PC Gaming forecasted to be $25 Billion market in 2014

[Gahars]

All you "PC Gaming Master Race" types out there, take note. I've got some validation coming your way.

Research firm DFC Intelligence says that PC gaming is alive and well, raising their internal forecast for the global PC market from $22 billion to $25 billion. Analyst Jeremy Miller says that although Asia contributes a large portion to the market, core PC gameplay in the west has increased, as "core gamers seem to be willing to spend more money than ever."

Much of that comes on the backs of League of Legends and Dota 2, which DFC says were the number one and two PC titles of 2013, respectively, with Dota 2 having the most growth in 2013. DFC says that due the domination of League of Legends and Dota 2, the MOBA genre is "far and away the largest because of those two games". PC FPS and MMORPG's come in second and third, with strong showings from the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 communities to help PC FPS surpass MMO's in 2013.

OnGamers

For a market that many proclaimed to be dead or dying a few years back, PC gaming seems to be doing pretty well for itself. With the specter of Valve's Steam Machines on the horizon, it'll be interesting to see if they boost the market even further (or plop softer than a toot in the wind).

 

[Taleweaver]

So smartphones are going to triple in size, nintendo is focusing their stuff elsewhere and now PC gamers are expected to spend a couple extra billions of dollars on games? Yeah...it was a fun run, microsoft and sony. But consoles aren't going to cut it anymore.

 

[gamefan5]

So smartphones are going to triple in size, nintendo is focusing their stuff elsewhere and now PC gamers are expected to spend a couple extra billions of dollars on games? Yeah...it was a fun run, microsoft and sony. But consoles aren't going to cut it anymore.

U act like companies will not be able to adapt.
Things change. I'm pretty sure they will as well.

 

[Hop2089]

U act like companies will not be able to adapt.
Things change. I'm pretty sure they will as well.

I don't know, consoles are declining anywhere outside the Americas, Europe, and Australia. If Nintendo doesn't get their head out of the sand and stop thinking about mobile and Sony doesn't shape up, consoles will eventually die, genres may die with it, and an essential regional market will disappear. Enjoy your new JRPGs while they last and support the Western devs who are currently trying to make games in this genre because few of those Eastern developers will ever develop on PC and if they do it's going to be mostly horribly region locked and average MMOs. They will be going the mobile and browser route for the most part and that's not good for the players, we need competition, convenience, and the ability to have games being enjoyed by everyone around the world and that's what consoles bring, let consoles die and you'll end up with discriminatory gaming running rampant (games only playable in a single region or just a few regions).

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I don't know, consoles are declining anywhere outside the Americas, Europe, and Australia. If Nintendo doesn't get their head out of the sand and stop thinking about mobile and Sony doesn't shape up(1), consoles will eventually die, genres may die with it(2), and an essential regional market will disappear. Enjoy your new JRPGs while they last and support the Western devs who are currently trying to make games in this genre because few of those Eastern developers will ever develop on PC and if they do it's going to be mostly horribly region locked and average MMOs. They will be going the mobile and browser route for the most part and that's not good for the players, we need competition, convenience, and the ability to have games being enjoyed by everyone around the world and that's what consoles bring, let consoles die and you'll end up with discriminatory gaming running rampant (games only playable in a single region or just a few regions).(3)

K, in order...
1). What does Sony need to "shape up"? The only thing doing somewhat bad for them is their handheld, which is slowly picking up (like the PSP before it). The PS4 is selling like the cure for cancer, and is continuing to do so. They're absolutely fine console-wise.
2). Any genre that's on consoles can be put on PC, I seriously doubt Genre's will die if PC gaming does take over.
3). I highly doubt that, you can't exactly make all that great of "JRPGs" on browsers and phones, at least not something hardcore "JRPG" players would want to play. And the whole "discriminatory gaming" crap, it's like that now because of region-locked consoles (which is only Nintendo consoles at this point), and because there isn't a huge market for certain games in certain regions. That's why you don't see Japanese dating sims in the West, or a large FPS-game market in Japan.

 

[Sterling]

On the subject of mobile gaming and Nintendo, they need to seriously think about getting in on the mobile market. Perhaps with a new series entirely. I can think of many people who will recognize the Nintendo brand and jump all over a three dollar title. They need a solid and addictive puzzler. A fresh RPG styled game. Something with optimized multi-player, and local/national/world wide leader boards. And a personal party game that features local pass around play.

They can do it, all it comes down to is how they approach it. I'd prefer that the main franchises stay on their hardware. Nintendo does know their own hardware best, so that's where we'll get the quality we expect until their mobile experience has accrued.

 

[XDel]

This will require for the average gamer to become moderately intelligent. Fingers crossed!

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

This will require for the average gamer to become moderately intelligent. Fingers crossed!

Not really. PC gaming isn't exactly that difficult with stuff like Steam doing most of the work for you. At this point, it's pretty much "Buy overpriced pre-built PC, install Steam, buy games, done".

 

[XDel]

Not really. PC gaming isn't exactly that difficult with stuff like Steam doing most of the work for you. At this point, it's pretty much "Buy overpriced pre-built PC, install Steam, buy games, done".

I sincerely hope that Steam meets that standard. I don't mind if things are over simplified... so long as one is able to get under the hood and really use the hardware and software as they please. This is the one of the various elements that discourages me from embracing the iPod. In fact I had jail broken mine at one point and came to find that the OS becomes highly unstable when you try to patch it up to do things that Apple did not intend.

So yes, again I hope that Steam is effective in their efforts, and I am happy to see that they are making their hardware specs open so that those of use who wish to save money and build our own machines can do so, the rest who are too lazy to learn how to build their own machines (seriously, PC building is as easy as Lego's now a days) can simply pay for a company to build one for them. Then if they don't want to take the time to learn how to exit Steams simple interface and take advantage of the rest of their hardware for what ever other purposes they may need, then that's on them.

As for me though, I personally wish for a future with a more educated consumer, and think that consumer reports should not only entail health issues, but should also be savy to report how some of the elite within commerce are taking advantage of your hard earned dollar. I.E. the cheap DVD-ROM's that often shipped with all the original XBOX's. I have had at least 50 XBOX's pass through my hands and of all those, I think the DVD-ROM eventually died out on all but maybe two. Though thankfully they can be equipped with a larger internal hard drive where all the games can be safely stored anyhow.
Same goes for Sony, I can't tell you how many friends I had who's Sony 2 or 3 died. Then to read reports that Sony decided to go with cheaper components so as to save costs on their end.... I guess assuming that the hardware only need to live out the 5 year hardware cycle, though half of them never made it that far.

With PC's on the other hand, if you build them your self, or have them built by someone who you know is not going to cut corners on components, generally you don't have these issues, in fact it seems to me that the majority of my PC related issues stemmed from the use of Windows itself, hence the reason I run Linux, MorphOS, AROS, Haiku, and Amiga OS as my main OS's, and have a Windows 7 machine that I keep off-line solely for the purpose of gaming, game design, and audio/video editing.

 

[osirisjem]

But consoles aren't going to cut it anymore.

Well ... 3 consoles might be too much.
2 will probably do fine.

 

[orcid]

The reason for more pc gaming is just that a PC is now more simililar to a console than ever. You can use controller, you can connect it to the TV, you can use a gaming-PC longer without updating the hardware, installing games got easier and a good gaming PC is cheaper than ever. Also the games are cheaper than on the consoles and many concole games are released on the PC.

 

[WhiteMaze]

With Steam's platform, its affordable prices, ease of use, cloud managing, fast download, 100% digital services with no required Disks, it is ridiculous to say that PC gaming is dying or that it cannot compete with console markets.

Because despite a PC being more expensive than a console system, a PC is something you use for everything: Work, Facebook, Youtube, Google, Wikipedia, GBATemp, and so on.

Therefore PC gaming is destined to be a much larger industry than the video game systems. Because buying a videogame system is cheaper, but you also have to buy a computer for your daily needs. However, if you only buy a mid-range computer, you have absolutely no need to buy a console system, unless you want to play its exclusives.

And taking into account, the fact that many times, the SAME games available on Xbox / Playstation are much, MUCH cheaper in PC, it really doesn't make sense to buy an Xbox/PS4.

In short, you might spend 200$ / 300$ more on a computer than on a PS4 / XboxOne. But after buying 5 games, you've more than compensated that, due to PC's affordable gaming prices and discounts.

All in all, this is an industry that will keep growing, and in fact, outgrow the console system in the long run.

EDIT: Not to mention the better graphics, AND the ability to use Playstation / Xbox controllers on your PC.

 

[Mario92]

Now all we need is to detach from Microsoft as they clearly don't care about PC gaming at all and we are locked to older stuff because of licensing and updating policies.

 

[Hop2089]

K, in order...
1). What does Sony need to "shape up"? The only thing doing somewhat bad for them is their handheld, which is slowly picking up (like the PSP before it). The PS4 is selling like the cure for cancer, and is continuing to do so. They're absolutely fine console-wise.
2). Any genre that's on consoles can be put on PC, I seriously doubt Genre's will die if PC gaming does take over.
3). I highly doubt that, you can't exactly make all that great of "JRPGs" on browsers and phones, at least not something hardcore "JRPG" players would want to play. And the whole "discriminatory gaming" crap, it's like that now because of region-locked consoles (which is only Nintendo consoles at this point), and because there isn't a huge market for certain games in certain regions. That's why you don't see Japanese dating sims in the West, or a large FPS-game market in Japan.

1. I am referring more towards the Vita, it isn't selling in the West like it's supposed to be, they need to push for Western developers to make games for it and Eastern ones to start localizing a lot more for the Vita.

2. Eastern devs often don't develop games for the PC since it is not popular in the mainstream market in Japan, you do see some developing for PC but most of the time it's either 1. Dating sims/eroge/VNs for the niche market 2. An MMO and 3. Games that already appeal to the Western market in the first place.

3. Don't underestimate mobile, the processing power is getting better and better, both the West and even a very small handful of Japanese titles are of console quality on mobile.