PC Game Sales Fall 14% in 2008

[NWOWolfpack]

PC Game Sales Fall 14% in 2008

While U.S. video game software sales approached nearly $11 billion, PC game sales at retail totaled only $701 million, NPD has revealed.

While the console video game market has been soaring (as demonstrated by the just released NPD 2008 totals), PC game sales aren't so hot – from a retail perspective, that is. The NPD Group has revealed to GameDaily BIZ that PC games totaled just $701 million in 2008, which is down 14 percent from 2007.

It's important to keep in mind, however, that this NPD data concerns retail data only and does not include sales of digitally downloaded games, micro-transactions, online subscriptions, etc. The NPD Group recently started paying more attention to online revenue with its quarterly subscription tracker, but this data does not include that. NPD is expected to release more in-depth information on the PC games market next week.

When looking at the complete PC games picture, many in the industry would argue that the market is actually quite healthy. Games for Windows - Live Senior Marketing Manager Michael Wolf told us back in November, "The PC gaming industry is not in decline; it's evolving and it's definitely evolving to a more online market. I believe the PC is the cradle of innovation; there's always new things happening on the PC."

PC SALES