PC Gaming; Digital Retail

My best friend works at a Gamestop.

Gamestop is a place that appeals to the console gaming crowd, and I used to argue with my friend about PC being superior and such. [I've gotten her to agree that the FPS genre will always be better with a keyboard+mouse than any console controller, at least. I don't necessarily hate other styles on console, I just don't like the controllers.] Occasionally we end up hanging around the Gamestop while she picks up/returns a game or talks to one of the managers for some reason or another.  I've been there enough times to make an impression on a few of her co-workers.

It's a mostly positive impression, actually. Possibly due to entering the store while wearing a DBZ shirt and transformers icon necklace. I was pretty clear about my stance on PC games, however, and they seemed to think I was just misinformed. One of the managers told me that PC gaming was dying and that Steam was probably going to bust sooner rather than later.  I thought he was completely wrong, of course, but without having done any research I couldn't commit to a debate.

Most of the games I own are owned on Steam.  PC games aren't really sold in retail stores much anymore, it's almost entirely digital. Looking into any game store you'll see that the PC sections are almost non-existent; the Gamestop my friend works at has a single rack for PC games, and it's almost all World of Warcraft copies. After looking into the situation a bit, I can see why the Gamestop manager seems to think PC gaming is dying.  The strong digital retailers (Steam, Origin, etc.) apparently do not release their sale information, meaning all PC sale information is based on normal retail sales. It would make it look like PC games aren't selling, but it's only because they're being sold digitally instead.

Selling games digitally has some pretty huge advantages. Steam, for example, has huge sales around holidays and is generally cheaper than buying a console game at Gamestop normally.  A minor example it may be, but when my friend went to buy one of the Fallout: New Vegas DLCs it was $5 more expensive than the price on Steam when I got it (without any special sale going on).  Considering that Fallout: New Vegas has at least 4 majour DLCs out, the extra cost starts adding up.

Despite the sometimes lower price, digital sales earn more money for the people actually making the games. Steam takes the same retail cut that companies like Gamestop do, but the digital transaction prevents money being used on shipping games and making CDs. It is also worthy to note that used game sales are a large portion of Gamestop's business, and these sales provide absolutely no profit to the game developers. 

My point with this is not to say that console games are completely terrible and that I wish they didn't exist, but I do believe that console gaming will eventually switch to primarily digital retailing for their sales and that PC gaming is definitely not dying.  Also Steam is pretty amazing, even when randomly disconnecting me from chat several times in the same day. :|

"The illusion that PC games have shrunk in size is just that because there's a lot more digital and online gaming now…a lot more online sales, a lot of opportunity in the social space, the browser space, and the light massively multiplayer online space. I think there are different flavors of games in all the territories, but in all of them, the PC market is pretty vibrant, and I see it as a really exciting opportunity."
- Dr. Ray Muzyka, BioWare cofounder; this quote and other information found here.