PC Or Console Gaming: What’s The Best
The holiday season is fast approaching and with it will come a new surge in gaming tech sales. Everyone has been talking about how the consoles will perform: the yearly battle between Xbox and PlayStation has almost become a festive tradition, and is a fight in which PlayStation has so far dominated. However, there has also been a fresh surge in PC gaming players, and Steam has been instrumental in that return to traditional computer games.
The Steam gaming platform has over 125 million active accounts according to its own figures, and has recorded a peak daily usage of 13.48 million players. The two leading consoles have sold less than 70 million units combined! This means that Steam is potentially far bigger than any other form of video game engine. In 2015, the console market was worth an estimated $52 million but when console games themselves were factored in, this grew to $27 billion; Steam games were valued at $3.5 billion during the same year, with $25.7 billion spent on PC gaming in general.
Where is the games market headed?
PC gaming has made a staggering comeback after a long reign at the top by the major consoles. 56% of surveyed gamers say they use a PC to play their favorite content, while 53% use a console – suggesting there is also a significant crossover with players possessing multiple gaming devices. In the past, people using PCs for gaming tended to be pretty familiar with technology, and therefore able to modify and adapt their computers to better run their games. Today’s gaming PCs and even standard desktops are much better equipped for playing video game content, so gamers can spend less and even buy off the shelf.
Steam has played a big part in bringing people away from consoles and back to the PC. It creates a one stop shop for games which delivers everything from reviews to technical information, so players know from the start if a game will work on their machine. It makes content more accessible and also more affordable, pricing titles at far less than their console counterparts. Microsoft’s Windows 10 platform has also prompted some significant advances for gaming. Steam and Xbox in particular have benefited from Windows 10 integration, which opens more options for crossplay and encourages a more social attitude to gaming.
How the average gamer is changing with the times
Once thought of as the domain of teenagers, video games now attract a much wider audience. Today’s average gamer is actually 35 years old, and the gender split between male and female is now only 59%-41%. According to a study by the Entertainment Software Association, women aged 18 or older make up 31% of the game-playing population, while boys aged 18 or younger account for just 17% of gamers. 60% of American households contain at least one person who plays video games, and half of people aged between 30 and 64 play games often. Along with PC and console games, mobile gaming has given the industry a significant boost: game apps are some of the biggest sellers available, and tablet or cell phone compatibility has introduced many seniors, females and other ‘non-traditional’ games consumers to the market.
Many of us were brought up with video games, so we still play regularly. In addition, PCs and consoles are home entertainment systems, capable of much more than just running video games. You can stream TV and movies, listen to music, browse the internet and use your favorite social apps through these exciting current-gen gaming machines, which has brought a whole new set of consumers into the games market. Experts predict that by 2018, there will be a console or gaming computer in 80% of US households and that a similar percentage of the population will play games regularly.
The future of home video games
When it comes to future performance, Steam is well placed to achieve market dominance through partnerships, not rivalries. The inclusion of cross-play with other systems, links with leading names in gaming like Microsoft and Oculus, and openness to independent developers gives Steam that edge other gaming platforms and machines may lack. While the market consists of dedicated gamers today, the future of Steam will be far more mainstream.
Even if Steam does not overtake consoles and traditional PC gaming, it is certainly proving it has staying power. What many once thought of as a short-lived fad has stuck around and developed into a sophisticated, intelligent gaming system. Today’s Steam is no longer just an assortment of indie games – the world’s top developers are getting involved and there is plenty of AAA content to be played and enjoyed.
One thing is certain: consoles are here to stay. With the new PS4 Pro release merely hours away and hype building for the ‘Xbox Two’ announced earlier this year as ‘Project Scorpio’, there will certainly be a new end-of-year rush to bring the latest consoles home. You can expect to see that ongoing rivalry heat up in the coming months as gaming fans take their corners and the console wars begin once more.