PC sports market has declined - Moore

Consoles like PS3 and Xbox 360 have lured sports gamers away from a PC market already moving towards a download model and under threat from piracy, forcing developers to prioritise other formats.

That's the view of Peter Moore, club captain at EA Sports, who outlined his views on Peter Moore's Official Blog this week.

Next-generation consoles "with their high definition graphics and 5.1 sound capabilities have attracted millions of consumers to eschew the 'lean in' PC sports gaming experience for the 'lean back' full room console experience," Moore wrote.

"Businesses have to make hard trade offs for where to invest for the best return, thus creating capital to make even more games," he explained. "I know this concept touches a nerve with some of you, but our industry is founded on publishers that have driven for financially-successful games and then re-invested the proceeds in development of even more content for gamers to enjoy.

"It's a simple financial premise, and an obligation for publically-traded companies who answer to their shareholders. We are not making games in garages or bedrooms any more."

But Moore reserved his harshest criticism for the people who steal games off the Internet. "Piracy is an issue," he wrote.

"Sorry, I know many of you disagree with me on this, but the numbers don't lie. Companies spend millions developing content, and deserve to see a return on investment for their risk. The employees developing the game design, writing code and creating art deserve to get paid for their work. Period."

Moore's comments are particularly interesting as they come just days after Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime told us that suggestions the PC games market is in decline are "just completely dead wrong". "PC is the gaming platform with the largest installed base around the world. It's also the platform with the best margins," Morhaime had said.

Morhaime was reacting somewhat to similar sentiments from Valve boss Gabe Newell, whose company flew journalists to Seattle in May from around the world to evangelise the PC as a platform.

"We think the number of connected PC gamers we are selling our products to dwarf the current generation of consoles put together," Newell had told the press on that occasion. "There are tremendous opportunities in figuring out how to reach out to those customers."

For his part, Moore added that EA Sports is still exploring options on the PC. "In order to make fundamental shifts in an ecosystem, you sometimes have to hit the reset button. That's what we have done this year at EA Sports as regards some of our franchises on the PC," he wrote.

"That does not mean that we aren't coming back next year with new, innovative, maybe even less-expensive ways to play all of our franchises on the PC, but for right now we are assessing all of the options open to us to shift the current paradigm for our games on this platform," he wrote.

Check out his blog for the full post.

PC games in general have begun to decline. If you haven't noticed: In the last couple of years, the games released and set to release for PC are mainly multiplayer. Some of them have a weak single-player campaign, but they're built around multiplayer. That has driven a lot of people away (including myself).

I've been a "PC Gamer" since I was a young teen playing things like Wolfenstien 3D, Doom, and even Doom II over QModem, but last year I sold my latest gaming rig, and bought a PS3.

As your post indicates, even sports games are moving away from PC. It's too bad really.

PC will never die. If anything, it'll become and stay king of MMO etc. Eventually, it'll all combine into PC in one way or another.

and RTS on console just doesn't compare...elitegeek13

I'm trying to find where it says "RTS games on a console DO compare" in this post? What was the logic in even writing what you did? It makes no sense.

Anyways, Peter makes a very valid point and I'm not sure what the big deal is. Perhaps if he did mention something about RTS games, perhaps suggesting they aren't selling well and are better suited to a console then there would be case for an argument. But this blog just outlines the reality of sports games on the PC.

PC games in general have begun to decline. If you haven't noticed: In the last couple of years, the games released and set to release for PC are mainly multiplayer. Some of them have a weak single-player campaign, but they're built around multiplayer. That has driven a lot of people away (including myself).

I've been a "PC Gamer" since I was a young teen playing things like Wolfenstien 3D, Doom, and even Doom II over QModem, but last year I sold my latest gaming rig, and bought a PS3.

As your post indicates, even sports games are moving away from PC. It's too bad really.

PC will never die. If anything, it'll become and stay king of MMO etc. Eventually, it'll all combine into PC in one way or another.

TheCyberKnight

Really? The only thing dying in relation to PC gaming that I'm anticipating is the withering of the size of my wallet ;)

There are so many games coming out this year that I'm interested in, it's quite staggering and remarkable :D In fact, I'm seeing games released for the PC that I never imagined would. Yes, I'm including multi-platform games (and yes, I do own consoles as well), but there's this whole thing about the how, the where, and the quality of gaming that appeals to me --- and that has PC written all over it.

Indeed, games best suited for local multi-player, consoles are perhaps the best option (how many people really want to game split-screen on their PC). However, with the right strategy, there are features that could be given to sports games on the PC that would make them quite attractive.

By the way, I'm primarily a single-player gamer myself. The real truth is that even the console game market is driving towards multi-player. In all cases, on all platforms, I think an equilibrium will be reached, give it time.

Well, it was obvious sports games on the PC was coming to a end. It was no shock to me when EA pulled the plug. All we got now are simulation games. Quite frankly, a sports game is a great party game so nobody wants to be around your 19"-22" monitor and have to sit on everyone's lap. You want to play on your couch with a big HDtv so everyone can see. Heck, my brother and I used to play baseball games on the PC so I know how annoying it is.

I won't comment on the piracy bit but if he wants to talk about numbers, I'd love to see how they get these numbers and how much they spend on worthless protection.

I'm mainly a 360 gamer now but I do have plans on getting a new laptop to replace my 5 1/2 year old one in the near future. If your gonna buy a PC to play the few exclusives that come out a year, you might as well make it a laptop and be able to play anywhere.

The PS2, PS3 and 360 make more money than PC do with games and there are more people playing games on these systems than they are PC. Besides PC are and will forever be linked to MMO's. When people think PC games the first thing that comes to mind is MMO's.CADMAN_3

This is not system wars and you are wrong mister playstation fanboy. Too bad you also need to team 3 consoles to beat the pc money wise.

Lets talk about sport game, the real subject of this topic, not pc gaming is dead, because I say so, buhuhu.

I don't care about sport game, the only sport game I don't hate is racing and there is plenty of those on the pc. I will leave the "high definition" sports game on the console. Pc user who want to play sport game can play the older one, not much difference anyway.

Well, I can't believe that they expect high sales when they port the PS2 version over to PC and call it a day. Perhaps if they actually tried the 360/PS3 version, you'd actually see some units move.

Actually, I think it's partly because EA does such incremental updates that the biggest motivating factor is new rosters. However, PC gamers can mod that in without EA's help...then what's the incentive to upgrade?

Well, I can't believe that they expect high sales when they port the PS2 version over to PC and call it a day. Perhaps if they actually tried the 360/PS3 version, you'd actually see some units move.

Actually, I think it's partly because EA does such incremental updates that the biggest motivating factor is new rosters. However, PC gamers can mod that in without EA's help...then what's the incentive to upgrade?

Vampyronight

I agree. I've always believed there's a big "chicken or the egg thing" going on here, same as with racing games. If companies keep releasing enough crappy ports, then sure interest will go down. Less interest equals less money which in turn equals more crappy ports and so on. They deliberately or accidentally scared the majority of those gamers of to the consoles and now have us believe that pc-gamers only like rts and fps (as well as that "we only like mmo" so they don't have to bother with decent single player campaigns and they don't make profits because "we pirate all our games".. but that's a different story..).

Imo the last bit is bs and we wont see ea sports on pc againjohan1986

Okay, I really have to get my comments in, because EA and other sports game company, really pisses me off,

We PC GAMERS should get all the sports games with all its glory , Currently 80% of PC gamers have gaming system that

surpass any console today, First we get to run games at 1080P or even beyond with 60FPS or more, like DMC4 or Call of Duty 4

If piracy is the blame, Then Im pretty sure the six to seven figure programmers can come up with a cd that cannot be copy or

extract, You can also blame digital download with games that are already extract and ready to play, of course some is going

to share, Why don't the programmers of these companies add something to the disc so it cannot be copy, It doesn't make

sense, Games like NBA 2K8 and MLB can easliy be transfer to play on PC, just transalate it over like you do with most 360

counterparts, anyone can grab a 360 pc controller. Don't worry about graphics because PC gamers have nvidia and ati, now

Since I know systems with 3GHZ dual core or Quad can runs games without a hitch, What the hell is there problems. Pc gamers'

Systems will surpass console even in 5 to 10 years, To those who think PC games is about MMO and RTS, There wrong, Try

Playing Crysis or COD4, and compare those screens with console anyone would say WOW PC Games look more fluid and Clean

and you can see every detail. So for sports games it should be easy, It would be useless for US gamers to have these system

just for RTS and MMO that would make the hardware upgrades stupid, because with and old videocard you can still play those

games. Come on what can you do with Quad Sli and Tri Sli , You can take it far beyond console. I've played 360 sports games

and with PC physics and Processing power no sweat for it, IF I was a game designer I would stirr my way to only pc games. Not

because of other companies opinion on PC games, Its the Lifespan, harddware and the quality of PCs, Remember every house

Has to have a computer, And always remember the PS3 and 360 are made of PC components, Don't lie to your self.

Brings thoses Sports games out to PC and Stop worrying about Weather or Not it will sell, Trust me with 2K,Madden,MLB with

Next-gen graphics you are sure to change gamers mind very quickly. Thank you for listen and Have fun. I will go back and Play

MVP 05 200FPS MAX OUT graphics for PC with roster updates, It is still fun to play since you guys at EA stoping making them.

I know that hackers can find away to crack anything, but remember, Anything is possible with billion dollars companies,

Some Music CD with FBI anti piracy on can cause your system to crash if you try to direct copy it. Of course there is a way around

it, Some people just love to have the retail game because of the manual orginal key. They also love playing games online

with the retail copy of the game, Remember with download images of the game and keygens, you cannot play any game online

Doesn't that suck( Some gamers just want to play the single player but it will get boring once you beaten it, The online features

such games like Call of Duty, Crysis, Half-Life you need and original retail copy to play online, There is no way around it, I

been in gaming since the atari days, and been in PC gaming since Voodoo graphics days. I'm just making a point the

hackers will ruin pc games if the piracy continues, Who will you blame? When Every PC game developer go on strike and stay

with console gaming, I'm not saying it will happen, anything is possible. I also know that console games can be copied to

but you have to mod it which voids your warranty, 300 to 500 is not money you want to waist. As a PC technichan and PC builder

I can say if the gamers don't act we can really be stuck with WOW forever. You can play WOW with a Geforce 3 graphics card

whats the use then. All of this is cause by piracy, You know it and I know it. IF that was your game develop company

you would be pissed at every gamer, but since your happy that you get your games free. You don't care about anything.

Thank you for listening. It just piss me off not to see every console port to PC. Maybe I should learn How to develop PC games.

is your cat pawing your enter key?

anyway, yea, sports genre has generally dwindled on this platform, so has fighting games. it's sad, but this is why i'm glad i've kept multiple platforms. :)

PC games in general have begun to decline. If you haven't noticed: In the last couple of years, the games released and set to release for PC are mainly multiplayer. Some of them have a weak single-player campaign, but they're built around multiplayer. That has driven a lot of people away (including myself).

I've been a "PC Gamer" since I was a young teen playing things like Wolfenstien 3D, Doom, and even Doom II over QModem, but last year I sold my latest gaming rig, and bought a PS3.

As your post indicates, even sports games are moving away from PC. It's too bad really.

PC will never die. If anything, it'll become and stay king of MMO etc. Eventually, it'll all combine into PC in one way or another.

TheCyberKnight

STALKER, Crysis, Half Life 2 episodes, Portal, The Witcher, just a few off the top of my head, high profile, high selling games built around SP. You also have the upcoming Spore, Dragon Age, Duke Nukem Forevor [lol], The entire adventure genre ,etc and sequels to all the previously mentioned.

Also sports games have been more about MP than SP for a long time as far as i remember [never really been into sports games], and that console focused games probably suffer more from the short SP while focused on MP as much or more than PC centric titles [COD4, GeoW, Halo 3]

To be honest apart from racing games sport games never really belonged on the PC. All of the football, basketball etc. sports are played best with a controller, and when building games for PC you have to dev them with keyboard/mouse in mind first.

Pick up any copy of Fifa or John Madden etc. to see what I'm talking about.

Diablo3 - the one game to shut all console fan boys

Diablo3 - the one game to shut all console fan boys

iamthe1ne

by the way there is mmosport games on pc

[QUOTE="iamthe1ne"]

Diablo3 - the one game to shut all console fan boys

blackdreamhunk

[QUOTE="iamthe1ne"]

Diablo3 - the one game to shut all console fan boys

blackdreamhunk

what i want is for the console boys to shut up and just stay in their place, no need for trash talking pc. shuting down console devs is to drastic

To be honest apart from racing games sport games never really belonged on the PC. All of the football, basketball etc. sports are played best with a controller, and when building games for PC you have to dev them with keyboard/mouse in mind first.

Pick up any copy of Fifa or John Madden etc. to see what I'm talking about.

nix3r

graphics and game phisics on pc max out....man that car game would kill!!!

This has everything to do with MS/Sony's wishes. They don't want easily accessible PC versions of EA Sports games on torrent sites. Even though you can grab console versions, those versions sell extremely well, enough to shut EA up and not even mention it as an issue. On PC the games are much more heavily traded, and the sales aren't there, and their thinking is probably along the lines of "well, if we cut off PC versions, it might convince many to buy a 360 or a PS3 instead". This is a big win for MS snd Sony, and they're probably all for it either directly or indirectly.

Sad really, I love playing NHL06 on my laptop with updated rosters, I have nothing to look forward to in the future. On the road, I have nothing new to play sports wise now. Laptop gaming is great and convenient, and I'm certainly not lugging around my consoles.

First I would like to say, Sports games been out for PC since NBA live 95,Do your homework, Second did you forget there are joysticks like logictech dual analog, or even 360 PC controllers in the market, That works with Madden,Live and even Need for Speed, The controllers are perfectly configured with those games, I recommend Logictech controllers. Also don't forget PC has some of the best PC racing sims on the market, GT, Grid, all of the need for speeds, motogp, I can go on forever, And those graphics are insane.Soccer is also some of the best on the market also, Just Remember there are PC componets in the 360 and PS3, Nvidia I say.. Hardrrive, 360s Tripple core processor, PS3 only have a custom nvidia 7900 card built in. My cards beats that 10 fold.

PS3 and 360 Without PC componets There will be no PC like games on them, There would of been repeats or part 1 through 9 just to keep gamers happy. I have been playing console games since when Half of you guys wasn't born yet.

OH, Your going to be upset in a couple of years when sony and microsoft comes out with a new console. Just like there system before them, a waist fo money. The only game console I ever cared about is N64 at it prime, Goldeneye started it all, and at that time PS1 came out with its choppy graphics, Play some PS1 games and then play N64 games you will see a huge diffrence today, 64 graphics where way superior and fun,

See you guys I'm out.

This has everything to do with MS/Sony's wishes. They don't want easily accessible PC versions of EA Sports games on torrent sites. Even though you can grab console versions, those versions sell extremely well, enough to shut EA up and not even mention it as an issue. On PC the games are much more heavily traded, and the sales aren't there, and their thinking is probably along the lines of "well, if we cut off PC versions, it might convince many to buy a 360 or a PS3 instead". This is a big win for MS snd Sony, and they're probably all for it either directly or indirectly.

Sad really, I love playing NHL06 on my laptop with updated rosters, I have nothing to look forward to in the future. On the road, I have nothing new to play sports wise now. Laptop gaming is great and convenient, and I'm certainly not lugging around my consoles.

mismajor99

Oh my! My crappy ps2 port with crap graphics and crap stuff isn't selling! PC gaming is dying!

my (admitedly limited) understanding of EA sorts and PC has been that EA have released PS2 ports of said games to the PC...with not one 360 or PS3 version. if thats the case (and correct me if im wrong) then what did they expect? that we would lavish it all up and beg EA for more PS2 ports for their sports games?

personally im not pushed either way. im not remotely interested in sports games (hence my limited knowledge of what is going on).

my (admitedly limited) understanding of EA sorts and PC has been that EA have released PS2 ports of said games to the PC...with not one 360 or PS3 version. if thats the case (and correct me if im wrong) then what did they expect? that we would lavish it all up and beg EA for more PS2 ports for their sports games?

personally im not pushed either way. im not remotely interested in sports games (hence my limited knowledge of what is going on).

osan0

Who gives a crap about sports games anyway?

If you really want to play sports, why not go outside and play for real and get some excercise? I play games to escape from reality and do things I can't do in real life, not to do mundane, everyday stuff.

Looks like the new PC Fifa is finally getting the 360/PS3 engine. I guarantee you this will increase sales.BassMan

Who gives a crap about sports games anyway?

If you really want to play sports, why not go outside and play for real and get some excercise? I play games to escape from reality and do things I can't do in real life, not to do mundane, everyday stuff.

cmdrmonkey

No way! You're a professional athlete?! Awesome dude! Well you see, most of us imagine we are (or could be) at some point in our lives but eventually realize that we are not and never will be. So bear with me and try to imagine that me kicking a ball around outside (for example) would in no way resemble me playing a professional athlete (such as yourself) and/or controlling a team in the top leagues of the sports world which a sports game lets peoples do.

Very few PC Gamers like sports game, it's mostly about strategy and FPS and diablo like rpg. Plus the sports game doesn't have online.

Also Now there are MMO sports game which make better profit. I guess PC Sports Gamer move there.

Uuh Lets see, Maybe if EA stopped porting the same PS2 game every damn year, we'd buy more sports games from them!!

I really wish 2K sports made some PC ports so that EA had something to compete with... right now its a complete monopoly for them on PC sports genre.

Uuh Lets see, Maybe if EA stopped porting the same PS2 game every damn year, we'd buy more sports games from them!!

I really wish 2K sports made some PC ports so that EA had something to compete with... right now its a complete monopoly for them on PC sports genre.

The_PC_Gamer

Uuh Lets see, Maybe if EA stopped porting the same PS2 game every damn year, we'd buy more sports games from them!!

I really wish 2K sports made some PC ports so that EA had something to compete with... right now its a complete monopoly for them on PC sports genre.

The_PC_Gamer

i completely agree. Someone at EA probaby realized that selling their recycled product is easier on the console market.

[QUOTE="mismajor99"]

This has everything to do with MS/Sony's wishes. They don't want easily accessible PC versions of EA Sports games on torrent sites. Even though you can grab console versions, those versions sell extremely well, enough to shut EA up and not even mention it as an issue. On PC the games are much more heavily traded, and the sales aren't there, and their thinking is probably along the lines of "well, if we cut off PC versions, it might convince many to buy a 360 or a PS3 instead". This is a big win for MS snd Sony, and they're probably all for it either directly or indirectly.

Sad really, I love playing NHL06 on my laptop with updated rosters, I have nothing to look forward to in the future. On the road, I have nothing new to play sports wise now. Laptop gaming is great and convenient, and I'm certainly not lugging around my consoles.

Makari

Low sales on PC for sports games is a given and has always been extremely low in comparison to consoles.Another important factor, which I was referring too, is that games are heavily torrented on PC, which is viewed in the industry as a threat to their other versions on more secure systems where "potential" sales could exist. In a world where the bottom line is everything, there's no doubt this is discussed internally. This same philosophy was talked about prior to GTA 4's release, intentionally straddling the PC version to a later date, increasing the chance of more sales as a less secure version of the game (PC version) wouldn't be available, forcing a console version purchase if one wanted to play the game. Believe it or not, there is a large portion of people that if they can download something for free with a path of least resistance, they'll do it more often then not. I've heard this notion directly from someone at Rockstar btw, and I have no reason to think this same philosophy didn't have a similar impact in the decision to shaft the PC as a platform.

As others have mentioned before, if EA Sports stops releasing ps2 ports for the PC thinking that we will lap those up like dogs, people will start buying them.the_ChEeSe_mAn2

Who gives a crap about sports games anyway?

If you really want to play sports, why not go outside and play for real and get some excercise? I play games to escape from reality and do things I can't do in real life, not to do mundane, everyday stuff.

cmdrmonkey

And i agree with BLKR4330's post.