The VG247 Community and Game Awards 2009

Recognition at last!

I make this place enjoyable?

And here I thought everyone here saw me as an annoying, condescending, egotistical ass-hole with no filter on his mouth and an abusively narcissistic attitude.

*laughs*

you people can call me troll all you want but at the end of the day. It’s my words that are solid. In fact there is more people in the industry who supporting my views, even CEO’s are agreeing with me.

there is even ceo’s who would agree with me. Also this proves even more how much game devs hate pc gamers. All your doing is fueling the fire that meny people will see.

http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2009/12/06/pc-gaming-not-hit-as-hard-as-some-estimate/

PC Gaming not hit as hard as some estimate
By Matt Ployhar (Intel) (12 posts) on December 6, 2009 at 2:55 pm

I’m always bemused by articles like this touting the demise of PC Gaming and ‘how hard the PC games industry was hit’. For starters we have to first wonder where this information comes from. There are of course several sources that I won’t name here but it does make me pause why so much of the real story is left out, forgotten, or not mentioned.

So let’s dissect some of the claims we’re starting to see as well as some more that are likely to crop up. Has the games industry as a whole been hit? I think everyone is in agreement about this statement. The majority of industries across the board have been. Next; has PC gaming been hit harder, or less than other game platforms? Well if we only consider retail in one geography (in this case North America) then yes. That statement would be true. What about the rest of the world? China for example has very low Console penetration but is sporting somewhere around ~45% of the world’s PC gaming units. Most of those PC game units never show up on anyone’s radar though since they’re not shipped, or available outside China. Europe is about a 1/3rd of the other remaining units. North America has actually been trending downward to about ~23% of the world’s total PC Gaming units. The reason why is that Console ownership in the US has gone up dramatically over the past decade. This trend hasn’t followed suit in most other Geo’s though. Japan of course has always had super high penetration rates of Consoles with the exception of the Xbox which hasn’t fared so well over there.

There are several other critical things missing from articles like this & others. The biggest factor that I can see is the tectonic shift away from retail & towards digital distribution. Microsoft itself is supposedly jumping on the creation of a Steam-like service band wagon. All the big Game Publishers are offering digital copies of their games (e.g. EA Downloader, etc); or going to 3rd Parties services such as Steam, Orb, Impulse etc. Traditional ‘Brick & Mortar’ Retailers such as EB Games offer digital game downloads. There are several reasons why. One: the money saved from Cost of Goods Manufacturing (COGs), Two: leads to higher profitability, Three: convenience, Four: It’s more Anti-Piracy resistant, and so on. This is also why all the Console Manufacturers have jumped on the Digital Download bandwagon with services like Xbox Live, & PS Network, etc. Just bear in mind that the biggest advantages to doing it this way still remain on the PC.

The next biggest point for me comes down to sloppy reporting when all the Consoles are lumped together in one bucket; and then compared to the PC Games market. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts this is simply not the best way to portray the gaming platforms market. Today there are still five major viable gaming platforms if I exclude the Handheld & cell phone gaming markets. They are the PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, and Wii. These five platforms all compete with each other for your dollar and mindshare. The best way to view this is PC vs PS2 vs PS3 vs 360 vs Wii. In the case of dual ownership an end user would more likely buy the Console version of a game + the PC version; as opposed to 2 copies of the game for say the 360 & PS3. Those types of situations are much more the exception than the rule.

The last point I’ll address for the sake of time is the comment about margins & profitability of Console vs. PC. In my history of working in Microsoft Game Studios, and at Intel, I’ve had extensive conversations about this topic with key Publishers and their respective finance gurus. They will tell you that PC gaming is more profitable and here’s why. First off we have to remember that there’s a difference between total revenue and profits vs. profitability on a per unit basis. The biggest Publishers make more money in aggregate when adding up all the Consoles together; but the story is vastly different when you ask them how much they make off of each individual game platform. The story gets even worse for Consoles when you ask them how much money they make on a per unit sold basis after all costs. The biggest culprit is the Console royalty which is non-existent on the PC. Which incidentally points to why Console Games ~$60/copy and we see all these ‘Special Editions’. Also; what is never factored in is the total P&L + Marketing/PR expenditures. Activision reported spending ~$200m on their latest Modern Warfare 2 hit. If this is semi accurate then at $60 copy they’d have to sell over ~3.3 million copies just to hit breakeven! I often hear Publishers mention they have to sell a million or more copies to hit break even. For the PC one can get by with between one-quarter to one-third that amount of units sold through.

So there you have it. There are tons of other things to factor in for a conversation like this. So I tried to focus in on the biggest topics. The next time you read or hear someone telling you that PC gaming is declining, or not profitable, or struggling let’s start challenging some of those assumptions more diligently. I’ll have to tackle the concept of attach rates and ‘Total-Available-Market’ (TAM) in a future blog; since this too is an all too often overlooked factor that has literally, and sadly, put several of my friends in the Game Industry into bankruptcy or being forced into being acquired. In most of those circumstances it’s been due to buying into the Console hype and not getting all their facts straight about the viability & profitability of the PC gaming market.

Jesus christ.

@Michael O’Connor

We do all think that, but we don’t hold it against you, it’s an endearing charm you have. Despite my belligerence towards you on several occasions I don’t dislike you at all.

Awww, you’re so sweet.

*hugs Hunam*

“And everything!”

\o/

Oh look… a wall of text, because links are too hard.

I like Gheritt White because he special mentioned me… twice.

What will we do when the solid words have gone?

You’re just that special Hunam.

BDH, if you cared about PC gaming so much, then why not hang out on Rock, Paper, Shotgun? You’d be much more welcome there.

Not really, aside from a minor fanboy outrage over L4D2, the place is alright.

@Gheritt White

I thought vg247 was a gaming site fr gamers. I didn’t know it’s all about console hardware.

there is so much liars in the gaming industry it’s not even funny

Way to add another bunch of votes to your name, BDH. If anyone was in doubt before that your actions neatly define the “Shatner” criteria set out by Pat, they can’t have any argument now.

It’s not about console hardware, but the problem we have with you is that you wade into the console threads everytime and start copypasting links to crackpots on the internet about how consoles are all failing. If you leave them alone, they’ll leave you alone.

sorry i don’t like to make claims with out proof so man can call me lair un like your self.

too meny proclaim alot of unturthfull claims.

you wan to debate with me you better have facts and proof.

If you don’t have proof any ou make claims. I am going to chanllege you on your claims.

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!

/runs away crying

Here we go again…

lol figures

God, next you’ll be asking for sources. You don’t debate, you spew rhetoric like a fundamentalist zealot. You like PC games, that is awesome, so do I, just leave the console gamers to their dance and talk about things you do like, like pornography or anti-semetic propaganda. Oh and PC games.

the funny part is my words come to pass.

lets look at the bankuprt console game devs

lets look at all the ceo’s that agree with my statments

what do you have?

heck i was even rigth about the coonsole decline.

aat the end of the my words have alot more weight.

Oh dear.

Sorry G1Gz, I totally forgot to give you a shout out too, but you defo deserve one as well! You’d make a good mod too. Hang on, I’ll edit it up and replace one of the Hunam instances.

EDIT: Done.

What the fuck!?

My mom was so proud

Woo hoo!

You love me… you really love me… *whimper*

/Reads last post on previous page

/Hugs Gheritt White

“If anyone was in doubt before that your actions neatly define the “Shatner” criteria set out by Pat, they can’t have any argument now.”

Except he doesn’t define the “Shatner” criteria.

He may be a fanboy, and he may be an idiot, but nowhere is he aggressively and constantly attacking people to the point of making the site practically unvisitable.

@O’Connor, sorry, but I don’t see “aggressively and constantly attacking people to the point of making the site practically unvisitable” in the list of criteria.

I’d vote for Shatner for the Shatner award.

I got a mention too.
Thanks gherrit.

Cheers Gherrit and i voted for Bdh as best poster, what can i say the guy is mad as fuck but comedy classic

I second that Hindle, BDH for best poster. The guy is a GENIUS. I read his post because its enjoyable and fun.
The guy has a passion for PC gaming and that’s admirable. The fact that so many people want to hate him because of what he post is downright stupid.

I’ll give you guys a scenerio, would you rather see 1 guy like BDH or 50-100 guys like Mike Bowden and Psychotext who are just down right boring and Mr. know it all’s.

BDH is the very reason we enjoy internet discussions. Call him a clown, an idiot, troll, pc fanboy, or any other thing you want. Just give this a thought, If you got stuck in an elevator with either BDH, Psychotext, or Mike who do you think you would have the best and funniest conversation with while the elevator got fixed and opened.

BDH, continue being your unique self. I’ve never read anything where you made threats to anyone, I’ve never read where you cried like a bitch to have some BANNED, and I’ve never read anything that you’ve posted that offended me personally (which is not possible because this is the internet not fucking REAL LIFE).

People dislike you because when you step in the room (article) you steal the spot light from them and to them that’s their life.

You really think that Mr Ultra Hardcore PC gaming fanatic would give you an interesting conversation when stuck in an elevator? He’d probably be jonesing for a dose of WoW within 5 minutes… he’d be wearing your skin within 15.

TEA you traitor! LOL.

TEA’s expressed his opinion and done it eloquently – as we all know, opinions can’t be wrong (in fact I think that’s a numbered internet rule!).

However… I’m really not sure about that whole stealing the spotlight thing – I sincerely doubt anybody here places so much value on the presence of their posts, *especially* the regulars.

That said, you could have said that for dramatic effect. I’ve needed to have my Mr Sensible hat on all week, so feel free to rip me.

So no mum jokes? How have you coped?

With difficulty. It’s quarter to five on Friday and I have 125 e-mails left to clear. If I manage to clear a fortnight’s worth of unreads in four days, that’ll be a personal record.

@184 That’s hilarious in my mind.

@GW: Ctrl+A, Delete

Lol, I wish!

I voted The Shatner: Pat , sorry had to do it.