PC gaming market actually grew 8 percent in 2012

A study from the PC Gaming Alliance, the PC gaming market saw an overall growth of 8 percent in 2012 to a market value of $20 billion. Interestingly, despite various claims that PC gaming is dead, the market grew 90 percent over the past five years. The alliance claims there are over a billion PC gamers and notes China now accounts for 34 percent of PC gaming revenue.

The PC Gaming Alliance, a not-for-profit industry consortium, is pleased to announce that yesterday in San Francisco they delivered annual custom research results to the PCGA members, and that they shared portions of these findings with the press at a subsequent news conference. In private sessions yesterday, the PCGA Board of Directors and PCGA Members met with market research firms DFC Intelligence and JPR Research. After five years of producing high quality “PCGA Horizon Reports,” PCGA has doubled their analyst report content and have released the first annual “PCGA Pinnacle Report” featuring the work of these two highly-respected analyst firms. Released yearly, the PCGA Horizons report enables the PCGAs members to better target their products and plan their product lifecycles based on the information in the report and from the analysts.

“The exclusive PCGA Pinnacle Reports are a keystone in our research,” said George Hood, North America Regional Sales of Arxan. “The truly independent nature of the PCGA reports complements the findings of our internal analysts. Our analysts tend to focus on our specific market areas, while the PCGA reports give us a company external view of the industry.”

These timely reports are exclusive to PCGA members and encompass all major aspects of the PC gaming hardware and software industry worldwide for 2012 through 2016. Contained in the report: all facets of gaming software and hardware, player spending habits, replacement cycles and system preferences. The reports also cover various market growths and examine which markets and sales venues will be most profitable in the coming years. While only PCGA members receive the full reports, please see “Appendix A: Software” and “Appendix B: Hardware” at the end of this press release for portions of market information that the PCGA members chose to share with the public.

“The PC Gaming industry showed strong overall growth of 8% in 2012, partly as a result of the Chinese market gaining traction in the $20 billion global market with record revenues of $6.8 billion,” said DFC analyst David Cole. “In spite of media focus on mobile games and struggling social network games, there are now over 1 billion PC gamers worldwide and that number will continue to grow as more PCs connect online. The ‘PCGA Pinnacle Report for Software’ describes this in close detail.”

“PCGA membership allows companies to influence and take advantage of the industry in subtle and not so subtle ways that non-members can’t” said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of the Tiburon CA based market research firm Jon Peddie Research. “By working together, PCGA members exert a steady force in driving the ultimate gaming experience to new heights. Armed with the analysis done by JPR in the ‘PCGA Pinnacle Report for Hardware’ they are better informed for their next product cycle. If you’re not a PCGA member, you’re missing out on key tools.”

The PC Gaming Alliance is also pleased to announce that significant work has advanced on the “PC Gaming Certification and Logo Program” for PC Gaming, but recognizes that much work remains to be done and invites industry participation from any company that wants to join and positively influence the next generation certifications.

“Because market conditions change, the PCGA certification program will remain under continual development to address specific industry challenges. Retail boxes are disappearing, and recommended system requirements often confuse consumers more than they help,” said Matt Ployhar, PCGA President and analyst at Intel. “Consumers are now faced with the daunting task of determining if their new Tablets and All-in-Ones (AiO) are x86 based, will they support DirectX, OpenGL and/or WebGL, and the various operating systems their favorite PC game will play? PCGA members will be the force for good that will define, develop and deploy the next generation of certifications to help and assist Developers and Consumers alike to navigate these issues.”

“We are experiencing a shift in the gaming industry.” Said Erik Noreke, executive director of the PCGA, “The power of the latest portable PC hardware is allowing gamers for the first time to bring the full gaming experience with them on the road. They are no longer confined to their home for game play. The traditional desktop is no longer the gaming platform of choice as we are seeing more and more laptops with powerful GPUs and high end audio systems. PC gaming is going mobile.”

“Effective conformance measures are an essential piece of the PC gaming ecosystem” said Brad Craig, Director at PCGA Member Razer. “Developing state-of-the-art tools for measuring the next generation of PC Gaming hardware will greatly assist the industry to deliver products that are powerful, light and efficient and can handle the demands of next-generation gamers.”

“PC Gaming has rapid advancements in technology, necessitating a performance measurement and rating system that is flexible enough to serve the needs users and developers,” said Christian Svensson, Corporate Officer/SVP at Capcom USA. “PCGA members are facing the challenge head on and we look forward to having a system that will help ensure a compelling experience is delivered to PC Gamers.”