PC Games aren't selling as well this year as they were last year. In fact, they're down 23% versus sales last year. That's not sales compared to consoles, that's in terms of absolute dollars.
This article goes over the numbers in some details. The question is, why?
There are a couple of obvious reasons for this year's blip such as the lack of mega hits coming out this year. Where's The Sims 2? Or Rollercoaster Tycoon 3? Heck, Where's Halflife 2? We'll FINALLY get DOOM 3 next month. All these delays of the heavy hitters have taken their toll.
Also, not part of the statistics, is the trend of PC gamers to MMORPGs. Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft, for instance, is likely to convert even more PC gamers into full time on-line players.
But some groups are trying to argue that piracy is the cause. That's a load of bull. Piracy isn't the problem. It's the arrogance of PC game publishers.
In the console market you go to the store, you buy your game, you bring it home, put it in the machine and you play it.
But not so on the PC side. On the PC side I buy the game, bring it home, spend 20 minutes installing it. Pray that the CD copy protection works on my CD-ROM drive. Then hope that they actually finished the game so that I don't have to scour the next for the "patch" that actually finishes the game. And to top it off, I have to keep a gigabyte of space reserved for this game and STILL have to have the CD in the drive because the publishers, having made me go through all this, seem certain that I'm ready to rip them off.
But yea, it's piracy causing the decline in sales...right.
This article article at JoeUser.com argues that PC game developers/publishers need to start delivering the goods. Don't blame the pirates or "demographics". They may contribute but even die-hard PC gamers are starting to use console games -- because they're fed up.
News source: Full Article "PC Games need to deliver the goods"
