UK game sales rises thanks to the PC at the forefront

PC GAMER

With so many better and cheaper deals on the PC without having to pay every year who can't resist.

The death of the PC never did happen, did it? In fact, it was the PC at the forefront of the digital storefront revolution, which has ended up being a big part of why the UK games industry has seen sales rise by some 7.5% in 2014, compared to 2013.

Digital sales saw an 18.8% rise from 2013, hitting the not-too-shabby figure of £1.5 billion for 2014.

Boxed games - and remember, this includes PC and console titles - dropped in sales, bringing in £948.5m - a 6.6% drop on 2013.

But that massive gain in digital copies means the overall chunk of change brought in for the UK games industry was a cool £2.452 billion. Not bad... not bad at all.

It's money news and it's a bit dry, but a healthy industry is only ever a good thing for us who play the games, and the fact that digital is working (I still remember a time when it was laughed out of the building) means the chances for anyone to get their games out there will only increase over time.

The 'other' entertainment sectors both saw drops, with music sales down by 1.6% and movies dropping 1.4%.

We don't need those though, because games have music and cutscenes in them. The total package.

[Thanks, MCV]

Rise of PC GAMING pushes UK game sales

All hail Gabe

Thanks to Sims 4.

Unfortunately, sales were no way near as good as other sim games

Yeah digital market on PC is breaking records for the last few years. No wonder console devs are releasing their games on PC these days. It's a good thing for the health of game industry.

I didn't buy a single game in the UK all year.

So MS payed more for the Minecraft company than all pc games combined sold digital in 2014 wow

I'm a PC fanboy, but, it says digital, not physical. It's basically just physical sales for both pc and consoles falling, while DD on all platforms is rising, and, obviously, with prices remaining the same without needing retailers, the profit margins rise on all fronts

But pc gaming is rising, which is undeniable

Worldwide, PC has more gaming soiftware revenue than all the 3 consoles combined atm.

EA actively destroying every good PC franchise they once had.

@DarthRamms: Does the digital amount include digital console games as well? That's my question.

And then blaming piracy for lower sales.

Can't believe that their sales will have gone up by not making games available on steam anymore.

Yea because only people in the UK buy pc games.

Console digital sales are no where near as much as PC in the UK or other places.

"Just under 20% of console game purchases were digital, according to MarketCast. However, people buying digital console games did so in addition to the standard number of physical game purchases. This jibes with the quarterly reports of major publishers like Activision and EA, who get most of their growing digital revenues from DLC and subscription services rather than full game sales."

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/12/02/market-report-says-console-gamers-still-prefer-physical-to-digital

A bizarre and slightly disheartening bit of news, this one. According to a new report by industry analysts Kantar WorldPanel, 72% of UK console gamers still exclusively buy boxed games

http://www.gamesradar.com/digital-console-gaming-not-big-you-think-so-how-do-we-fix/

Let's not forget the amount of 360s and PS3s sold with small HDDs. The latter models all had a bigger HDD, but when you were somebody who bought either console during the first few years you really can't buy and store all that many digital games. My 20GB 360 can hold exactly one game (and even then some games are too big for it) and my PS3 slim which is 120GB currently holds 6-7 games. Among which are a few smaller indie games.

Only PS4 and Xbone are now offering larger HDD spaces to embrace digital downloads.

That's highly doubtful when Steam has over 100 million active users now, and controls the vast majority of software sales.

All because EA didn't want to give Valve their 20-30% cut of game sales.

I think there was a problem with DLC. EA wanted to sell the DLC itself (in game) so Valve didn't get their 30-33%.

Like for example Crysis 2 was pulled off steam for that reason. But it came back later as a complete package, with all the DLC included.

It's not like it's a huge deal for me to open origin and play the games on there. It's just that I'd much prefer to play games like Titanfall or Dragon Age on Steam.

So still playing catchup.

Riding those Chinese coattails lol? PC is such a winner for blockbuster titles that you had to wait a year and a half and after 4 console versions for GTA5.

@TheFadeForever: I read a report a week ago that where i calcutate that console digital revenue was only 1/5 of the pc dd revenue

So chinese sales don't count now? Without chinese sales, PC still beats out any ONE console. Yes, including your favorite system.

And didn't you have to WAIT for the WORSE version of diablo,crysis, minecraft, witcher, etc? I'm glad PC has the best version of most blockbusters and more aaa,aa,a scoring titles than your favorite system...could that be the reason PC has the most gamers and hardware/software revenue?

Got any more excuses for PC beating your fav system in sales for me to debunk?

Diablo 3 was not "worse" on console, console version made it "better" and fun. Console version was first to get the good loot/gear system

Still using GTA 5 and RDR (most of the times) huh? You guys are really lacking.

I remember when games skipping pc in favour of the xbox and playstation either by months or just plain forever wasn't even that uncommon

It scored lower. It is played less. It has worse sales. It is behind on patches and has no ladder/seasons.

Lolblo.

The source article on MCV says,

"Sales of digital games (including online, mobile and tablet)"

So I'd say yes, it also includes not just PC and consoles, but IP, Android and iOS as well.

Mobile gaming revenue in the UK was predicted only around 300 to 390 million pounds in 2013. That's only a small fraction of the total digital revenue even if it increase somewhat in a year.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2013/aug/06/uk-mobile-games-players-revenues

That just shows how wildly inaccurate these "market research" firms can be. That same report put the whole "UK games industry revenues [at] £3.8bn." in 2012. So unless the market shrank by 1.4 billion or so in 2013, one or both of these guesses (your source or the OP's) are wrong. Regardless, it was still revenue that was factored in and the OP copied the unsubstantiated slant of the PC being the cause from the PC oriented site he quoted.

If most sales were from the PC don't see why it would matter if others was included. Don't see it being misleading if its at the forefront.The other article link OP listed said similar Rise of PC GAMING pushes UK game sales.

That 3.8bn number might have been an error from the person who wrote the article and may have gotten it confused with the music industry number which reports have said the same number.

Does that include subscriptions? If not, impressive.

And if PC sales were the smallest? What then? There's no information given on how it breaks down, so making the assumption it was due to a particular platform is misleading.

Diablo 3 scored 9/10 on Xbox/Ps4...PC got only 8/10

Diablo 3 plays better with controller and you cant have ladders/seasons because it is "offline" on consoles, you save your characters local not on battlenet. You have no lag on console version and you can play whenever you want no matter if battlenet is up or down.

Console gamers say diablo 3 is fun, PC gamers say diablo 3 sucks ...go figure what version is fun to play...

It obvious who has the largest since the PC always been the largest contribution in digital sales. You don't need a break down for that. Console digital sales has never been close to pc and mobile is only a small fraction of the UK game revenues. PC is the fastest growing platform in the UK. All the information I given already suggested it.

Come back when you have your own sources.

Really? That's you're answer? Just 'cause? Even if PC, in the UK, were the biggest contributor to digital sales (which you haven't supported), that doesn't mean it always will be. You're also picking and choosing select info from various reports and ignoring what doesn't support your agenda. The simple fact is we don't know how it breaks down by platform even if we accept the report as accurate, which MCV opines, "IHS, which is estimating digital spend across online, mobile and tablet. IHS’ data is not quite as reliable [as Chart-Track]".

Please point what I'm exactly ignoring in these reports. Not going bother re posting all my sources.

"The video game figures come from Chart-Track – which tracks retail data and is incredibly accurate, and IHS, which is estimating digital spend across online, mobile and tablet. IHS’ data is not quite as reliable, but until games businesses start sharing their numbers, it’s the most accurate figure we have."

Many data are from estimates so is Chart-Track. And which figures are from what firm? You didn't bother to copy the whole thing just a selective part since passage states IHS is the most accurate they have. Its not like we have so many firms providing us with such information.

You cited a source claiming mobile was a small fraction, but then dismiss the number they give for the industry. But if you want to stick with the IHS estimate as the most accurate, then that means the other firms reporting mobile as a small fraction are less accurate and can not be relied on. So we're back to IHS not breaking the number down by platform and not supporting the claim that PC growth was the cause for the industry growth.

Perhaps you're not quite understanding my stance. I'm not claiming that mobile was the cause, that consoles were, or anything like that. I'm claiming that we lack the information to conclude that PC growth was the cause. This doesn't require my own source. I simply need to show that different firms can come up with wildly different numbers for the same thing which makes it illogical to pull data from one to apply to another. If one states 3.8 billion and another states 1.6, there's no reason to believe the break-down by platform would be consistent either. So the one can not be applied to the other. I also showed that the OP source doesn't break their number down by platform and doesn't support this claim either.

The source had links to where the mobile numbers were from. I was basing off of those which are underlined in that article itself while the industry one wasn't. Which figures are from IHS since it said includes both IHS and Chart Track?

Those scores are irrelevant, Ultimate Evil was a major new patch which was not re-scored for PC. Use scores of the same versions (D3 Vanilla), which PC was higher.

1. It does not control better on consoles. This is the reason ladders/seasons are not in the game. There is no competitive play w/ the slow aim. You can not get as high GR (greater rift) level with controller, this is a MAJOR drawback.

2. Console version is the same game but with less features. Do the math. PC gets patches months before. PC version has a competitive scene due to kb/m.

Nearly all multiplatform titles are better on PC, Diablo3 is one of them.

1. No the only reason we dont have ladders/season on console is because you dont play on Battlenet and Blizzard have no control over your saves, which mean you can cheat easier than on PC. You can get as high with GR with controller with same gear, just because you suck at the game dont tell us other cant

2. Yeah thank you for beta testing the game, you doing a bad job tho, you not even a PC gamer

1. Yes. Cheating is rampant on the console verison. Hacks and Dupes are a dime a dozen. yet another reason why it sucks on consoles. No competitive scene and major cheating. Ugh. maybe this is why it has a fraction of players?

2. Beta testing features that will never be on consoles, roofless. Hows dat tank aim and far less players/sales?

This is a sales thread afterall. D3 sold much more on PC, since noone likes tank aim ARPGs.

I underlined it in your quote. Chart-Track tracks retail spending and IHS covers digital.