a Ps5 and a pc. I have a 290x, which needs upgrading. The current prices which will most likely continue until 2023, an upgrade makes no financial sense. I can afford whatever I like, but I refuse to be lubed.

So PC gaming is on the back burner for a long time. I would imagine, many are in the same position.

The_Arbiter · 1 Nov 2021 at 15:38

pagepack said:
I can afford whatever I like, but I refuse to be lubed.

It's worse than that, you don't even get lube with GPUs atm

Psycho Sonny · 1 Nov 2021 at 19:45

I've posted it before but steam user base has increased through pandemic and stayed at record breaking levels since. there has been more people pc gaming not less. so this thread can be closed because high gpu prices hasn't impacted it at all unless it would have grown even further. anyway like i said those that are leaving to go to console are a minority. more are joining pc gaming than ever before proven by steam stats

Chuk_Chuk · 1 Nov 2021 at 20:12

Sarge2255 said:
4k 30 looks like slowmotion with stutters, that's the console's weakness right there. When higher graphical fidelity is needed , devs have to work with that console limit.

That's why cross platform games always run and look worse on the PS5 compared to PC like RE8....

Either you didn't read my post or you just didn't understand my post.