Rhetorical or not; best question in the world.
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Steam breaks 7 million concurrent users, up 1m from this time last year
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
- Start date
Rhetorical or not; best question in the world.
not one personne, 7Millions.
airmangataosenai
Member
I'm just going to point out that Steam Concurrent users means little as the program is designed to start and login whenever you boot up your PC. Also anyone with any level of performance can have Steam and most people that do use it can't use it to play high end games.
Green Biker Dude
Banned
every game available on steam should have an english version. period. having japanese games only in japanese? no no. they can keep that. that's only gonna serve the japanese market and basically allow them to continue isolating themselves from the rest of the world, except using steam
AwakenedCloud
Member
Good news, but I wonder how much the steam Android app accounts for this. It defaults to stay online at all times, and I think it's capable of turning on by itself when you get a steam message or a game on your wishlist goes on sale.
MrCunningham
Member
*Sigh*
... "no exact ratio, but a clear sign of many more total users"...
You said it, not me.
Why are you still acting like I'm refuting those data points you bring up, by the way? My point has always been that the information is misleading because it implies more than it really means. You just gave me an example of someone doing something with it.
You were using it as a reason for the growth being significant after someone else said that 1 million was small.
According to the Steam hardware survey:
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
About 90% of Steam users have hardware capable of running Crysis 1 at recommended settings.
Anyway, I think sitting here and defending PC gaming is unneeded; PC gaming does and will speak for itself. PC gaming's popularity is exploding and no amount of astroturfing is going to change that.
Edit: And for those of you who are wondering how the 90% thing is possible: Prices have gone down, people, and computers aren't that hard to build. You can build this for 220 dollars and it will be able to run Bioshock Infinite on High:
Or you can just walk into any computer store and buy anything that is 400 dollars or more and it will be able to run every PC game that is out--not on Ultra, but on settings that will still look better than the PS4 and Xbox One. (And before the exclamations of "that's impossible!" arrive, note that Sony is making a profit off of the PS4; again, computer components are cheap now because we no longer live in 1986. Time has passed. Things have changed. Things are no longer as they once happened to be. You still with me, NeoGAF?)
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
About 90% of Steam users have hardware capable of running Crysis 1 at recommended settings.
Anyway, I think sitting here and defending PC gaming is unneeded; PC gaming does and will speak for itself. PC gaming's popularity is exploding and no amount of astroturfing is going to change that.
Edit: And for those of you who are wondering how the 90% thing is possible: Prices have gone down, people, and computers aren't that hard to build. You can build this for 220 dollars and it will be able to run Bioshock Infinite on High:
Or you can just walk into any computer store and buy anything that is 400 dollars or more and it will be able to run every PC game that is out--not on Ultra, but on settings that will still look better than the PS4 and Xbox One. (And before the exclamations of "that's impossible!" arrive, note that Sony is making a profit off of the PS4; again, computer components are cheap now because we no longer live in 1986. Time has passed. Things have changed. Things are no longer as they once happened to be. You still with me, NeoGAF?)
Only high end games count and users that have Steam auto login do not count? Why do negative people with all the ignorant comments even come in here if they supposedly don't care. It's because they do and they hate that one day their physical platforms will become digital in the future. Can't wait for the day to download the PSN client or XBL client on my PC or tablet.
HolyBaikal
Banned
I don't know about every year. Perhaps I haven't been paying enough attention to gaming system discussion to notice.
It seems like it is happening a lot more now than ever before. And in large part, due to things like Steam. If PC gaming isn't more popular than console gaming right now, it is certainly increasing popularity every year.
You very simply said that I'm wrong. But do you have any reasons for thinking and saying that?
I'm not saying it isn't significant. In fact, I'm making no comment on whether it is or not whatsoever
You took the concurrent users... Said that the concurrent part meant it had to be many more users as proof of significant growth when someone said just 1 million was not...
This is an example of making conclusions from the information that are not there. Since normally these are not bad conclusions to make from that sort of information and this situation happens to undo them because of how Steam works, the data is misleading
HolyBaikal
Banned
The opposite problem is true.
There are plenty of games that are only available in English so Japanese players can't play them. I don't see how it is Japan isolating themselves to want to play games in their own language.
A lot of games on Steam, even Japanese games, are English only and region locked out of Japan. Japan has a very small library of games that are available to them and aren't region locked out of their country. And Steam will never become successful in Japan if they don't have a wide variety of games that appeal to them, available in their region and language.
I never said anything about games being available in Japanese only.
With all due respect, Steam doesn't care about Japan because 1) Japanese devs are not skilled enough to make PC games and therefore cannot be an asset to Steam, and 2) The Japanese consumer base is relatively small and is no longer interested in non-mobile gaming.
Or, to keep it short: offering Japan better localization will result in a net loss for all parties involved.
Cause it was supposed to die 15 years ago.
Simple: Gaming forums attract young gamers who cannot afford (or believe they cannot afford) a gaming PC. They grow jealous of PC gaming's various offerings and so they do everything in their power to downplay it.
Shockingly, their belief system always does a complete 180 when they finally do get into PC games.
It's not expensive and it's not hard. If you can afford a console you can afford a gaming PC--and I'd argue that, because of Steam sales, PC gaming is cheaper in the end.
I want an Xbox One and Playstation 4. I'm jealous of the people who are playing Ryse right now--but do you see me going into Xbox One threads and screaming about how terrible Ryse is? No. Just because I don't currently have access to something doesn't mean I have to put it down.
HolyBaikal
Banned
As a generalization, it is true that PC gaming is more popular in the West than Japan. The West has had a bigger tradition of PC gaming than Japan. Particularly from large developers. Nintendo is largely to blame for the lack of appeal of PC gaming in Japan.
Nintendo started a trend of video gaming being associated with consoles. And Sony continued it. And now consoles are losing popularity, and handhelds and tablets are gaining in popularity.
However, PC gaming still exists as a phenomenon in Japan. Visual Novels are still being created and are very popular. MMORPGs are still very popular in Japan. Final Fantasy XIV is a very demanding PC game. As are many other popular MMORPGs in Japan. The doujin industry is as vibrant and successful as ever, and Touhou is one of the most successful gaming franchises in Japan. Touhou is similar in theme and popularity to My Little Pony in Japan. Though I would argue even more popular most likely. There are millions of pieces of fanart and millions of fans of Touhou. Comic and hobby conventions in Japan are dominated by Touhou.
There's certainly not a non-existent PC gaming audience in Japan. Also, mobile and PC gaming are becoming more alike. You can play a Steam library of games on a Windows tablet with a keyboard.
If a Japanese gamer plays Ikaruga on Steam with a Windows tablet, that is mobile gaming.
Ultrabooks are also "mobile" devices. Many of them have detactable keyboards and simply work as tablets. And ultrabooks are an emerging and very successful market. And are becoming very powerful gaming platforming. The Razer Edge is a mobile tablet device, and is a very capable gaming PC. You could play Final Fantasy XIV on it. I anticipate before too long, you'll be able to play most Steam games on a $300 tablet.
Because it means less people in their side in that stupid war between console brands I guess.
No one is angry, but when you have people claiming that it's going to take over consoles every year even though the numbers says otherwise, it's crazy talk. Shouting "but I thought PC gaming was dead" over and over again when no one with any common sense has ever said that is just stupid. It's cool to be excited about there being more people logged in to Steam, but these claims are getting out of hand. I seen some comments claiming that Steambox is going to outsell both the PS4 and Xbox One, seriously? Let's think about the people who will buy a Steambox for a moment.
PC gaming is doing amazing (LoL, WoW, Dota 2, Hearthstone, World of Tanks, etc)
Steam is growing but no one near console numbers.
Let's stop with the hyperbole?
HolyBaikal
Banned
I haven't ever heard this except for in the past 5 years or so. And every year PC gaming has been getting more popular.
More people are PC gamers than ever. And more people are making claims like this than ever.
What numbers?
i'm not sure this is it. look at minecraft and LoL, perhaps the two biggest PC games are also the two biggest games with the elementary level/teenage demographics.
it's more often the dyed in the wool console types who wield their nostalgia like an morningstar, or those who split when the xbox360 made PC-gaming lite a good option for them.
they have tied their hopes and dreams to platforms which are increasingly weighed down by compromise while the platform they abandoned is rapidly shedding its own.
Lasthope106
Member
I've seen that happen way too many times. Once you get a decent gaming rig, you understand why it is simply the best gaming machine ever created. Consoles are good, and I'm excited to see exclusives from Sony and Nintendo. However, I'm way more excited about what comes next on pc gaming because more often than not, it is the testbed of where the future is, the training ground of future AAA developers, and an embarrassment of riches when it comes to indie games, and mods.
The same reason people get angry about Justin Bieber.
Please understand that I'm talking about Steam. NOT the total gaming PC population. This does NOT include the big PC games that aren't on Steam.
How can you break down PCs...? MMO/MOBA/RTS vs browser games vs digital service games? Windows vs MAC? What are you suppose to use? Unless you want to group them all together when that clearly won't be accurate.
Green Biker Dude
Banned
the majority of games seem to be english only, with most people playing them in english. sure, there are games sometimes localized for spanish, german, french and portuguese (pal5 or whatever it's called), but that's also because it's cheaper/easier to do those translations
there is no reason to give japan a better treatment than the other regions -- the japanese market isn't that big, especially on the pc. and it has been historically really hard to crack into, for a number of reasons.
if the japanese want steam to grow, they have to be willing to play the games in english. that's how it was for every other country out there
though the games do need to be available there, so if they aren't, yeah, that's a problem
Yes, I called you out for jumping to conclusions. That has no bearing on whether they are true (only whether your logic can properly come to that conclusion).
Again, the data suggests an increase. It also is known to be at least one million increase. None of it suggests anything more.
Idling makes it useless because it creates a much greater possibility of variance in what that one million relate to. It could just one million more. That one million could be ten percent of new users.
Revenue also doesn't logically follow to a conclusion of significant growth in users because you have no way to know if the new revenue comes from people that already have Steam or new users.
Simple as that.
What do you want? What do you want to prove? I don't get it
I disagree, but I do think a push for the most common spoken languages such as English, should be an option available to all. As a digital distribution platform, it should be made possible for universal support of languages to be the norm. Of course, the cost of voice actors for such a feat could cost money, so dlc is an option. But subtitles for games should be the norm for games.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
YOU CAN'T
Weird. You quoted someone...from another thread..and replied to them...why? Out of curiosity, do you know how well multiplats sale on PC compared to consoles? Break it down to a single console if you want.
I already said what I was trying to prove. I'm showing people the reality when I see the thousands of comments saying that Steam will take over consoles every year. They're moving that goal to Steambox now.
Here
I saw a good amount of this forum but most of them around the internet. But now that I think about it, those are some of the people who go into console youtube videos/news articles when they don't play any console games and try to convert people to PC.
Also, I'm having a hard time finding any COD sales figure per platform for Black Ops 2 (is that the last one before Ghost? lol).
Kocolino67
Member
Steam brought me back to PC gaming. I was really cosy with my 360 while my 2005 PC became dusty and forgotten. But after a while I got a new laptop an it crossed my mind that I still have a steam account. One thing leads to another - I installed Steam, installed HL2, CSS and some of the few games I had. Then I bought Episode 2. I discovered TF2, the Steam Sales. Got a credit card ... and then, a wild Humble Bundle appeared. Now, +330 games and counting.
perfectsil
Member
CecilRousso
Member
I wonder if music fans fight this much about sales figures on their forums. 
Crimsonclaw111
Member
I wonder if music fans fight this much about sales figures on their forums.
Go visit PopGAF, it's a mess.
CecilRousso
Member
Do they fight about which artists that sells the most records? If so, I gotta see it.
perfectsil
Member
EA's Q2 FY2014 (ends Oct 30 2013)Platform Net Revenue
PC 274 million
X360 167 million
PS3 131 million
http://news.ea.com/press-release/company-news/electronic-arts-reports-q2-fy14-financial-results
jim-jam bongs
Member
Arguing against an assertion which is pedantic and largely peripheral to the main point isn't normal. But on internet it is.
Internet. Not even once.
Internet. Not even once.
I wonder if music fans fight this much about sales figures on their forums.
They fight, but not over sales figures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxrWuE5qC5c
NSFW
Kocolino67
Member
Kadayi
Banned
Yeah I pretty much keep steam open most of the time just because I use friends chat a lot. I only really turn it off if I'm watching films etc so I don't get disturbed by people. Saying that,. the year on year growth is certainly representative of an ever increasing audience size.
This thread started out by showing some growth in a part of Steam's usage. It wasn't that complicated nor was it in the grey area. Steam is considered to be a good quality service, more usage is..good. So I'm confused to where your resistance comes from. You are showing people reality? I don't even know what that means.. Who's saying all of these things to the point where you're getting worried that consoles are getting..defaced?
fluffydelusions
Member
thought l4d2 pc surpassed consoles?