OMG! PCgaming is doing soooo fine - Some (basic) statistics + Poll

It seems a favourite topic on the forums and in comments around Gamespot is the death of PC gaming. Sick of all the people with opinions and no data to back themselves up I decided to come up with some hard and fast numbers to give people some real ammo to use/flame/troll with or whatever (the subject name is a joke btw - to all those people that start the doom of PC gaming threads).

What I have done is collate every single PC review done on Gamespot since Jan 1998. I have collated all this information in Excel and categorised via year, quarter, number of games and averaged out the scores. Below is just a summary of what I have come up with.

All in all it appears there is slightly less PC games being released since 1998 and that the overall quality is somewhat lower. I think it pays to keep in mind though that development of games as a whole is taking longer and that at some stage in the last year or two years, Gamespot significantly hardened up it scoring process (less games getting higher scores).

So... what does everyone think? Is PC gaming really actually dying? Or is console gaming just growing faster, catering to the hungry masses...

(I can give anyone the spreadsheet with all the data if someone wants to do some real analysis - just PM me).

Year/Ave SCORE/# Of Games
19987.0262

19997.0286

20006.9223

20016.7238

20026.7241

20036.9231

20046.8221

20057.0252

20066.5208

20076.394 (First two quarters only)

Well I jus spent +$2000 on my new system... **** me if PC gaming is dying... I could have gotten a PS3 AND an XBOX360 Elite with crap load of games.... PC 4 LIFE.

Those numbers alone don't mean much without numbers from the consoles to compare to. It's possible that gaming on a whole is going downhill.Erlkoenig

Very true - i'll get the xbox/xbox360 numbers to do some comparisons (treating both consoles as one system).

Until then, here are some stats on games that were rated 8 and above:

Year/Count

1998 70

1999 81

2000 61

2001 53

2002 62

2003 56

2004 52

2005 64

2006 42

PC gaming is not going anywhere.

Like erlkoenig said: Those numbers alone don't mean much without numbers from the consoles to compare to. It's possible that gaming on a whole is going downhill.

Ok here are some console stats. This is all the releases for the Playstation2 that have been reviewed on Gamespot from Mar 2000, from the release of the PS3 I have included PS3 titles instead (from Nov 8 2006).

It's worth noting from these numbers that there is still far more PC games being released that on the biggest Console platform. Judging by the scores there isn't a huge difference in quality either - keeping in mind console game dev's have to pay licensing fee's to the console creators meaning that there is more pressure to not release badly done games (not to say there aren't any really bad games but you would tend to get far more 'budget' titles on PC).

I would do xbox/xbox360 as well but I can't find the xbox reviews anywhere?

Year/Average SCORE/Count

2000 6.8 57

2001 7.1 219

2002 6.9 244

2003 7.0 225

2004 7.0 218

2005 7.0 212

2006 6.6 210

2007 6.6 55

I'd be interested to know how may of those PC games were multiplatform titles. How the multiplatform title average score compares to thePC-only title average score.

Xbox 360 stats from Nov 2005:

year/average score/number of titles

2005 7.5 30

2006 7.1 105

2007 6.8 72

Also the number of titles rated greater than 8 since Jan 2006:

PC: 52

PS2/3: 45

Xbox360: 44

It seems as though the PC is a stronger platform than both the Xbox360 and the Playstation2/3 - who would have thought?

Of course it looks a little different if you lump all the consoles into one platform but in my view the consoles are as mutually exlusive as the PC - u cant play games from one console on another.

Making a direct comparison just shows that pc gaming even keeps it's head up when 3 new Consoles are launched. I would also like to add these links:

http://www.answers.com/topic/decline-of-pc-game-sales-in-the-us

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=12777

Read both articles and you would notice that pc gaming is actually doing very well also in terms of sales. According to those articles pc gaming may well be as high now as it was back in 2002 and with no signs of stopping. It's also noteworthy that North America's pc gaming market is smaller than China and Europe.

I think otherwise. I think 10 years down the line, there will be very few titles for PC. And most of them would be the really popular ones which evolved in PC (Half Life, WOW, etc.). Its common sense. More people buy consoles rather than PC's because consoles are cheaper, easier. Therefore, developers develop games with lower risks on their mind. Consoles will dominate the future. Dont get me wrong. I am a PC lover.Ive dont own any console. but my next aim is a console because i am fedup dealing with constant updrades... only time would tell...shafrox

I know you say that you are a pc lover, but you do need to get some facts straight. The only people that are constantly upgrading their pc are the ones that want to play everything on the highest settings all the time. Many games that have been released recently could all be played on my pc not to mention the countless Indy games.

Besides I think you got the Developers and Publishers a bit mixed. In 10 years from now there just won't be any publishers for the pc, not as we know them today, because of digital distribution the risks that go along with making a game have gone down constribably for PC devs. Independent game designers are currently doing pretty well for themselves. The thing I do agree with is that the current "hardcore" games will not be very dominant on the pc anymore, but that's because the people that want those games are a minority. There was an article here on gamespot that proves my point.

Technically, consoles always die. Why do you think they make more? There was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Then there was the SUPER Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo 64, Gamecube, and now the Wii. How long til the Wii dies? Not long. Lets say 3 years maximum.

How long until PC gaming dies? Not for a hella long time, at least. Face it: Gaming BEGAN on the PC, and will always truly be on the PC. We just upgrade our hardware...not get completely different 'consoles'. The PC has always been the heart of gaming, and I resent console gaming.

It seems a favourite topic on the forums and in comments around Gamespot is the death of PC gaming. Sick of all the people with opinions and no data to back themselves up I decided to come up with some hard and fast numbers to give people some real ammo to use/flame/troll with or whatever (the subject name is a joke btw - to all those people that start the doom of PC gaming threads).

What I have done is collate every single PC review done on Gamespot since Jan 1998. I have collated all this information in Excel and categorised via year, quarter, number of games and averaged out the scores. Below is just a summary of what I have come up with.

All in all it appears there is slightly less PC games being released since 1998 and that the overall quality is somewhat lower. I think it pays to keep in mind though that development of games as a whole is taking longer and that at some stage in the last year or two years, Gamespot significantly hardened up it scoring process (less games getting higher scores).

So... what does everyone think? Is PC gaming really actually dying? Or is console gaming just growing faster, catering to the hungry masses...

(I can give anyone the spreadsheet with all the data if someone wants to do some real analysis - just PM me).

Year/Ave SCORE/# Of Games
19987.0262

19997.0286

20006.9223

20016.7238

20026.7241

20036.9231

20046.8221

20057.0252

20066.5208

20076.394 (First two quarters only)

djtim_3000

you're dying - cut with the BS already - it's getting really boring from this kind of topics - we own now and later: Crysis, TimeShift, Haze, Hellgate London, Starcraft 2, Bioshock, HL 2 the orange box, Gothic 3, C&C 3, STALKER, Eve Online, WoW, GW, D&D Online, WH 40k Online, CoH/V, LotR Online - and those are only few of best games we PC gamers own - i don't care if consoles own much more games - most of them are pretty suck

Halo 2 Xbox (nov 9 2004): 9.4

Half-Life 2 PC (nov 16 2004): 9.2

Enough said.

Halo 2 Xbox (nov 9 2004): 9.4

Half-Life 2 PC (nov 16 2004): 9.2

Enough said.

Colonel_Cool

So you're saying Halo 2 is better than HL2? lol!

[QUOTE="Colonel_Cool"]

Halo 2 Xbox (nov 9 2004): 9.4

Half-Life 2 PC (nov 16 2004): 9.2

Enough said.

RazorGR

So you're saying Halo 2 is better than HL2? lol!

[QUOTE="RazorGR"][QUOTE="Colonel_Cool"]

Halo 2 Xbox (nov 9 2004): 9.4

Half-Life 2 PC (nov 16 2004): 9.2

Enough said.

Colonel_Cool

So you're saying Halo 2 is better than HL2? lol!

In that case, I completely agree.

I wouldn't say that PC gaming is dying, PC games are dying. Nowadays games are made for money, no games for gamers these days, no games that need weeks to get into, no games that need manual near you all the time, no games that leave you stuck thinking about a way to get on for days. Games need to be quick, easy and efficient.Sp33chM4n

I couldn't agree more, a lot of games are made with consoles in mind, and that means mass market. Grantet, there are always some gems to come out every once and a while.

[QUOTE="djtim_3000"]

It seems a favourite topic on the forums and in comments around Gamespot is the death of PC gaming. Sick of all the people with opinions and no data to back themselves up I decided to come up with some hard and fast numbers to give people some real ammo to use/flame/troll with or whatever (the subject name is a joke btw - to all those people that start the doom of PC gaming threads).

What I have done is collate every single PC review done on Gamespot since Jan 1998. I have collated all this information in Excel and categorised via year, quarter, number of games and averaged out the scores. Below is just a summary of what I have come up with.

All in all it appears there is slightly less PC games being released since 1998 and that the overall quality is somewhat lower. I think it pays to keep in mind though that development of games as a whole is taking longer and that at some stage in the last year or two years, Gamespot significantly hardened up it scoring process (less games getting higher scores).

So... what does everyone think? Is PC gaming really actually dying? Or is console gaming just growing faster, catering to the hungry masses...

(I can give anyone the spreadsheet with all the data if someone wants to do some real analysis - just PM me).

Year/Ave SCORE/# Of Games
19987.0262

19997.0286

20006.9223

20016.7238

20026.7241

20036.9231

20046.8221

20057.0252

20066.5208

20076.394 (First two quarters only)

PredatorRules

you're dying - cut with the BS already - it's getting really boring from this kind of topics - we own now and later: Crysis, TimeShift, Haze, Hellgate London, Starcraft 2, Bioshock, HL 2 the orange box, Gothic 3, C&C 3, STALKER, Eve Online, WoW, GW, D&D Online, WH 40k Online, CoH/V, LotR Online - and those are only few of best games we PC gamers own - i don't care if consoles own much more games - most of them are pretty suck

I was actually trying to point out that PC gaming is not dying and is doing really well but thanks for your rant (without reading what i had posted). Plus i've shown that pc gaming has more (and better!) games released than each console (if you discount the really crap pc games).

[QUOTE="Colonel_Cool"][QUOTE="RazorGR"][QUOTE="Colonel_Cool"]

Halo 2 Xbox (nov 9 2004): 9.4

Half-Life 2 PC (nov 16 2004): 9.2

Enough said.

RazorGR

So you're saying Halo 2 is better than HL2? lol!

In that case, I completely agree.

I agree that some gamespot ratings are a bit off... i mean halo 2 better than hl2???!?! right... but thats why i gathered such a large number of reviews and averaged them. The aim was to minimise erreneous single statistics. But it doesnt matter anyway because it still shows PC gaming is going strong (with numbers to back my statement up).

Technically, consoles always die. Why do you think they make more? There was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Then there was the SUPER Nintendo Entertainment System. Nintendo 64, Gamecube, and now the Wii. How long til the Wii dies? Not long. Lets say 3 years maximum.

How long until PC gaming dies? Not for a hella long time, at least. Face it: Gaming BEGAN on the PC, and will always truly be on the PC. We just upgrade our hardware...not get completely different 'consoles'. The PC has always been the heart of gaming, and I resent console gaming.

Skullheart

exactly. consoels come and go but pcs are froever they just get upgraded. Tracked for not being stupid.

PCs are doing better now than ever. They really started off slow back in the 90s, look how fast the hardware evolves now... video cards are pretty much entities on their own now nerfing the rest of the PCs components.

And remember... PCs can hold nearly an endless amount of pr0n.

How do these stats reflect the amount of PC gamers in 98 compared to the amount of PC gamers in 2007? Fewer households had computers in 98 to 2007. Thus there is more of a market in 2007 than there was in 98. Maybe we should look at ratios, instead of just stats.

Also, you must take in consideration that Gamespot does not review EVERY game that comes out on the PC.. many games are "indy" games that are not reviewed or even given a space on gamespot.

This is where the amount of PC games coming out can be staggering. Also the amount of PC games since the early 80s and before can reach into the hundreds of thousands. (given emulation like the Apple II, Commodor 64, DOS, MAC etc)

I highly doubt any one site can give a list of ALL PC games .. Gamespot does a good job, and has even years earlier, but its far from a conclusive list.

How do these stats reflect the amount of PC gamers in 98 compared to the amount of PC gamers in 2007? Fewer households had computers in 98 to 2007. Thus there is more of a market in 2007 than there was in 98. Maybe we should look at ratios, instead of just stats.

Also, you must take in consideration that Gamespot does not review EVERY game that comes out on the PC.. many games are "indy" games that are not reviewed or even given a space on gamespot.

This is where the amount of PC games coming out can be staggering. Also the amount of PC games since the early 80s and before can reach into the hundreds of thousands. (given emulation like the Apple II, Commodor 64, DOS, MAC etc)

I highly doubt any one site can give a list of ALL PC games .. Gamespot does a good job, and has even years earlier, but its far from a conclusive list.

Alkpaz

It doesnt reflect the amount of actual gamers (the size of the market) or the amount of money spent on pc games. People use those stats alot without any real numbers (mainly just made up stuff) - you CANT get these numbers, no one has them. you have to pay heaps of $ just to get a reasonable estimate from a company like NPD.

It's true that gamespot does not review all games, in fact most games that you can play on the PC probably aren't even reviewed but thats not the point. Sort of like the 'Why its good to be a PC gamer in' threads, I just want to give the PC gamers some good news as they seem to be constantly faced with the onslaught of PC GAMING IS DYING!!OMG@#!!PONIES!@!!12!! type threads :)

you cant look at it this way.....The PC market works in such a way that anyone...even me can make, publish, and sell a game...in recent years with the rise of digital distrobution this has become easier then ever before....this is bound to generate a lot of bad games that arent of high quality....this is not a bad thing.

The Console market those not work this way....especially since digital distrobution is still in its very infamacy....

"colacurcio - "Of course consoles players are mad (jealous) because their console is
basically a automatic-transmission Ferrari sports car with tiny
wheels, big engine, nice interior but no sound system, no car alarm and
crappy brakes."

awesome quote!