If the hardcore are all over the PC then why doesn't it dominate game sales? GTA 5 sold something like 3 million on PC. Not at all impressive if we take your line that it's a huge platform full of hardcore gamers.
League of Legends is pulling in about $1B a year. It has already overtaken GTA V's $2B in total revenue. And unlike GTA V it will keep making money for years to come. http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/23/league-of-legends-tops-mmo-revenue-list-hearthstone-no-10/\ GTA V is really quite puny compared to LoL. Also GTA is rather casual. Not really what I'd call a hardcore game.
Consoles still completely dominate the monthly sales charts for games, and I'm guessing that the biggest individual seller on PC so far this year is probably GTA V…the poster child of console gaming.
Only because those charts almost never look at PC games, and when they do they never look at the big picture across Steam, uPlay, Origin, Battlenet and other services. Until very recently they were just looking at boxed copies sold. No one on PC has bought a boxed copy of anything since like 2004. Also, microtransactions and subscriptions like for WoW and LoL bring in enormous amounts of money. Big picture is that PC is the most popular platform and makes enormous amount of money while consoles are currently struggling through their weakest generation yet. PC is also more consumer friendly. It has games that stay popular for years vs the consoles' yearly shovelware releases. Also Steam refunds vs getting stuck with shitty broken $60 games on consoles. Cliffy B, a huge console fanboi is now on his hands and knees begging to be let back into the world of PC gaming because it's where all the money is these days and no one even owns an Xbox One to buy whatever Gears game he is working on: http://www.pcgamer.com/cliff-bleszinski-says-pc-is-the-only-way-to-go-for-first-person-shooters/
I think you're confusing online use with sales. Yes, there are a lot of PC users that constantly play a small group of popular games on a very regular basis, but the overall sales of games on PC has always lagged behind consoles overall.
And those popular online PC games like LoL and WoW bring in more money than any of those chart topping console games so what's your point? Do they sell as many copies, no. But more people continue to play them and spend money on them on a long term basis. That's as opposed to shovelware console games that people play for two days and then forget about. And sales of those yearly shovelware releases like CoD are in rapid decline. PC business model = sell a good product and people will keep coming back for more Console business model = sell dogshit overhyped shovelware and rip people off. We got their $60 so who cares? Except people are catching on and moving over to PC. And maybe some of those console ports aren't popular on PC because they aren't very good compared to PC games. GTA V was alright but I got bored with it quickly. It was just GTA IV with a San Andreas skin and less annoying characters. The planes handled like boats. The cars handled like boats. The boats handled like even slower boats. The story was incoherent. I'd give it a 6.5/10 and that's being generous. It wasn't worth $60. Vice City is still the best GTA game.
Not buying the theory that people who previously played console games are suddenly excited by the idea of playing LoL and WoW for the next 10 years. Besides, your own "refund requested" posts about Steam contradict the idea that PC games are predominantly good products.
Think what you want but there's a very real mass migration currently going on from CoD and Battlefield to CSGO. The refunds were all for consoles ports. Lol. Back when I was into console games, I would have gotten refunds on probably 90% of them if it had been an option. So much overhyped garbage. If I could get a refund on The Last of Us I would probably do it. That game sucks balls except for the intro. I'm actually struggling to think of a single PS3 exclusive game I wouldn't have had refunded if there had been an option. Uncharted, The Last of US, Infamous, etc: all mediocre to bad IMO. LittlebigPlanet maybe? But even that had a serious problem with two player collision that made the coop annoying to play.
They're terrible and make easy prey. I think it's why my kill counts have been crazy. I killed three of them the other day with a single shot from a scout/ssg08. I even got a flashbang kill. How bad do you have to be at the game to get killed by a flashbang? CoD tactics in CS = instant death
I'm not even sure what the argument is here. I think everyone can agree that consoles sell more AAA games and PCs have more game players. If we want to talk about the number of game released including indy games I don't think consoles can match the 3000+ games steam released in the last 2 years. If we are going to talk about online sales profits we'd probably need to factor in PS Plus and Xbox Live memberships.
I'd also like to mention that Ark: Survival Evolved from the top stats list isn't even a complete game. It's still in early access and won't be final until next summer. http://store.steampowered.com/stats/
Like any PvC argument, it's changed multiple times. It's currently sounding like the argument is really about FPS players switching from consoles to PC.
Our greatest accomplishment as a gaming forum is The Great US vs UK Food Debate. I actually just went back into that thread and read the first few pages.. it's quite a masterpiece.
I'd like to mention that the Wii outsold the PC for Ubisoft in 2012-13. 16% versus 11%. How did that happen after the Wii fell off a cliff and didn't sell games? I think the PC is great for certain genres and clearly there's a few games that do huge business. Yet consoles are the mainstay for most of the market. At least the minority of PC gamers that have powerful hardware get the crumbs from the rich banquet of games that console gamers enjoy.
I just don't see how anyone can say that when Steam = 125 M, Xbox One = 14 M, Wii U = 10 M, PS4 = 26 M. What gamers are you even talking about when you refer to MS and Nintendo? No one owns those systems. They're zombie platforms that basically just exist so that MS and Nintendo can say they have a horse in this race. There is no audience for the exclusive games on those systems since no one owns them. I would just completely disregard those games even because no one is playing them. I'm loling hard at all of the Halo 5 hype, because it's a game with no market or audience. Maybe if they port it to PC later some people will actually play it. That leaves PS4. But most PS4 games get PC ports. I think Bloodborne is the only really good thing that's actually exclusive. PC gaming is bigger and more active than all current consoles combined. And if those console AAA games are so great, why are people on PC so disinterested in them compared to LoL, WoW, CSGO, and Dota2? They get ported usually. My guess is PC gamers just aren't impressed with them and don't consider them a good value. There are exceptions, like Fallout and Elder Scrolls that are very popular on PC, but for the most part it seems like PC gamers just don't consider console ports a good value until they are very cheap.
LoL and the likes are for nerds who think gaming is a sport. The huge numbers of people playing them are the worlds outcasts who can't get a date.