Consoles have secured the top spot in the gaming industry for the past decade. Fueled by increasing demand for exclusive titles with huge marketing campaigns, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo have united to push revenue to new heights. But PC is striking back.
When asked about how PC gaming is faring in the overall scope of the gaming industry, David Cole, an analyst for DFC Intelligence, told PCR
On a global basis PC games have surpassed console games but the new console systems mean consoles should show an increase.
He added:
Among core gamers there is a heavy overlap with most console gamers also playing on a PC. The big difference is that consoles are now the luxury item and PCs are the necessity. Just a few years ago the reverse was true. This means PCs have the broader audience.
Much of this is owed to the replayability of PC games. Titles like StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft have seemingly infinite replay value, bringing back players who have quit and retaining players for extended periods of time. Then you have the free-to-play games like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Hearthstone, games where you could never spend a dime and still experience thousands of entertaining hours.
More importantly, PC hardware is more affordable now than ever before. For $500 a gaming enthusiast can go from having no PC at all to being able to play every PC game on the market. While that price might compete in the same space as PS4 and Xbox One, they don’t have the luxury of a game library that dates back as far as video games have existed.
In the end, it isn’t necessarily a battle of if consoles or PC can have larger market share, it’s all about how many gamers want to diversify their entertainment. Consoles are great and have their perks, but PC lasts forever. There are no PC generations, just growing libraries and continually improving visuals that require upgrade rather than replacement.
