The $2000 cost of a PC isn't even really the biggest problem. Its the PhD in computer engineering you need to be able to even run a game.
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Steam Concurrent Users Passes 8 Million
- Thread starter Nzyme32
- Start date
1st Course
Member
Very common marketing tactic.
I really hate when they do this.
which one are you talking about?
Eteric Rice
Member
This might have been a problem 10 years ago, but now it's usually not a problem.
Cizeta-Moroder
Banned
Well, sure, when it's the only way to play many games. I don't see what's to celebrate.
It's like celebrating the growth of China's communist party.
It's like celebrating the growth of China's communist party.
I like how there are people who are "innocently" coming in hear saying, "Oh, but my account is always on and I haven't played it since 2004" type crap just to slyly downplay the significance of this.
The majority of the people who aren't in game just leave the client on while they're at work or school. Why log off the client?
Then people who say they don't have a Steam account but it logs then in on their computer... are pretty much liars since you have to have an account to get past the log in screen.
The majority of the people who aren't in game just leave the client on while they're at work or school. Why log off the client?
Then people who say they don't have a Steam account but it logs then in on their computer... are pretty much liars since you have to have an account to get past the log in screen.
Alex
Member
When I go from scratch I usually seem to hit around ~800ish. Last time I built I pulled down some really good deals and wound up with a 3570k, 770 4GB, water cooling, 16GB of ram and a 256 samsung SSD for a little over 900.I never understand why this is supposed to matter though, trying to hit console pricing. I don't want console pricing, I want good hardware and all of the perks that come with it. When I buy a good PC I'm trying to get away from iffy hardware and the limitations of console software.
You can't put a price on certain perks anyway. If they sold a Playstation 4 with extra hardware that allowed windowed modes and alt-tab (or whatever!) between active software for double the price I'd buy that one.
Of course it is. Doesn't make it right.
Lmao
SteveWinwood
Member
You guys know you can change the y axis on a graph and it not be the end of the world right?
Wow, it is like reading a youtube comment
the ones that people make fun of in a well known subreddit
It does not take "at least $2000 to enjoy PC gaming"!
I priced out a computer that is very close to mine at $931 on newegg (add $10 - $20 for a copy of Windows on reddit software swap, $50ish for a keyboard and mouse and $200 if you do not want to use a TV and thus need a monitor)!
This is also not not some barely faster than a console PC, it would stomp a PS4 into the ground!
To also not only claim that MOBAs and MMOs are the only games that are popular on PC (they are not) but to then claim that LoL and WoW are inflating the Steam numbers, when BOTH GAMES DO NOT USE IT just shows how ignorant you are!
That is 30 day active steam users - valve have defined it at dev days as users that have at least one owned game and have logged in within the 30 days.
Sony have touted 110 million and MS have used 41 million but these are not following the monthly active accounts. In fact they remain undefined. Also note that these stats are out dated at this point. If the numbers were greater than the competition in both active and total account numbers, you can be sure they would proclaim it from the roof tops as they used to. In fact they both used to use the active user metric, but have now stopped. Similarly origin have switched from active/total accounts to total instals metric, and now to simply staying quiet about it.
While Valve haven't made all created account numbers public, ArsTechnica's crawler indicates 186 million accounts total, which would put it at the top of the pile in both regards concerning traditional gaming.
However, Android has probably got the biggest growth. I watched their Google I/O talks, and they claim 1 billion 30 day active users but on the gaming side claim 100 million new users of their Google Play Games service in just the past 6 months! So I'd say android and probably iOS dwarf the regular gaming accounts now.
So summary:
Google Play Games: 100 million - in 6 months (June 2014)
Steam: 75 million - 30 day active users (Jan 2014) / 186 million total (Arstechnica Crawler estimate April 2014) [65 million 30 day active Oct 2013]
PSN: 110 million accounts (undefined - July 2013)
Xbox Live: 48 million accounts (undefined - may 2013)
Edit: Polygon have cited the thread; neogaf should get press badges for e3 back
The problem with jokes in a thread like that is that there are a lot of people who haven't been involved in PC gaming in years when $2000 for a pretty decent gaming rig was more like just a bit of an exaggeration rather than an lol type comment. Gotta remember last gen lasted nearly a decade. I, like a lot of people I imagine, segued from a mix of PC/console gaming to almost exclusively console gaming last gen simply because PC gaming around 2005 was just terrible with absurdly invasive DRM on the software side and companies somehow thinking stating "A graphics card hasn't yet been made that can run this baby on Ultra" was some sort of a brag on the hardware side.
The current gen consoles have sold more than 10million units combined. If you surveyed those guys on the price
erformance to get similar rigs setup with a PC, or stuff regarding the supposed complexity of PC gaming I think the results would be pretty amusing. Well or sad, depending on how you look at it.
That doesn't make it anecdotal evidence. They used steam. That is exactly what the concurrent users metric measures. Furthermore, steam does not start automatically anymore by default. This has been the case for quite a few years. The OP also lists differences in active users per month and account numbers total. Account numbers total is a poor metric as it often does not correlate to growth. Eg many people make duplicate accounts for different regions or do not even use a service anymore
General_Frags
Member
Edit: Polygon have cited the thread; neogaf should get press badges for e3 back
Ha ha ha, oh lol! How low have Polygon fallen....
CrunchyFrog
Member
In my 16+ years of PC gaming I've never built a computer myself and never will; you can get a decent custom built computer for less than 1000 easy. Always hated people assuming you needed to spend anything over 1000 dollars on a gaming PC. It's the people that walk into Best Buy and spend far too much on computers that make pre-built computers look bad. You can find deals on Dell or other makers on custom built machines and build something with a good warranty without breaking the bank. The "building it yourself" idea is great, but not everyone is comfortable doing things like that (hell, I can't even built a bookshelf) nor do they have to. I'm not skittish about sticking in more ram or a video card, but building a computer from a barebones kit or whatnot is not going to ever happen for me. I do admit that if one is motivated enough they can save a good chunk of money by building it themselves, I'm just not a fan of the exceptionalism/elitism that comes from that camp. (though the PC gaming is too expensive crowd is the absolute worst-- next to console only gamers
*scratches eyes out* for god's sake man at least try for a toshiba or something over the cow. Preferably go for Asus/Lenovo, but god the parts quality and upgrdeability of Dells is just awful.
Garrett Hawke
Member
Lots of people in this thread equating "users" to "people who buy legit games from Steam". Pirates can use Steam too.
Yeah, it should be clear that Steam is not the be all end all of PC gaming. If you were to start including concurrent players from all those other games/services, the numbers would dwarf steam and some other platforms combined
The more relevant growth metric would be to look at concurrent users on the last day of the Steam Summer sale 2013. Obviously not exactly apples to apples due to differing calendar dates but would be the best proxy of its Y/Y growth.
8M in Summer vs. 7.5M in Winter is already ~14% annualized growth, it's probably pretty impressive regardless.
8M in Summer vs. 7.5M in Winter is already ~14% annualized growth, it's probably pretty impressive regardless.
Yes but LoL and, if we look at even Battle.net, they are also not representative of all PC gaming. Even Origin/Uplay have third party stuff on them.