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06-27-2008, 11:24 AM
|  | .:. plageclochard | | Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Delawhere?
Posts: 3,192
| | another article going further in depth from the event Valve held last month...while it repeats some information already discussed above, it goes to greater lengths on both Valve's position on PC gaming, and the industry as a whole... Valve: Why the PC is the future Article // PC /// Eurogamer Quote: |
You want figures? There are 260 million online PC gamers, a market that dwarfs the install base of any console platform, online or offline. Each year, 255 million new PCs are made; not all of them for gaming, it's true, but Newell argues that the enormous capital investment and economies of scale involved in this huge market ensure that PCs remain at the cutting edge of hardware development, and consoles their "stepchildren", in connectivity and graphics technology especially. Meanwhile, Valve's business development guru, Jason Holtman, notes that without the pressure of cyclical hardware cycles, PC gaming projects - he points to Steam as an example - can grow organically, over long periods of time, and with no ceiling whatsoever to their potential audiences.
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Valve sees 200 per cent growth in these alternative channels - not just Steam, but including the likes of cyber-cafes as well - versus less than 10 per cent in bricks-and-mortar shop sales. Steam has a 15 million-strong player-base with 1.25 million peak concurrent users, and 191 per cent annual growth; none too far off a console platform in itself. The PC casual games market, driven by the likes of PopCap, has gone from next to nothing to USD 1.5 billion dollar industry in under ten years, and has doubled in size in just three. Perhaps most surprisingly, Valve has found that digital distribution doesn't cannibalise retail sales - in fact, a free Day of Defeat weekend on Steam created more new retail sales than online ones.
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06-27-2008, 11:45 AM
|  | Horrendiculous! | | Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: S. Jerksey
Posts: 14,057
| | | 1.25 million concurrent users.. DAMN the nerd in me wants to know how they built that
__________________  Gaming Admin. PM VincentVega for assistance or post on forum.
Please keep thread posts relevant to the thread topic |
06-27-2008, 11:48 AM
|  | injecting caffeine daily | | Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: some western town
Posts: 19,324
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by VincentVega  | they're just adding server farms every xxxxx users, databases are likely split by area with a central or replicated authenticator.
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06-27-2008, 12:41 PM
|  | The Sky is Over | | Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Boston
Posts: 15,457
 : 85 th | | | 191 percent annual growth? |
06-27-2008, 12:49 PM
|  | sR Resident Gun Nut | | Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 2,829
| | | 191% annual growth is absolutely amazing.
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06-27-2008, 04:49 PM
|  | m00tini! | | Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Some Hotel Somewhere
Posts: 16,166
: 74 th | | | in this economy that is staggering. |
06-27-2008, 04:51 PM
| | injecting caffeine daily | | Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: some western town
Posts: 19,324
| | | gas expensive, stay home from movies, restaurants, get bored, download games and play.
rinse, repeat.
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06-27-2008, 04:52 PM
| | The Sky is Over | | Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Boston
Posts: 15,457
: 85 th | | Quote:
Originally Posted by CoffeeShark
rinse, repeat.
| exactly. things are only going to get better for gaming. $150 a barrel this summer. |
06-27-2008, 05:04 PM
| | .:. plageclochard | | Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Delawhere?
Posts: 3,192
| | Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig | I was thinking about that earlier today, more in relation though to how the summer months are usually lean times for online gaming, and that it might not be as lean this year as others. Think about it, (and this applies especially to families) with rising costs across the board (food, gas, other travel, shipping, etc), a good alternative to a vacation or other types of entertainment are (relatively) cheap video games.
Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of other things to do on the cheap in a bad economy, but I can definitely see spending $20-40 on a game as a good way of escapism.
(my original thoughts on this were more directed towards BF2 and how it was A) a summer launch, and B) did rather well)
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