"Games for PCs sell far less copies than counterparts for the Xbox or PlayStation, but that market makes far more revenue from players' purchases of in-game items, like currency and subscriptions to online multiplayer services like fantasy game World of Warcraft."
PC funds future subscription-based games and microtransactions. Consoles make the most money for AAA games. By a wide margin.
@fedor: it's important to keep in mind, though, that it's the cash from consoles that keeps AAA development afloat. PC contributes very little to making sure we keep getting those kinds of games.
@Saidrex: Those are ports from console games, though. To put PC into perspective let's look at one of the few PC-centric AAA games, The Witcher 3. A game the developers themselves said "wouldn't exist" without consoles.
@jhcho2: I've been arguing that point all by my lonesome for a while now(or at least I never saw anyone else make that point in the past). It never took a rocket scientist to figure out that console game sales subsidize AAA development. PC gamers rarely buy AAA games at full price, hell even Rise of the Tomb Raider launched on PC discounted down to around $40. It's not about fanboyism, really. It's not unfair to highlight the fact that the vast majority of the money that pays for "core games" comes from the console fanbase and that publishers will focus on the platforms that make them the most money.
PC is just a source of bonus cash for publishers. There's really no argument to be made in that respect. When it comes to dollars spent on AAA software, it's always been abundantly clear who the so called peasants are.
@spectre3140: Or they could have been including f2p PC games on their other report. Either way PC rarely contributes any significant amounts of cash to AAA game sales.
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