At first glance, Blizzard Entertainment’s headquarters in Irvine, California looks like any other business campus. Neat paths and fresh cut lawns separate the unremarkable low-rise office buildings.
But that’s when you notice the 12 foot high bronze statue of an Orc riding a wolf and the beach volleyball court it becomes clear - this is the house that Warcraft built.
Video game development studio Blizzard is one of the most successful around, with a string of iconic franchises under its belt.
Its fanbase is rabid and its coffers are full – thanks in large part to the phenomenal success ofWorld of Warcraft, an online role-playing game with 11.5 million subscribers worldwide.
So why is the supposedly impending death of PC gaming regular news? Is Blizzard’s success an aberration on a doomed gaming device?
Staunch PC supporters needn’t get out the black armbands just yet. The PC platform will survive, but it will certainly look a little different.
While computer and video games in Australia grew 43.9 and 47.6 percent in 2007 and 2008 respectively, PC game sales grew only 6.4 and 4.2 percent respectively.
As a result, shelf space for the platform continues to shrink leading to lower sales.
But president and co-founder of Blizzard Mike Morhaime said that while the outlook may look bleak, the time spent playing PC games is a measure of the true size of the genre.
“If you look at how much time people are spending entertaining themselves on the PC, I think that by any measure, other than PC retail sales, it’s got to be through the roof,” Mr Morhaime said.
“Even if you just look at micro-transactions, subscriptions and everything like that on the PC, I think from a revenue standpoint it’s growing.”
Current retail figures do not include ‘digital sales’ – games purchased or downloaded online, games with monthly subscription fees and micro-transactions within games.
Digital sales represent an increasing percentage of PC game revenue. When a PC game hits the shelves, you’ll be able to pick it up at the same time online, via services like Steam and Direct2Drive.
According to the Interactive Australia 2009 report, 19% of Australian gamers download games from online vendors.
CEO of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) Ron Curry said that while retail sales have slowed, the genre has seen a shift in demographic.
“Traditionally PC gaming has been a male dominated platform,” Mr Curry said.
“We see more mums playing games on a PC. This female audience are more likely to play social games on the PC which then serves as an introduction to more traditional PC gaming.”
Director of Asia-Pacific business for PopCap, Giordano Contestabile, said that new PC games are made for players and non-players alike.
“With every new gaming platform or ‘way to play’ that comes on the market, PC gaming gets issued a death warrant,” Mr Contestabile said.
“Everyone – from mothers to hardcore gamers - is a potential player of casual games.”
“PC games have been a stronghold of PopCap’s offering since Day 1 and in fact, far from dying, our North American PC sales grew by 85% in 2008 - so the ‘end’ is a long way off.”
PopCap is the studio behind casual games such as Bejeweled and Peggle.
PC gaming, then, isn’t dying, it’s changing.
The resurgence of the platform will rely on developers and publishers making the most of the modern PC landscape.
“With the PC we can store huge amounts of data, we can provide large updates on the fly; all these things add a huge amount of flexibility,” Mr Morhaime said.
“You’ve got the keyboard and mouse, which is a much more powerful interface for certain types of games.”
“It’s a big advantage for a game like World of Warcraft, which would be technologically challenging to implement on any of the other platforms.”
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