pc-gaming-alliance-horizons-report posts

The state of PC gaming, at least in terms of its total revenues, continues to grow. That's the findings of the non-profit PC Gaming Alliance who revealed the preliminary findings of its third annual Horizons report as part of GDC 2011. The report, created with the assistance of DFC Intelligence, claims that global PC game revenues were $16.2 billion in 2010, a 20 percent increase from 2009.

While China is both the fastest growing and largest market for PC gaming, the study claims that all regions of the globe showed revenue growth in 2010, including the US. The advent of digital downloads for large PC games and games that use microtransactions and point cards are among the reasons for revenue growth. The PCGA states that it predicts revenue growth will continue in the industry, reaching $23 billion by 2014. The full Horizons report will be revealed to PCGA members next week.

The market for PC gaming hardware is massive, according to a new report issued this week by the non-profit PC Gaming Alliance. The Horizons Hardware report claims that in 2009, the shipments for the PC gaming hardware market were over twice that of the combined shipment numbers of the Wii, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles. Consumer PCs that have a dedicated graphics card (which makes them better for PC gaming than desktops and notebooks with intergrated graphics) had sales of $54.6 billion in 2006, according to the report. It also predicts revenues from those PCs will increase to $61.3 billion by 2014.

PC users that own a rig with a discrete graphics solution total 212.6 million worldwide, according to the report. That number is predicted to go up to a whopping 322 million by 2014. Asia is still the largest segment for hardware PC gaming shipments with 33 percent, followed by Western Europe with 24 percent, the US with 22 percent and the rest of the world with 21.4 percent.

The PC Gaming Alliance has sent out a press release with a summary of their newest Horizons report on the current state of the PC gaming industry. While the full report is only available to members of the non-profit organization, the press release states that the industry generated $12.7 billion worldwide in 2008, an 18 percent increase from 2007's numbers.

The report also stated that in 2008 42 million desktop consumer PCs and 31 million notebooks shipped worldwide that could be used for PC gaming (although to what kind of level is not mentioned). By 2013, that number will increase to 59 million for desktops and 118 million for notebooks. The current install base of PCs that can be used for gaming (notebooks and desktops combined) is 228 million with the report predicting that number will climb to 600 million worldwide by 2013.

Even with the current economic crisis, the report claims "participation in PC gaming among consumers around the world continues to grow at impressive rates." Downloadable online games are getting a big boost, especially in Asia.