The economy is on everyone's mind now but a new study released today by Jon Peddie Research predicts that the PC gaming hardware market will only suffer a mild loss in 2009 and will actually have revenues that will outpace the gaming console hardware market this year.

In a press release today, the organization predicted that the PC gaming hardware industry will suffer a 7 percent drop in revenue in 2009 to $18.65 billion compared to 2008 which had $20.07 billion in revenue. However that number will still be higher than the combined total of the console hardware market in 2009, beating it by almost $2 billion. Jon Peddie Research states that "PC gaming systems seem to have suffered the least discounting which illustrates the value consumers place on such systems."

In addition to the PC, the study assumes that the consumer will want to buy other hardware for their gaming rig including "a percentage for the monitor (because some people will already have one), a percentage of accessories like driving wheels and special mice/joysticks, as well as aftermarket and DIY parts and systems." The market is expected to expand to over $30 billion in revenue by 2012.