PC Gaming … I'm not dead yet!

The latest NPD numbers (US sales data) indicated that PC game sales actually increased by ~1% (not counting digital downloads and subscriptions) last year.

NPD said that PC game sales showed some signs of growth during 2006, as the PC game industry posted revenues in excess of $970 million (an increase of about one percent). Factoring in PC game sales, total industry software sales were up 6 percent to $7.4 billion, from $7.0 billion in 2005.

Looking at the Top 10 is somewhat interesting:

1. World of Warcraft (incl. collector's)—Vivendi
2. The Sims 2—EA
3. The Sims 2 Open For Business Expansion Pack—EA
4. Star Wars: Empire At War—LucasArts
5. The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack—EA
6. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (incl. collector's)—Take-Two
7. MS Age Of Empires III (incl. collector's)—Microsoft
8. The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff Expansion Pack—EA
9. Civilization IV—Take-Two
10. The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack—EA

What is interesting to me is that Empire at War outsold Oblivion.

Sum all Sims and you have the picture . Half of all PC games sales is actually Sims sale.

I don't think Sims is good or bad game, I'm glad it attracts more attention to PC gaming even though it is not really my genre.

Sixth place of Oblivion is good result. We have at least one RPG in top ten (although some would object to call it RPG).

Yes well, if they manage to do a list WITHOUT World of Warcraft in it then we might better judge the state of PC gaming since that game alone is outselling all of the other titles in the list added together.

Picky, picky, picky!! It's still a PC game isn't it!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
Picky, picky, picky!! It's still a PC game isn't it!!

True enough - try doing the console game sales without Madden …

Originally Posted by fatBastard()
Yes well, if they manage to do a list WITHOUT World of Warcraft in it then we might better judge the state of PC gaming since that game alone is outselling all of the other titles in the list added together.

Ah, so sum WoW and all Sims and you get 95% of PC games sales .

PC gaming won't die like it did on platforms of the past as the platform itself isn't declining. The Amiga and Atari died due to people abandoning the hardware and developers doing the same when they saw the predictions for a shrinking market in the years ahead.

While there are millions of PCs in people's homes, it is a good idea to make games for them. I'm not worried. Whether or not you like some of the current releases in gameplay terms is another matter, however.

Wait until Crysis gets released and the console community realizes its hardware is woefully behind. Thankfully these new consoles are expensive so they will be stuck with that dated hardware for quite a while.

Same thing happened with xBox ya know.

I think Oblivion and Gothic made quite a few RPG fans feel the need for an upgrade.

That a Civilkization game is that high on the list surprises me a bit.

Also, I guess it's a little blow into the face of those declaring turn-based games as being "dead". (Like turn-based combat in RPGs.)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
That a Civilkization game is that high on the list surprises me a bit.

I'm not really, it was hugely popular here - especially since it was a 2005 game!