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[SprachBrooks]

When he said 'to be completely honest with you' I thought he would just be candid and say they're part of the Xbone's USP and just leave it at that. That'd make it more definitive — what he ended up doing is basically implying they'll eventually come to PC post-Xbone release.

 

[SparkTR]

This is BF4 right now:
http://bf4stats.com/

PS3 has 11k players, PC 10k, PS4 almost 20k (twice a many players as PC version), only XBO and 360 have less players than PC versions.

And BF3:
http://bf3stats.com/
PC 3631
PS3 3653
360 1156

I almost find it funny that CS:GO has more concurrent players than every version of Battlefield on every platform combined these days, times like three. Wouldn't have imaged that a year and a half ago. I'd imagine going by concurrent players numbers, that would have to be the most popular online shooter outside of China.

Also it's very early in the day in Europe right now, that's when PC numbers usually go up on those lists.

 

[Slavik81]

You mean how Vulkan will still be used on Windows 10, and not requiring SteamOS? Is it better than DX12?

I don't think it's meaningfully different from a technical standpoint. The big difference is that Vulkan is cross-platform and DX12 is not.

Vulkan should run on Windows Vista, 7, 10, Linux and Android. Apple platforms (iOS, OSX) are the only major ones I know of without announced support. Well, and consoles, though PS4 may be getting Vulkan support.

Especially if Apple comes around, I think Vulkan might get a lot of use. But, that being said, to many developers, it's just a back-end for UE4 or Unity. DX12 will probably be the default on Windows 10, but not the only viable option.

 

[Qassim]

This is BF4 right now:
http://bf4stats.com/

PS3 has 11k players, PC 10k, PS4 almost 20k (twice a many players as PC version), only XBO and 360 have less players than PC versions.

And BF3:
http://bf3stats.com/
PC 3631
PS3 3653
360 1156

PC's peak is generally Europe peak time, at the moment its 9-10am in Europe. During the peak periods of BF4 (for all systems) the PC was more than competitive. Look at 24 hour peak:

May 2014:

October 6th 2014:

October 7th 2014:

October 28th 2014:

November 2nd 2014:

December 16th 2014:

February 2nd 2015:

 

[Qassim]

As of the last earnings call from take two - GTA V had sold 2.5 million copies on PC (all methods) as part of 52 million copies sold total. .

Where are you getting that number from? I'm fairly sure they didn't disclose the platform split, just the new sales figures. I find it difficult to believe that 0 copies were sold outside of Steam, because it has been more than 2.5 million (currently 2.8) alone on Steam, ignoring the other non-steam versions for a while now.

My post in another thread:

Timeline of GTAV recent sales:

May 2014 - 33 million
November 2014 - PS4/XBO version releases
February 2015 - 45 million
April 2015 - PC version releases
May 2015 - 52 million
August 2015 - 54 million

I think it'd be a very reasonable assumption that the PC version has sold at least 5 million of the 9 million copies sold since February, as that was the only new version released of it in that time frame. But personally, I would be far from surprised if the non-Steam version had sold more than the Steam version. The Steam version is full priced and hasn't had any real sales, it was often the most expensive option to buy the game. Buying the game physically and from other key sellers was a cheaper option, sometimes by a significant margin.

 

[Plywood]

What games won't work on PC? There are none.

Ignoring the PR, it's about balancing:

What games could use the extra sales boost by being on PC

vs.

What games will attract people into purchasing an Xbox One

edit:

oh jesus, this got a lot of pages, my comment was probably already covered.

 

[GhostTrick]

I don't believe Halo 1 / GoW / sold well on PC compared to consoles. In news that should surprise no one; folks who buy dedicated game machine likely to purchase games for said dedicated machines. :-D.

I think the highest end sales you'll get on PC for a game that is also on consoles simultaneously (that is a AAA / $60 game) is probably in the 2-2.5 million games sold barring crazy discount sales. (Aka GTA V numbers). Witcher 3 was at 1.3 million, and that's as best case scenario for PC as a multiplatform game can get in terms of dev support.

I am starting to think genre might be a bigger determination though; Alan wake as an example.

I don't believe Halo 1 and GoW were on Steam. You want to know why they didn't sold well ? Because PC gaming landscape wasn't the same at all. Physical only, no Steam version. Your knowledge on the platform is terribly outdated.

By the way:
Bioshock Infinite, Dark Souls, Tomb Raider, Borderlands 2, Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas... the list could go over and over... and these are games beyond 2-3 millions. Skyrim is even 9 millions.

Your comparisons are soooo wroooong. First of all, why do you count "consoles" as one platform ? Are you aware that consoles aren't made by "Mr Console Company" but by two different companies ? While PC sales count as one platform though ? When you developp a console game, there's no magical "one console build working on all consoles".

Take any recent release, and you'll see that Steam sales represent a good part of these sales. Not only accounting that the revenue at the same price on Steam (which is the main pc media) compared to physical release (which is the main console media) is at least twice higher.

 

[Hektor]

As of the last earnings call from take two - GTA V had sold 2.5 million copies on PC (all methods) as part of 52 million copies sold total. To put that 50 million in context; that is close to the combined lifetime steam sales of CS:GO (15.2), HL2 (9), L4D2 (12.6), portal 1 (8.5) and portal 2 (7). Those are the 5 highest non F2P games in Valve's history post Steam.

You do realize tho, that GTAV released on pc 2 years after the consoleversion?
Comparing sales between plattforms doesnt prove anything about the "strength" of those, if one horse in the race is deliberatly gimped.

 

[Cybit]

Your link there was relating to console sales, "approximately four out of every five copies of Battlefield Hardline sold for consoles were for Xbox One or PlayStation 4". It makes no mention of PC anywhere. Do you have any data on how the GTAV PC release compared to the next-gen versions in sales? Because I'd imagine that's a much better number to compare considering the release scheduled and system requirements, the last gen version never saw the light of day for PC, only the next-gen version. Also it's numbers are at 2.8m on Steam with an undisclosed number for retail these days, not 2.5m.

Also do we even have recent Destiny sales numbers? I swear I've never seen a company go through so much linguistic gymnastics to avoid talking about sales in regards to Destiny. Why so vague?

By process of elimination; we know less than 20% of hardline sales are PC. :-D

As for GTA V; it's from the take two reports. Its unclear as to how they are talking about PC; and different news sites are saying different things. (Some are saying 2.5 million on steam alone, some saying PC total).

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/gta-v-sold-52-million-copies-across-all-platforms/

Same game across different platforms is a fallacious argument. It's the same game. You could argue that making the game better for PC by updating graphics and performance could have increased sales as well.

Activision is being insanely vague with destiny. Not sure why.

 

[GhostTrick]

By process of elimination; we know less than 20% of hardline sales are PC. :-D

As for GTA V; it's from the take two reports.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/gta-v-sold-52-million-copies-across-all-platforms/

Same game across different platforms is a fallacious argument. It's the same game. You could argue that making the game better for PC by updating graphics and performance could have increased sales as well.

And you know that Hardline is exclusive to Origins ?
By the way, are you aware that GTAV was released nearly 2 years ago on PS360 and nearly 10 months ago on PS4/One ? PC Release isn't even 4 months old. Yup, wrong comparison again. Speaking of which, these 2,8M copies sold on Steam at full price has a twice higher revenue than console versions sold physically. If you're point is to tell PC/Steam isn't viable for AAA release, I'm just going to ask the following: Where have you been in the last 5 years ?

Also come on... did you even read your own link for Battlefield Hardlines ?
"EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said, "approximately four out of every five copies of Battlefield Hardline sold for consoles were for Xbox One or PlayStation 4,""

That means 80% of CONSOLE sales were for PS4/One. Even though 20% was PC sales... in what world 20% for one platform is bad ? And since when console is ONE plateform ?

 

[Qassim]

By process of elimination; we know less than 20% of hardline sales are PC. :-D

As for GTA V; it's from the take two reports.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/gta-v-sold-52-million-copies-across-all-platforms/

Same game across different platforms is a fallacious argument. It's the same game. You could argue that making the game better for PC by updating graphics and performance could have increased sales as well.

Unfortunately we don’t have any breakdown for how these monstrous sales split up across the five platforms.

Did you read the article?

Also, the game was released:

2 years after the original release
After 4 other platforms had already got it.

Lots of people who really wanted to play the game probably already bought it on the consoles. I know I did.

 

[Hektor]

By process of elimination; we know less than 20% of hardline sales are PC. :-D

Read the article you posted. It states word for word that 80% of all console sales happend on nextgen consoles.

Not 80% of all sales, 80% of all console sales.

 

[SparkTR]

By process of elimination; we know less than 20% of hardline sales are PC. :-D

As for GTA V; it's from the take two reports.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/news/gta-v-sold-52-million-copies-across-all-platforms/

Same game across different platforms is a fallacious argument. It's the same game. You could argue that making the game better for PC by updating graphics and performance could have increased sales as well.

Sure it's the same game, but released two and half years later with next-gen level system requirements. If the other posters data is correct the PC sales are very competitive with next-gen version sales. Which makes sense considering that it's the same version with a similar release scheduled and system requirements.

Can you walk me through that process of elimination? As far as I can tell we have no number of Hardlines PC sales. The Gamespot article has absolutely no info on that. I don't get your thought process there.

 

[EloKa]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-reveals-80-percent-of-battlefield-hardline-sale/1100-6427125/

I'll just leave that there.

And you should stop there as well. Hardline is officially not a part of the Battlefield franchise. But good job in finding exactly one wrong example.
I was talking about the Battlefield franchise, you're talking of a single spin-off game that doesn't belong to the series. good job.
Edit: also your post says nothing about how many games were sold on consoles and how many were sold on PC. "but mah reeeeding skills bruuuh" /s

PS: Left 4 dead 1 console sold close to equally as their steam counterpart did. /kappa /basedGaben

So L4D sold 3.7 millionen on consoles? dare to bring um stats of consoles or is this just a random "BUT I FEEL SO!" thing again?

As of the last earnings call from take two - GTA V had sold 2.5 million copies on PC (all methods) as part of 52 million copies sold total. To put that 50 million in context; that is close to the combined lifetime steam sales of CS:GO (15.2), HL2 (9), L4D2 (12.6), portal 1 (8.5) and portal 2 (7). Those are the 5 highest non F2P games in Valve's history post Steam.

Yeah, because GTA is a famous PC franchise /s. okay, good job in finding 2 examples that have nothing to do with your point.

 

[GhostTrick]

And you should stop there as well. Hardline is officially not a part of the Battlefield franchise. But good job in finding exactly one wrong example.
I was talking about the Battlefield franchise, you're talking of a single spin-off game that doesn't belong to the series. good job.

So L4D sold 3.7 millionen on consoles? dare to bring um stats of consoles or is this just a random "BUT I FEEL SO!" thing again?


Yeah, because GTA is a famous PC franchise /s. okay, good job in finding 2 examples that have nothing to do with your point.

Not only these exemples are wrong, but they make no sense.
The Hardline exemple is about console sales only. As for GTAV, the release date is vastly different. Keeps sticking to the 2M-2,5M figure when the Steam sales are already at 2,8M, not counting other digital versions/physical version.

 

[Cybit]

And you know that Hardline is exclusive to Origins ?
By the way, are you aware that GTAV was released nearly 2 years ago on PS360 and nearly 10 months ago on PS4/One ? PC Release isn't even 4 months old. Yup, wrong comparison again. Speaking of which, these 2,8M copies sold on Steam at full price has a twice higher revenue than console versions sold physically. If you're point is to tell PC/Steam isn't viable for AAA release, I'm just going to ask the following: Where have you been in the last 5 years ?

Also come on... did you even read your own link for Battlefield Hardlines ?
"EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen said, "approximately four out of every five copies of Battlefield Hardline sold for consoles were for Xbox One or PlayStation 4,""

That means 80% of CONSOLE sales were for PS4/One. Even though 20% was PC sales... in what world 20% for one platform is bad ? And since when console is ONE plateform ?

Did you read the article?

Also, the game was released:

2 years after the original release
After 4 other platforms had already got it.

Lots of people who really wanted to play the game probably already bought it on the consoles. I know I did.

Read the article you posted. It states word for word that 80% of all console sales happend on nextgen consoles.

Not 80% of all sales, 80% of all console sales.

Holy crap; you guys are right, I totally missed the consoles only parts of those sales. <failboat>

 

[Chobel]

I think it's just as likely he wanted them to prioritize the xbone version so it could make it's holiday release and worry about the PC port after.

Doesn't make any sense, SE could just outsource PC version development like they usually do, heck I bet the delayed PC port will be outsourced.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Doesn't make any sense, SE could just outsource PC version development like they usually do, heck I bet the delayed PC port will be outsourced.

Maybe they saw the backlash for other outsourced PC games and decided to let it cook in the oven for a little longer?

I do agree it's a little suspect.

 

[Qassim]

Maybe they saw the backlash for other outsourced PC games and decided to let it cook in the oven for a little longer?

I do agree it's a little suspect.

Eh, it's important to remember that when SE outsource their PC games, it's usually a good thing. Because they use Nixxes, easily one of the best PC port studios. In this case, I think it's generally hoped that the PC version of the next Tomb Raider IS outsourced

 

[SparkTR]

Eh, it's important to remember that when SE outsource their PC games, it's usually a good thing. Because they use Nixxes, easily one of the best PC port studios. In this case, I think it's generally hoped that the PC version of the next Tomb Raider IS outsourced

Nixxes is only one studio and highly sought after at that. They're already doing RotTR for 360 and Mankind Divided for PC, so I imagine they're pretty busy. Maybe they're scheduled to jump on the PC version after it releases on 360?

 

[GhostTrick]

Eh, it's important to remember that when SE outsource their PC games, it's usually a good thing. Because they use Nixxes, easily one of the best PC port studios. In this case, I think it's generally hoped that the PC version of the next Tomb Raider IS outsourced

Basically this. People are indeed HOPING TR is outsourced to Nixxes.

 

[EloKa]

Not only these exemples are wrong, but they make no sense.
The Hardline exemple is about console sales only. As for GTAV, the release date is vastly different. Keeps sticking to the 2M-2,5M figure when the Steam sales are already at 2,8M, not counting other digital versions/physical version.

yeah ... I'm currently just waiting for some argument like:
"Sunset Overdrive sold 100% on Xbox One! NOT A SINGLE COPY ON PC! #PC #Is #Dead"

 

[Kezen]

Eh, it's important to remember that when SE outsource their PC games, it's usually a good thing. Because they use Nixxes, easily one of the best PC port studios. In this case, I think it's generally hoped that the PC version of the next Tomb Raider IS outsourced

Nixxes is only one studio and highly sought after at that. They're already doing RotTR for 360 and Mankind Divided for PC, so I imagine they're pretty busy. Maybe they're scheduled to jump on the PC version after it releases on 360?

The wording is not very clear but :

Who is developing the PC and PlayStation 4 versions of Rise of the Tomb Raider?

A: Crystal Dynamics will lead the development on both versions.

Taken from the official FAQ :
http://forums.eu.square-enix.com/showthread.php?t=152129

 

[SparkTR]

Honestly PC sales numbers aren't exactly a mystery anymore with SteamSpy around. EA and some retail-heavy stuff are still vague but so much data is out there I don't see how anyone can say PC sales for multiplatform or exclusive games are negligible or niche or worthless these days. It's just outdated thinking there with the information we have around us.

I mean, it may have been true in 2006 when Oblivion sold around 1/10th of its sales on PC, but 8 years later when Skyrim arguably sold the most on PC nobody could say the landscape hasn't changed.

The wording is not very clear but :

Taken from the official FAQ :
http://forums.eu.square-enix.com/showthread.php?t=152129

That's good to hear.

 

[Spirited]

Basically this. People are indeed HOPING TR is outsourced to Nixxes.

Yeah, most people would like a port by nixxes more than a port to PC by CD.

Because Nixxes is really good at what they do, might be why they are doing a lot of stuff for SE already.

Honestly PC sales numbers aren't exactly a mystery anymore with SteamSpy around. EA and some retail-heavy stuff are still vague but so much data is out there I don't see how anyone can say PC sales for multiplatform or exclusive games are negligible or niche or worthless these days. It's just outdated thinking there with the information we have around us.

Even Japanese companies seems to begin understanding this, they are a bit behind on it but they're getting there fast.

 

[RoadHazard]

Read: If all Xbox One games are also on PC...why buy an Xbox One? I said we'd support PC gaming more and we will, look at Windows 10. Please understand.

Yeah, all of this is making it sound like it will soon be pointless to own an XBO if you've got a decent PC.

 

[Kezen]

That's good to hear.

I don't know. Nixxes ports have been absolutely fantastic from my experience.
I'm kind of bummed they apparently aren't in charge of the PC version.

I hope AMD is involved though, their partnership on the last TR was very fruitful.

 

[derFeef]

Not sure where the problem is. Where they see fit, it will be both platforms. Big Xbox guns will stay console exclusive. If they want some more sales they will port them to PC eventually I am pretty sure.

 

[Qassim]

The wording is not very clear but :

Taken from the official FAQ :
http://forums.eu.square-enix.com/showthread.php?t=152129

"Will lead the development" leaves it open for another studio to be doing the heavy work whilst Crystal Dynamics leads the direction. I wouldn't be surprised if they had said the same thing for the other games they had Nixxes do. Valve lead development of the initial version of CSGO but was still outsourced to Hidden Path, for example.

 

[RoadHazard]

I'm still not sure if people are serious when they make these comments. Do people seriously believe the only reason people buy consoles is because they have to for certain exclusive games and (and by extension) that if no exclusive games existed for consoles then no one would play games on consoles?

Well, no, but all of this is making a very good case (if you've got a decent PC) for the PC + PS4 combo and a very bad one for PC + XBO. Like, why would you go that way?

 

[SparkTR]

Well, no, but all of this is making a very good case (if you've got a decent PC) for the PC + PS4 combo and a very bad one for PC + XBO. Like, why would you go that way?

Well the idea there with Microsoft's new direction is that all your devices and accounts and products are connected. So there'll be tangible benefits to buy a Microsoft console to compliment your Windows 10 PC (and vice versa), and that's separate from exclusives. Stuff like crossbuy, crossplay, a single account, game streaming and I assume more in the future.

That's not to say I want or expect them to port stuff overnight, I'd much rather they look into purely PC stuff like Phil Spencer suggests.

 

[Cybit]

Yeah it's late and I'm just reading shit flat out wrong. The L4D x360 numbers are for the combined series so I am totally off on that as well - my apologies on that one as well - it appears I am the one failing the reading comprehension and logic skills.

As for GTA V - the 2.5 million is an estimate by Take-Two during the timing of their quarterly reports (when they announced 52 million total) as opposed to steamspy which is up to more modern date. Some sites are saying the 2.5 million is for steamspy at the time, some sites are saying it is total PC sales.


Steamspy says bioshock infinite has 3.7 million steam owners currently; per Wikipedia may 2015 sales of bioshock infinite total were 11 million

Dark Souls
Steamspy says 2 million currently; in April 2013 the dev said 2.37 million total - not sure how it aged (and apparently dark souls was a big gfwl game - did those purchases go over?)

Tomb Raider - 3.3m on Steamspy; 8.5m total on April 2015 (steam summer sale target or no? Xbox might have had surge due to sale iirc)

Borderlands 2 - Steamspy unreliable due to free weekend alas.

Skyrim - one I was most surprised by - Steamspy says also unreliable due to free weekend but if it was 9 million as of now, June 2013 total sales were 20 million. I thought PC would be higher. Game is so much better on steam.

No total sales data for fallout Vegas it seems. D

 

[Qassim]

As for GTA V - the 2.5 million is an estimate by Take-Two during the timing of their quarterly reports (when they announced 52 million total) as opposed to steamspy which is up to more modern date. Some sites are saying the 2.5 million is for steamspy at the time, some sites are saying it is total PC sales.

Did Take-Two legitimately estimate 2.5m? Have you got a link for that? When Take-Two released that 52m figure, the game had already sold more than that on Steam alone.

But what about the rest of the figures? The game was most expensive on Steam and the only way to get the Steam version was via Steam itself. That ignores all the RSC and physical versions of the game and as we've seen from The Witcher 3, it's not out of the question for a game to sell more outside of Steam than on Steam.

I'll repost my take from earlier in the thread again:

Timeline of GTAV recent sales:

May 2014 - 33 million
November 2014 - PS4/XBO version releases
February 2015 - 45 million
April 2015 - PC version releases
May 2015 - 52 million
August 2015 - 54 million

I think it'd be a very reasonable assumption that the PC version has sold at least 5 million of the 9 million copies sold since February, as that was the only new version released of it in that time frame. But personally, I would be far from surprised if the non-Steam version had sold more than the Steam version. The Steam version is full priced and hasn't had any real sales, it was often the most expensive option to buy the game. Buying the game physically and from other key sellers was a cheaper option, sometimes by a significant margin.

 

[RoadHazard]

Well the idea there with Microsoft's new direction is that all your devices and accounts and products are connected. So there'll be tangible benefits to buy a Microsoft console to compliment your Windows 10 PC (and vice versa), and that's separate from exclusives. Stuff like crossbuy, crossplay, a single account, game streaming and I assume more in the future.

That's not to say I want or expect them to port stuff overnight, I'd much rather they look into purely PC stuff like Phil Spencer suggests.

But why even get the XBO if your PC can already do everything it can and play all its games (more or less)? Just for convenience, so you don't have to plug your PC into your TV and hook up a controller?

 

[SparkTR]

Yeah it's late and I'm just reading shit flat out wrong. The L4D x360 numbers are for the combined series so I am totally off on that as well - my apologies on that one as well - it appears I am the one failing the reading comprehension and logic skills.

As for GTA V - the 2.5 million is an estimate by Take-Two during the timing of their quarterly reports (when they announced 52 million total) as opposed to steamspy which is up to more modern date. Some sites are saying the 2.5 million is for steamspy at the time, some sites are saying it is total PC sales.


Steamspy says bioshock infinite has 3.7 million steam owners currently; per Wikipedia may 2015 sales of bioshock infinite total were 11 million

Dark Souls
Steamspy says 2 million currently; in April 2013 the dev said 2.37 million total - not sure how it aged (and apparently dark souls was a big gfwl game - did those purchases go over?)

Tomb Raider - 3.3m on Steamspy; 8.5m total on April 2015 (steam summer sale target or no? Xbox might have had surge due to sale iirc)

Borderlands 2 - Steamspy unreliable due to free weekend alas.

Skyrim - one I was most surprised by - Steamspy says also unreliable due to free weekend but if it was 9 million as of now, June 2013 total sales were 20 million. I thought PC would be higher. Game is so much better on steam.

No total sales data for fallout Vegas it seems. D

The Skyrim 20m data was actually from Jan 2014 if I recall. Also the most accurate Borderlands 2 split numbers we have before remasters and free wekkends come from April 2014, where it sold 7.5m copies all up with the PC version accounting for 3.1m of those sales.

I also believe every Dark Souls version activated on Steam. There's updated sales numbers out there, there was a thread here about it.

 

[Glomby]

But why even get the XBO if your PC can already do everything it can and play all its games (more or less)? Just for convenience, so you don't have to plug your PC into your TV and hook up a controller?

And on top of that if you already have a gaming PC, but you wanna get a console why would you get an Xbox which can only play inferior versions of your PC games? Wouldn't you get a Playstation or Nintendo Console 100% of the time, because you would actually gain access to more games?

I don't see how MS can win anything with this strategie (other than Win10 sales). No matter how you look at it, they will lose the console war for sure.

If anything the Xbox needs more exclusives than ever and MS has to make sure people know none will ever come to another platform. Right now I would go so far and say an Xbox exclusive has always less value than a Sony exclusive, simply because there is a possibility that it could get a PC release and people would rather get a PS4 because there is no chance PS4 games make it to PC ever (the same obviously goes for Nintendo).

 

[SparkTR]

But why even get the XBO if your PC can already do everything it can and play all its games (more or less)? Just for convenience, so you don't have to plug your PC into your TV and hook up a controller?

Maybe as enthusiasts gamers it doesn't appeal much to us, but it's definitely a value add Microsoft is betting heavily on going into the future. And like I said, I have no idea how it's going to be handled or approached by the Xbox division going into the long term. The same reason why people only buy Apple products and have Apple accounts I imagine, it's all about the ecosystem, and those people definitely would not be on a forum like this to give their perspective.

 

[GhostTrick]

Yeah it's late and I'm just reading shit flat out wrong. The L4D x360 numbers are for the combined series so I am totally off on that as well - my apologies on that one as well - it appears I am the one failing the reading comprehension and logic skills.

As for GTA V - the 2.5 million is an estimate by Take-Two during the timing of their quarterly reports (when they announced 52 million total) as opposed to steamspy which is up to more modern date. Some sites are saying the 2.5 million is for steamspy at the time, some sites are saying it is total PC sales.


Steamspy says bioshock infinite has 3.7 million steam owners currently; per Wikipedia may 2015 sales of bioshock infinite total were 11 million

Dark Souls
Steamspy says 2 million currently; in April 2013 the dev said 2.37 million total - not sure how it aged (and apparently dark souls was a big gfwl game - did those purchases go over?)

Tomb Raider - 3.3m on Steamspy; 8.5m total on April 2015 (steam summer sale target or no? Xbox might have had surge due to sale iirc)

Borderlands 2 - Steamspy unreliable due to free weekend alas.

Skyrim - one I was most surprised by - Steamspy says also unreliable due to free weekend but if it was 9 million as of now, June 2013 total sales were 20 million. I thought PC would be higher. Game is so much better on steam.

No total sales data for fallout Vegas it seems. D

So, a lot higher than 10% then. For ONE platform. Then again, it shows how wrong your thinking is on the platform. (Even though, 10% would already be a good number for only one platform. Then again, console =/= one plateform, as opposed to your argument.)

 

[Cybit]

Couple of (probably bad) thoughts before I try to go to sleep.

1) many of the super big PC games that were also launched roughly the same time as console versions (no GTA V, D3, etc) seem to be a little bit older. TR was a more modern example though. Either the current generation has something unique tied to it (unlikely) or 2014-2015 tends to have the big games tied to more exclusives due to being new generation launch titles.

2) spec wise - the relative failure of the wiiu so far should open the floodgates for upcoming 3rd party games 2016 and beyond to have decent PC ports. With the similarities of PS4 and X1 in terms of hardware (compared to last gen) and similarities to basically nice cheap gaming PCs; 3rd party ports should happen easier compared to previous gens. What could have been WiiU dev time is now probably PC dev time. It'd be extremely surprising for any late 2016 or later 3rd party AAA game to not be PC (unless money-hat). Part of the reason I stack PS4/X1 together is because budget tends to be given as "ps4/X1", WiiU, and PC in terms of dev time. Anyway; leaving mobile out of the argument for now, this generation stands arguably the best chance for PC Gaming being as ubiquitous and strong as console gaming is seen (to where those splits are 40/60 PC/Console for all major 3rd party games) due to the specs of the consoles and the WiiU not doing well.

3) first party games (specifically MS as it stands, though if PS4 hits PS2 dominance levels, Sony will face the same complaints) are in a weird position. Ostensibly their resources are all going to their console of choice. But they now have to decide whether it is financially worth it to port the game over to PC - you may lose some console market share and it does take already taxed dev time even if mitigated by outsourcing; but there's between 3 million (super duper high end PC required games) and 40 million users who may have access to the game (40 million being minecraft level refs PC only gamers)

4) there aren't many recent games to point to in that specific niche. SFV and KI might be two very cool test cases coming up soon. But they might be too niche?

 

[GhostTrick]

Couple of (probably bad) thoughts before I try to go to sleep.

1) many of the super big PC games that were also launched roughly the same time as console versions (no GTA V, D3, etc) seem to be a little bit older. TR was a more modern example though. Either the current generation has something unique tied to it (unlikely) or 2014-2015 tends to have the big games tied to more exclusives due to being new generation launch titles.

2) spec wise - the relative failure of the wiiu so far should open the floodgates for upcoming 3rd party games 2016 and beyond to have decent PC ports. With the similarities of PS4 and X1 in terms of hardware (compared to last gen) and similarities to basically nice cheap gaming PCs; 3rd party ports should happen easier compared to previous gens. What could have been WiiU dev time is now probably PC dev time. It'd be extremely surprising for any late 2016 or later 3rd party AAA game to not be PC (unless moneyhat)

3) first party games (specifically MS as it stands, though if PS4 hits PS2 dominance levels, Sony will face the same complaints) are in a weird position. Ostensibly their resources are all going to their console of choice. But they now have to decide whether it is financially worth it to port the game over to PC - you may lose some console market share and it does take already taxed dev time even if mitigated by outsourcing; but there's between 3 million (super duper high end PC required games) and 40 million users who may have access to the game (40 million being minecraft level refs PC only gamers)

4) there aren't many recent games to point to in that specific niche. SFV and KI might be two very cool test cases coming up soon. But they might be too niche?

High end PC is higher than 3 million users. If you take into account PC that can runs games at console graphics, that's even higher. And considering PC games are usually scalable to run below that... yep, you're wrong.

 

[Paasei]

Read: If all Xbox One games are also on PC...why buy an Xbox One? I said we'd support PC gaming more and we will, look at Windows 10. Please understand.

The only honest answer he can give. Everything else is a lie and a waste of time.

 

[Glomby]

Maybe as enthusiasts gamers it doesn't appeal much to us, but it's definitely a value add Microsoft is betting heavily on going into the future. And like I said, I have no idea how it's going to be handled or approached by the Xbox division going into the long term. The same reason why people only buy Apple products and have Apple accounts I imagine, it's all about the ecosystem, and those people definitely would not be on a forum like this to give their perspective.

Well MS knows very little about their markets or how would you explain Windows Vista/ Windows 8 and obviously their Xbox One launch.

I can't see how this strategie helps them to win the console war at all. If they can't keep up with Sony none of the added value matters anyways. This strategie might make sense if the Xbox was at over 20mil sold consoles right now. But all they would do is show people how much better Xbox games look on PC. This is certainly not a good strategie to sell more consoles. And casuals care about this stuff a lot. I would even go so far and say that casuals don't care for windows integration at all but they will get the word that the Xbox has no exclusives and gets inferior versions of the games. This will propel PS4 sales to a whole new level.

 

[SparkTR]

Couple of (probably bad) thoughts before I try to go to sleep.

1) many of the super big PC games that were also launched roughly the same time as console versions (no GTA V, D3, etc) seem to be a little bit older. TR was a more modern example though. Either the current generation has something unique tied to it (unlikely) or 2014-2015 tends to have the big games tied to more exclusives due to being new generation launch titles.

2) spec wise - the relative failure of the wiiu so far should open the floodgates for upcoming 3rd party games 2016 and beyond to have decent PC ports. With the similarities of PS4 and X1 in terms of hardware (compared to last gen) and similarities to basically nice cheap gaming PCs; 3rd party ports should happen easier compared to previous gens. What could have been WiiU dev time is now probably PC dev time. It'd be extremely surprising for any late 2016 or later 3rd party AAA game to not be PC (unless moneyhat)

3) first party games (specifically MS as it stands, though if PS4 hits PS2 dominance levels, Sony will face the same complaints) are in a weird position. Ostensibly their resources are all going to their console of choice. But they now have to decide whether it is financially worth it to port the game over to PC - you may lose some console market share and it does take already taxed dev time even if mitigated by outsourcing; but there's between 3 million (super duper high end PC required games) and 40 million users who may have access to the game (40 million being minecraft level refs PC only gamers)

4) there aren't many recent games to point to in that specific niche. SFV and KI might be two very cool test cases coming up soon. But they might be too niche?

Actually according to Steam hardware numbers, the amount of PC attached to Steam that have the ability to run current gen games at similar levels as the PS4/XBO is about 31m. If I'm reading what you're saying right. But yeah I'm interested in seeing what's happening with KI and SFV.

 

[dreamlock]

Read: If all Xbox One games are also on PC...why buy an Xbox One? I said we'd support PC gaming more and we will, look at Windows 10. Please understand.

This. (thanks for summing it up.)

I kinda stopped reading as I got too annoyed as soon as I saw this sentence:

you know, just to be completely honest with you

 

[SparkTR]

Well MS knows very little about their markets or how would you explain Windows Vista/ Windows 8 and obviously their Xbox One launch.

I can't see how this strategie helps them to win the console war at all. If they can't keep up with Sony none of the added value matters anyways. This strategie might make sense if the Xbox was at over 20mil sold consoles right now. But all they would do is show people how much better Xbox games look on PC. This is certainly not a good strategie to sell more consoles. And casuals care about this stuff a lot. I would even go so far and say that casuals don't care for windows integration at all but they will get the word that the Xbox has no exclusives and gets inferior versions of the games. This will propel PS4 sales to a whole new level.

Unlike Sony and Nintendo, Xbox bring's barely anything of note to Microsoft's bottom line even in the best case scenario. It's a very small cog in the larger and much more important Windows 10 machine. Like I said, nothing's going to happen overnight, but Microsoft's new corporate direction is taking a pretty large precedent in how things work in every Microsoft division. The console war is insignificant compared to that new direction. That new direction affects Windows, Tablets, business, Mobile, Entertainment, pretty much everything about the much more important wider Microsoft.

 

[Cybit]

High end PC is higher than 3 million users. If you take into account PC that can runs games at console graphics, that's even higher. And considering PC games are usually scalable to run below that... yep, you're wrong.

High end is referring to current PCs that would run the max end console exclusives set for two years out from now. Like dual 970s type stuff. Stuff that current console optimization couldn't dream of touching (ie, console exclusives starting now that are set for 2017 / 2018 release). Games that they release nerfed versions for the console itself (ala Far Cry / Crysis when it first came out). Halo 6 type stuff.

Actually according to Steam hardware numbers, the amount of PC attached to Steam that have the ability to run current gen games at similar levels as the PS4/XBO is about 31m. If I'm reading what you're saying right. But yeah I'm interested in seeing what's happening with KI and SFV.

I'm assuming that console optimization will be similar to last gen. So the console equiv PC will be much higher down the road (think perfect dark zero vs Halo 4). Right now I imagine a lot of PCs would smoke current console optimization. I'm thinking of these first party games that are being started now and aren't coming out for 2-3 years.

 

[GhostTrick]

High end is referring to current PCs that would run the max end console exclusives set for two years out from now. Like dual 970s type stuff. Stuff that current console optimization couldn't dream of touching (ie, console exclusives starting now that are set for 2017 / 2018 release). Games that they release nerfed versions for the console itself (ala Far Cry / Crysis when it first came out). Halo 6 type stuff.

Oh, I see. Well, in any case, as SparkTR pointed, there's at least 31M userbase able to play these games at console level settings or better.

 

[Cybit]

Oh, I see. Well, in any case, as SparkTR pointed, there's at least 31M userbase able to play these games at console level settings or better.

Indeed. it will take a couple of years for console optimization to kick in and start forcing PC upgrades to compete with console performance. (Assuming dx12 / win10 doesn't change that paradigm)

 

[Dictator93]

High end is referring to current PCs that would run the max end console exclusives set for two years out from now. Like dual 970s type stuff. Stuff that current console optimization couldn't dream of touching (ie, console exclusives starting now that are set for 2017 / 2018 release). Games that they release nerfed versions for the console itself (ala Far Cry / Crysis when it first came out). Halo 6 type stuff.
.

I am a bit confused, are you implying console games out 2 years from now will be so "optimized" that they require higher end PC hardware? Because it has already been almost 2 years since launch and this isn't really the case.

Indeed. it will take a couple of years for console optimization to kick in and start forcing PC upgrades to compete with console performance. (Assuming dx12 / win10 doesn't change that paradigm)

Indeed you are. The entire point of moving to x86, mature APIs, and PC GPUs was to reduce the time and effort to get great utilization on consoles. I am pretty sure console hardware is being well utilized now, rather the jumps in graphics to be seen are about changing the way graphics are rendered / programmed. Not by making sure you are actually making use of more cycles.

 

[el87]

Alan Wake came to PC eventually

#believe