Friday 8th February 2008

PC gaming is thriving, says Valve

Posted at: 5:21am 8th February 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Steam now has over 15 million accounts, with 158 per cent year-on-year sales growth

While there are plenty of console fanboys with their heads screwed on, you'll always get some who tell you that PC gaming is dead, but that's a complete load of Atari Jaguars if Valve's latest announcement is anything to go by.

Valve has just announced that its game download store Steam now has over 15 million accounts, and that its year-on-year sales have now grown by 158 per cent. 'PC gaming is thriving,' said Valve's president Gabe Newell, while noting that the industry was shifting away from traditional hard copies of games to an 'era of constant connectivity.'

While PC game sales look pretty grim in comparison to those of console games in the official charts, these statistics often don't account for huge download services such as Steam, or subscription-based games such as MMOs.

However, Newell reckons that there's a lot more to Steam's success than game downloads. Newell said that Steam 'gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam.'

Valve also put the Steam's recent success down to this year's launch of the Steam Community, as well as being able to offer big-name launch titles such as Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, not to mention Valve's own successful game package, The Orange Box.

Valve recently announced that its SteamWorks set of development tools for would be made freely available to game developers, and Newell has also recently claimed that he wants Steam to have a complete archive of PC games, including LucasArts classics.

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Comments

there we go

And its brand new http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CALL-OF-DUTY-4-PC_W0QQitemZ190197509090QQihZ009QQcategoryZ101657QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Comment by Shadow_Man_Uk at 3:15pm 10th February 2008

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soz

i do apologize cod4 for £20, where! i want it!

Comment by delvey2 at 11:40am 10th February 2008

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????

as you may of not noticed like the other 2 i said "I for one think SOME of the games are a little high on the money side" Read the big letters i'll give you an example cod4 on steam works out at £35GBP and thats without the UK tax and you'll be able to get it else where for say £20 -£25 or less with shipping. I for one got it for £30. come on guyz read the text dont just fly through without taking it in.

Comment by Shadow_Man_Uk at 9:50pm 9th February 2008

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still cheaper

it sill works out cheaper with the tax. its about shopping about, steam has some of the cheapest games, while others have other games cheaper i got railroad tycoon 2 for only £5, which is the cheapest ive seen

Comment by delvey2 at 7:13pm 9th February 2008

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last 2 peeps

re-read my post and take it in properly and do you not realize that you do pay uk tax on the games you buy check your statements

Comment by Shadow_Man_Uk at 7:03pm 9th February 2008

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delvey

how can you days its expensive Shadow_Man_Uk ? i got counter stike source for £11, and its £20 in game, and they dont have it instore so have to pay delivery too. the US$:UK£ is good at the moment so its alot cheaper

Comment by delvey2 at 5:45pm 9th February 2008

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steam uk

The thing that attracted me to speam in the first place was the incredibly low prices! with the exchange rate so favourable right now I find paying the US price for a game via steam is a lot cheaper than buying it here. Also, agreed, PC gaming is far from dead! The only threat to it is the sudden popularity of poor quality shooters... ported from consoles.

Comment by NotFred at 12:31pm 9th February 2008

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steam uk

I maybe wrong but i hardly use steam but if they could get a uk version out with the prices then im sure there will be alot more people buying from steam. I for one think some of the games are a little high on the money side when you can get it cheaper else where but hey thats digital download. so come on steam if your really getting that big put ya hand in ya pocket and get other currencies in there and versions for different countries.

Comment by Shadow_Man_Uk at 7:27am 9th February 2008

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Agreed

It is madness to say PC gaming is dead or dieing ... I don't understand which statistics they are using to gauge this, but really it's got to be bs! Possibly put out by console fanboys and console manufacturers. Myself and all my friends have PC's and multiple consoles between us. We play both, but we worship PC's for all they can do! Consoles are a temporary fix. FPS, RTS and MMO PC games are here to stay and don't anyone believe the hype!

Comment by CSQuake at 7:24pm 8th February 2008

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PC gaming judged by console standards...

I believe that the reason naysayers believe PC gaming is dead is because they don't judge PC gaming by it's own standards, rather they use sales as the prime indicator. I play upwards of 10 hours a week playing CS:S, a game which I "bought" in 2004. According to many reports, I couldn't be considered a "PC gamer" as I have bought maybe 10 games since then! WOW, 2142, Crysis, STALKER, COD4....all games I have bought and played for hundreds of hours....or intend to play for hundreds of hours ;) Yet as I don't buy the latest PS3 games week in, week out...I'd probably be considered as a casual gamer!

Comment by F_A_F at 6:44pm 8th February 2008

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