PC Sales Drop in Europe

[Scott Tortorice]

Not at all surprised:

PC Sales Drop in Europe

During 2011, EMEA sales were 103 million, a 7 percent fall compared to the previous year, with Europe showing a drop of 11.2 percent, the fifth quarterly decline in a row.

The falls are manifesting across both business and consumer sectors but it is consumers who appear to be abandoning the PC the fastest, with demand down 16.1 percent on the quarter.

I think I am certainly one of the hardest of hardcore PC gamers but, as I said before, I just cannot justify buying a new PC with the lackluster games out there. I mean, did you see today's top 10 list from Steam?!? It's largely a joke. Everything good about PCs have been driven by gaming, so when gaming falters, so does the PC. This is doubly so in light of the fact that tablets now exist:

IDC blames a mixture of economic uncertainty and the arrival of new types of devices such as tablets and smartphones which continues to enjoy rising sales numbers.

Let's face it: if you have a console and a tablet...don't you really have a PC at that point?

[Pdqport]

That's a depressing list from Steam. The only game I own on that list is Skyrim and that was actually a Christmas gift. I wouldn't bother with anything else on the list.

Consoles and tablets don't completely replace PCs yet for gaming. I could have bought Skyrim for my Xbox , but held off because I wanted to be able to use the mods available on PC. That's become a huge consideration for me on the games that I'm really into. Being able to use mods can add months of playtime to a game and it doesn't exist for console versions.

[Scott Tortorice]

Consoles and tablets don't completely replace PCs yet for gaming. I could have bought Skyrim for my Xbox , but held off because I wanted to be able to use the mods available on PC. That's become a huge consideration for me on the games that I'm really into. Being able to use mods can add months of playtime to a game and it doesn't exist for console versions.

I admit that was a cynical stretch on my part. But if the PC doesn't watch it, it could find that its days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.

[Pdqport]

I admit that was a cynical stretch on my part. But if the PC doesn't watch it, it could find that its days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.

Well, the tower PC is kinda dead for me. I'm going to be playing Skyrim on my Macbook using Boot Camp and an old copy of XP I had laying around. It has been months since I sat down and gamed on my actual PC. I do everything with my laptop now, much nicer being able to game in whatever room I happen to be in.