The Sims 2 Helps PC Gaming Comeback
The Sims 2 is so popular it’s helping revitalize the PC gaming industry!
The article cited market research firm NPD Group’s analyst Anita Frazier, who said that in the first two months of 2007, US PC game retail sales hit $203 million, up 48 percent compared to $136.8 million for the same period a year prior.
"Yes, it does look like a fluke, doesn’t it?" Frazier told The New York Times. "Rest assured it’s not."
NPD Group does not track subscription and download revenue for PC games. Taking into account paid subscriptions and downloadable game services such as TotalGaming.net, Steam, World of Warcraft and the casual site Pogo.com, among others, overall revenues would be notably greater than indicated by retail figures.
2006 US PC game retail sales according to NPD were up 1 percent to $970 million in 2006, led by World of Warcraft and The Sims 2 and its expansion packs.
By comparison, console software retail sales were $4.8 billion in 2006.
Big performers have already launched this year for PC, most notably the World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade, which went on sale in January and sold 2.4 million copies in its opening 24 hours alone. Sales of the expansion currently stand at over 3.5 million units.
Titles such as Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, The Sims 2 Seasons expansion pack and The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles expansion are some of the other notable PC performers in 2007 so far.
Upcoming titles such as Crysis, Hellgate: London, World in Conflict and Age of Conan could very well maintain PC retail sales in coming months. Microsoft is also continuing its Games for Windows program, which gives PC games more visibility at retail.
Source Tags: the sims, the sims 2, pc
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