GDC11: PC Gaming Alliance annual report published

Nonprofit firm the PC Gaming Alliance has published the preliminary part of its third annual Horizons research reports.

Prepared by research firm DFC Intelligence, the report covers the 2010 year end and details major aspects of the PC gaming industry worldwide through 2014. The full report will be shared with PCGA members a week after GDC.

Several notable findings are made in the report. Firstly, the global PC games market has shown growth in through 2010 to reach a record $16.2bn in value. This was a growth of 20 per cent on 2009. None of the geographical market segments tracked showed a decline in 2010 in PC game revenue.

As well as this, China continued to be the largest and fastest growing market for PC games with a record 2010 revenue of $4.8 billion. Game markets in Korea, Japan, the US, UK and Germany also all showed growth in 2010. Together these markets increased revenue by 19 per cent in 2010 to $7.3 billion.

“The spotlight has definitely shifted back to the PC game market. A few of the biggest factors fueling this movement are innovative business models making games more accessible with digital distribution, free to play, and online; along with game formats embracing the shifts occurring in the evolution of the PC ecosystem to remain more profitable,” said PCGA president and Intel analyst Matt Ployhar.

"Large game publishers are looking at digital revenue on the PC game platform as one of their key areas of growth and it is clear that the performance of the PC game market in 2010 is resulting in substantial investment money flowing into the PC game business."

The report concluded that the PC game business will grow at a pace of 9 per cent CAGR to $23 billion by 2014. Digital distribution is singled out as the likely reason for this.

"Right now, outside of direct publisher digital distribution, Valve’s Steam service dominates delivery of large client size games,” said DFC analyst David Cole.

“However, this is likely to change as other premium players enter the market for digital distribution.”

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